The Uptown Weekly
Welcome to the Rotary Club of Dallas-Uptown, TX USA
the exclusively inclusive Rotary club
Rotary Year: July 1, 2010-June 30, 2011
August 12, 2010
Oak Lawn United Methodist Church
Fellowship Hall
3014 Oak Lawn
Thursdays from 11:45am -1:00pm
RI President Ray Klinginsmith, 2010-2011
1.3 million men and women donate their expertise, time, and funds to support local and international projects that help people in need and promotes understanding among cultures. Rotary's flagship program is its effort to protect children against polio, with the goal of ending the disease throughout the world.
www.rotary.org www.rotary5810.org http://www.dallasuptownrotary.org/
Special thanks to our Newsletter sponsors:
Nearby Rotary Clubs to Make-Up Missed Meetings
Dallas Evening Rotary Club Dallas Trinity Rotary Club
La Calle Doce Info Mart
415 W. 12th Street 1950 Stemmons Freeway
Dallas, Texas 75208 Dallas, Texas 75207
Meeting Day and Time: Thursdays at 7:30pm Meeting Day and Time: Mondays at noon
East Dallas Rotary Club Park Cities Rotary Club
Radisson Hotel Maggiano’s Restaurant
6060 N. Central Expressway 2nd Floor
Dallas, Texas 75206 8687 North Central Expressway
Meeting Day and Time: Tuesdays at noon North Park Center
Dallas, Texas 75225
Preston Center Rotary Club Meeting Day and Time: Fridays at noon
Park City Club
5956 Sherry Lane Rotary Club of Dallas
17th Floor Fairmont Hotel
Dallas, Texas 75225 1717 N. Akard
Meeting Day and Time: Wednesdays at 7:15am Dallas, Texas 75201
Meeting Day and Time: Wednesdays at noon
Special Thanks to the Following…
Raymond Bushnell for presenting today’s program.
Bobbi Bilnoski for presenting the previous program.
Previous Program, Thursday, August 5, 2010
Pecha Kucha-Getting Your Message Across in Six Minutes
Bobbi Bilnoski
Cocinnity Network
www.cocinnitynetwork.net
Today’s Program, Thursday, August 12, 2010
Dressing to Impress
Raymond Bushnell
Legacy Clothiers
www.legacyclothiers.com
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Leading from Behind
Sandra Samuel
WordOut Communications
www.wordoutcommunications.com
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Program TBD
Thursday, September 2, 2010
“How to Create a Better Business Card”
Minette Riordan
North Texas Kids
www.northtexaskids.com
Friday, September 3, 2010
Board Meeting
7:30am – 8:30am
Breadwinners Café & Bakery
3301 McKinney
Dallas, Texas 75204
Thursday, September 9, 2010
X-Treme Brain
Pat Johns
Professional Speaker and Photojournalist
www.patjohns.com
Special thanks to the following Rotarian for visiting last week…
Pete Snider - Mesquite Sunrise
Nai Wu - Bryan/College Station
Special thanks to the following visitors for attending last week…
David Edwards - Oak Lawn United Methodist Church
Denny Alberts - Silverstone Capital Group
Sydney Slay
Windmills increase income for salt harvesters
By Peter Schmidtke
Rotary International News -- 4 August 2010
Rotarians Vimal Hemani, Deepak Agrawal, Shrinand Palshikar, Kiran Dave, and Rajesh Bhatt with one of five windmills installed in western India to improve the lives of migrant salt workers. Photo courtesy of the Rotary Club of Wadhwan City
Five families who harvest salt from the desert in western India have Rotarians to thank for windmills that will double their income.
The Rotary Club of Wadhwan City, India, and the Rotary E-Club of the Southwest, Arizona, USA, received a Rotary Foundation Matching Grant and used club and District 5510 (Arizona) contributions to purchase 10 windmills. The windmills pump underground, salt-laden water into shallow ponds, where the salt can be separated through evaporation.
The families -- who are among the 10,000 families who migrate annually to the Little Rann of Kutch salt marsh in Gujarat to collect up to 800 tons of salt apiece -- previously relied on diesel engines to draw water to the desert’s surface.
Five windmills were installed by the manufacturer in February with the help of Rotarians and the recipients. Club members expect the other five to be in use by October, the start of the six-month salt-harvesting season.
Deepak Agrawal, governor-elect of District 3060, visited the families in March and says they each saved about $100 in fuel and engine repair costs over a monthlong period.
"The project allowed them to buy basic amenities -- a glass to drink water from, books for their children, a light bulb," Agrawal says. "With the time they saved from engine maintenance, one of the fathers brought his child to school, and a mother read with her children."
A windmill-powered generator also produced electricity for one of the families.
In early April, the salt workers partially disassembled the 20-foot-tall steel and reinforced-plastic windmills and used trucks and tractors to move them to surrounding villages before the annual monsoon rains, which cover the desert in several feet of water.
Shrinand Palshikar, a Wadwhan City club member, proposed the project after his club surveyed the salt workers in 2008 and noted that fuel costs outweighed their profits. The next year, the club purchased one windmill to test and worked with the Gujarat Grassroots Innovations Augmentation Network , using the technical expertise of club members to modify the windmill to operate in desert conditions.
The e-club learned of the effort through one of its members, Vimal Hemani, who lives near Wadhwan City.
"Our e-club is international, and that helped facilitate this project," says past club president Larry Levenson. "Hemani was able to personally participate in the project and work with our Indian partners."
"This windmill requires no major maintenance once the design is fully established," says Palshikar. "It’s already two seasons that it has been under testing, and our confidence is very high."
Palshikar says that families who operate two windmills can reduce their fuel use by up to 80 percent, resulting in an even higher increase in income and decreased air pollution.
Agrawal says his district plans to help provide 100 windmills during the 2011-12 Rotary year, and he has talked to an area nonprofit and bank about making microcredit loans available to families so they can purchase windmills.
"We would be interested in expanding the project to serve many more families if the results are positive after the first full season," Levenson says.
Highlighted Member of the Week: Jason Maurice
Name: / Jason Maurice, CPAClassification: / Tax Accountant
Name of Business: / Middleton, Burns & Davis, PC
Your Title: / Senior Associate
Best way to describe your business: / Public accounting
What you like best about your work: / Helping others save money
Spouse or significant other’s name: / Kippy Maurice
Member‘s Birthday-Month and Day: / 26-May
Spouse’s Birthday-Month & Day: / 16-Jun
Anniversary-Month and Day: / 22-Jun
Education and Degrees Earned: / B.S. - Biomedical Science
M.P.A. - Master in Public Accounting
Famous Person You Would Like to Meet: / Alton Brown
Favorite Kind of Pen and Pen Color: / Uniball / blue
Hobbies: / Cooking; fishing; kids
Other Civic Organizations: / G-Tech Foundation; Mission Arlington
Children’s Names: / Jack and Caroline
Favorite Vacation Spot(s): / Colorado; Mexico
Favorite Music Genre: / Christian Rock
What you like best about Rotary: / Service
Proudest Moment: / Besides marriage and kids, passing the CPA exam
Favorite Sports: / Football
Favorite Restaurants: / Mijos
Email: / or
Company website: / www.mbdworld.com