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ROTARY REMINDERROTARY REMINDERROTARY CLUB OF AUSTIN

S E P T E M B E R 1 9 , 2 0 1 7V O L U M E 5 5 , I S S U E 1 1

PRESIDENTSara Pantin

PRESIDENT ELECTJulia Benkoski

PAST PRESIDENTDale Lowe

VICE PRESIDENTSClub Service—Michael Abelson

Community Service—Mary ReynoldsGlobal Service—Laraine Lasdon

Membership Service—Mark JohnsonVocational Service—Leslie BagbyTHE ROTARY FOUNDATION

Ann GrahamSECRETARY/TREASURER

Harold IngersollSERGEANT-AT-ARMS

Rich FikaniEXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Jennifer Olsen

C L U B N O . 6 3 . D I S T R I C T 5 8 7 0 . A U S T I N , T X .

FUTURE PROGRAMS

MEETINGS AND EVENTS

9/26—Rep. Paul Workman—Legislative Session Update

10/3—Mickey Batsell—Medicare

10/10—Craig Nehrkorn—Drones (Part 2)

10/17—Darden Smith—Songwriting With:Soldiers

9/19—RCA ExecutiveCommittee Meeting, VestryConference Room, 1:30 p.m.

9/21—RCA MasterMindGroup Meeting, Mimi’s (inArbor Walk), 7:00 a.m.

9/26—EarlyAct FirstKnightTournament of Champions(LIVE WITH HORSES), PecanSprings Elementary,9:00 a.m.

9/28—RCA North BreakfastCluster Meeting, WaterlooIce House (on Burnet Road),7:00 a.m.

MEMBERS SHOWCASE

VLAD BAHRENCU,HAROLD BENKOSKI &BARBARA VAN DYKE

Vlad Bahrencu: Born in Bucharest,Romania Vlad grew up under the inspirationalguidance of his father. In a time when it wasforbidden to even think about the western world,Vlad began dreaming about moving to the UnitedStates. He was only 8 years old when he told hisclass mates and teachers that one day he wouldlive in America. It was a long shot for a young boyliving in communist Romania during the Cold

War days, but Vlad’s father encouraged him to work extra hard and never give up on hisdreams.

Vlad worked hard in school and on the tennis court and he soon became a top tennisplayer in Romania – Champion of Bucharest and No. 2 in the country as a junior. Aftercommunism fell in the Eastern Europe, Vlad’s family decided to make an even biggercommitment and send their youngest son to United States. On Tuesday Vlad will tell youmore about his journey to Texas, why he said “no” to his dream job, how he realized he canretire early and help others on the way, and how he sealed the deal of a lifetime when hemarried his wife Leah.

In his downtime, Vlad loves spending time with his kids and family, loves reading andplaying tennis, travels and coaches young kids. His goals are to impact the lives of as manykids as possible and help them dream big goals. Currently Vlad is an Investor, he is thefounder of The Financial Geeks of Austin Club and currently speaks at various events onhis favorite topic, Finance. He is also the Co-Founder, along with his brother, of Tenis ClubMicii Asi in Romania, a new concept tennis club that targets to coach kids under the age of10 years old.

Vlad married his wife Leah in 2014 and he is the proud father of Lukas and Sorana.

Biographies & photos for Harold Benkoski and Barbara VanDyke continue on page 3.

The Rotary Club of Austin meets most Tuesdays, from 11:30-1:00, in Sumners Hall at St. David’s Episcopal Church (301 E. 8th Street)

ROTARY REMINDER (9/19/17)—PAGE 2

RECAP FROM LAST WEEK’S PROGRAMJennifer Oswald—We.Moxie

September 12, 2017Reported by Leslie Bagby

President Sara Pantin called the meeting to order right at noon. Past President/District Governor BruceGolden led the pledges and Sylvia Holmes gave the invocation. Melissa Muckenthaler led us in reciting the “FOURWAY TEST”. Peter Pfeiffer was our greeter at the top of the stairs and Girish Altekar introduced our visitors andguests.

President Elect Julia Benkoski encouraged our members to come to the City Council Chambers at City Hall onThursday from 11:45 am – 1:00 pm. We will join with other Austin Rotary clubs in a discussion with Mayor Steve Adleron how Rotary can better serve the Austin community.

Charles Doty reminded everyone of the upcoming wine tasting at his home. The theme is “The Great Northwest” andmembers can bring a bottle of wine from Washington or Oregon (or whatever they want to drink).

Bruce Golden announced that the Early Act First Knight Tournament of Champions has been rescheduled for all threeschools. Rotarians are invited to come out on Wednesday, September 13 at 9 am at Hart Elementary School and onThursday, September 14 at 1:00 pm at Dawson Elementary. There will be a Tournament of Champions at Pecan SpringsElementary on Tuesday, September 26th at 9 am. These amazing events involve horses and knights jousting. Theyhappen only once every other year, so you don’t want to miss seeing one this year!

Ann Graham announced that Camp Enterprise interviews are underway at 30 local high schools. Please contact theschool counselors this week to set up interviews by October 13, 2017.

President Sara made the following announcements:

The Membership Soiree last Thursday was a great success with seven prospective members already havingapplied.

The semi annual Cluster meeting will be on October 24, 2017. We are looking for members to host 8-12 people intheir place of business or other gathering spot. Contact Jennifer Olsen to let her know of your interest in hosting.

The RCA Executive Committee meets next Tuesday at 1:30pm. Red Badge Members are invited to attend.

Adam Borger introduced Jennifer Oswald, founder of We.Moxie, a company that brings new and innovative ideas torecruitment and HR. She stated, “If hiring were easy, a resume would be all you need.” There is, however, a bigdifference between being paper qualified and being a good fit for your company. We.Moxie boasts a > 90% retention ratesince 2014. This is important because turnover costs companies significant time (6-9 months) and money to hire andtrain employees.

Jennifer encouraged business owners to ask themselves the following three questions:

1) How much has turnover cost you?2) How many people have you lost within 3 months of hire?3) How many qualified people have you found?

If your retention rate is 80% or greater, than your program is doing well. If it’s 70% or less, than you probably need tolook closer at how you are hiring employees.

Jennifer describes We.Moxie as “matchmakers for business”. We.Moxie is not a traditional company. They work withboth clients and candidates and help both sides meet their needs and career goals. The traits of a “super recruiter” are:

1) Good listener – human interaction is necessary to make the match2) Fast, flexible and fluent in business3) Gets results4) Understands your culture and candidates that would fit in

Story continues on page 5.


BIOGRAPHIES/PHOTOS CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

Harold Benkoski: Harold has been in the financial services industrysince 1985 and joined Merrill Lynch in 1995. Harold is approved as aPortfolio Manager for specially qualified Merrill Lynch financial advisorswho can use a wide range of proprietary model portfolio strategies to helpclients pursue their investment objectives. He holds the Certified FinancialPlanner® designation, awarded by the CFP Board of Standards.

In his free time, Harold enjoys gardening, playing with his dogs, shootingskeet and traveling with his wife Julie. He is a proud Aggie and has been amember of the Rotary Club of Austin since 2008, with six years of perfectattendance.

Barbara Van Dyke: A lover of adventure, Barbara has alwaysenjoyed meeting new people and experiencing new places. But after relocating nearly a dozen times, living incities and towns all across the country, she knew she was ready to set down roots and be part of a thrivingcommunity. Barbara chose Austin for its strong economy, relative affordability, friendly people andoutstanding quality of life.

Prior to getting her real estate license, Barbara spent more than 20 years in marketing and public relations,holding a number of senior roles including Vice President at Edelman in San Francisco and Senior VicePresident at Porter Novelli in Los Angeles, two of the world's top public relations agencies. She also foundedand ran a consulting firm focused on strategic communications forthe healthcare and wellness industries. During the course of hercareer, she served clients ranging from high tech companiesto healthcare organizations and real estate developers.

Before moving to Austin, Barbara sold real estate in Kailua Kona onthe Big Island of Hawaii. There, she was named Rookie of the Yearfor MacArthur Sotheby's International Realty.

Barbara holds a Bachelor's degree in Journalism from TempleUniversity in Philadelphia and has done graduate work at theUniversity of Southern California in Los Angeles and the Universityof South Florida in Tampa.

Barbara has a passion for client service and relationship building.She works very hard to understand her clients' needs and concernsand strives to deliver results that exceed expectations.

When she is not working, Barbara can often be found hiking alongthe Barton Creek greenbelt, two-stepping at the Broken Spokeor meeting friends at one of Austin's many great restaurants.


PRESIDENT SARA’S PEARL OF WISDOM—FROM 9/12

ROTARY BIRTHDAYS

“Generosity is truly the best investment.” ~~Diane Von Furstenberg (fashion designer)

The following people are celebrating their birthdays this week:

Roy Springer (September 18th)

Meade Bauer (September 18th)

Michael Portman (September 19th)

Patti Riley-Brown (September 19th)

Sylvia Holmes (September 20th)Patrick Van Haren (September 22)

Don Grillo (September 22nd)

Cindy Veidt (September 23rd)Please join us in wishing them a VERY happy birthday!


IN RECOGNITION FOR THEIR SERVICE TO OUR CLUB

RECAP FROM LAST WEEK (CON’T. FROM PAGE 2)

We’d like to take a moment to recognize and thank the hard working members of our HospitalityCommittee who helped us before last week’s meeting (on September 12, 2017).

Girish Altekar, MyronBurse, Peter Pfeiffer and

Larry RieberThank you all for your service! If you’d like to assist the Hospitality Committee at any of our weekly

luncheons, please contact Myron Burse (or Jennifer Olsen).

Jennifer encourages business owners to hire right the first time. It’s cheaper to hire an awesome recruiterthan to have turnover.

President Sara adjourned the meeting at 1 pm and closed by highlighting Commerce Business Advisors(Don Busby) and Raymond James—Texas Capitol Group (Teresa Finney), two of our memberswith advertisements that support Club operations.

GROUP YOUTH EXCHANGE HOSTS NEEDED!Please consider hosting an Australian exchange student during the last two weeks in December.There are 2 boys and 3 girls, ages 15-17, coming as part of our Group Youth Exchange. You can liveanywhere in town because we do not have them while they are in school. E-mail Diane Ventrescaat [email protected] for more info.

PERFECT ATTENDANCE AWARDS—COMING UP ONTUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 26TH!

Just a reminder that we’ll be presenting our 100% Perfect Attendance Awards for2016-2017 during our regular lunch meeting on Tuesday, September 26th!


SOCIAL CIRCLE UPDATE

Thursday, September 21—RCA MasterMind Group Meetingat Mimi’s (in the Arbor Walk) at 7:00 a.m.

Tuesday, September 26—EarlyAct FirstKnight TOURNAMENT OF CHAMPIONSLIVE—WITH KNIGHTS AND HORSES

at Pecan Springs Elementary School (3100 Rogge Lane) at 9:00 a.m.

Thursday, September 28—RCA North Breakfast Cluster Meetingat Waterloo Ice House (on Burnet Road) at 7:00 a.m.

HOSTS AND TEAM CAPTAINS ARE NEEDED FORTHE FALL SEMI-ANNUAL CLUSTER MEETINGS ON

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 24TH

The Fall Semi-Annual Cluster Meetings will be held on Tuesday, October 24; and weneed HOSTS!!

This is your opportunity to host a group of Rotarians at your office and get to know some of yourfellow members!

Instead of meeting at St. David's, members have an opportunity to visit in a new place.

We're looking for a few good HOSTS (who provide meeting space and arrange for lunch) andTEAM CAPTAINS (who will collect the funds from attendees and provide support for the hosts)!Most meetings are held in the business location of the HOST; and each attendee will pay for thelunch, with a portion of the payment going to the HOST as a reimbursement for the cost of the mealand the remainder going to the Austin Rotary Club Foundation to support local projects.

Incidentally, as a HOST, the maximum number of attendees who can visit yourlocation is up to you.

If you’re willing to act as either HOST or TEAM CAPTAIN, or for more information, please contactJennifer (in the Rotary Office).


THANK YOU (FROM IRAQI CHILDREN FOUNDATION)Thank you for your kind and generous gift of $3,000.00 for lraqi orphans, street kids, and children displacedby violence. The lraqi Children Foundation (ICF) is very grateful for your sustained support for these childrenwe serve!

ICF will be using your generous gift and another gift fromthe Lake Oswego Rotary Club in Oregon to fund a whole month oftutoring, nutrition, fun, and more for the kids on the new HopeBus, pictured at right.

Currently, 55 at-risk children are registered for the Hope Bus butonly 50 are able to attend because of capacity constraints. Of the55 kids, 31 are girls and 24 are boys; 21 are orphans, the majorityof them fatherless. The Hope Bus team discovered recently thattwo sisters (ages 10 and 12) were taking turns attending class onthe Hope Bus because the other one needed to work to pay forfood for them and their widowed mother. Sadly, this is a stark reality for some of these children that ICF seeksto care for. Because demand for the services of the Hope Bus exceed ICF's capacity, we are exploring thepossibility of launching a second Hope Bus as additional resources become available so we can serve morechildren.

ROTARIANS “MEET THE MAYOR” (FROM 9/14/17)Rotary Clubs from all over the city, includingthe Rotary Club of Austin, came together totalk with Mayor Adler about how Rotary andthe city can work together to provide ServiceAbove Self and community projects to all ofAustin.


DACDB (CLUB MEMBERSHIP DATABASE)

Please remember that, even though our club still has a website, as members you should be logging in toDaCdb—our membership database (seen above screenshot). It’s INCREDIBLY useful for things like:updating your own contact information, finding contact information for your fellow Rotarians, enteringmakeups, printing a Club Directory/Roster, viewing the Club Calendar for upcoming programs and eventsand so much more!

Please go to www.Directory-Online.com/Rotaryand call or e-mail the office if you need your user name and password

re-sent to you or if you have any questions.

** Your user name should be your e-mail address, your password should be your RI member number(which you can find on the label of your monthly RI magazine) and the Club number is 1928 (although

you can leave it blank, too)**

There’s also a mobile app for your smartphone! Just go to m.DaCdb.com in aweb browser on your phone, and you can take the database with you!

Your user name and password will be the same.


PHOTOS FROM PROGRAM ON 9/5/17


PHOTOS FROM LAST WEEK’S PROGRAM (9/12)


SUPPORTERS OF THE ROTARY REMINDER (PAGE 1)

ROTARY CLUB OF AUSTIN: 301 E. 8TH STREET, AUSTIN, TX 78701

PHONE: (512) 462-1333 • WWW.ROTARY-AUSTIN.ORG • E-MAIL: [email protected]


SUPPORTERS OF THE ROTARY REMINDER (PAGE 2)

ROTARY CLUB OF AUSTIN: 301 E. 8TH STREET, AUSTIN, TX 78701

PHONE: (512) 462-1333 • WWW.ROTARY-AUSTIN.ORG • E-MAIL: [email protected]

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