Installation and Awards Program for 2020-2021

On Tuesday, September 29, 2020 at 6:30 PM, instead of our normal lunch Zoom meeting, we had a great online event to celebrate the past year and to look forward to the next Optimist year. This is the end of the Centerville Noon Optimist Presidential year for Greg Griffin and we welcomed 2020-2021 President Debe Dockins! New board members and vice-presidents were also installed this evening.

Officers of CNO 2020-2021

Title	Officer
President	Debe Dockins
Vice President	Beth Duncan
Vice President	Bob Glavin
Secretary	Jean Pummill
Treasurer	Roland Rapp
President Elect	Gary Hansen
Immediate Past President	Greg Griffin
Past President’s Rep	Nancy Lehren

Board of Directors CNO 2020-2021

Term	Director
Two Years	Patrick Arehart
Two Years	Christine Balsan
Two Years	Pat Behn
Two Years	Jim Long
Two Years	Brian Nolan
One Year	Amy Barker
One Year	Denise O’Neil
One Year	Vince Reidy
One Year	Carolyn Taylor
One Year	Greg Wasmund

Event Details

Tonight’s event was organized by Greg Griffin, Debe Dockins, Beth Duncan, and Jean Pummill.

We started at 6:30 PM with a half hour of socializing on Zoom. At 7 PM the ceremonies began.

Bob Burkman was the master of ceremonies. He said it is a year of firsts and lasts. It was the first time to cancel the golf outing and we hope it is the last time. It was the first time to have this event on Zoom and we hope it is the last.

The event started with an invocation from Erin Dickerson followed by The Pledge of Allegiance.

You can view the slide deck used in the presentation here.

Officer Installation and Oath

Pat Behn swore in the new Club Officers and Board of Directors.

I hereby solemnly promise on my honor as an Optimist that I will carry out the duties of the office to which I have been elected to the best of my ability, in loyalty to my Club, and in harmony with the Bylaws of my Club and Optimist International. So help me God

Passing of the Gavel

Even though the meeting was on Zoom, there was still the traditional passing of the gavel ceremony. It was a video since the meeting was virtual. Each past president recorded a short video and Beth Duncan edited and assembled the video with a soundtrack. It is very well done by Beth Duncan with the ending (a SNL Spoof of Debe accepting the gavel) and hilarious. You can watch the video here.

Debe Dockins Acceptance and Remarks

Debe Dockins is the 53^rd president and 8^th female president of the Centerville Noon Optimist Club.

She thanked Greg Griffin for his year as president; she also thanked Greg and his wife Evelyn for all their hard work this last year. Evelyn is the chair of Skilled Trades Scholarship and helps with numerous other tasks with CNO. Debe had gifts for them. Greg received a “I Need Space” t-shirt with a NASA logo. Greg also received a jacket with the CNO logo. Evelyn received a beautiful flower arrangement. With Zoom we were able to see all of these.

During the next year Debe plans for us to reimagine our community events in a way that works during COVID.

Jean Pummill, CNO Secretary, Awards for Greg Griffin

Jean Pummill presented awards to outgoing President Greg Griffin. He received a plaque of honor with a small replica of a gavel. Greg also received a Lifetime Optimist membership.

Greg Griffin, President Awards

Greg recognized several CNO members with awards:

• Rookie of the year award, Joanne Rau. She has volunteered at many events. She arranged a TV interview of Greg Griffin
• Rooke of the year award, Steve Rau, among many other things he helped at Stingley school where CNO had a club day
• Rookie of the year award, Carol Smerz, did a wonderful job this year and participated in many events
• Key Person Award, Diane Arehart, for her work with Social Media
• Key Person Award, Katie Calloway, for her work with Social Media
• Key Person Award, Roland Rapp, for doing a great job as his first year as Club Treasurer
• Key Person Award, Jean Pummill, for doing a great job as Club Secretary
• Humble Scribe Award, Patrick Arehart, for his work on writing the CNOtes each week
• Imagine 2020 Award, Beth Duncan, for re-inventing social events as social distancing committee; Her idea has been borrowed by Optimist International and spread to other clubs

Optimist of the Year

The 2019-2020 winner of the Centerville Noon Optimist Thomas P. Frazier Optimist of the Year Award is Mike Brubaker. Beth Duncan presented this award in person. It is the job of the previous year’s winner to announce the current year winner. Mike joined CNO on 10/28/2008. Mike Brubaker is more than deserving of this recognition.

Mike Brubaker

Community Events:

• Multiple Build-A-Bear events each year, serving at the registration table
• Christmas Tree Lot
• Haunted Trail
• Top Soccer
• Bike Rodeo
• Social Events

Service to CNO:

• Board of directors
• Avenue of flags
• Technology Committee
• Build-a-Bear Committee

Beth Duncan planned to read Mike’s list of contributions before ringing his doorbell. Well, it was raining. I mean it was raining hard, with lightening. The intrepid Beth Duncan improvised, rang the doorbell and said “Yep, you are the Optimist of the Year and I have list of why, but like me, the list is drenched.” She was able to list his accomplishments after drying off a bit. It was hilarious. Hopefully Beth is laughing now too.

Beth said, “Mike directs our Optimists who are on our AOF team which obtains renewals from subscribers from February to May each year. He is on the front line of correspondence with our subscribers throughout the year and is very diplomatic.  Mike handled the unprecedented growth of AOF in 2020 of over 500 flags (21%) between Memorial Day and July 4th.”

“Mike also has been a loyal volunteer on the Day Team at the tree lot and can always be counted on to take on any duty.  He has sold trees, restocked, cashiered and tied trees to cars.  He never let the team down.” His team captain said, “I can’t imagine the Day Team without Mike!“

Along with the plaque, Beth presented Mike with a sash and crown. It was great!

Greg’s closing remarks for the year.

Greg said he was honored to have been asked to serve as CNO President for the past year. He is so happy to have served our club as president.

During the past year, the Avenue of Flags subscriptions grew by over 600 subscriptions, to over 2900 subscriptions.

With COVID, some things were different, but we were still able to do things like holding Build-A-Bear events in a drive-through format.

Greg thanked

• Evelyn Griffin, for all her work and support as he was president
• Diane Arehart, Vice-president
• Gary Hansen, Vice-president
• Roland Rapp, Treasurer
• Jean Pummill, Secretary
• The Board of Directors

He said thanks to everyone for all that you have done. The best is yet to come!

Greg Griffin to receive Governor’s Award

Myron Rheaume, the Ohio District Governor and CNO member announced that he will be presenting the governor’s award for the club and district level to Greg Griffin for how well he ran CNO during COVID.

Closing Video

A great video slide show Greg Griffin put together of the past year can be viewed here.

The End

After the video was complete, we cheerfully recited the Optimist Creed.

It was a great evening. Thank you to everyone who contributed. Thanks to everyone in our club that makes it possible to do the good we do. Thank you, Greg Griffin, for serving as president this past year and we look forward to another great year under the leadership of Debe Dockins, her team and our members!