ur Rotarian of the Day today is Mella Glenn. Mella was born in a tiny shack in the bayous of Louisiana, the youngest of 21 children. She learned to play the banjo before she learned to walk in order to help with the family finances. When she went to school, she walked ten miles every day through crocodile-infested and mosquito-choked waters to make it to the tiny one-room schoolhouse run by the voodoo priestess Marguerite LaVoo.

Mella worked her way through college by playing her banjo and making voodoo potions for her classmates. She won the International Banjo Playing Championship in 1977 and was a major figure in the banjo underground for more than 20 years, but she hung up her instrument for good when she married Steve.

Now, Mella works for the Endontic Specialists of Northeastern Oklahoma, a far cry from her bayou roots, and uses her voodoo to make sure that kids have toothbrushes for Christmas.

Mella, thank you for arranging today’s program!

This Week’s Program

Rich Rehberg

ur speaker today is Rich Rehberg. Rich Rehburg is the Manager of Data Acquisition, Proprietary Databases, at USIS’s commercial services business in Tulsa. USIS is the nation’s leading supplier of employee background and drug screening services. In his position, Rich is responsible for managing both the Employment History File and National Retail Theft Database, which are specific to the transportation and retail industries. Before joining USIS in October 2003, Rich was founder and owner of Master Cleaners Janitorial Services.

Rich maintains a strong commitment to volunteering in Tulsa by leading and participating in numerous outreach opportunities at USIS. As a member of USIS’s Community Activity Committee, he is part of a team that manages all community activities in which the company participates. In addition, Rich serves as a board member for the Tulsa chapter of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. He was recently recognized for his contributions to USIS and to the community as a recipient of the 2008 USIS CEO Leadership Award.

Rich holds an associate’s degree in business administration from Auburn Hills Community College.

Rich, thank you so much for being with us today. The Southside Rotary Club welcomes you!

Southsider Quick Notes

Last week…
- Our ROD last week was Keith James, and our speaker was Al Proo of Happy Hands.

- Happy birthday to Bob Winters and Kevin Blair!

- Wallace Williams is the nominee for district governor for next year. If anybody has any sordid secrets, please alert the nearest gossip columnist.

- Remember to deliver your dictionaries! We’re going to start fining soon.

- John Benjamin had a report about the dog park meeting. Their goal is to have the project, a 2.44-acre dog park at Hunter Park in South Tulsa, completed by March 1. There will be a fundraiser for the park.

- Major thanks to Teresa Wixson for putting together the Christmas party. It was a rousing success!

- December 17 was the last morning board meeting.

- The nomination committee will announce their nominees at the Dec. 18 meeting. Be sure to be there!

- This is our last meeting of 2008. Everybody have a merry Christmas, a happy New Year, and safe holidays all around! See you in 2009!