Our new president Howard Fink will be sworn in.

Luka Ariko from the Rotary Club of Eldoret, Kenya was visiting. In 2016 we partnered with the Eldoret club on a demonstration farm project. This project involved buying a tractor and teaching silage practices to the area farmers. Luka reported that the project and their follow-up work have greatly raised the standard of living in the community. More children are now attending school and families are better prepared for financial emergencies.

 

 

 

Jeff Jones, the sheriff department community policing officer for Park Township, gave some self-defense moves to try. Jeff grew up in Chicago and then on the US East Coast. After serving in the Air Force, he moved to West Michigan to become a firefighter and EMT.

 

Later he went to the police academy to join law enforcement. When he started learning jujitsu, he realized that what he had been taught at the academy was not really helpful. The academy taught them to yell orders at the citizens and then use force if they didn't comply In Jeff's opinion this might work if the people encountered were in a rational state of mind, most people in a police situation are not acting rationally. Jeff developed methods to calm people down and keep them from getting hurt. He is on the West Michigan Training Consortium, a group of 94 police agencies that train officers in these techniques. The club members got to practice some techniques.