June 27 - President Tink Hill

 
 
Our speaker on June 27 was our new President Tink Hill.  He spoke of three areas:  personal "who am I," notes from Conference of Rotary meeting this past weekend at Horseshoe Bay, and his goals for the coming year.   Tink is a 5th generation Texas native, whose ancestors were slaves Central Texas area.  He served in USMC, Viet Nam [Infantry and Air Wing] and US Navy as a Weather Forecast Duty Officer, Gulf War '91, with 22 years of total service.  Tink is a high school dropout, educated on the beach, Pensacola Jr. College and Pepperdine University, and visited the joint-degree program at UT Austin, JD/MPA [law school/ LBJ School of Public Affairs]. He is currently employed as a Hearing Officer for the State of Texas - after a checkered career as a meat cutter, a biofeedback technician with MHMR, a child-abuse investigator with CPS, a District Executive with the Boy Scouts of America and 6 or 7 other jobs with eight State Agencies and some public sector employers.  Tink is married to an incredibly beautiful Filipina, Edwina "Wing", who works with Cypress Semiconductor in Austin. One strong and usually smart son, who is a 2016 Honor graduate of Harmony School of Excellence, a charger school in Austin, TX, who plans to major in mechanical engineering and for some unknown reason has decided to let the USMC pay for it.  Tink, along with Stephen, Frank and Ben, were quite impressed with the facilities and  options for rest and recreation at Horseshoe Bay, and also by the fellowship of the Rotary Conference.  Highlights were the workshops, from which his number one impression was the importance of public relations, and the award of two significant awards.  Our NxNE Austin Rotary Club was awarded the Presidential Citation Gold standard, only one of six clubs out of 62 who reached such a level of accomplishment.  Member Frank Ivy was awarded a District Service Award for his work at Foundation Chair this past year.  The number of Paul Harris fellows awarded within our club, the status of James Starr as a major donor, and our repeating status as an EREY (Every Rotarian Every Year) Club were all mentioned as substantiating the award to Frank.  President Tink's goals for his coming year are all based on what he learned from the Conference and on what he perceives as the strengths and unique qualities of our club.  Based on the obvious need for more and better PR, Tink listed several ideas we will be hearing more about:  distribution of The Rotarian in offices, posting club activities, especially First Tuesday, and service projects on our website and Facebook page, developing a "brand" by which our club will be known, updating our website, and supporting another GSE member for the coming year.  Of course, our signature projects will continue, with the hopes of adding a few more.  There was a happy and hopeful feeling in our meeting room; who could not respond to our new president's enthusiasm?  The passing of the flags was a tender moment, with emotional words of gratitude and friendship from President Stephen.  And now it is a new year, new meeting day, new leadership, new opportunities.  Go Rotary!