The regularly scheduled weekly luncheon meeting of San Saba Rotary met Thursday, September 20th, at Pepperbelly's, Marcus Wood presiding. Eighteen members and guests were present.
Special guests were SSISD high school student Natalie Cuevas, president of the San Saba National Honor Society, and Gwen Newby, wife of Aleck Newby, who was in attendance to report on food for the upcoming San Saba Rotary Golf Tournament, to be held September 30th.
Members present were reminded to come at 4 p.m. to Mr. Newby’s office after hours on Thursday, September 28, to prepare goody bag prizes for golfers, again on Friday at the golf course to set up, and finally on Saturday for the tournament. The annual golf tournament is a major fund raiser for the SS organization and funds student scholarships in May of each year for SSISD, Cherokee, and Richland Springs graduating seniors!
Ms. Cuevas commented on examples of National Honor Society projects like the one in the past for November and Thanksgiving, using food collection to assist local food banks and pantries. A student “Turkey of the Year” was determined by having collected the most food!
Other topics discussed included Jerry Blankenship’s report on Senior Essays, and Beth Griess and Cydney Pearce’s report on progress for the Christmas celebration with SS and Brady Rotaries, to be held on Saturday, December 2nd, at the San Saba Hotel.
Paula Wood was program speaker presenting on the topic of strong family relationships and social-emotional maturity necessary for good parenting. Referring to a book, Emotional Intelligence 2.0, written by Travis Bradberry and Jean Greaves, Paula explained that individual IQ and personality are basically static and are steady forces in life. Even so, a self-aware parent who invests in time and relationships can help herself or himself to cause relationships with their children to change, improve, and/or worsen within families. Individuals and parents with good self-awareness, self-management (example, investments in time), social awareness, and relationship management (how to) can assist the socially-aware parent to participate in children's problems, to recognize whether or not to take ownership of the child’s problems. An example of a problem that a parent can avoid and not participate in is a tantrum! (Non reinforce)! Self-aware parents can learn to be more objective and whether to buy into children’s need for connection or not. As an aside and equally important, similar dynamics can strengthen emotional maturity in adult relationships as well.