Wednesday December 12, 2018
Attendance: 90
Invocation: Ivan Schuler
Greeters: Ivan Schuler, Ron Chambers
Guests: Jason Matthews (Trace Hansen), Ellie Hansen (Trace Hansen)
Birthdays: George Brennan, Jason Zaugg, Jonathan Harding, Chris Kehler
Announcements: 1) Jeff Owens is encouraging mentoring for the Oratorical Contest, which will be Friday March 22, 2019 at 7 pm in the Courthouse. The topic is “Is there a fine line between optimism and reality?” Jody Claypool had a few words to say about his son’s participation in the contest. He said “…Mentoring is the best way of nurturing a future Optimist…” 2) Daren Maierle said Santa House is going well. They have 0ver 220 pictures with multiple children and have gotten donations and words of appreciation. Trace did his Santa imitation. 3) Jason Gergely said the Triathlon will be Saturday, June 22, 2019. Everyone needs to help! 4) Angie Tom said the Car Show will be May 19, 2019, which is a Sunday. 5) Rob Bishop said the outlook for the Golf Outing is dim because of the closing of Stonehenge. Some members will be making calls to see if we can find another facility.
50/50(Kris Farwell): John Sullivan won!
Membership (Rick Kerlin) : Jason Matthews (Trace Hansen) had his third reading.
Induction: None
Sergeants: Brittany Lyon and Mitch Goon entertained us.
Program: Cathie Bledsoe with the Indiana State Police gave a presentation on cyberbullying and cybercrime. She is not a trooper but a former teacher and computer teacher. She is one of three of Indiana’s Internet Crimes Against Children task force youth educators, and covers Northern Indiana. She said she gives about 400 talks per year, and together they reach 50K to 75K children per year. She said much of the problem is that the Internet was not designed for children, and apps that are designed for older children are being used by younger children. Many parents do not monitor their children’s activities on the Internet. She estimated based on her experience that “95% of children lie about their age on line.” She said that by agreeing to permissions online that we have given away all our rights to privacy and then given them (the smartphones) to all our children. Predators can track children on their smartphones. She gave an example of a 13 year old who woke up to find a naked man in her room. He had tracked her down through Instagram. She talked about a new game called Fortnite, and said the FBI recently targeted 24 people who were using this to target children. She said the average on-line predator is 18-55, white, has a job, and “can look like an uncle.” Additional resources include www.cybertipline.org, www.netsmartz.org and www.missingkids.com. For more information about the Indiana State Police ICAC Youth Educator Program go to icacyouthed.isp.IN.gov.