Events

Tim McGrane is the CEO of M1 Concourse, the 87-acre, multi-purpose automotive facility and entertainment venue in Pontiac, MI, that is home to a 1.5 mile high performance driving track and one of the largest private garage communities, and three of Metro Detroit's major automotive events - the American Speed Festival, the Woodward Dream Show and RoadKill Nights.

Tim, a native of Kent, England, came to the Detroit area in Spring 2021 with a large portfolio of experience in the automotive world. Before coming to M1, Tim was most recently serving as CEO of Laguna Seca Raceway in Monterey, Calif., where he oversaw the very successful Porsche Rennsport Reunion IV, the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion celebration of the IMSA 50th Anniversary and orchestrated the successful return of the IndyCar Series after 15 years.

Before joining Laguna Seca, he served as executive director of the highly-regarded Blackhawk Automotive Museum in Danville, California and also has extended experience in the classic & collector auction world that included the Barrett-Jackson Auction Company.

Tim also has strategic event and marketing experience in the world of luxury and lifestyle events with luxury automotive, yacht and private aviation sectors, developing the Best of the Best event series and the highly regarded Monaco Rendezvous events for the Robb Report magazine company.

A life-long ‘car person’, Tim and his wife Cindy now make their home in Bloomfield Hills.

Our weekly meeting will be at held at the Holocaust Center.  Meeting will start promptly at noon.  Please contact Marsha Kovacs if you plan to attend.

Michael Brunker grew up in Detroit. His childhood neighbors just happened to include Melvin Franklin of The Temptations and Dick “Night Train” Lane. At the University of Detroit, where Brunker received a political science degree, he played one season of basketball. While there, he began coaching basketball at various levels, and in 1974, when he was an assistant coach at Birmingham Brother Rice High School, the Warriors won the Class A state championship.

From 1974 to 1978 he served as an assistant coach at the University of Detroit under Dick Vitale, and helped lead the Titans to an 86-25 record, with a trip to the 1977 NCAA Tournament and a bid to the 1978 NIT. After that, he moved with Vitale to the Detroit Pistons, where he again served as an assistant coach. In 1980, he joined another former Titan coach, Smokey Gaines, at San Diego State University. After seven years there, including an NCAA Tournament appearance in 1985, Brunker went off on his own and founded the San Diego Regional Police Athletic League.

In 1997, Brunker transitioned to the YMCA of San Diego County. He served as the director of the Jackie Robinson Family YMCA for 22 years, where he oversaw the construction of a new $40-million facility with 200 people on the payroll. He felt his greatest accomplishment there was growing the team and employing people from San Diego’s most underserved areas. In 2019 he became Vice President for Mission Advancement at the San Diego YMCA, the position from which he retired from in 2021. Currently, he is the Principal of Michaelbrunker.net, and provides inspirational speaking, project management, and coaching.

Brunker is a member of the San Diego Rotary Club, ranked among the top ten largest Rotary Clubs in the world. San Diego Rotary selected him as “Mr. San Diego” in 2019, and as its President Elect for 2023-2024.

Interestingly, a couple of years ago, at the urging of his children, Brunker took a DNA test that set him off on an exciting genealogical odyssey.

Brunker tries to live—and, indeed, has led— his life in accordance with this quote from Jackie Robinson:  “A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives.”

Dr. Henry W. Maicki graduated from Wayne State College of Medicine in 1964 and started his own ob-gyn practice.

In the mid 70s, he started his life of advocacy by founding the first accredited birthing center in Michigan. During the course of his career, he assisted in the delivery of a total of 10,000 births, in both hospitals and birthing centers.

Early in his practice, Dr. Maicki became aware of the seriousness of domestic violence and began lecturing on its medical aspects.

In the 1990s, Dr Maicki learned of a new field of medicine—palliative care—and started a palliative care program at St John Providence Hospital. This led to Dr.Maicki’s interest in hospice. He became a full-time hospice physician for the remainder of his career, before retiring in 2018.

In 2001, he joined a team of physicians traveling to Zambia. The trip was sponsored by OMNI, the Orphan Medical Network International. There, he saw a level of poverty and illness beyond belief in the United State. During his medical clinics in Zambia, he also learned of the frequency of domestic violence and human trafficking.

In addition, Dr. Maicki found that, in Zambian villages, many children have no opportunity to go to school. This led to him being a strong advocate of OMNI because of the benefits OMNI has provided to the George Community in Ndola. In 2005 OMNI built a school there. Children are now educated, fed daily, and provided with health care, two uniforms a year, mosquito netting, clean water, and sanitation. The school has more than 350 students, in grades 1 to 9. As a result of their education, the children’s risk of a life of servitude, violence, and trafficking is greatly reduced.

Dr. Maicki believes he has been Blessed to be a Blessing or, in Rotary terms, to provide Service Above Self.

We will be holding our annual golf outing on September 12th at Pontiac Country Club.  Thank you John Westerheide for organizing.  More details to come.

Annual golf outing at Pontiac Country Club.  Contact 

Aaron Wallace, the owner of Balance Your Fitness, has a B.S. in Exercise and Health Science from Alma College. Additionally, he is certified as a CHEK Practitioner, Holistic Lifestyle Coach, and Golf Biomechanic. His educational background allows him to scientifically customize a program that addresses the specific needs of his clients. The tools he uses include traditional exercise prescription, mind-body fitness, soft tissue therapies, lifestyle and stress management, healthy eating habits, chiropractic principles, and orthopedic rehabilitation. After gathering data about clients' physical, chemical, mental, emotional, and spiritual stressors, he develops a customized program that helps them achieve their goals of golf performance, weight loss, and pain reduction.

Sit Means Sit Dog Training provides professional dog training in Detroit, Troy, Rochester, Waterford, and surrounding Michigan areas.

Nick Brown is the owner of Sit Means Sit Detroit. With thousands of dogs trained since 2008, Nick’s experience with all types of dogs, their obedience issues and behavior modification makes him a sought-after trainer and speaker. Nick is an avid volunteer at local and national Leonberger Dog Bred shows, as well as being asked to handle other people’s dogs in the show ring. Nick enjoys working with dogs on film and showing in conformation--i.e., dog shows. 

Andy Cowdery has been working summers at Sit Means Sit as a trainer for several years while he attended college for an advertising and PR degree. With his two golden retrievers, Maple and Tillie, Andy is a member of our Go Team Therapy & Crisis Dog team and has also started to train for AKC and UKC hunt tests with Maple.

While Sit Means Sit doesn’t endorse child labor, Andy has been around since Tillie was a puppy and Andy was about 13 years old. Even then, his commitment to his dogs was clear and, as a youngster, was usually one of the best handlers in the room. Andy’s favorite part of training is the ability to give dogs and their owners the tools to live a safe and fulfilling life together. When not working, Andy enjoys hiking with the dogs, photography, and doing therapy work at a local elementary school.

Bill Pugh serves as one of four Coordinators for Student Learning and Inclusion at Birmingham Public Schools. Bill’s work includes the coordination of the development and implementation of curriculum in the areas of English Language Arts and Social Studies as well as professional learning for the district. One area that Bill has been supporting is a new initiative that will support our district’s newly approved Strategic Plan to promote wellness, called BPS Better Together. Bill has worked with Birmingham Public Schools for 20 years in various roles. Bill enjoys travel, gardening, and spending time with his two adult children.

Bill Pugh is accompanied by Jake, the new therapy dog at Derby Middle School, as well as Jake's handler, Heidi Pratt, who is an Autism Spectrum Disorder teacher at the school.

Arthur White is Detroit Opera’s Director of External Affairs. He has worked in multiple aspects of opera as a singer, manager, and community leader. In addition to having sung in several productions at MOT and with all the professional opera companies in Chicago, he has spent the last 20 years in artist management, the marketing of operatic productions, and as an impresario. He has produced and presented artists in concert at venues across the United States including Carnegie Hall in New York City.

Arthur originally joined Detroit Opera—then called Michigan Opera Theatre— in 2013, tasked with increasing community engagement. During this time he created its Opera Clubs, where opera singers give free community performances throughout Metro Detroit, followed by lectures of Detroit Opera’s upcoming operas. Arthur’s efforts were recognized by Opera America in 2015 as an example of successful grassroots engagement in the United States.

Outside of opera, he has served as the personal manager of Grammy Award-winning singer William Warfield and legendary folk singer Odetta. He also produced baritone Robert Sims’ recital in the new and recently opened Zankel Hall in Carnegie Hall and managed his second appearance for Carnegie Hall in Jessye Norman’s “Honor” in 2009.

Jen Luke, Theatre Manager & STArt Children Theatre Producer, and the Box Office Manager for Flagstar Strand Theatre

Jen Luke received her MFA in Children's Theatre from the University of Hawaii. She is from South Dakota, and her husband's job brought her to the Midwest. Jen has worked at theatres in Nebraska and South Dakota, including on Native American reservations. Before moving to Michigan, she worked in Chicago at Theatre on the Lake and the University of Chicago's Court Theatre. Jen has two young children.

Annie Burns, Development Director, Encore Performing Arts Center

Annie Burns has spent her career in various roles in arts administration in Michigan and Southwest Florida. Born in Detroit and raised in Rochester, Annie is a graduate of Oakland University. She holds degrees in Art History and English with a minor in Film Studies and a Master's in Public Administration. Annie's son is a sound engineer and a professional opera singer.

James Fischbach, a Berkley resident and former US Army Paratrooper, received his BA at Strayer University in Washington DC, and later studied opto-electronic engineering at the University of Michigan. He has managed projects for the US military, Super Bowl XL, Henry Ford Health, and Oakwood Hospital, and was awarded a patent in the 3D field.

He is the Founder and Executive Director of the 3D Center of Excellence, a Service-Disabled Veteran Owned Business with a mission to train and employ veterans of all abilities in 3D printing, CAD, 3D modeling, and image certification. Among many other projects, he has co-authored a three-tier 3D training program with the goal of creating prosthetic hands and arms for children. In 2019, the Census Bureau hired him to travel throughout Michigan to persuade veterans to pursue 2020 Census job opportunities, which resulted in over 2,500 veterans being hired.

Scott Nelson received a degree at Eastern Michigan University in Aquatic Biology and Computer Science,  and has been employed for 37 years at the U.S. Geological Survey's Great Lakes Science Center in Ann Arbor, as the Information Technology Lead. He is Past President of the Rotary Club of Ann Arbor North, where he has been a member for 30 years and manages the club’s butterfly garden located in Gallup Park. Scott has belonged to the Ann Arbor Seventh-Day Adventist Church since 1990, where he installed solar panels and a rain garden. The Church is a community of practice for plant-rich diets. Scott also belongs to the Steering Committee of Washtenaw Optimal Wellness – another community of practice promoting the Blues Zones Lifestyle in Washtenaw County. He is co-chair of the Plant-Rich Diet Task Force of the Rotary International, Environmental Sustainability Rotary Action Group.

Our annual holiday party will be at the Village Club at noon on December 6th.  If you would like to attend, please contact Marsha Kovacs to RSVP and give entree selections.  RSVP's are due by 11/28.  Come enjoy the choir, great food and great friends.  Bring a gift for our adopt a family program.  Contact Mark Cooper for more information on gifts for our adopted families.

Sign up with Chris McLogan.  Two hour shifts

Help 1st and 2nd graders to learn to read.  If you would like to help, see John Mucha for volunteer sheet.  The school does a background check on all volunteers.

Two Hour shifts.  See Chris McLogan for signup

Kathleen McBroom, a lifelong resident of Beverly Hills, is a librarian, educator, and most recently, a docent at the Detroit Institute of Arts. Kathleen conducts tours  - both on-site and virtual - for visitors, families, and special groups, which can range from wedding parties to corporate functions to Cub Scouts. When she's not at the museum, Kathleen teaches at Wayne State and fills in occasionally as a substitute librarian at the Baldwin Public Library.

No meeting

No meeting, annual volunteer day at Gleaners

Gleaners located at 21405 Trolley Industrial Drive, Taylor, MI  48180.  Must sign up through link.  http://birminghamrotary.gcfb.volunteerhub.com/

or see email from John Mucha.