The Rotary Spark Podcast
Welcome to our dedicated podcast for Rotary International's District 5750, designed to connect our community through the power of personal storytelling. Each episode celebrates the unique journeys of our fellow Rotarians and community members, highlighting their individual experiences, motivations, and the profound impact of their service and contributions.
Join us as we dive into heartfelt discussions with individuals from all walks of life, sharing stories that inspire and foster connection.
The Rotary Spark Podcast
#0011 - Alyssa Weathers-Murphy
Imagine stumbling upon a global network through a simple family connection. That's exactly what happened to Alyssa Weathers-Murphy, our guest and president of the Oklahoma City Midtown Rotary Club. Alyssa takes us through her decade-long journey, from discovering Rotary via her husband to leading innovative projects like the "Spelling Beer," a fundraiser that cleverly mixes spelling bees with craft beer tastings to support community initiatives. Alyssa underscores the importance of understanding community dynamics and setting solid foundations to amplify their impact, offering listeners valuable insights into the world of community service.
Transitioning from a small-town family business to the bustling corridors of corporate America might sound daunting, but it's a journey marked by self-discovery and growth. Listen as we unfold the story of an individual who navigated the marketing landscape, fueled by a passion ignited in their family's TV repair shop. Her career path led her through prominent names like MAC Cosmetics and Dillard's, where she found her footing and built a successful corporate career. This narrative not only celebrates personal growth but also underscores the importance of embracing one's roots while chasing new horizons.
As we wrap up, we shine a light on inclusivity within Rotary clubs. Emphasizing the need for diversity and a welcoming environment, we discuss how Rotary can foster a sense of belonging for women, young people, and people of color. Through personal stories and experiences, we champion the value of mentorship and the impact of creating a supportive community. With heartfelt gratitude, we acknowledge those who make this podcast possible and extend warm holiday wishes to all listeners, inviting everyone to join the conversation and contribute to a more inclusive Rotary world.
Welcome to the Rotary Spark Podcast. I'm your host, Brian Schrager, and with me today is the president of the Oklahoma City Midtown Rotary Club, Alyssa Weathers-Murphy. How are you doing today, Alyssa?
Alyssa Weathers-Murphy:Hello, and happy what's today? Friday?
Brian Triger:Happy Friday to you as well. So, so let's see. Yesterday was Thanksgiving. Do you have any holiday plans this weekend?
Alyssa Weathers-Murphy:Yeah, in fact, right when we wrap here today, we're going to hop in the car and drive up to Joplin, missouri, to go visit some family and spend the weekend eating too much food and sipping some Prosecco and sharing stories Eating too much food and sipping some Prosecco, and sharing stories.
Brian Triger:That sounds like a lot of fun. So let's see. Tell us a little bit about how you discovered Rotary for the first time.
Alyssa Weathers-Murphy:Yeah, I've been a member of Rotary for 10 years now. I found Rotary through my husband, who was my boyfriend at the time. My husband's name is Matt Murphy and he told me about his Rotary Club that he visited every Tuesday at McNelly's at six o'clock and was getting back into it. He had taken a little bit of time away from it but he was a charter member of the Oklahoma City Midtown Rotary Club and I joined him a couple times just to visit and see what it was all about. And I was. I got kind of hooked.
Alyssa Weathers-Murphy:I really liked that this group of people got together every Tuesday to hear somebody from the community whether it was an artist or a nonprofit or someone with a cool mission or a business in the area. They would come and speak to the Midtown Rotary, tell them what they were doing, and it just felt number one. It felt kind of inspiring to hear what somebody was doing in our city to make it a better place. And then every month they would coordinate a volunteer opportunity. And I had just graduated college at the time, so I had all this free time and energy that I wanted to do something good with and it was just kind of history. From there. I joined pretty quickly after graduating college.
Brian Triger:Wow, and apologies if I missed the detail in that story. How long have you been a Rotarian?
Alyssa Weathers-Murphy:10 years.
Brian Triger:Wow, 10 years all the way back to college and meeting your husband. Uh, that's, that's quite a journey, Yep, Uh, let's see. So, uh, tell us a little bit more about uh, please tell us a little bit more about your journey to rise to presidency and uh, also, maybe some of the of your favorite projects that you worked on or that you're working on right now.
Alyssa Weathers-Murphy:Yeah, I joined the Midtown Rotary just right out of college, like I mentioned, and I discovered that coming out of school one of the best things that I did I learned later on after doing it was getting involved and just asking how can I help, how can I be a part of this? Can I help you all with anything? And we know as volunteers that also means with stepping up into a board position as a volunteer. So I did that. I joined the membership committee and just helped them do whatever they needed me to do. I went to meetings every Tuesday and I did this with another organization too. My professional trade organization was the American Marketing Association of Oklahoma City and that's my. That was the first you know non-profit volunteer organization that really helped to propel my career and open doors for me in more of the you know marketing space particularly. But with Rotary, rotary really helped open the doors for me to realize what it takes to make community change happen, whether it's raising money for kids' instruments in classrooms or pay for a piece of public art, just learning about the systems and processes that go into it, all the paperwork side of things, all of the you know sometimes the politics and bureaucracy that happen with it to make things move forward, or where things get stuck. It's such an eye-opening experience and it also is really educating if you're somebody who wants to figure out how to make a difference on your own.
Alyssa Weathers-Murphy:So in my club our two big focuses, so every Rotary Club has a focus and the Oklahoma City Midtown is known for our involvement in arts and education efforts. If there's something to do with the arts or something to do with educating kids or maybe it's arts education, maybe it's educating kids about the arts If it's got those two elements to it with also some element of community impact, those are the kinds of projects that we give to. So every Rotary Club has its focus and also every Rotary Club has its own fundraiser. Our fundraiser is the Spelling Beer, which is we own the trademark. One of the members of our clubs is an intellectual property attorney so he helped us secure the trademark for it.
Alyssa Weathers-Murphy:But it's literally a spelling beer, so a spelling bee where we also have breweries who provide tastings for beer. And that money that we raise we have a goal every year to raise $20,000 or more. That money goes into our foundation so that we can figure out what types of projects and opportunities we want to fund throughout the year. So our club does have a foundation that my husband was a huge part of setting up. That was his baby getting the foundation put together so that we had the tool in place to work with Rotary International on getting matching opportunities throughout our fiscal year, and that has really allowed us to get involved in some bigger projects too. So things with other clubs, things within the district, things that we're able to potentially get matching funds for from Rotary International, it really helps to double our impact or significantly increase our impact with whatever projects we decide to do throughout the year.
Brian Triger:That's a lot of great information, I think, regardless of where a rotarian is on their journey as a new, newer member, it opens up my eyes to, uh, just community connection within our organization, out of curiosity, whether it's my midwest city rotary club or any of the other 30 plus clubs in the district, not to say that they're not already helping, but if all of us could help your club more, what are some areas, whether with the Spellingbeer specifically, or any of the other projects, that really contribute to the foundation as a whole? What could we do to help?
Alyssa Weathers-Murphy:I think there's always an opportunity to do more cross club grants grants together as clubs in our district and, to be honest with you, that's an area where understanding all of the ins and outs of it is still something that I'm learning, still being a member and now a president of our club. It's there are a lot of different opportunities, things that we could do more of together. My husband is absolutely the topic that is. That is his baby, so that is his area of expertise. And then our giving chair giving chair this year her name is Sylvia Sterling and then Lee Morgan, who has been the giving chair in our club off and on for the past 10 years, is just an absolute juggernaut when it comes to understanding how to get things organized, how to run the paperwork, how to collaborate between clubs and a district. I think that our club would absolutely be more interested, or interested in doing more um, more grant opportunities with other clubs, so for sure.
Brian Triger:Okay, well, um, I have limited knowledge right now, but please feel free to use me as a resource if I can, uh, you know, just even be a messenger to kind of knock on some doors within my own club, or any other clubs because as I learn more I do see I get excited about those cross club opportunities, especially with the privileges that I have kind of seeing some things on the district level. I think it's it's really cool to just have the opportunity to stay plugged into the bigger picture.
Alyssa Weathers-Murphy:Yeah, and I think another way that anyone could help is just come to come to our fundraiser and we need to go to other. We've, I think as a club we've been better about getting out to other clubs fundraisers, like I know the Midwest city club does. Is it the crawfish boil?
Brian Triger:Uh, I believe it is the. So I've been to the shrimp boil once and I know that, uh, uh, if I'm not mistaken, it mistaken, it's happening again next year. That's the big fundraiser that I'm aware of.
Alyssa Weathers-Murphy:Yep, I think it's neat to see each club's fundraiser, ours being the Spelling Beer. That's just our kind of flavor of it. It makes sense for our brand because we're a club that meets at McNelly's you know what I mean On Tuesday in the evening, so doing something with beer was super interesting to us. And then also supporting all these awesome breweries that we have here in our community that have really taken off the past 10 years, where we've got a really awesome group of brewery owners who will kind of take turns participating and donating beer and showing up and doing tastings yeah, no, that's really exciting.
Brian Triger:And then I also see the opportunity not to say that it's relevant right now, but for a prospective member or a new member that might be spinning up a satellite club or building a new charter for a new club within the district just being able to develop that camaraderie and understanding the relationship component tied to what you guys are doing or any other clubs are doing, so that if you know there's a offshoot at some point and they're you know a new fundraiser comes to be, or even if someone wants to redesign the fundraiser within their own club, just participating, having a good time and then just helping with some of the logistics it it makes, makes that creation a little bit more possible.
Alyssa Weathers-Murphy:Absolutely.
Brian Triger:So let's see, tell us you mentioned marketing. I know from Light Exposure that you're the owner of Siren Media. Is that correct? Yeah, tell us a little bit more about the beginning, all the way up to maybe now, just anything that you're willing to share, tied to the creation of your organization.
Alyssa Weathers-Murphy:Yeah, so, like you said, I'm the owner and founder of a local Oklahoma city-based marketing agency. It's called Siren Media. We actually just celebrated six years two weeks ago.
Alyssa Weathers-Murphy:Thank you. The date crept up on us. I didn't do a big event this year. We'll do something in January. It snuck up on me but yeah, I've been. I've been working on this for a long time.
Alyssa Weathers-Murphy:I started out in the marketing world. I went to school to study business and marketing, so it was something that was very interesting to me. Um, my family kind of inspired me to go down the business route, because I grew up in a small business. My grandpa started this TV company, a little TV repair business called Weathers TV and Appliance in downtown Edmond, and it's still there to this day. My family doesn't own it anymore but it's still there in existence and it has a. You know people in Edmond who have lived there for a long time know no Weathers TV and appliance.
Alyssa Weathers-Murphy:I grew up in the shop. You know what I mean, like answering phones and helping my parents with invoices, taking in. You know broken VCRs and TVs, writing tickets, calling, calling customers and greeting people as they walked in the door. My dad joined the business. Probably I think it was late 80s, early 90s. He helped my grandpa, my grandpa, my papa, so I call him papa. So when I say papa, that's what I'm talking about. He had the repair side of the business and my dad had a knack for selling and getting this thing built out and making it more of a showroom. So when dad joined the business it kind of made it, I guess, double force. You had, you had the place where you could go and take any of your broken appliances or you could go and hang out with my dad and buy new appliances, and this would have been early nineties to mid nineties and then that's when home audio video really blew up. So we're talking. I saw things from, you know, the Laserdisc era all the way to the first DVDs that hit the market in the late 90s. I got to grow up in a showroom and I was always interested how they kept the phones ringing and like what made this building a place where people would come in and out of. So it kind of made me tick as a kid.
Alyssa Weathers-Murphy:I didn't realize until I graduated high school. I didn't realize how I just didn't have a really strong. I didn't have a strong sense of identity and I didn't really think I was very smart. I didn't know that about myself until I got into the workforce. I took a semester off between high school and college, the workforce. I took a semester off between high school and college and I needed to take some time. My parents went through a divorce and there were all kinds of things going on in the family and I just needed to hang out for a minute before I decided to go to college. So I took that fall semester just to kind of inventory and evaluate what I wanted to do, what I wanted to study.
Alyssa Weathers-Murphy:I got my first job in working in beauty retail. So my first job was for a big company called Beauty Brands and my job was a customer service retail associate and my job was to literally stock the shampoo and the products, check people out at the counter and make sure that customers had a good experience. Try to give them a tour of the spa in the back. Beauty Brands is no longer around.
Alyssa Weathers-Murphy:But what I learned about myself that first job out of college? I learned that I was smart. I went to a good high school. I thought that my GPA was fine. I was probably like a 3.2, 3 point something GPA. But I just didn't think that I was smarter than my peers and I guess I had kind of a low self-esteem. So I say that to say and I share that part of my story because you've met me and you might've developed a first. You know, I don't know, you might have had an assumption or thought, oh, she's a really confident person. I was not always that way, but when I got into the workforce I realized that I'm actually very smart. I'm a very hard worker. A lot of those customer service principles my mom and dad taught me when I was really young set me up for success.
Alyssa Weathers-Murphy:So, though, I started out in beauty retail and I moved up the ranks and I got to work for some really awesome prestige beauty brands like MAC Cosmetics, like Prescriptives and other Estee Lauder brands. When I went on my way up to Dillard's so I worked for Dillard's, which is every single one of these companies I worked for I learned a little bit more about how to run a business, because you're running a small business within a bigger business. When you work for one of those beauty counters, you're learning how to run a small business within this bigger umbrella. So I learned that I was good at it. I learned that I was good at hitting business goals, I was creative, I was very hardworking and I had good customer service and good work ethic, like all those things I started to learn about myself and I had good customer service and good work ethic. Like all those things I started to learn about myself, and I developed an appreciation for the fact that I was not this, you know, small minded person from a small town in Oklahoma. I was actually smart and capable.
Alyssa Weathers-Murphy:So when I built my confidence, learning that I was capable of doing all these things, I studied marketing. I got my degree in marketing. I took a minor in professional selling. Uco was the first school in the state that had a sales program, so I was in one of the first graduating classes who could take it as a minor. I'm so glad that I did that because I was learning a lot about selling, you know, individual items, so my job was to sell beauty products. So we're talking about mascara, foundation powders, and learning the world of selling smaller items to how to sell bigger things, how to sell big contracts, how to sell bigger, more complex, complicated things professionally really, really excited me. So that set me up when I graduated in 2013 to start working in corporate America.
Brian Triger:As a new business owner. It's just an inspiring story, so I'm just kind of catching myself and processing the information, seeing other people succeed that are in or close to the community that I live in, it's just uh uh. It's a lot in a good way. So thank you for sharing that.
Alyssa Weathers-Murphy:It's in it I like to share. My husband kind of makes fun of me because I tell stories from when the earth cooled perspective. I give a lot of context because I think it's important. I think it's really unfair for me to be this, you know, loud, brazen lady who wears hot, pink and black all the time and can be a little bit loud and off-putting to people. I like to share who I was and where I came from, because I didn't have any plans to be a business owner, didn't want to number one, didn't think I could number two, and avoided it like the plague. It actually took a series of events for me to decide to try and do this on my own. So yeah, I like for people to understand that I was a young girl from Edmond, oklahoma. I did not have huge aspirations for myself. I didn't have a lot of confidence about who I was, but I learned by trying and doing things that I was way more capable than what I thought.
Alyssa Weathers-Murphy:The genesis of Siren Media was actually the result of me spending a relatively short time in corporate America. In the grand scheme of things, I've been a business owner for longer than I have been working for other people in corporate America. So I started out, got my degree. I was approached by a small marketing company in South OKC where I learned how to sell websites and social media contracts and that was a really good opportunity just to get my foot in the door. But it was a very small company and I wanted the opportunity to make more money. I wanted to try working for a bigger company.
Alyssa Weathers-Murphy:One of my friends who I worked in cosmetics with her husband worked for a media division of our local cable company. So he sold TV ads, tv ads and digital advertising packages. And I was talking with them one day as I was visiting them, catching up and kind of complaining about wanting to find a bigger opportunity, and he said well, you know, my company is hiring and we're actually looking for recent grads and people who could sell digital products, digital advertising products. Maybe you should apply. That was a huge lesson for me in that all the career opportunities, the best career opportunities that I've come across and the best business opportunities that have come across my um come across me have been from people that I had. I would have never had any idea. So my friend who I worked with in the beauty world for years her husband ended up setting me up with a way for me to get an interview with that company and I I got the job. I was so excited. I worked there for almost four years, but I learned so much about the marketing world, the agency world, um, the advertising world.
Alyssa Weathers-Murphy:This was 2014. And that era was a was a time when people were cutting their cable subscriptions. So you're the lady selling the advertising package that's going on cable and satellite homes. It was a challenge. It wasn't like the salespeople. It was a different challenge than the salespeople who were selling your broadcast TV advertising packages here locally. They'd be like Channel 4, channel 5, channel 9, fox, cw 2534, like all those networks, those affiliated networks with these larger media companies. Those advertising reps had a different set of challenges than the advertising reps who were selling cable advertising, which go to wired homes only just in that metro area, and our argument was always well, these people pay their bill, they have more income. We can target more specifically. If you're just trying to reach people in the Oklahoma City metro, it's less wasteful as an advertising message because your broadcast message goes to a large portion of the state. So if you're a plumber, for instance, and your service footprint is only in the Oklahoma City Metro, you're better off buying my product than you would be trying to figure out how to make your dollar go far in an advertising footprint that hits most of the state.
Alyssa Weathers-Murphy:But it was certainly a challenging time because I would meet business owners all the time that were, like my dad and my papa, just trying to figure out how to make the phones ring, keep the business open, and they didn't have a website or they wouldn't have a very good brand or a logo or they would have no social media. And to me I felt it was unethical to push my advertising package on people who weren't ready for it. Because what's going to happen when somebody sees a TV ad and they go, oh, I actually do need a plumber, I'm going to call them. They're going to go type it into a search engine or a social media platform and when nothing comes up, they're going to go to the competitor. So I learned that the advertising space though it's really exciting, the advertising and marketing world is not the most ethical space. It is deeply unethical in many, many regards.
Alyssa Weathers-Murphy:And when you're a salesperson trying to meet a sales quota on the backs of small businesses, I did not like where that put me mentally. I started seeing people as you know, my clients and prospects everybody just has a dollar sign above their head like what can I get out of them? I didn't like that, so I did get out of the advertising world selling TV advertising products and digital products and I think it was the right move. I learned so much about selling big the right move. I learned so much about selling big contracts. So I'm so glad that I had that opportunity. You know, I think everybody should have the opportunity to sell or work in an environment where there's a bunch of gray cubicles around you, a little gray cubicle farm, because it gives you.
Brian Triger:It gives you structure, it gives you a way of seeing things and then you can decide if that makes you happy or if you want to go and do something on your own. Yeah, no, I mean, aside from the story, I'm processing the idea of a gray cubicle farm. I would say that not everyone's the same. No disrespect to the gray cubicle farm. One of the best motivators for my personal growth is that farm, because I, you know, after spending 10 or 15 minutes sitting in a cubicle farm, I just I want to break out of it in the most peaceful way possible. But it but it's also cool to kind of, I would say, on the positive side, seeing that that uh, interactive hive mind just seeing all the little components and stuff like that and realize that you know everything has a starting point, it does.
Alyssa Weathers-Murphy:Yeah, one of my greatest teachers in life was just learning what I didn't like and what I didn't want to do.
Brian Triger:Sure.
Alyssa Weathers-Murphy:I think that's true for all of us.
Brian Triger:Well, you're a far way away from a cubicle farm.
Alyssa Weathers-Murphy:Now sitting in my office where we've got like lots of light and plants and a pink neon down the hallway.
Brian Triger:Yeah, the boxes get bigger and better.
Alyssa Weathers-Murphy:They do, they can, they certainly can.
Brian Triger:So I think we're almost done. But what's your favorite board game if your family has one?
Alyssa Weathers-Murphy:Favorite board game? That's a good question. We're more card players on my mom's side of the family.
Brian Triger:Okay.
Alyssa Weathers-Murphy:We played a lot of poker.
Brian Triger:Okay.
Alyssa Weathers-Murphy:We play a lot of oh gosh. There's one card game. It's not 21. It's a number that we used to play all the time and if not, that it's usually a game of poker that my mom's side of the family likes to play. If there were a board game, I'd have to think about that one. Now I don't feel very gamey. Okay, I do love Candyland. I am a Candyland girly.
Brian Triger:Candyland it is. And Uh, let's see last uh combo question Any, any tips for newer perspective Rotarians and what, if anything, would you like to see change within Rotary?
Alyssa Weathers-Murphy:I have a big heart for young people who are trying to figure out what they're going to do next in their career. That was such a formative, you know, part of my life and I think I think back and if certain people didn't help me along the way, my life would be very different. So one thing I would say is, if you're looking for a way to give back, you have some time and energy and you want to get plugged into a really streamlined organization, but you want to also make it your own. Rotary and Rotary Clubs are a great way to get involved. Your own Rotary and Rotary clubs are a great way to get involved If you are maybe a college kid looking to, or somebody who's just in the in the workforce, looking to expand more and meet like-minded people so that you can, you know, increase your impact on the world. Rotary is an awesome place to do that and it's also a great place to find um, just to find your people. You know you, you find like-minded people and there's power in that A lot of the people in our club. We share life events, life milestones and life events together. I would like to see my club right now we're talking about maybe helping to get an interact or Rotaract group off the ground.
Alyssa Weathers-Murphy:You know, helping young people get involved in the community doesn't just make the world a better place. It can make your life a better life because you're building connections and relationships that can impact your life long term. So I would say don't view people as transactional. View people around you as an investment in yourself, your community. Give as much as you can your time. If you have time, help a young person trying to figure it out. Go do coffee with somebody who's struggling and is looking at maybe changing careers. I do that a lot, just being a good sounding board. Helping people doesn't mean necessarily you know that you have to feed everybody or you have to clothe everybody. Sometimes it's hey, are you doing? Okay, I know that you. Just I know you just lost your job or you just went through a layoff. Like, how can I help you? What are you looking for? Sometimes it's just that being invested in somebody else and checking in that can make all the difference. Being invested in somebody else and checking in that can make all the difference.
Brian Triger:I like that a lot. Sometimes being calculated, at least for me, can definitely be a way of being so just being challenged in that way is really good. So tying into the change and or what's on the horizon part of the question uh, what changes, if any, would you like to see?
Alyssa Weathers-Murphy:yeah, within rotary the change I would love to see with rotary, I think would be it kind of dovetails to my wanting to help younger people. It does seem like rotary clubs they obviously as rotary we have brand awareness issues. We we have some preconceived notions out there about what a Rotarian is, what a Rotarian looks like. I'd love to see more women. I'd love to see more young people. I'd love to see more people of color. When we walk into any of our clubs and I think I think we're all as clubs starting starting to see differences.
Alyssa Weathers-Murphy:But just being welcoming my club, I'm really really big about making sure that every single person that walks through the door feels welcome. When you walk up those stairs you should feel like you're walking in to meet with friends, to have dinner and catch up. That's how it should feel with friends to have dinner and catch up. That's how it should feel.
Alyssa Weathers-Murphy:Too many times have I gone into a Rotary setting where you know the Rotarians who are members of that club treat each other like family and they all have. You know their inside jokes and everything else, but it can kind of feel unwelcoming or uninviting to somebody who's just visiting. So I think that as an organization, every club has got to step up to the plate to make sure that people feel welcome, because if you're making people feel welcome, they're going to be more excited about whatever you're working on and the likelihood that they want to join just is so much greater than if they walk in and they feel unwelcome. They don't understand your inside jokes, they don't understand why you're singing songs or they don't understand some of your traditions. It's off-putting. It doesn't make them feel like they're a part of that experience. It can really turn people off.
Brian Triger:That's really good input.
Alyssa Weathers-Murphy:I can connect with pretty much all of those points within the last year and a half of being a member, have you visited a lot of clubs out there.
Brian Triger:Not too many. So I've been to Bricktown, I've been to, obviously, my club Midwest City, I've been out to Two great clubs by the way To Weatherford and I believe Gage as well. I've been to Waxahachie, so out in Texas, wow. Okay, I believe Gage as well.
Alyssa Weathers-Murphy:I've been to Waxahachie so out in Texas.
Brian Triger:My friend Nancy Lane, was inducted within the last couple of weeks and some of the district chain came with me. So that was a lot of fun and I'm getting exposure digitally. So, whether it's Albert Hernandez who inspired this project out in District 5280, or connecting with Andre Boyd, who's in Piedmont right now but he's the next district governor for the panhandle of Florida, and then just kind of connecting in different ways, I'm trying to mix it up and get outside of my comfort zone a little bit more. Get outside of my comfort zone a little bit more. I really would like to come to your club and uh, uh, I want to do, uh, I want to visit uh club 29 at least once. Even though they're on the surface, it seemed it's a little bit intimidating Uh, but uh, I would say I I've visited a handful Uh, so I just I have my limited experience within the last year and a half, but I do. I can see those points uh, especially if I talk to other members within other clubs and they're listening to some of their perspectives.
Alyssa Weathers-Murphy:Well, if you ever would like, or if anyone out there any of your listeners would like, come and visit the Oklahoma City Midtown Rotary Club. We meet Tuesdays. I tell people to get there at 530 so that you can order dinner. If you'd like to order some beers or whatever you want to enjoy with your meal, do some networking, get to meet people. If you get there around 5.30 you're able to meet people and have light networking and then the show starts at six o'clock. So I run a pretty strict agenda to make sure that we get out by seven o'clock. Especially when we've got board meeting nights. I try to make sure that we get out by seven o'clock. Especially when we've got board meeting nights. I try to make sure that we're wrapped up a little bit before seven so we can go right into our board meeting.
Alyssa Weathers-Murphy:But our club is very much dedicated to hearing from nonprofits that are doing something in the art space. We love having artists come and speak. We have people come and talk about if it's a public official like, give us an update on what's happening on a project in Oklahoma city. We've had people come and talk about maps. Uh, before scissortail park was a thing, we had them come out and talk. So we we do um. I think our our programming chair does an amazing job of keeping keeping um really cool speakers in our lineup and that's um's just a really cool way for our members to take value out of their week, understand who's out here in our community making a difference, making it a great place to be. It's an inspiring feeling. You know you should leave feeling nice and light and happy and energized by the end of the meeting, and we do that most weeks. We do post our events on Facebook. Right now we're doing a big update on our website, but if we're not meeting there for any reason, we post about it on Facebook first.
Brian Triger:Well, thank you for sharing that. We'll definitely put the information in the or keep the information in the show notes and make that available to all of our listeners. I just want to take this opportunity to thank you, alyssa, and also Siren Media, for hosting us today. I'd like to thank District 5750 and all of the Rotarians within our district for support and just being in the Rotary International community. I'd also like to thank IT it spark for assisting with the creation and the development of this podcast, and happy holidays everyone, thank you.
