Meeting Notes - August 8, 2012

August 8, 2012 Newsletter
By John Hammer

Charlotte Shelburne Rotary
Wednesday, August 8, 2012, 7a.m.
Trinity Episcopal Church Community Room

Welcome

President-Elect Dave Jonah opened the meeting with the Pledge and called on Linda Gilbert for the devotional.  Linda read a short piece on the beginnings of the current Shelburne Farms.

Guests were introduced: Ms. Larson Berkey of Charlotte and Noel Nelson, Linda Gilbert’s sister from Jacksonville, Florida.

Announcements

Upcoming:

• August 15 – Club Assembly - The Club Visioning Exercise will be discussed.
• August 22 – Dave Coates
• August 24 – The club will serve and clear for the Charlotte Senior Center annual BBQ. Activities start at 5:00 p.m. John Hammer will be coordinating.
• September 15 – Steve Dates discussed the Golf Ball Drop.  The goal is 3,000 balls sold at $10 each.  Turn in cash to John Dupee or Steve Dates.
• October 24 – Zack Clemmons
• November 4 or 11 – The dates for the club’s Bowlathon (a Sunday night).

Linda Gilbert is coordinating the Rotary food booth and promotional table at the upcoming Shelburne Day on Saturday, August 18.  Volunteers are needed for set-up, takedown, grill work, and manning the tables.  A list was circulated.

Robert Maynes’s father passed away last Sunday and his funeral is being held in Woodstock.

A group in Shelburne will meet next Tuesday night (August 14) to discuss raising money to support the Shelburne Volunteer Fire Department in their effort to get an adequate boat to be used in rescue work.

The Hands to Honduras Group will hold a Latin Dance Party on the evening of September 7th at the Shelburne Farms Coach Barn.  There will be a silent auction and Victoria Moore of the Salsa Linda Dance Studio will give dance classes again.  Tickets are available from Linda Gilbert and John Hammer.

The Golf Ball Drop tickets are beginning to gather momentum with a “quantum increase” of cash being turned in today.  Jim Spadaccini is in charge of the operation and John Dupee, the tickets.

Roz Graham announced the final Shelburne Recreation Committee’s Concert for tonight.  Shelburne Farms will continue the concerts with Lila Mae and the Cartwheels on August 15 and a bluegrass band on the 22nd.

Sergeant at Arms

Richard Fox stepped up and quickly went to work.

• Carol Obuchowski – For return of pleasant summer weather
• Russ Blodgett – Just happy
• Steve Dates – Attended Middlebury Rotary BBQ.
• Colleen Haag – Glad to be back
• Howard Seaver – Had a great kayak trip last weekend
• Denny Bowen – Forgot his pin
• Linda Gilbert – Remembered a great friend of Hands to Honduras, Peter Seybolt, who died last Monday.  Announced that former member, Anne Pardee, now of Santa Monica, is a new grandmother.
• Noel Nelson (Visitor) – For generosity of her sister for letting her stay so long.
• Tom Glaser – Happy to have been water-skiing this AM with Deb Hanley. He had a shower before coming (not with Deb, he added) before coming.  Celebrating his 42nd wedding anniversary tomorrow.
• Roz Graham – Ten 4-Hers from Shelburne Farms with their animals were at the Addison County Field Days and anticipating the forthcoming Burlington Ensemble concert tonight.
• Linda Barker – Went to drag racing last Sunday.
• Fritz Horton – Attended a baby shower.
• Ric Flood – Happy for a great bike ride on Saturday and Sunday. His daughter Megen medalled at an athletic event in Massachusetts.
• Terrill Titus – For a great weekend in Maine.
• Bob Sanders – Happy to have Larson Berkey here as a guest.
• Bill Deming – For a great time on the Cape.
• Gary Bergeron – Just happy
• John Dupee – For the building momentum in Golf Ball Drop ticket sales.
• Michael Lash – For the safe return of his twin daughters from Europe.
• Bill Root – was not late for his granddaughter’s birthday party last Sunday, he was a week early.

Our visitor, Larson Berkey Sumner drew two cards.  The first was for a ticket to the Latin Dance Party and the second was for the pot.  Carole Obuchowski won the Dance Party.  She had exchanged tickets as she entered with Tom Glaser.  Tom Glaser’s ticket was drawn second, the one he had exchanged with Carol Obuchowski.  He failed to pick the correct card – Rollover.

Speaker – Richard Fox – Classification Talk

Richard Fox began his fast-paced classification talk with a slide about Title Regulations.  Fox, who is an attorney quickly canned that idea and began telling his personal history which flew by.  Born and raised in Charlotte, he attended all the local schools. He noted that he sat so much outside the principal’s office at the Charlotte Central School that there is a plaque on that chair. He graduated from Rutgers, majoring in English, History and Political Science. While at Rutgers he taught an ESL class for New Jerseyites, sang in the world famous glee club and spent two years in the nationally ranked debate club. 

He went on to graduate from the George Washington Law School in Washington, DC.
While there he spent a great deal of time working at the General Services Administration as a law clerk drafting legal opinions, The Vietnam Veterans of America and the GWU Law Review. It was law school where he finally gave up his singing, which he had done continuously since he was five years old.

After graduation he worked in a succession of law offices, first specializing in governmental security defense and timber/forest contracts.  He moved to Boston after one and a half years and specialized for a short time in government construction contract law.  After divorcing his first wife, he moved back to Vermont where he began in a small Burlington law firm, which did family and real estate law.  When it reorganized, he took the real estate case load and started his own firm where he is now, along with his new wife Erica and daughter Elizabeth.

In closing, he noted an impressive list of nine service organizations in which he is presently active.  Needless to say, Rotary was at the top of the list.  Nice work Richard.