Rotary meeting of October 4, 2017
Location: Trinity Church community room, Shelburne, Vermont
7:30 President Erik called meeting to order and led the club in the Pledge of Allegiance
Kris offered a moment of reflection
President Erik introduced our Guest Speaker Rotary District 7850 Governor Eric Denu.
Steve Dates, Team Leader of the 2017 Outbound Rotary Friendship Exchange Program to Portland, Oregon and Host Leader of the group currently visiting from Portland, Oregon introduced the guests who made the trip to Vermont and their hosts. Their participation in today’s meeting created a packed audience for District Governor Eric Denu’s visit to our club!
Upcoming Events:
10/11 Lindsay Longe, Camp Ta Kum Ta
10/18 Mike Lannen, President, Eternity Web
10/24 Board Meeting
10/25 Shelburne Library update and then Club meeting
11/1 Katie Mobley, Executive Director, Community College of Vermont
11/8 Michael Metz, Board Member, Generator Makerspace
11/15 Classification Talk
11/21 Board Meeting
11/22 No Meeting – Thanksgiving
11/29 Lara Keenan, Lara’s Astonishing New Adventure
Current Business: New By-Laws were approved by the Board and distributed to members. There will be a Club vote at a regular meeting at the end of the 10-day warning period.
Alan Bates gave an update on the Baseball Pool. 50% of the money goes to the club.
The entire Club (and visitors) thanked Will for the wonderful breakfast (much cheering and clapping).
Community Service Projects
Linda Gilbert reported the current status of the Charlotte Beach project.
Richard Fox reported on the Halloween Parade progress. He’ll pass out sign-ups next week. Charlie Kofman is in charge of the CSH “Float” – basically decorating his antique truck. Erik will look into getting updated banners for the parade and Fire Station.
President Erik introduced District Governor Erik Denu, the speaker for today’s meeting.
Before beginning his speech, Eric talked about his wife Janice’s trip to Nigeria for National Immunization Day. She’s not a Rotarian but she’s going to Nigeria to help with immunizations to fight recent increases in polio. She’s also raising money for mosquito nets to combat malaria and equipment such as tricycle wheelchairs. A $5 donation buys a mosquito net. The wheelchairs cost $150 each. She is then going to Geneva, Switzerland to represent District 7850 at World Day. He also mentioned that Rotary is tied into the Shelterbox Program to supply disaster relief items such as tents, water filtration kits, food, etc. to the many areas in the Unites States, Mexico, Caribbean, and other parts of the world.
Eric Denu began his speech by asking Erik Kolomaznik the name of his favorite candy bar. He then tossed the surprised CSH President a Whatchamacallit bar! His theme was teamwork – making Rotary work through working together at all levels. He cited Helen Keller’s famous quote: “Alone we can do so little. Together we can do so much.” He went on to cite his experience in scouting growing up. He compared the similarities of scouting and Rotary to the service commitments at community, district, national and global levels. He experienced Rotary initially through his dad, Phil Denu, a Rotarian with a 60+ perfect attendance record. In fact, he shared that his first meeting at age 12 was in the Middlebury, Vermont Rotary, where he has now been a long-time member with 28+ years of perfect attendance. He challenged CSH Rotary members to aspire to the RI theme “Making a Difference” in the following ways:
- Environment sustainability. Every member should plant a tree by Earth Day 2018. This would mean that 1.2 million trees will be planted worldwide!
- Promote peace worldwide.
- Broaden membership with more diversity.
- Tell our communities what we do.
He went on to say that the biggest reason why change doesn’t happen is fear. We need to overcome this barrier. Eric closed his talk with important upcoming events:
October 24Polio Day, established by RI
November 11District Training, Lyndon State College
May 4-62018 Rotary Mount Washington Summit
June 23-272018 Rotary International Convention in Toronto
Sergeant-At-Arms: Trafton Crandall used his sharp sense of humor collecting Happy Fines causing much fun and frivolity.
Tod: Happy to be meeting with fellow Rotarians
Bill Deming: Happy that Dave sold 4 cars + $5 for a mosquito net
Alan Hathaway: Happy son is engaged. Happy for our visitors from Oregon
Keith: Son doing well working on recovery in Florida
Gary: New business in South Burlington near Jiffy Lube
Barbara: Leaving for a weekend in NYC
Roz Graham: Happy visitors from Oregon visited Shelburne Farms
Joan Lenes: Have had good travels
Alan Bates: Trafton as Sergeant-At-Arms
George Schiavone: District Governor visit
Richard Fox: District Governor visit and Rotary weekend planning the District Summit
Sam: To our health
Judy: Eric Denu as DG
Heather Lynch: For all our guests
Howard: Guests from Oregon and hosts from other clubs
Erik: Son’s birthday party was a huge hit!
Visitors: Happy to have hosted a lovely Oregon couple; Happy being in Vermont; Happy to have Friendship Exchange visitors, Happy to hear the District Governor’s inspirational speech.
Note: many members donated $5 or more for mosquito nets.
Meeting adjourned: 8:30 AM
Respectfully submitted, Judith Christensen