Newsletter for Meeting of September 4, 2013
September 4, 2013 Newsletter
By John Hammer
Charlotte Shelburne Rotary
Wednesday, September 4, 2013, 7:15 a.m.
Trinity Episcopal Church Community Room
Welcome
President Dave Jonah opened the meeting with the Pledge. Kris Engstrom gave the invocation.
Guests: Alfonso Gilbert, Husband of Member Linda Gilbert
Eric Denu – Assistant District Governor for Chittenden South and Addison North
Error: Dennis Delaney was erroneously noted last week as having been a former member. He is currently a member – my apologies Dennis.
Quote of the Day: “Everything good that Rotary does happens right here at the club level.” Spoken by Past-RI President Cliff Doctorman. (Quoted by Steve Dates in his presentation.)
Word for the Day: Look for the * and definition at end.
Upcoming:
September 11 – Club Assembly – RYLA participants will speak.
September 12 – Board Meeting
September 13 - H2H-T Latin Dance Party
September 14 – Volunteer Construction Project at Charlotte Central School
September 18 – Burlington Police Chief Michael Shirling (Third time’s a charm).
September 21 – Volunteer Effort – Parking for Shelburne Farms Harvest Fest
October 27 – Shelburne Halloween Parade
October 12 – Volunteer cutting brush on Shelburne Nature Trail
October 16 – Frank Bryan – a very popular speaker on Vermontiana
November 1 – Car Raffle – Shelburne Farms Coach Barn
April 25-27 – 7850 District Conference, Hilton Hotel, Burlington
District 7850 Calendar: Hot Link http://www.clubrunner.ca/Portal/Events/EventsCalendar.aspx?accountid=50051
Announcements
Charlotte Senior Center Summer BBQ
The club received thanks today for their participation.
Charity Golf Tournament
There will be a charity golf tournament at the Cedar Knolls Golf Club on Friday, September 6 to benefit the Boy Scouts of America. Anyone interested speak to Dave Jonah.
Volunteer Activities
Michael Clapp reported that he had been negotiating with the Charlotte Central School and had arranged for a volunteer day on September 14 starting at 8:30AM. The project is to put siding on a newly constructed post and beam building and the fabricating of composting bins inside. He anticipates the need for at least eight volunteers. All are welcome.
He is also working with Shelburne Town planning a volunteer day cutting brush on the new Shelburne Nature Trail. This is tentatively set up for October 12.
Latin Dance Party
Linda Gilbert suggested that all members who have learning to Tango on their bucket list now have a golden opportunity to achieve that life goal. Hands to Honduras – Tela is throwing their third annual Latin Dance Party on Friday, September 13 from 7 to 11. No one raised their hands regarding Tangos, but there was excitement about going. In past years everyone has come away saying that these parties were exceptionally fun. Plan on it and learn to Tango from Tango masters from Montreal and Burlington. It’s an opportunity not to be missed. There will be a 9-piece Salsa band. The silent auction is also loaded with great gifts. It will be in the Shelburne Farms Coach Barn with pizza and empanadas among other food offerings. Tickets from Linda or at the door. (lindaggilbert@gmail.com or at www.handstohonduras.org.
Shelburne Farms Harvest Festival
Our club will once again provide parking support to the Shelburne Farms Harvest Festival on September 21st. There will be a morning shift and one in the afternoon as in previous years. A list will be circulated for eight in each shift.
Car Raffle
Ric flood announced that the Car Raffle will be held this year on November 1 at the Shelburne Farms Coach Barn. This year’s tickets will be $275 and the letters will be going out in the next week or so.
Shelburne Halloween Parade
In the inimitable words of Parade Provost Emeritus Irv Rose, Dave Rive announced that the parade on October 27th, is almost “under control.”
Sergeant at Arms
Ric Flood took over in Richard Fox’s absence. He averred* as to how he couldn’t talk as fast as Richard, but he could be as loud. He was after pins today – a no-brainer today as Steve Dates had brought one for everyone. Nevertheless, Ric got a few.
John Hammer – Hadn’t brought the T-shirts to sell. He also announced that he would be absent for 5 weeks with trips to Boston, Montenegro and Croatia.
Mark Joczik – For the Pittsburg Pirates and their first winning season since 1992.
Dennis Webster – For failing to wave at Ric this morning as he passed by.
Chris Davis – For a recent great family trip to San Francisco and his son, George’s, first football game.
Joan Lennes – Went to the Champlain Valley Fair and rode the Wild Mouse with her two grand nieces.
Roz Graham – Thanks for the pin and she asked if anyone would be interested and willing to do the newsletter in John’s absence. She often fills in, but she would like to get some new blood or a change of pace. (So would the author)
Kris Engstrom – Glad to see Steve and Elaine.
Elaine Dates – Will be glad to tell the “real story” to anyone about how wonderful it is to visit different clubs. She and Steve are on the verge of having visited all 42 clubs in our district.
Steve Dates – Great traveling around but even greater to be back.
Linda Gilbert – For Steve and Elaine Dates who represent us so well.
Eric Denu – Very happy to see Steve and Elaine.
Robert Maynes – No money – for a banker, that’s terrible.
Sam Feitelberg – Wishing everyone a Happy New Year as Rosh Hashanah starts tonight (Wednesday) at sunset and ends Friday at sunset.
Terrill Titus – She loves sitting next to Sam and happy to see Steve and Elaine.
Michael Clapp – For the courage his brother is showing in dealing with Parkinson’s disease. He also paid a fine for John Dupee whose photographs have been adjudged meritorious enough to be shown at the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum.
John Dupee – Happy to be in Troy, NY with his #1 son for a tugboat trip.
Dave Rice – Visiting Oakville, Ontario for the next two weeks.
Terry Kennaugh – Boat comes out of the water today and he will be traveling in the Canadian Maritimes for the next 1½ months.
Deny Bowen – Has spent the last six days on the lake.
Bob Sanders – Going to Maine next week.
Howard Seaver – For the most robust pledge of allegiance he’s ever seen.
Trafton Crandall’s ticket was drawn for a free ticket to the Latin Dance Party.
Terrill Titus’s number was called and she drew the Queen of Diamonds. Roll over the pot of $116.50.
Speaker – Our long lost friend and District Governor, Steve Dates.
First out of the blocks he presented the official theme banner.
Engage Rotary – Change Lives
First he made two announcements: The District will pay for one scholarship to the Rotary Leadership Institute, a sort of graduate school for Rotarians. He left application forms with Dave Jonah. Secondly he mentioned the Piano Concert to be held at 7PM on September 24th at St. Michael’s College to benefit the folks of Lac Megantic, Quebec.
Next he presented Al Gilbert with his Rotarian Spouse Partner Service Award plaque from RI President Tanaka. The plaque had not been received in time for the presentation ceremony at the changing of the guard in June. Al said he only does 5% of the work for Hands to Honduras – Tela and that his wife, Linda, does the other 95%. He was loudly shouted down with the fact that he really deserved the award and he was greatly appreciated for it.
Steve spoke on the subject of Engage Rotary – Change Lives. He began with a quote from Cliff Doctorman, RI President in 1992-3. Doctorman said after attending his District Governors’ training program that, “I’m still confused, but at a much higher level” when considering all the programs and facts associated with Rotary. But he continued “But there is one thing that I am definitely not confused about and that is that ‘everything good that Rotary does happens right here at the club level.’”
Steve’s talk began by focusing on engagement and pointed out that there are the same number of Rotarians now as in the past ten years worldwide. This, even though many service organizations have in the past few years been declining in numbers of members. In North America, however, there is a different story. There has been a loss of 28,000 over the past five years. That’s about equivalent to 400 clubs lost. Even though 44,000 new Rotarians are recruited every year, we have been losing 51,000. The conclusion of a few RI studies is that for the most part we are doing a bad job of engaging our members. Each club needs to concentrate on what it takes to keep members. We all joined Rotary to serve our communities and that’s the reason why we want to stay. At PETS (President Elect Training Seminar), the incoming presidents are told that their primary customer is members in the club and the club’s primary customer is the community.
He mentioned a number of ideas that clubs were doing to ensure that the members feel engaged. Among them are:
· A secret greeter who circulated around with fines being assessed for those who failed to be welcoming.
· Great programs
· A short video of the latest volunteer projects which can be shown at the club
· Have Club Assemblies feature reports by committees rather than committee meetings.
· Contacting members who haven’t attended in a certain time frame
· Joint fellowship trips with other clubs.
· Guess the person in which every member writes down three unknown things about their lives. These resumes are put in a basket and one is drawn every week to guess who the mystery person is.
· Take an annual survey to learn the needs of the members
· Service projects.
The fringe benefits of engaged members are that as members become more interested their attendance grows, giving to the Foundation increases and more members attend the service projects.
He then moved on to the changing lives part of the theme. In District 7850 we’ve grown a total of ten people in the last five years with two new clubs (Drummondville-Malouin, QC and the re-chartering of the Ossipee Club in NH). They are working on forming a small club in Granby, QC, remembering that it’s not how large the club is but how excited and energetic it can become. Steve pointed out that at PETS, each club president was asked to establish a goal for a net gain of one member this year. This is eminently doable and would result in a gain of 42 new members for the District this year. Not bad when matched up with our five year overall gain.
He then went on to explain the changes in the funds going to the Foundation. The three-year financial model is still the same where all contributions and income go into a Foundation fund for three years. The interest on that amount pays for the Foundation’s operations. In the third year, the principal is shared out with half of the dollars going back to the Districts for use in their District Designated Funds. The other half goes to the World Fund for higher-level RI-sponsored programs and matching grants.
New this year is what was once called ‘Future Vision’ is now called ‘The Vision.’ We get much more money back for use by the District. We used to get $10-11,000. We now get $60,000, which reflects the very large growth in the Foundation’s funds.
Steve mentioned his District Conference which will be held at the Hilton Hotel in Burlington on April 25-27th, 2014. This will be different because the Burlington Garden Club will be putting on a flower show at the same time.
The last item on his list, but still most importantly, is Polio Eradication. Polio is still endemic in Pakistan, Afghanistan, India and Nigeria. There is a real chance that by June 30, 2014 we will have seen the last new case of polio in these endemic countries. An expanded program of accounting for every person who has and hasn’t had the vaccine has been instituted. The numbers are quite small according to the World Health Organization. There is a 50/50 chance of happening. When questioned about the outbreaks in Somalia and Israel, Steve noted that these outbreaks don’t constitute the formation of an endemic. The outbreaks bear watching.
Definition – Averred, v. (past tense) – to state positively; assert; to allege as a fact or prove to be true.