Charlotte-Shelburne Rotary - Newsletter

Our biggest fund raising (and fun) event of the year is just over a month away and Bowling tor the Community Czar Ric Flood is VERY eager to receive lots of names from club members. His office is ready to send out letters asking your friends, relatives, neighbors and business associates to support your bowling efforts and the good works of Rotary.

The evening begins with cocktails at 6, dinner at 7 and bowling at 7:45. It’s a fun way to introduce friends to Rotary, and have an enjoyable evening of good food and bowling.

You can email Ric a list of names and addresses or bring them to the April 29 meeting.

Ric reported 10 of the 69 members had sent in names when we met on April 22. Let’s get that up to a more respectable number by April 29.

District 7850 Conference

The District Conference for District 7850 is happening very close to home this year – an unusually good opportunity to attend the conference, learn some useful and inspiring Rotary information, meet some of your fellow Rotarians, eat good meals, enjoy the ambiance of the Basin Harbor Club – and go home to sleep in your own cozy bed.

The conference is on Friday and Saturday, May 15 and 16 (with some programs scheduled for Thursday and Sunday. President Steve Dates is encouraging members to attend for at least one day – and as an incentive, the club will use the funds that usually underwrite the attendance of the President and Vice-President to subsidize four club members who are planning to go. Sign up and see if you are the lucky one whose registration is paid by the club!!

Rotary Foundation Thought

This week’s Rotary Foundation Thought is about District Simplified Grants.

A dictionary may not be your first choice for an exciting read, but for many students, it’s the key to unlocking a world of amazing information. Using District Simplified Grants, Rotary clubs in Southwest Florida, USA, distributed dictionaries to every third grader in District 6960. Clubs worldwide use these grants to support short-term humanitarian projects in their communities.

One club, one grant, one Rotarian can bring wonder to the eyes of a child

Business Meeting

President Steve reported that at the Board meeting last Thursday, five grants were approved: Shelburne Parks & Recreation, $100, Philo Center, $100, Girl Scouts of the Green and White Mountains, $100, Epilepsy Foundation of Vermont, $200 and Josh Flore’s participation in the Police Unity Tour, $200.

The Polio Plus Matching Gift campaign is closed – 21 club members pledged to the Rotary International Polio Plus Program and their pledges were matched by the club for a total of $2,240. A great way to increase participation by club members and support an important program

Reports on the District Assembly last weekend:

John Beal said he attended a good session on membership building, as well as the presidents’ training session.
Linda Gilbert said she enjoyed the District Simplified Grants session and one on effective websites – and learned a lot in the sessions that turned out to be on social networking – FaceBook and Twitter.
Terrell Titus said the assembly was well attended, with an especially good representation from Burlington Sunrise. She recommends Sunrise as a good place for a makeup.
Steve attended sessions for AGs where one of the subjects was the need for the local clubs, district and RI to be using compatible software systems that can talk to one another.

Sergeant at Arms

Kris Engstrom had no birthday fines or anniversary fines to levy, but Terrell Titus was definitely a candidate for a notoriety fine with all the publicity (well deserved) for her honors from the Insurance industry including the Titus Award (named for her father) she received.

Happy fines:

Kris – got a real deal on a ticket to fly to her daughter’s graduation from law school
Elaine Dates – in appreciation for Terrell’s great mastery of the subject of District Simplified Grants as displayed at the District Assembly last weekend.
Alan Hathaway, Denny Bowen and Gary Bergeron – just happy
Ric Flood – a recent visit with Denny Bowen’s dentist brother
Robert Maynes – great fun in New York and Hilton Head and at the Masters
Joyce Errecart – four in a row for the Red Sox
John Hammer – becoming the past-president of the Vermont Mozart Festival
Jim Spadacinni – happy
Bill Root – puppies are due
Steve Dates – he and Elaine just became a one-car family – sold his car on Craig’s List

Lucky draw: Gary Bergeron’s ticket was drawn but he missed the $209 pot.

Committee Reports

Public Relations – Roz distributed the colorful and fact-packed new flyer that the club can use at public events or when someone inquires about club membership, to provide basic information about the club, where and when we meet and who to contact about membership. She accepted gratefully the expression of appreciation from the club for the work on the flyer (that was a PR team effort) and for the weekly reports and publicity.

Administration – Dave Rice said that the sign-ups to help with set up for meetings has been going smoothly. “Everything’s under control.”

Membership – Ric Flood asked everyone to keep watching for more good potential candidates for membership in the club. We’ve seen good growth but more members would be great.

Steve Dates commented that at the Assembly the statistics indicated that two of the four clubs for which is Assistant Governor next year have seen growth, while two have dropped. He suggested that encouraging people to come to us for help with projects is a good way to introduce them to Rotary and recruit members.

Foundation – Elaine Dates said that the committee had focused on education about the work of the foundation as their goal, using brochures and posters to raise awareness. The weekly reading of a Foundation Thought for the week is another way of making members conscious of the work of the organization. Twenty-one members contributed to the Polio Plus campaign with their Every Rotarian Every Year contributions. Her committee met with the RYLA candidates and the speech contestants, and is helping to set up an InterAct group at CVU. She quoted John Morgan saying “The Foundation is a vehicle to do good work around the world.”

Might we be part of a Pilot Project?

District 7850 has applied to be one of a small number of districts to pilot a new system for managing grants. The decision on which districts will be chosen will be announced at the Rotary International Convention in Birmingham, England in June.

Wanna be a visionary?

John Beal said that 40 clubs in the district will be offered an opportunity to participate in four to five hour visioning workshops, brainstorming the future vision of Rotary. He is inviting comment from Charlotte Shelburne members about their interest in being involved.