Charlotte-Shelburne Rotary - Newsletter

President John Beal introduced five guests, Sam Feitelberg, visiting Rotarians Ed Oskamp from North Palm Beach Club, and Dave Gladstone (a member of Burlington Rotary and a new resident of Shelburne), and two young women who are in Vermont as chaperones of the Heritage in Harmony International Youth Leadership Exchange, AnnMarie Harvey of Levis, Quebec, and Audrey Lamonnier of Honfleur, France.

Rotary Foundation Thought

This week’s Rotary Foundation Thought is about Ambassadorial Scholar Alumni.

Four alumni who traveled from the USA to study in Buenos Aires, Argentina have formed Project Patagonia, which provides educational support for school children. The alumni are constructing a multi-media library to meet both short and long-term educational needs at two schools for low-income students in rural Argentina. They are also providing school supplies and nutritional support. Ambassadorial Scholars represent the very best in intellect and character and they are future Rotarians. Every Rotarian, Every Year – imagine all we can accomplish today and tomorrow. Consider inviting local Rotary Foundation alumni to become members of your Rotary club.

Upcoming Events

Charlotte Shelburne Rotary has a booth at the Shelburne Farmers Market on Saturday, July 18 from 9 to 1. Stop by to say Hi.
Boston Rotary is hosting RI President John Kenny on Saturday, July 18.
Guy Babb, District 7850 Governor will be at our meeting on July 22.
Speaker on July 29 will be Alex Hopkins from CVU talking about his trip to Mexico.

New Business

We have been invited to do a pancake breakfast or a dinner at the Balloon Festival being organized by Americade at Shelburne Museum on Labor Day Weekend. 27 balloons are expected. Don Condon reminded club members that the Rotary Club organized the first Balloon Festival here about 20 years ago and ran it for several years.

Sergeant at Arms

Don Condon assessed some fines in a new classification called Accountability. Fined were Rosalyn Graham for failing to post Michele Lash’s new photo on the website (Rosalyn had a great excuse!!), and Paul Bohne for the tax bills!! In revenge Don was fined for the ‘bunker’ in his yard, and George Schiavone paid Paul’s fine … or was it Don’s fine?

Birthday fines – Denny Bowen at 72

Anniversary fines – Linda Barker, John Dupee (#44), George and Linda Schiavone (#50)

Happy fines:

Michael Lash – for a change he can believe in
Suzanne McLellan – for last week’s joke – she has got a lot of mileage out of it
Joyce Errecart – going to visit her grandson in Virginia
Jim Spadaccini – his wife came home happy from her Special Touch visit and they went for dinner at Cucina Antica
Alan Hathaway – just because no one else at their table had a happy fine
Terrell Titus – for the success of the Make A Wish tournament
John Beal – for the Grace Potter Concert and sailing

Lucky draw: Dr. Feitelberg drew Linda Schiavone’s ticket but she chose the wrong card and didn’t win the $345.50 pot.

President’s State of the Club Speech

John Beal opened the Club Assembly reporting program with a forecast of the year to come, his goals for the club and his analysis of the club’s strengths. Fundraising, he said, is important. We are good at it and we have fun. It will be important to keep participation high and have fun.

On the subject of membership he projected increasing by three – and hitting a $3,000 target in our donations to RI Foundation. The more the club members give, in the EREY campaign, the less the club has to give and the more the club can give to local causes.

He also hopes to have a good representation at the District Conference which will be at UVM, and at the Rotary International Conference in Montreal.

He said that website utilization is important, that we are organizing an InterAct Club at CVU, and that Trafton Crandall has volunteered to create a comprehensive club history.

He also said there is special recognition for organizing events and projects with a liveracy theme.

And finally – attendance is important and guests are important to build membership.

Committee Reports

Public Relations – Rosalyn Graham

The committee focused this year on a new concise flyer suitable for handing out at fairs and festivals, and to anyone interested in Rotary. It includes our meeting information, a listing of some of our community and international work, and contact information.

We have also been working on improving the accessibility to the website and information on the website to be useful to anyone interested in our club. Terrell Titus suggested that is club members had to go to the website to read the weekly newsletter, instead of having it pasted into their emails, it would expose everyone to the interesting content of the website.

We have been successful in having good publicity about new members and special projects in the local newspapers.

Plans for the coming year will focus on more recognition for our projects through increased signage and reports to the papers. We will consider how we might publicize our grants to community organizations.

Foundation Committee – Elaine Dates

The committee will be looking for ways to encourage increased participation in the Every Rotarian Every Year program which was successfully boosted this year when CSR matched members’ donations. The committee will also continue educating members on the work of the Foundation.

Program Committee – John Dupee

John and his committee are eager to get more suggestions of possible programs that could add to our annual calendar of fund raisers, in addition to the Bowl-a-thon and the Car Raffle. He said we need one more big project to help in our community, like the Rebuilding Together project we did in 2008. Don Condon suggested getting back to our tradition of doing fundraising pancake breakfasts in our communities.

Membership Committee – Debby Hanley

Debby recalled the success of Anne Pardee’s membership challenge, and issued her own challenge. Each person who brings in a new member will get a chance to win a gift certificate to a local restaurant. She recommended that everyone write a list of prospective new members. Also she suggested having Invite A Friend To Rotary Week. He goal is five new members for the club. She will also be issuing Bring a Guest for Free Cards..