Newsletter - Archive  Nov 18, 2009

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Charlotte Shelburne Rotary Club

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Trinity Episcopal Church Community Room

Welcome

John Beal and John Norbury exchanging club banners.

Following the pledge and a Thanksgiving meditation, President John Beal introduced two guests, John Norbury, visiting from England and France, and Jim Spadaccini’s wife Paula. John and John exchanged Rotary Club banners.

Rotary Foundation Thought

Steve Dates reminded the club of the success of our club’s campaign last year to make a significant contribution to the Polio Plus program of Rotary International: Charlotte Shelburne Rotary members were encouraged to make donations for Polio Plus for amounts of up to $50 and the club matched the members’ donations dollar for dollar and then also matched them with points – a double benefit for everyone. This year Rotary Foundation has upped the ante to challenge clubs to donate $2000 per club to Polio Plus, and Steve said the board will discuss adding a 2 for 1 match by the club for each member’s gift of up to $50. This will come back to the club for approval after discussion by the board.

Announcements

No meeting on Nov. 25

Registration for the District and Rotary International Conventions in June 2010 ends on Dec. 15. You can register online.

Thank you to everyone who helped make the Car Raffle so successful – from Fritz Horton, Robert Maynes and Ric Flood who lead the committee, to Colleen Haag who organized the donations, and to everyone who helped, especially those who made clean-up look so easy!!

Also Thank you to everyone who helped with the meeting last week: William for a great breakfast, everyone who helped set up and clean up – and for the guests who made it a special occasion. And apologies to Sam Feitelberg whose military service was left off the list of veterans who were honored at the 11/11 meeting.

Linda Gilbert reminded everyone of An Inspector Calls, the current production by Shelburne Players. It is an intriguing play, very well acted, with great costumes and beautiful set. Tickets are still available for Thursday through Saturday, Nov. 19 to 21 at 7:30 in Shelburne Town Center Gym.

Linda also announced that Hands to Honduras will be selling Artisanal Honduran Coffee at the annual Charlotte Artisans Sale on Saturday at the Senior Center.

John announced that John Hammer is recovering from his surgery, is emailing to tell about his success, and to share the fact that he is bored.

Sergeant at Arms

Don Condon, assisted by Kris Engstrom, levied fines beginning with John Beal.

• Joyce Errecart – happy because Don hadn’t beaten up on her for anything.
• John Dupee – that Frank Bryant is our speaker
• Ric Flood – Robert Maynes played a 1 under par golf game last week
• Terrell Titus – Hilton Head is for the birds
• Judy Christensen – came to help up and there were no tables – and a birthday
• Tom Glaser – granddaughters’ birthdays – and the family together for Thanksgiving
• Ron VanMynen – happy to be here
• Dave Rice – his friend John Norbury visiting
• John  Norbury – happy to be with us
• Paula Spadaccini – for her success in getting to the Spadaccini computer early to block Don Condon’s emails
• Jim Spadaccini – going to Buffalo for a family visit
• Dennis Webster – an architecture fine – there is a building going up somewhere
• Denny Bowen – a week in Williamsburg – and a visit with granddaughters
• Pat Sokolowski – her son Rob, a member of the UVM Rugby Club, attending the meeting with her
• Bob Sanders – going to Florida to meet his mother’s new boyfriend
• Kris Engstrom – stayed up late to see the meteor shower

Lucky draw:  Guest Frank Bryant drew Carol Moore’s number but she chose the wrong card and didn’t win the pot.

Program

Professor Frank Bryant with President John Beal

John Dupee introduced guest speaker Frank Bryant of UVM’s Political Science Department, saying that in spite of taxes, the permitting process and other irritants, Frank Bryant is unabashedly in love with Vermont.

Professor Frank Bryant, back for his fourth annual visit to Charlotte Shelburne Rotary, wove some of his previous themes (Why the US Federal Government Was Designed to Not Work and The Impossible Presidency) around the subject of universal health care for the United States.

He said that the founding fathers were interested in precluding quick, coherent actions and therefore the perfect result is a mediocre one. He said that everyone, regardless of their political persuasion, ought to give empathy to President Obama, as he attempts to pass complex legislation through congress in one year. The fact that next year at the mid-tern elections, one-third of the senate and all of the house of representatives will be running for election makes it impossible to pass tough and controversial legislation because such a large proportion of the congress are worried about the impact on their own chances for re-election.

He said there is also a dichotomy between a humanitarian desire to provide health care to all citizens and the classical liberal view that if we give people equal opportunity they will be successful without help from society.

Another problem for President Obama is that people who have good health care are not as supportive because they don’t trust government not to screw up what they have, even though their intentions are good. A federal program would mean that Vermont, which currently has quite a good program, would have the same coverage as New Mexico.

In answer to a question, Professor Bryant said that if the U.S. had a parliamentary system like Canada where the party in power can make laws because they have the time to do so, we would have universal health care. Under a parliamentary system, the government doesn’t have to retract to the mean, he said.

Reminders

• Board meeting tomorrow
• No meeting next week

Turkey Day

President John Beal and Turkey Project Chairman Jim Spadaccini were at Shelburne Emergency Food Shelf on Wednesday morning to deliver turkeys that Val Martel will distribute to Food Shelf clients. Left to right, Shelburne Food Shelf Manager Val Martel, Dave Leland who helps with the Food Shelf distributions, Jim Spadaccini and John Beal.