Meeting of August 17th and Board Meeting

Rotarians, take note:

 

 

The fireside chat that took place on August 16th at President Skip's house was great, and more people need to experience this, so there will be a mini-fireside chat sometime soon during a club meeting (perhaps even at the next club assembly).  Thanks to Warren Spencer and Skip for pulling that together.

 

The Safe Passage Grant in Weymouth, MA is still trying to complete the process which will allow us to send out the funds we raised at the Geography Quiz Night and from the Interact club.  

 

Since we are looking for a project that addresses the issue of clean water in order to complete our Pyramid of Peace, we might consider a project out of the Westbrook-Gorham Rotary Club to provide clean water to a village in Guatemala.  Other ideas, anyone?

 

We now have a supply of Rotary banners which you are free to take whenever you travel and wish to bring them when/if you attend a club meeting at a new club to present to that club.  (I still cannot look at one of those Rotary banners without thinking of my husband.)

 

Following the club meeting of August 17th a number of members helped clean up after the previous evening's Lanternfest at Spring Hill.  Thank you to all those volunteers.  That was good work provided by the Rotary Club!

 

 

Dave Underhill, our District Governor, gave us an overview of what we have in store for this Rotary year.  It includes 1) continuing the fight to eradicate polio, 2) dealing with substance abuse recovery, 3) undertaking clean water projects, 4) addressing issues in education, 5) helping our local communities, and 5) using the Pyramid of Peace as a guideline for what we undertake this year.  There are now 40 clubs in our district.  Lots of us being "people of action".  Perhaps our biggest weakness is not telling our own story.  We need to take credit for what we do so people will want to join us.  Membership drives are important to be able to do more and more good work.  We will also be planting trees, with seedlings arriving sometime in the spring.  This year's motto is "Making a Difference", which is what each of us does.

 

Coming up later is the Multi-District Conference at the Mt. Washington Hotel on May 4-6.  Five districts will be there and there will be a youth services conference then, too.  And the president of all of Rotary will be there!  A great opportunity for fellowship and fun.  We should try to make this a major club activity for fellowship, too.

 

We should also plan on doing a polio-awareness-raising project in October.  The Bridge Walk in Portsmouth is a good way to do that.  By the way, if you make a donation of $25 or more to Polio Plus via the district's recent promotion, you earn a chance to go to Seattle, all expenses paid, for the Polio Plus Conference.  Check out the district website for details.

 

 

At the Board meeting we discussed the need to review our by-laws so they are more in line with how we actually do things in the club.

We also were asked by the Pumpkinman Triathlon director to provide volunteers for their events during September 9-10.  They are in great need of people to help.  We brainstormed ideas for our Citizens Appreciation event and decided we need to open this to discussion by our club members.  We reviewed the upcoming club activities including a request to have another blood drive during the December-January time frame.  We hope to be able to distribute the funds for Safe Passage and Out of the Shadows once we have reviewed the financial reports that our new treasurer is working on with the help of Steve Sanborn.  Lastly, we discussed how we might meet our membership goals to increase the size of the club.  We are down to 26 members and would like to have 35 by the end of this Rotary year.  Lofty goals, but nothing is impossible if we try hard.