Prior to the start of the meeting, conversation revolved around the snow storm of last week. Dan Affeldt showed us a picture of 4 feet of snow on his deck. JoAnn Lemieux shared news of a dam breech near her home that caused damage. It then led to several memberstalking about longing for spring; and thoughts of pond peepers and tree frogs. We spend a few minutes talking about vaccines, and having to wait to get our vaccinations. We tried to estimate when they may make it on the list to get vaccine. We reflected on memories of polio national immunization days in the USA in the 1950s.
We rang the bell at 12:04. Ed Friedman recited the 4-Way test. We then established that we had a quorum present for the meeting. (quorum = 1/3 of membership or 14 members). Marilyn Bedell, secretary stated we had 19 members signed in to the call. Thus a quorum was established. We then proceeded to vote on the revised club bylaws, and our club's constitution.
Constitution and Bylaws of the Rotary Club of Lebanon – Bruce Pacht
Bruce reviewed the following information:
TWO POINTS OVERALL
Organizational documents aren’t as fluid as our every day actions require us to be, but neither are they carved in granite to stand forever. Over time, new understandings and interpretations arise of how our values are to be represented in the rules we apply to our internal operations and our external relations. Basic organizational documents should be reviewed about every 5 years to make sure they still express the Club’s view of itself at the present time in the into the foreseeable future.
Constitutions and bylaws provide our operational framework. However, complicated operations areas beyond the framework require establishing “policies” and “procedures” to make sure that our actions reflect the values captured in the framing documents. Examples may be found within the areas of Club finance, such as a policy on investments, or a policy and procedure on charitable giving. A procedure for orienting new members is another area where we believe uniformity and comprehensiveness is essential to success, so therefore needs to be preserved so it can be replicated.
CLUB CONSTITUTION –
Rotary International promulgates a “Standard Club Constitution,” which allows club personalization in certain areas. The Club Constitution reflects the club’s relationship to RI and provides the structural framework within which Rotary Clubs must operate. The proposal you all received is in full compliance with RI’s requirements plus some of our own allowed adaptations.
CLUB BYLAWS –
A Club’s bylaws reflect the specific values of an individual Rotary Club as reflected in its internal and external operations. Our bylaws required revision to implement the new organizational structure and relationship between Charities and the Club, and to streamline and clarify our administrative practices.
Separate votes were taken.
Bruce Pacht made a motion to have the club approve the Bylaws. The motion was seconded by Bill Secord. the motion passed unanimously with no abstentions
Bruce Pacht made the motion to have the club approve the Club Constitution. The motion was seconded by Paul Boucher. Rhe Constitution was adopted unanimously with no abstentions.
The Charities Trustees have approved giving $5,000 to the Ray Pecor fund of Listen. The Chair of the Trustees brought this proposed expenditure to the club for a vote.
Background: Our Charities bylaws require that “Requests for funding in an amount of$1,001or more, in whole, or in aggregate to a single recipient in a single year, must be approved by the members.“ So far in 2020, Lebanon Rotary and its members have donated $4,395.84 to Listen, including a total of $2,800 for the Christmas baskets.
We received a request from Kyle Fisher, executive director of Listen for a donation to the Ray Pecor Fund. Ray was the kitchen manager at Listen and is currently recuperating at home from a severe motorcycle accident. Ray used monies from this fund to provide motel shelter for the homeless, food for needy families, and other means of support for people in crisis. Ray’s recovery is still progressing, but slowly. He has some advocates now at Dartmouth Hitchcock that seem to be pulling him through and ensuring that he makes it to appointments. He is applying for social security disability and hopes that his need for it is just temporary. Ray’s wife, Barbara, still works for LISTEN and we get regular feedback from her on his progress.
In Ray’s absence, the new community dinner manager, Larry Lowndes, will be identifying needs amongst the community dinner guests. The guests then work with our program staff to get checks issued for the specific need. A lot of temporary housing and dental issues lately.
Because the pandemic has curtailed some of Lebanon Rotary’s budgeted charitable expenditures (such as support for Interact club and other youth activities), plenty of money remains unallocated.
Vice-president Ed made the motion to donate $5,000 from our charities account to the Ray Pecor Fund along with a request for suitable publicity. Past President Marion seconded the motion which was adopted unanimously with no abstentions.
Review of Club Web Page – Rich
Rich shared his screen with our web page. Click here to see the page as it has been constructed to-date.
The idea is for this web page be “outfacing,” to speak more to the public than ourselves. After the opening scene, we have News and a calendar for our external activities. Some photo galleries show the BrewFest, the Bedell Golf Classic, building homes in El Salvador, River clean-up. We’ll continue to add photos.
These are some of the subpages/topics that will be posted on the web page.
ABOUT OUR CLUB
History of the club is in the workings. Ernst Oidtmann is working on this.
Countdown calendar to the 100th anniversary
President’s greeting to be updated annually.
Meeting schedule and how to get to it
Members and their work affiliations
Links to Rotary, Rotary District 7850
WHAT IS ROTARY
Automatic feed from Rotary International will update.
How to join a meeting
Upcoming events
Annual events highlights and links to photo galleries
News and updates
Food drive for Listen
Need to add in the clothing donation.
Calendar – which is linked from our gmail email account.
Donations/links
Who we help: Organizations we have supported and a link to those organizations
Questions:
John Yacavone (JPY): A page where people can ask questions or communicate directly with us?
Rich: We will answer through Facebook and social media. We can add a link for email for more information or questions. Social media will drive people to THIS page instead of ClubRunner. Digital advertising should help more people see it.
JPY: UV Alliance emails highlight their sponsors at the bottom of their emails.
Rich: We will for events, but right now we have no sustaining sponsors. As people donate to an event, we can put up their logos and links.
Cindy Jerome: Can we solicit Sponsor ads - $$ for appearance for three months?
Rich: We can put ad spots in. After the design, we will pay only around $70/month for the service. We can go down the advertising route to help cover this.
Hank Clarke: There’s no reference to PHF, to how much money we’ve given to the community over the last 5 years.
Rich points out where we say how many hours we put in and how much we gave in 2019. We could put something more in there if we have it. A lot of this website is about what we do for the local community, and also what we do internationally.
Steve Whitman: What’s the date to go live? Is there a members-only section?
Rich: After 1 January we go live – next meeting with the developer is January 4. For “Members-only,” we would have a link on this site to the ClubRunner site.
Bruce Bergeron: A lot of info in the weekly notes should be available to the public. Also concerned re: doubling effort – shouldn’t have lots of extra effort with two websites.
Rich”: Our biggest success is linked to changing content on the new site.
JPY: Is there a counter?
Rich: We will have analytics on the system so we’ll know where inquiries are coming from.
New Member Inductions
Dipak Niroula & Sharmila Niroula (Sponsor Ron Bedell) and Ariel Horowitz (Sponsor Marilyn Bedell & Paul Tierney) have been accepted for membership. They will be formally inducted at our next meeting on Thursday January 7th at 5:30.
Paul Harris Fellowship Celebration
JoAnn Lemieux received her Paul Harris Fellow Plus 2 award as a result of our November campaign. JoAnn expressed how much good Rotarians can do around the globe and here at home with funds from the Rotary Foundation. She is compelled to make the Rotary Foundation one of her charities of choice.
Upper Valley Senior Center
Seven members went to the Upper Valley Senior Citizens help give out meals on 12/30/2020. Here are a few pictures. More can be found on our Facebook page.
Cookies were given to Listen’s Holiday Dinner
Between Marilyn Bedell and Bruce Bergeron, we donated at least 18 dozen of homemade cookies to Listen's Christmas meal. If other made cookies, please let Marilyn know.
Upcoming Meetings:
Our next meeting will be at 5:30 on Thursday January 7th.
We will have the Speech Contest Contestants at our Thursday January 14th meeting which will be at NOON instead of 5:30. – Phillip Rentz
Sean Fleming will be the speaker at our January 28th meeting. He will give us an update on the Lebanon Libraries.
Members present at the meeting:
Marilyn Bedell
Ron Bedell
Bruce Bergeron
Paul Boucher
Hank Clarke
Dave Crandall
Jim Damren
Rudy Fedrizzi
Jean Wulpren
Ed Friedman
Cindy Jerome
Will Kopenheffer
JoAnn Lemieux
Bruce Pacht
Phil Rentz
Bill Secord
Marion Steiner
Rich Wallace
Steve Whitman
John Yacavone
Meeting adjourned at 1:00 PM
Happy Thoughts/Concerns
Hank Clarke: On Thursday, a favorite Veteran friend, Harry, 93 years old, will be one of the first 5 VA patients to receive a COVID vaccination.
JoAnn Lemieux: My sweetheart is the president-elect of Brattleboro Rotary. JoAnn volunteered to help with their Christmas tree sale. This week, they sold out a full week before Christmas, meeting their somewhat scaled-down goals, but a big success and JoAnn didn’t have to stand out in the cold helping!
Marilyn Bedell: Jimmy Brock is at his own noontime meeting in Hamilton Bermuda today; temps in the mid-70s with golf every day. On Christmas Day, Bev was playing basketball in the driveway with her grandkids.
Bruce Bergeron: He is reinstituting a random raffle for a free car wash at our weekly meetings. He has a fancy random selection application on his phone. Ed Friedman is the inaugural winner!
Jean updated us on her newest family members: Molly turned 16 months on the 19th; all over the place with a language all her own. Jake turned 5 weeks on Saturday; happy and growing like a week. They get along fine! 8-year old Jamison, had a wonderful Christmas.
Will Koppenheffer: For years, we met at noon and now have been meeting at 5:30. Have we considered meeting a other times? This lead to the following comments:
Ron Bedell: Last meeting of the BOD, we decided to experiment with one at 7:30 AM and one at 5:30 PM. We will discuss the results at the next Board meeting to decide if we make any changes.
Dan Affeldt: Some big Internet providers are going to meter use of the band width.
JoAnn Lemieux: The broadband committee in Alstead disbanded. We put out an RFP for fiber optics and no providers responded.
JPY: I always thought that the 5:30 meeting would be better and have been surprised at the 18-19 we were getting, but we haven’t gotten more at noon and even fewer a 7:30 AM. We have another 20 members who aren’t attending at all.
Rich Wallace: I’ve been reaching out to members who haven’t been coming with a wide variety of responses: I’m with my family, I’m Zoomed-out by 5:30. We have to work around work and family responsibilities.
Hank Clarke: Well, part of it is personal responsibility.
Jean: I’m a fulltime employee and have to be a part-time Rotarian. I attended only when I had days off. I have a lunch time, and could make the early morning meeting for half an hour. If you want younger people you have to either flex or meet when they can attend.
Dan Affeldt: There are clubs that have rotating meeting days and times.
Rich Wallace: suggests we do a poll. Ron will put together a sheet of options.
Ed Friedman: Noon works better for me than the “leave work and get things together at home” time.
“Stay safe, stay distant, and wear masks.”
Club Updates/Announcements
Rotary District 7850 Event on Zoom
COMMUNICATION, COLLABORATION AND PRESENTATION WORKSHOP
featuring
HOLLETTEARLE
January 16, 2021 at 9 AM to 10:30 AM
Rotary District 7850 is pleased to announce a free Workshop from HollettEarle designed for business and community leaders on Communication, Collaboration and Presentation skills. Writer-Actor-Directors and alumni of The Second City improv comedy troupe, Shari Hollett and Chris Earle have been teaching communication, collaboration and presentation skills for over 20 years to corporate, government and non-profit clients across North America. As long-time directors and actors in theatre and comedy, they have developed their own special brand of workshops - using their performing and improvisation “know how” to create a fun, challenging, and invaluable experience for your group or business. With improvisation as their foundation, these workshops enhance existing skills, and develop new ones that help take your team to the next level.
“We are thrilled to have HollettEarle offer this engaging and fun workshop on communication, collaboration and presentation skills to our fellow Rotarians and to the public. Shari & Chris’s workshop will teach skills that can benefit for-profit and non-profit business leaders alike in this COVID and post-COVID climate,” noted Rotary 7850 District Governor Jamie Milne.
Volunteer Opportunities — Listen
From: LISTEN C/O Valerie Thompson <Valerie@listencs.org> Date: October 29, 2020 at 10:42:09 AM EDT To: Valerie Thompson <Valerie@listencs.org> Subject:Volunteers Needed
Hello Community Dinner Teams,
The dining hall is still not open to volunteers but we need volunteers in the Food Pantry. Please pass this information along to your connections and organizations.
LISTEN needs Food Pantry Attendants, Stockers, Drivers for picking-up bread and delivery food boxes
Food Pantry Attendant — Work directly with clients. Register shoppers; take orders and pack bags/boxes.
Stocking- Help restock shelves; unload trucks; and organize bread Pick-up by going to Shaw’s and BJ’s to pick-up bread, it is ready to go when volunteer arrives. Then deliver to 60 Hanover St.
Deliver Food Box- Every Friday we deliver to home bound clients through-out the Upper Valley.
The attendant and stocker also helps keeping the pantry clean and sanitized.
ShelterBox recognizes Rotary with Global Humanitarian Service Award
ShelterBox awarded Rotary International with its first Global Humanitarian Service Award, in recognition of Rotary’s outstanding partnership throughout the years during its 20th anniversary virtual event on 12 November.
Founded in 2000 by a Rotary member in the United Kingdom, ShelterBox provides emergency shelter and essential supplies to help communities through their toughest times. ShelterBox and Rotary officially became project partners in disaster relief in 2012.
Rotary has been instrumental in ShelterBox’s growth, helping to transform ShelterBox into an internationally recognized disaster relief charity. The mutual benefits are enormous. ShelterBox receives networking, logistical and financial support from Rotary and, equally, acts as a catalyst in encouraging people all over the world to become involved with their local Rotary club.
ShelterBox CEO Sanj Srikanthan presented the award to Rotary International General Secretary and CEO John Hewko at the virtual event.
“It is with great pride that we celebrate our longest standing partner and the cornerstone upon which ShelterBox is built,” said Srikanthan. “Rotary is truly in the DNA of everything we do.”
The two organizations have helped over 1.6 million people in 100 countries. More recently, the partnership has delivered lifesaving shelter and aid to families, protecting them from the threat of coronavirus.
“This award is for every Rotary member in the world who has ever enabled this life-saving work,” said Hewko. “Together, we should take great pride in this achievement of supporting families recovering from disaster and conflict around the world.”
11-Dec-2020
Million Mask challenge displays power of Rotary network
Posted on
A 26-foot truck, emblazoned on all sides with the Million Mask Challenge Tour
message, distributed face masks to Rotary clubs throughout New England.
By Robert Friend, Assistant Rotary Public Image Coordinator for Zone 32
In the early morning of 29 September, a cargo ship carrying 800,000 face masks arrived at the Port of Boston. Over the course of the following 14 days, those masks were delivered to first responders, healthcare providers, and frontline workers in cities, towns, and villages across New England.
This is a story of service and leadership. It’s a story of how our District and Zone responded to a crisis, rallied its resources, put boots-on-the-ground to bring disparate and far-flung communities together to spread goodwill. Most importantly, it’s a story about working together and using our collective professional backgrounds through the Rotary network to make a difference.
Our project began with Ted Rossi, a 20-year member of the Rotary Club of East Hampton, Connecticut. Rossi is president and CEO of the Rossi Group, one of the most well-known and respected leaders in the American hardwood export industry.
Frustrated by dysfunctional governmental leadership in taking control of the Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) acquisition and distribution, Ted turned to his team with the international logistics and the know-how to leverage their contacts and focus on sourcing masks for the region. Initial success brought more than eight million masks to the states of Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and Vermont.
It became evident there was large demand for face masks downstream. Jack turned to his Rotary connections to leverage his idea to get even better results. He reached out to Jack Solomon, our district governor at the time, a fellow member of the East Hampton club. Ted needed Jack to get the masks to Rotarians for distribution, and Jack needed someone to “project manage” the tour and run logistics from an event and media standpoint.
That’s where I came in, as a global sales, marketing and communications professional and chair of our District’s Public Image and Communications Committee. I coordinated with our district communications team and managed all the logistics for our tour through seven Rotary districts.
Our district fund-raising efforts brought in $500,000 during the first three months of the pandemic that we used to support those impacted by COVID-19. The Rossi Family Foundation donated an additional 200,000 masks to the cause distributed to clubs across Connecticut. With all of this, District 7980 expanded the program into what we called the Million Mask Challenge Tour.
How we did it
We challenged each club to guarantee that each and every PPE received was delivered to first-responders and essential workers. We asked Rotary Zones and Districts across the country to join our cause by leveraging their own resources to deliver protection and safety to essential workers. And we challenged our Rotary corporate partners, NGO’s, and the business community, whom we connect with every day, to step up and join us in this unprecedented spirit of giving back.
Masks waiting to be distributed
The first week of October, a 26-foot truck, emblazoned on all sides with the Million Mask Challenge message, traveled over 500 miles through ten cities throughout the region. At each of the distribution locations, the host district held a Media and Distribution Event to share our story. The media event embraced first responders, essential workers, and those receiving the PPE. A 20-minute media presentation brought community leaders (governors, mayors, on air talent, and community advocates) together to participate in distributing masks to Rotarians and those businesses in need.
Ted explained his motivations for this project.
“The state was not able to deliver to smaller community organizations and nursing homes, so I realized this is perfect for Rotary. We could facilitate the supply of masks that Rotary clubs can take and distribute in small lots within their communities. What started out as a small project snowballed into something really big.”
This project reinforces how Rotary uses its professional backgrounds, diverse perspectives, and global connections to change the world for the better. We were able to secure extensive media exposure for Rotary, with the help of iHeart media. Our project caught the interest of Tyler Saari, an independent filmmaker in Connecticut, who owns his own production company Shutter Media, to make a documentary of the tour.
We are about to embark on the second wave of our tour. During the week of 11 January, a Million Mask truck will travel throughout New England and into Manhattan to deliver additional masks. We would love your help. Learn more about our project .
About the author: Robert Friend is an active leader with Rotary District 7980 in Southern Connecticut. He currently serves as chair of the District’s Public Image and Communications Committee and as an Assistant Rotary Public Image Coordinator for Rotary Zone 32. Additionally, Robert is a Major Donor – Level 1, and a member of the Paul Harris Society.
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