I wanted to share a note with you that I received from a parent last night!
"We appreciate the Rotary Club bringing these books to MLS first-grade students!
This book from the Rotary Club is incredible!! Annabelle’s excitement is infectious and the book is absolutely amazing and beautiful. Thank you thank you thank you!!!!!!
Jennifer and Annabelle"
Katie Roach, M. Ed (She, Her)
Principal
Mount Lebanon Elementary School
Literacy...Helping to provide scholarships for students with learning disabilities
in El Salvador...Epilogos!
From Epilogos:
Attached are photos of the 4 students with special needs that the Rotary is providing scholarships for.
Daniela Valentina Ramirez Rodriguez is in her first year with the program.
Christopher Santiago Gomez Jimenez is in his second year.
Leonel Alexander Moran Vargas has also been with the program for several years.
Katherine Lisseth Carabajal has been with the program since the beginning.
This specialized program has been very successful and each year more families want to enroll their students. We added a teacher mid-way through 2024, so we are able to provide services to more students now. Funding for the entire program including teacher salaries and materials is provided by Epilogos donors. We are grateful for the support of the Lebanon Rotary group to help with the education of these 4 students.
Fundraising to Do Good in the World....32nd Annual Bedell Golf Classic
First Thanks To Our Sponsors!
The Bedell Cup!
Lebanon High School Team
Lebanon High School Team
A fun week for the Rotary Club of Lebanon!
Minutes from our June 5, 2025 Meeting
Meeting Called to Order by Ernst Oidtmann:
Dean Cashman led the reciting of the 4-Way Test
Ernst Oidtmann played the piano and we sang our Rotary Welcome song and I Ride an Old Paint (two verses)
I lost my note on Ernst's Thought of the Day...oops.
We had no guests today.
No one was celebrating birthdays or anniversaries.
It was then time for lunch.
Program
Club Business —
Marilyn Bedell reviewed the proposed 2025/2026. The budget had been distributed via email 2 times prior to the meeting. Highlights of the budget:
First, this budget keeps our dues at $40/month. (The rate we used prior to reducing them to $20 to bring down the surplus.) However, as our surplus has been reduced but continues to be higher than we believe is necessary at this point in time. We will continue to keep monthly dues payments at $20/month and reevaluate this plan in September.
Rotary International per capita dues will increase to US$41.00 per half year in 2025-2026, US$42.75 per half year in 2026-2027, US$44.63 per half year in 2027-2028, and US$46.50 per half year in 2028-29. (25-49). District dues have been raised by $5.00/year for 2025/2026.
I cut back on publicity and advertising from that requested by our Membership Committee. I believed that some publicity and advertising expense could and can be shared by the Rotary Club of Lebanon Charities, Inc. Since I am an ex officio member of the Charities Trustees I presented this idea at our Trustee meeting in May. We discussed that a portion of Charities funds can be used for advertising Brew Fest, our golf tournament, and advertising to share information about our charitable donations and activities. It is appropriate for the Rotary Club of Lebanon Charities, Inc. to cover some promotional expenses as many charities do this. We believe this partnership between the club and Charities will provide adequate funds to increase our visibility in our community via advertising and social media.
Your Board of Directors has opted to keep Zoom in addition to WebEx as our virtual meeting platform. Do we need both? Maybe not, but both subscriptions have just been renewed, and we will wait until February 2026 to decide it both platforms are needed. We must keep WebEx as it is the platform that permits us to have hybrid meetings at Harvest Hill. If we drop Zoom, we will have to educate committee chairs on setting up WebEx meetings. Again, we will decide about this in February 2026.
I suggested we eliminate providing funds for our president(s) to go to the District Conference. The most recent Rotary International Council on Legislation voted to make a district conference optional. In our District, the conference is moving to being a one-day event (with day two optional). The 2025 District Conference is now less than two weeks away. The registration now stands at about 70, and this number includes non-Rotarian partners. The majority of Rotarians going are District Leadership and not current presidents or assistant governors. Ron, Bruce P and I will be going this year. It was my belief that we could re-evaluate this after we attend the conference this year. At the moment, it shouldn't be a huge expense for an individual to go to the conference and our presidents can decide for themselves if they want to go. We can revisit this as we get to March, and if we have excess surplus funds, we could decide to fund this at a BOD meeting.
Harvest Hill has not indicated that they are going to raise the cost of our lunches for 2025/2026…so for now we will keep this charge at $10…and not budget any money to cover shortages for our food expenses. If our attendees don’t cover lunch expenses, or Harvest Hill increases the cost of lunch, we may have to revisit this line item during the Rotary year.
Marilyn shared that only two people had comments via email. Phil Rentz asked to see a balance sheet, and it was sent to him. Steve Whitman accepted the budget but wondered if a modest increase in dues should be considered so we aren't put into a position to do a larger increase in the future.
No questions were raised at the meeting. In addition to those members present at the meeting, the total number of members voting was 22 of 37 members or 59% of the club submitted a vote in person or by email. All votes were in the affirmative.
Rotary Club of Lebanon, Charities, Inc report to club, June 5, 2025 —
Bruce Pacht shared the following information:
Overview of our donations to-date:
Brew Fest booklet
RC Lebanon Charitable Contributions
2024-25
Grantee
Project
Amount
Friends of Lebanon Recreation, Arts and Parks
Alpine Slide feature at Civic Memorial Field accessible playground
$ 12,000.00
NH Aviation Museum
Lebanon High School "Take Flight!" airplane build program
$ 10,000.00
Lebanon Libraries Foundation
Improve audio-visual equipment at Kilton Community Room
$ 5,000.00
Mascoma Music Boosters
Help send students to Nashville music festival
$ 3,600.00
New England School of the Arts
Teaching residency of artist Bruce Rudolphe
$ 1,500.00
Harmony Park on the mall
Repair vandalized instrument
$ 1,942.00
Listen, UV Senior Center, UV Haven
Food shelf support
$ 3,000.00
Lebanon Lacrosse Boosters Club
Helmets for Lebanon High lacrosse team
$ 2,300.00
Lebanon School District
Personalized readers for every 1st grade student in the city
$ 1,300.00
Rotary Youth Leadership Academy
4 students to 3-day weekend
$ 1,600.00
Listen Community Services
Holiday baskets
$ 1,000.00
West Central Community Services
Replace toys, games and other equipment lost to flooding for Lebanon, Claremont and Newport locations
$ 2,400.00
Whaleback and Storrs Hill ski areas
Repair and maintenance of ski area equipment
$5,000
Carter Community Building
Sensory table for afterschool program
$ 600.00
Upper Valley Family Resource Center
Music program at Twin Pines Craft Hill
$ 500.00
Rotary Interact Clubs of Lebanon, Mascoma and Windsor High Schools
Matching grant to package 10,000 nutritious meals for international food relief.
$ 2,100.00
The Rotary Foundation Global Grant
Clean water & sanitation project in Ghana
$ 1,050.00
The Rotary Foundation
Global Polio Eradication Initiative
$ 2,500.00
Common Man for Ukraine
Mental and physical health program for Ukrainian orphans
$ 1,000.00
Epilogos Charities, Inc.
Student scholarships - El Salvador
$ 1,000.00
$ 59,392.00
2024-25 List of charitable donations – on everyone’s table; to be published in the Brew Fest booklet
Highlights from this year’s giving:
Mascoma Music Boosters - $3,600 for Nashville music festival; Steve is working to get them on a program.
Lacrosse helmets - $2,300 for state-of-the-art helmets. The team has just won its first playoff game!
Scholarships - $2,000 each: 2 at LHS, 2 at MVRHS and 1 at LCS to a young man pursuing a High Performance Motorsports degree at the University of Northwestern Ohio (UNOH) in Lima, OH. [CIRCULATE ARTICLE]
RISE – a 3-way joint Food packaging event of Interact Clubs from Lebanon, Mascoma and Windsor was prominently featured in the most recent edition of the Valley Parents supplement in the Valley News.
FROM LINDSEY COOLIDGE: “I wanted to let you know that [the Mascoma] Interact club will be honored with a special community connection recognition from the high school during a newly-created “Royals Celebration” event we are having next Tuesday evening (6/10). I am told we will be honored with some type of sign or banner that [will] be hung along the road near the high school.”
Ghana Clean Water Global Grant - $1,000 continuing support to Walter Hughes’s efforts in Africa [CIRCULATE MESSAGE]
2025-26 Charities budget almost ready for submission to the Club.
At present, we are not counting on any proceeds from charitable gaming as we have no firm agreement with Revo Casino and Social Club.
The projected budget maintains our general approach to giving:
43% - Youth service
38% - Other local giving (arts, recreation, food shelves, random requests)
19% - International (PolioPlus commitment, Paul Harris Fellow, Distinguished Service Award, global grants for clean water, Epilogos, Ukraine)
Charities Administrative news
Now that Charities is in its 5th year of operations, we have begun working on policies and procedures to guide future trustees in details of the organization’s regular operations: how to respond to funding requests, how to keep track of such requests, how to manage club concurrence voting, etc.
We are delighted that co-president-elect Jim Damren will assume an ex officio office as a Charities trustee on July 1. Both Jim and co-president-elect Bruce Bergeron have been added to the Charities distribution list.
We hope soon to have a vice-president nominated for 2025-26 so Charities will have its full complement of 7 trustees.
Also on July 1, Phil Bush will begin his first three-year term as a Charities Trustee following your election of him back in February.
This winter, we will have another Trustee election as Marion Steiner’s first three-year term will conclude on June 30, 2026. According to our bylaws, a trustee is allowed to serve TWO consecutive 3-year terms before having to leave the board for at least a year, so Marion will be free to stand for another term if she wishes.
Club Change Over Celebration: Wednesday, June 11, 2025 at 5:00 PM. At the Quechee Inn at Marshland Farms. (Dinner to be served at 6 PM), $45/person.
NEW— NO MEETING IN THE DWINELL ROOM ON July 31, 2025 (5th Thursday...this meeting will be replaced with a social event...
NEW — President's Picnicat Tim Guaraldi's Home in Newport, NH, August 2, 2025. Sign-up and Potluck contribution to be announced at the July 3rd meeting.
Social Gathering at Salt Hill: Rotary Club of Lebanon...Social Gathering 3rd Monday of Every Month Next gathering will be June 16, 2025
2025 Brew Fest: Planning is underway for Brew Fest! It will be on Saturday, August 30th at Colburn Park in Lebanon. We hope everyone who can will be there to volunteer, and work to find sponsors for the event. Tickets will be available on EventBrite. The Brew Fest Committee walked the park on Friday afternoon. They decided we would not enlarge our footprint in the park. We will continue to use 1/2 of the park. Porta potties have been reserved. We will have two banks for porta potties this year with two handicapped accessible units.
Styrofoam Collection: Next date, October 4, 2025 in WRJ. Place and time to be determined.
Happy/Sad Dollars:
Ernst Oidtmann happily represents the club at Senior Awards Night at Lebanon, NH.
Bruce Pacht was happy to invite us to A Magical Evening of Acapella Singing: Friday, June 20, 2025, at 7:30 PM, Woodstock Town Hall.
Marilyn Bedell was happy to be part of first grade book distribution, saluted Christian McDonald for her egg making skills at the Take Flight Breakfast, and for the District Conference at Mt Cranmore with Ron and Bruce Pacht, and for a lovely weather day for golf.
RAFFLES:
Ernst Oidtmann pulled the 10 of Clubs. The hunt for the Queen of Hearts will continue
Ron Bedell won the car wash at Jake's in Enfield.
Attendance:
Rotarians: Bill Babineau, Marilyn Bedell, Ronald Bedell, Bruce Bergeron, Dean Cashman, Dave Clarenbach, Jim Damren, Tim Guaraldi, Christian McDonald, Ernst Oidtmann, Bruce Pacht, Bill Secord, George Wenz, John Yacavone
Guest: No guests today
FUTURE MEETING PROGRAMS/SPEAKERS
June 11: CHANGE OVER at Quechee Inn. A time to celebrate Ernst Oidtmann's year as President of our Club. Gather at 5 PM (cash bar) and Dinner at 6 PM
June 12: No Meeting
June 19: Tracy Hutchins, President Upper Valley Business Alliance
June 26: Lynee Turek, Earth Science professor at Dartmouth
Note: David Crandall scheduled programs June 2025
July 3: Peggy O’Neill, Executive Director, WISE
July 10: Joe Clifford, Executive Director Lebanon Opera House
July 17: BOD and Charities Reports and Classification talk
July 24: Nathan Reichart, Director of Planning and Development for the City of Lebanon with Cathryn Hembree, member of the Housing Task Force for the City of Lebanon
July 31: NO MEETING TODAY (5th Thursday of the month)...instead we will hold the...
August 2 (SATURDAY): PRESIDENT'S Picnic at Tim Guaraldi's Home in Newport, NH. Stay tuned for details in July.
August 7: Brey Adams, Interim Executive Director Upper Valley Humane Society
August 14: Lori Shibinette, CEO West Central Behavioral Health
August 21: Charities Report and Final Plans for Brew Fest
August 28: Tyler Lewis, Head of School, Kimball Union Academy
September 4: Luc Pomerleau, District Governor Visit
September 11: Victor Tom, Topic: “How rocket science made it into major league baseball and strike zone.”
September 18: BOD, Charities Report and Classification talk
September 25: Rob Stenger, one of the owners of Simple Energy
Program Team for 2025-2026. John Yacavone (July, Aug, Sep), Steve Grant (Oct, Nov, Dec), Hank Clark (Jan, Feb, March) and Dave Crandall (April, May, Jun)
Standing Meetings
Membership Meetings: Second Tuesday each month at 3:30 PM at Downtown Lebanon Library and via Zoom.
Contact: Ahmad Hadari
Youth Services: Second Wednesday of the month at Noon
Contact: Christian MacDonald
Charities: Third Wednesday of the month at 1:00 p.m.
Contact: Bruce Pacht
Board Meeting: 4th Tuesday of every month at 4:00 PM via Zoom.
Contact: Ernst Oidtmann There will be no meeting in June.
Golf: 2025...Job well done!
2026 schedule to be announced
Contact: Bruce Bergeron
Brew Fest: The 2025 Schedule to be announced
Contact: Hank Clarke next meeting will be June 10th at 12:30 at Service Credit Union.
Rotary News
The Rotary Learning Center is an online platform provided by Rotary International that offers interactive courses and resources for Rotarians to enhance their knowledge a skill. It provides resources on various topics, including Rotary's values, programs, and leadership skills, and includes materials for different roles within a Rotary club.
Here's a more detailed explanation:
Content:
The Learning Center offers a wide range of interactive courses, including those on how to run webinars, propose legislation, and manage club business. It also includes role-specific learning plans for various club officer positions.
Accessibility:
The Learning Center can be accessed through My Rotary.
Features:
It includes features like a search function, personalized reports, and virtual badges for completed courses.
Learning Resources:
The center provides resources for general knowledge, brainstorming, action planning, and idea sharing.
Examples of Courses:
Courses include "Is Your Club Healthy?", "Building a Diverse Club," and "Kick-Start Your New Member Orientation". App:
A mobile app is also available to access the Learning Center and resources on the go.
From e-waste to empowerment
Elementary and middle school teachers receive training from professors in the Department of Information Management at National Sun Yat-sen University on how to use an educational board game focused on e-waste and environmental protection.
How a Rotary initiative turns old computers into new opportunities
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