Bulletin For August 19th 2022 (Aug 19, 2022)

Meeting Date: August 19, 2022

Presiding: President Michelle Fortin

Greeter: Rob Werner

President Michelle opened the meeting at 07:30 and greeter Rob shared some inspiration.

“Not everything that is faced can be changed… But nothing can be changed until it’s faced. ~Robert Baldwin

Chris Parkinson called for a – Ro, Ro, Rotary! cheer

Attendance:

17	Live
13	Zoom
0	Visiting
1	Guests
0	Guest Speakers
31	Total

Announcements:

Michelle Fortin: Reminder that on 8/23 at 5pm via Zoom, bring your cocktails and let’s celebrate with Jeannie Richards.
Rob Werner: Energy Efficiency workshop on 9/22 at the Baker Free Library and 10/1 at Dunbarton School
Ken Moulton: Golf tournament today. “Don’t expect us to take the trophy home, but we’ll do our best”.

Sergeant at Arms: Bryant Stevener: Ken Moulton standing in for Bryant today

Birthdays: None

Fines: None

Happy Bucks:

Michelle Fortin: giving $2. One for almost forgetting Happy Bucks and the other for forgetting Ken Moulton is standing in for Bryant Stevener.
Tom Ives: $1 – Last week he taught 13-14 year old’s to tie flys at a camp. “Had a bunch of kids there to learn and do good things. But boy, there a lot of knuckleheads”. Great week overall. Phil Donovan is a scouter and runs Hidden Valley Scout Camp. Tom worked with him
Matt Dodge: $1 fine for being unclear on not being able to participate in today’s golf tournament. $1 happy buck as they are making progress with their new dog that has severe anxiety. They were able to leave the house for 5 minutes recently. It’s a work in progress and his neighbors are very curious about him being in and out of his house, but things are looking up.
Michelle Fortin asked if they are crating the pup? Matt replied that no, they are not
Tanya Frost: $1 for going on vacation to North Carolina with the family and a few friends tomorrow.
Ken Moulton asked if Tanya Frost plans to bring her “A” game to the tourney today. To which Tanya replied, “Heck Ya!”
Chris Parkinson: $5! Each of his daughters has a cottage on the lake along with his best friend’s daughter. They’ve all had a good week together, despite some inclement weather. He’s also notes his knee surgery is scheduled for September 7^th?. Bummed he’ll be missing the golf tournament today though.
Mike Griffin Played golf this past week and went to the ATM and there was a $20 bill already in the machine sitting there. No one around so donating it to the Club. Also, his son went to the wilderness camp Tom Ives worked at last week. His son had a blast there. They also toured a school he wants to apply at that focuses on forestry, conservation and environmental science.
Eric Anderson: Great job Dean Cascadden at the performance last Sunday. The sole performer.
Dean Cascadden: Thank you. But now I remember why I don’t teach young kids. When I brought them up to the stage, they all wanted the mic, that is until they got it and didn’t know what to do with it. Also, school is starting soon, and even though they are still having some trouble finding people to hire, he’s excited for the year to begin.
Steve DeStefano: Good baseball this year, but glad the season is over.
Dick Swett: while in Africa, he was caught in a protest with tear gas and it was intense. It really stings. But incredible to experience. He urged everyone to go watch his granddaughter perform in the musical Oliver. (apologies, I didn’t hear what theatre it was at)
Peter Imse: $6 Happy the summer concerts are over. He’s in his 5^th week post knee surgery and things are going very well so far. He was grateful that he was able to get Granite VNA’s help to help him during his recovery etc.
Linda Bliss: Something about a conservation camp and her lawnmower is finally fixed. (sorry sometimes hard to hear on Zoom)

Program: Club Assembly

Gerry Carrier – Secretaries Report: July’s attendance 92.88%. (one of the best clubs in the district) Currently at 46 total members, 38 Active with 8 Honorary. Currently expecting one new member application to be submitted any day now.

Paul Mercier – Treasurer’s Report: July’s club balance - $13,496.69. The 22-23 year’s budget was recently approved at the board meeting. It was balanced but included a $5,000 cushion. Both our Rotary International and District 7870 dues have both increased however, we have held out member dues at the current rate. We should expect our dues to increase at some point to cover those increases but probably not until the 2024-25 Rotary year.

Our club Foundation balance for July is $33,868, of which $20K is committed. Of that, $20K, $5K is committed to the Child Voice project.

Ben Kiniry – Our Child Voice grant application will be modified a bit to better comply with RI’s foundation rules?

Gerry Carrier – We will be having one meeting a quarter called the “Club Discussion” meeting with a planned topic. Our meeting on September 1^st will be our first one and the topic will be Rotary International.

Gerry also reported that our club by-laws need updating, last done in 2012. RI has made several changes that make our by-laws out of step with RI and therefore they need to be redone.

Chris Parkinson – Amigos de Honduras meeting next week to make a final go/no-go decision on a February 4^ththrough 12^th trip.

Matt Dodge – Annual Scholarship Auction: Auction will be an online only event this year. Bidding dates with be Nov 2^nd to Nov 5^th. There will not be a raffle this year due to fewer members and many members working remotely and not as able to sell their share of tickets. 300 solicitation letters will be going out within the next week/10 days. In about two weeks, we will be given our assignments and begin our follow visits/calls for donations.

Club member responsibilities will be to get items, get sponsors and get people to bid on items.

Peter Imse – Summer Concerts Recap: Attendance diminishing, which is disappointing. It’s been diminishing for several years. The Freese Brother’s concert had the most attendance at about 100. All the rest had 50 or less. It’s a lot of work to pull these concerts together and he wonders if it’s worth it. The other disappointing point was that our members aren’t even attending, other than those committed to working the concert.

Several members question the Sunday night schedule. Members also pointed out the lack of consistent food at the event. Men’s club hung on saying they could probably do the food but then with not much time left, they bowed out. Getting vendors became a challenge. Dick Swett suggested we survey the towns people if allowed to.

Michelle closed the meeting with a toast to Rotary the World over.

Respectfully Submitted,
Tanya Frost