President Gale presided over our St Patrick’s Day meeting.
Our Greeter was Matt Gatzke who did a marvelous job and now we know that he is in fact partially Irish!
As always, Sandy Bartlett provided a spectacular theme meal for us.
Stats:
Bow 40
Visiting Rotarians 0
Guests 0
Guest Speaker 1 (Police Chief Margaret Lougee)
Scooters 4
Total 41
Announcements:
Mike Griffin announced that our first Roadside Pickup for the year is scheduled for April 15th at 8:30am at the Grappone Park and Ride. We’ll do our usual Route 3A stretch, which requires 14 people for maximum impact (and easy routes for all). The sign up form is going around.
Rick Minard announced that Tuesday, March 28th is the 4 Way Test Speech Contest which will be held at White Rock at 7 pm. He was looking for a couple of people to bake something and folks volunteered. Set up is at 5:30pm for those of you helping with that. Feel free to bring guests and perspective members or friends with you – all are welcome.
Pres. Gale mentioned District Assembly on April 1st. It’s a very informative ½ day Rotary event that has many interesting breakout sessions. We will carpool from the Community building. Come play with us!
Dave Gazaway spoke about the Car Show on Saturday, May 20th. Dave said that pre-registration info was sent out to our past participants now numbering over 300! All major sponsors are confirmed again for this year. He reminded everyone that this is an all hands on deck event so mark your calendars and be ready to join the fun. Dave also reminded us all of his pledge that in 5 years this event is going to net more funds than our annual Scholarship (campership and other community needs) Auction. Good luck with that Dave! Michelle Fortin and Matt Gatzke took note! It’s always nice to have a friendly challenge to keep us all on our toes. :D BTW, and not to be a downer, the Auction nets $20,000 annually and has done so for over 20 years! We do so look forward to you topping that Dave. I have faith in you!!!
Dean Cascadden announced that today is Career Day. We should have lots of enlightened 8th graders by the time the day is done!
Michelle Fortin announced the Booster Club Beer & Wine Fundraiser to be held at the Library Lower Level.
Dick Swett updated us on the Interact Clubs project for El Salvadore. Backpack donations are due by next Friday. You can bring them to our meeting and he or someone will get them to the Interact Club members.
Fines & Happy Bucks:
Skip Poole was fined for having the most festive St Patty’s sweater.
Linda Lorden paid a Birthday buck and announced she’s had a great year. Her 2 granddaughters are awesome, work is really good. This is her 37th anniversary in Banking and it’s also her last year of the 50’s! Linda also was fined for her MCSB logo.
Dave Stack was fined because his speaker, Chief Lougee, arrived at the meeting before he did. She was raised "to be early is to be on time!"
Ben Kiniry and Jeannie Gerulskis paid late bucks.
Dave Stack then threw Chief Lougee under the Sargent bus for her logo and badge, but ended up paying the fine for her.
Harry Judd was fined for the lovely family picture on his political flyer mailed to all of us, in which he was wearing a pin. Harry also paid a happy buck for Rick Minard’s stellar defense of his political signage when Mary Beth showed up in her ninja suit to retrieve it.
Judy Goodnow was happy to be going to Maryland to see her son and daughter in law.
Peter Imse was happy to have Town Meeting and the School Meeting over with! He thanked all who helped.
Dean Cascadden was happy that the Bow Hockey Team won the State Championship and for all that Peter Imse did for the school meeting, including finding out what it’s like to have to decide whether or not to cancel for snow and just how many people are willing to offer their 2 cents on that!
Michelle Fortin paid a happy $2 for Andrea being accepted to both Boston College and Northeastern.
Nate Sanel paid a happy buck for his son and the great visit to Montreal they had. He paid another one for receiving the "Triumph Dealer of the Year Award" which comes with a free trip to the "Isle of Man Race" which is apparently a scary and dangerous motorcycle race. He’s pumped.
Ben Kiniry jumped up happy to be going with Nate for that race! [Nate said “we have to talk…”]
Ben was also happy to have all of the town stuff done: Budget, meetings, etc. He was happy about the wine tasting event for the Booster Club and a bit disappointed about the Bruins tickets his cousin has that he can’t go to because of that event.
Bill McGonagle paid a very late fee and several happy bucks for his trip to San Antonio and many other wonderful sites that enabled him to miss the Blizzard.
Raffle: Robert Louf had the winning ticket and then pulled the 6 of Clubs.
Program:
Dave Stack introduced our Police Chief, Margaret Lougee. She has 21 years of military service and was the unanimous choice as the top candidate for the Chief position. She has 10 years of experience in the Bow Schools and many years with the Police Explorers.
Chief Lougee fortunately likes fun groups and is happy to be our new chief. She said her Dad lives in town still and was happy to see that the book we are donating appeared to be handpicked for her as it was entitled something to do with a Circus.
She shared her goals for us. She has been working for the Town of Bow for 21 years. Her #1 goal is to open up the lines of communication so that there is more transparency in town about all of the things the police does to support and protect our Town and the people in it. Facebook and the website will publicize more of what the PD is doing.
They are doing some housekeeping in town to clean up the Hampton Inn among other things.
Mike Carpenter is the new School Resource Officer.
She updated the uniforms to eliminate the clip on tie and is working on updating a few policies.
The Safety Center is going great and "it’s going to be amazing."
They are applying for a few Highway Safety Grants.
She thanked everyone for passing the budget and explained the importance of understanding that the computers in their cruisers are vital MDT’s (Mobile Data Terminals) that are critical to operations and not just lap top’s (one small example about how important increasing communication is).
She is looking to reinstitute "Operation Call In" which is where older people in town call in daily to let the police know they are okay. She is also a fan of Neighborhood Watch as this can help them with their duties. People need not call in for things they could handle amongst themselves, like talking to their neighbor about their barking dogs rather than just calling the police on them. She also stressed they do want to know about things they should be aware of though.
“Protect this Town” is a campaign that she wants to implement where we find ways to work together to fix things as we are able to.
She also has plans to get her officers more invested in business and roads in town.
Finally, she mentioned a "Critical Incident Policy" that is in the works for when deaths occur. She has invited The Rev. Virginia Fryer, the minister at Bow Mills Methodist (and Dr. Bryant Steveners’ wife) to help with this committee and perhaps the notifications. When someone passes it is hard for all of those involved, including those who must inform the family. Counseling and support with follow up are very important for all involved. That is what this policy will encompass.
The Chief wrapped it up by taking some questions and supporting comments from club members.
Your Scribe filled in to close the meeting with "A Toast To Rotary the World Over" as President Gale had to scoot.
Respectfully submitted,
Donna Deos
