Meeting Date:      November 22, 2024 

Presiding:            President Gerry Carrier 

Greeter:               Judy Goodnow

President Gerry opened the meeting at 07:30 and Judy shared some inspiration. 
 

Visiting Rotarian: Donna Pelletier from HARC on Zoom
Announcements:

See below for club assembly comments

 

Birthdays: Bill Ames had a birthday!  Good year/bad year, Kathleen’s Mom passed this year, right before her birthday.  Bill had his annual and his doc told him he is now prostate cancer free(!), although he is dealing with some lingering side effects.

 

 

Program: Club Assembly

• Bill Ames: Secretaries Report - Attendance is 85.5% for this month, we would love to get to 90%
• We are up to 66 total members, including active, honorary, and HARC. 
• HARC just added a new member, so they are up to 14, one step closer to their goal of 20.
• Dues/breakfast money in good shape outside of a couple stragglers 
• Tamar Roberts: Treasurer's Report – About $18,000 in club account, and about $59,000 in Foundation. 
• Reminder: No meeting next week!
• Dave Farr - Christmas tree sign ups going around – we have a couple slots left, otherwise in good shape.
• Mike Gula - Auction – thank you notes are going out to item donors and sponsors.  Please let the committee know if particular businesses should be removed from future asks. 
• President Gerry - Sarah Tisdale, the former Bow student is donating $10,000 for scholarships, will be spread over a 5 year period.  There is a chance her employer (Microsoft) could match it. 
• Dick Swett’s proposed officers for 2025-26: Tamar and Bill staying on as Treasurer and Secretary. Tanya Frost agreed to become VP!
• Michelle Fortin - Membership Committee met last night, reviewed the survey about club activities.  They are proposing a movie night at the BFL in late Jan/early Feb.   Expect a potluck, maybe some indoor games.  Expected to be a Saturday night from 6-9:30pm.  The committee will also redesign the old business card-style invite cards. Will also look at clothing items for club members
• President Gerry
  • Evelyn is out for shoulder surgery and won't be returning at least until mid-January.  The board approved a holiday bonus of $150 to her as is tradition.
  • Reminder about our giving policy—if we get grant requests to support groups/individuals from outside of the Bow area, we tend to not prioritize them.  We had three recent “asks” that the board denied for this reason. 
  • December 13^th – Chris Parkinson's Skit day!  Make sure you are here! 
  • The board approved $750 to go to Amigos/Pure Water for the world (as budgeted).  This is in addition to the $1,100 donated by members and matched by the club via a board vote. 
  • Town Map – About five years ago, we supplied thousands of town maps to residents.  We are down to about 10 copies.  Do we want to spend about $2,700 to print about 3,000 maps to be left at the town hall for new residents/others to use?  Most were in support of printing more maps, with varying views on whether we should approach other organizations/businesses to help defray the cost. We had a few members volunteer to form a committee to review options. 
  • Attendance – We have a minority of members whose attendance numbers have dropped somewhat significantly, and so Gerry shared a reminder that although Rotary International is more relaxed when it comes to attendance, our club still values seeing members regularly to keep up fellowship.  Remember, members are expected to maintain at least 50% attendance and there are lots of opportunities to make up meetings (up to 4 weeks prior and 4 weeks after).     
  • The Interact Club is bringing pies to the Windmill for Thanksgiving.  If you would like to participate, please bring homemade or store bought pies to the High School from 9-10am on Wednesday.

 

President Gerry closed the meeting at 8:35 with a toast to Rotary the world over.

 

Respectfully Submitted, 

Matt Dodge