Installation Dinner June 24, 2021-22
Despite a rainy afternoon and evening, there was a great turnout for the 2021-22 club installation at Rolling Green last Thursday. It was wonderful to see so many people in person. In the photo above Past District Governor, Suzanne Gibson, administers the oath of office to Betsy Kmiecik.
A few high points from Joe's comments:
Joe thanked everyone for their support this year. He said it was an amazing experience to lead our club and he would do it again. Note: kudos to Joe who will not only be Immediate Past President this coming year, a fairly cushy job, but also Membership Chair and Co-chair of the Environmental Committee, at least until Emily Constantineau returns from maternity leave! Very impressive!
A few high points from Betsy's comments:
Visioning - plan to attend our regular club meeting on July 1 to hear more about the recent Visioning process and how you can help with implementation.
Emphasis on service projects in the new Rotary year - Chuck Frankiewicz is the Service Project Champion for 2021-22. He would like to hear your ideas about service projects that would be of interest to you and your family.
World Polio Day - Betsy is asking for a volunteer or group of volunteers who will plan a World Polio Day event for our club on October 24.
Hammin' It Up- Sue Duchek is designing a year-long member engagement program that will get us all more engaged. Teams are being formed. Stay tuned to learn more about Hammin' It Up. This will be fun!
"A day in Rotary is a day well spent" is a recent quote from Jennifer Jones, who as most of you know, will be the first woman President of Rotary International in the 2022-23 Rotary year. Let's try to embody that in 2021-22.
Rotarian of the Year- Linda Borton
Joe presented a number of well deserved awards Thursday evening with the top award going to Linda Borton. There were a number of nominations for awards this year, all well deserved. Thanks go to Jim Bertucci and Jim Thomson for making the tough decsions as to who received which awards.
Reminder Immediate changes being made as a result of the Visioning process
1) Effective July 1 we will hold regular lunch meetings on the first and third Thursdays of each month. They will be hybrid meetings.
The second Thursday will be a casual evening social. We will meet for a glass of wine or a beer at some local restaurant. This will be purely fellowship, but hopefully that fellowship will lead to conversations about ideas we all might bring to the table to strengthen our club.
The fourth week, not necessarily Thursday, we will be attempting to schedule a service project.
2) Also effective July 1 we will revert to the meeting timing that we had used for many years pre-Covid. We encourage all who plan to attend in person to arrive around 12:00 for some fellowship. Those attending via Zoom can join any time between 12:00 and 12:15. We will start the meeting at 12:15 with the pledge and 4-way test followed by announcements. Lunch will be served at 12:30. While those attending in person are eating lunch, we will put the Zoomers in a breakout room. They can visit and/or eat their lunch. The breakout room will close at 12:50 returning the Zoomers to the full meeting. At 12:50 the Fun Master will come on. At 1:00 the speaker will begin. We will plan to close at 1:30.
What's the reasoning behind this change?
Rotary International has been encouraging clubs for several years to consider alternate meeting formats and schedules that could potentially attract new members.
Are these changes set in stone? No, but let's try them for a quarter or two and see how they work.
