End-of-Summer Recap

Posted by Jim Bush

Speed-Review of recent club meetings/activities:

Q: "Speed Review"? Is this something new?

A: Yes.

Q: Can you elaborate?

A: Okey dokey. Here's what happened:

One of your more brilliant scribes uses a digital recorder to get the gist of the meetings down. High tech stuff, you know? That's not stupid. It really helps me to not miss anything. In principle, I repeat, it's not stupid.

Here's what IS stupid - screwing up the recorder somehow in a way that it erased most of the details of the last few meetings. And this is not something you can do easily. I had it in my pocket after the last meeting I recorded, and when I went to retrieve the info, I had a very nice recording of lots of people sitting around eating lunch and talking. And not much else.

I'm now wondering if it was a combination battery problem and just a snafu on my own part.

What to do?

Well, being of above average intelligence otherwise, I've been able to piece-meal a few general points from my own written notes and other sources. So here's the streamlined version of the last few meetings.

District Governor Tom Rogers made his official club visit on 8/10/16.

● Somebody big in Rotary came to do a program. I think it was Tom Rogers, our new District Governor. He goes back to about 1980 in Canandaigua Rotary, worked actively, left the club for a brief time, returned, got more active. Served in many capacities, including club president in 2006-07, multiple Paul Harris Fellowships, busy on district level committees, owns Herman's Business Service in Canandaigua, is married to Sandi (also a PH Fellow), and called our club the "fun club" of the district. He summarized his hopes for the year as District Governor, cited R.I. President John Germ, ("Great endeavors begin with Great opportunities") - and equated it to service in Rotary. This year's theme is: "Rotary Serving Humanity".

Tom talked about the progress Rotary has made in the fight against polio, telling us there were only 19 new cases in the world in 2016.

Goals - Increase Rotary Foundation International from 269 million dollars last year to 300 million this year. What will do that? $26.50 per person. Every member should donate at least this amount this year.

● Membership - One new member for each club. Not unrealistic! 35,000 clubs in the world would mean a big bunch of new members.

● We need new members under the age of 40.

● Rotary's attitude about classifications, attendance, and meeting schedules has been relaxed.

● There are no "Rotary Police" out there.

● See MyRotary.org

We welcomed Julia Bos, our new Exchange Student from Belgium, born in Holland, speaks Dutch and English beautifully, has already graduated from school, but felt this additional year would be enlightening on many levels. She is not bashful, and can keep the whole room laughing in response to her weekly updates on Life in the U.S. of A.

The dog ate my homework.

This is kind of where the recordings got messed up. There were a couple other meetings which deserved reliable note-taking, but here's where we see how forgiving Rotarians can be. Maybe you can sort out the dates and sequence of at least a few items we salvaged - not in proper order:

● Julia had us in stitches.

● Larry Williamson presented a program on NYSERDA

● Jen Preston's daughter is hitting the Pre-K circuit

● The Sloans have enjoyed entertaining large groups of cottage visitors

● Maurina's husband, John, has had major back surgery and begun rehab

● Eric has put on lots of miles on Seattle trip w/ Kyle and other family jaunts

● Elizabeth Sutton informed us about the humanitarian efforts of the "Bishop's Storehouse"

● Club members are gearing up for the Purple Painted Lady Parking event on Sept 24th

● Bob Sloan organized another great District Golf Tourney for Camp ONSEYAWA

● Bob Yost's son, Matt, has been on an 8-week tour of some of Europe's main attractions

● Marty and family had a great Disney vacation

● Marie Fessler celebrated daughter Natalie's recent wedding

● We sang Happy Birthday to somebody - or maybe it was Happy Anniversary

● The world-famous "Porch Party" at Yost's Funeral Home made its 2016 appearance - adding its version of good food, folks, fun to the social impact of Canaltown Days

A search is underway for a new and improved digital recorder . . . . . or a better note-taker.

Respectfully submitted,

Jim Bush