Weekly Reminder

Service Above Self

The Amherst Reminder

Volume 86  Issue 4                                 September 22, 2011

President Irv opened the meeting and Arthur Quinton led us in singing “You’re a Grand Ole Flag”.

Invocation:  Dick Kraus gave an invocation whose message was to pay more attention to being thankful for this club and all it stands for.

Visiting Rotarians and Guests:   Ellen Cary reported no visiting Rotarian.  The following guests were introduced:  Adele Mack , Dan Feldman and Sue Clark.

Rotary Minute:  Dam Melley told us about our Club’s annual picnic on Mount Sugarloaf and urged us to try to resurrect the “Day on the Mountain”.

Acquaintance to Friendship:  John Barbaro told us about his experiences and adventures with his motorcycles. 

Announcements and Reports:  There were no reports.

Marge Roy announced that she and Ron Archer will be hosting a cocktail party for Representative (and Rotarian) Ellen Story at Marge’s condo on September 25 from 3-5 PM.  Steve Kravetz reminded us that we have two weeks until the deadline for the auction.  In response to questions, he told us it was acceptable to accept the paperwork if the item is not coming in until after the deadline.  Otherwise we should wait until both are in to submit them.  If the donation is the same as last year, there is no need to write the text, just indicate that on the submission.

Ed Severance indicated that the absolute deadline for the auction is three weeks.  He also indicated that we still need sponsors and underwriters for our auction. He reminded us that the AmherstMedia auction is currently ongoing.

Thad Dabrowski announced that Carlton Brose has tasked him with writing a history of the social/sports experiences in our club’s history and asked us to e-mail him with reminiscences.

President Irv announced that the 40^th annual ABC  Fall Coliage Walk will be October 22.  He urged us to support the annual fund-raising for the Rotary Foundation.  Our Good Works Fund will match our donations up to $ 2,500.  Polio Plus will also be asking for our donations to match the Gates Foundation challenge grant.  He announced the we had received a thank you from the Amherst schools for the 100 backpacks we have students from our backpack project.

Good News:  Steve Kratetz announced his lost money in Las Vegas and told us that, on his return plane flight, he sat next to Mark May who currently works for ESPN and whose boss is Stan Ziomek’s son.  Justine Holdsworth announced that her son, Jeffrey, has been cleared for XO duty in the US Navy and will report to Hawaii for training after which he will be the second in command aboard the USS Rhode Island.

Sargeant-At-Arms:  Sargeant-At-Arms Ziomek assessed his usual fines for our failure to answer obscure questions.  However Thad Dabrowski was awarded $ 1.00 for currectly answering a question.

Speaker:  Bill Gillen introduced Phil Shaver, President of the Amherst Historic Society who spoke on “What’s New in Amherst History”.  He told us about the lastest work to preserve some of the old buildings in Town and the work of the Local Historic District Study Group appointed by the Selectboard as well as gave us a history of his Society and the Strong House Museum they manage.

Raffle:  The raffle was won by

Reminder written by Ellen McKay.