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The following is my summary of the meeting on the 24th of October. Since there were about 17 Rotarians in attendance at the meeting I am really hoping some of you will read this to learn what is happening at the club. It was kind of nice, we each sat at our own table. It will go without saying that we had greeters, we did the Pledge of Allegiance and the 4 Way Test and all were done well. I should note that Don Pilon read the name of our one visiting Rotarian and did a fine job pronouncing “Slayton” because Heather had spelled it out phonetically for him.
Joe was Lost: President Joe could not find his agenda (Lucie had it) and could not keep track of time apparently because of his enthralling conversation with Don Pilon so the speaker got short changed.
Polio Plus Guy: October is apparently Polio Plus month (who knew) and Jeff Slayton, past president of the Saco Bay Club or Jeff Slayter as Joe calls him, made a special visit to our club and Joe forgot to mention him until the end of the meeting. Let’s just assume Jeff would have given us some amazing facts about the eradication of polio and asked us to do our part to support Polio Plus.
Sound Effects: Joe Bassett did his prayer with the accompaniment of construction noises on the second floor of the building or God farted during the prayer. He does work in mysterious ways.
Random Presidential Announcement: President Joe announced that one of our members, Nicole Carroll, gave birth to her fifth child (she now can either run a farm or have her own basketball team) named Matthew Brandon. I guess Mom and Matt are doing fine.
Lucie Kay: Lucie Kay survived her fifth root canal of the year on her remaining tooth. She was still under the influence of valium.
Where have all the Rotarians Gone?: President Joe commented on the sad showing at the beer festival by club members. By my count there were about 20 Rotarians there out of 70 and I have no idea how many Rotarians sold tickets. Ken Farley’s committee of one worked hard on the event, but the club’s support was woefully deficient.
When I graduated from college I was inducted into an honor society, Phi Beta Kappa. I wasn’t expected to do anything but I got a pin and a sash to wear at graduation which I forgot to wear. It was a nice honor but nothing more than that. While it is an honor to be a member of Rotary it is so much more than that. It’s a commitment to the community and to the club. While it would be nice to see more people at meetings, it would be even nicer to see more people get involved. It is easy to predict who will work on projects because it is the same Rotarians all the time: Karen Chasse, Julie Villemaire, Jim Godbout, Sue Gajewski, heck you know who does all the work, and that is simply not right. You don’t have to do everything but you really need to do something if you want to be a Rotarian. If you want to honor I will give you my Phi Beta Kappa pin, I’m not using it, but if you truly want to be a Rotarian please get involved.
Speaking of Getting Involved: Very soon you will be receiving an envelope with some $100 raffle tickets in it. Please sell them or buy them or both. Our $100.00 raffle is our second largest fundraiser. Created by Earl Goodwin, we have netted $14,000.00 each year to support our charitable giving. Unfortunately, Earl is still recovering so we all need to step up to sell the 70-90 tickets that Earl usually sells. Please don’t assume that the next Rotarian will pick up an extra few tickets. Get your friends and family to split a ticket or two, sell one to your co-workers, stand outside a Gamblers Anonymous Meeting, I don’t care. Your buyers have great odds of winning and they are supporting great causes. I know that some of our members neither sell any tickets or buy any, but yet some of those same people ask our club to support their causes each year. I really don’t think you want to hear what I think of that hypocrisy. Please, let’s all do our share
Karen Chasse (there’s one of those names again) did announce that we should pencil in December 12 from 5:00 to 7:00 at Duffy’s in Old Orchard Beach for the raffle party. That will be our meeting that day so come after work, have a drink and see if you or one of your buyers will win. With Earl not selling all the winners this year, some of the rest of us might stand a chance.
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50/50: Dr. Joe won the 50/50 and donated his whopping $17.00 to Polio Plus and then President Joe forgot.(there was a theme to this meeting).
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Club Christmas Party!: It has been confirmed that the club Christmas party will be held on December 1 at Sue Gajewski’s house in Casco. President Joe is looking into renting a bus. So at this point start decorating your best lamp shade to wear at the party and set aside December 1 to party upta Casco.
Banner’s Up: Alicia Girard and President Joe unveiled our new portable, non-felt banner that we can set up at Rotary event to trumpet what Rotary is about. Alicia designed the banner which looks fantastic and cost the club less than $200.00. It focuses on the theme of “Together we Connect”, a common Lego saying. Nice work Alicia and good job Joe.
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Sergeant at Arms: Joe has started using the same introduction each week for Matt which is like Joe using the same prayer each week. Let’s try and keep it fresh. Matt claimed to be over his Irish jet lag, but I’m not sure because he had very little which could be attributed to the small crowd.
He did, however, collect some happy dollars.
- Karen Chasse was happy because Saco and Biddeford Savings featured her as a huge community service person.
- Dr. Joe was happy he did not win Mega Millions …. Really? I guess the 50/50 was enough.
- Julie Villemaire hit 7 out of 8 green lights on the way to work. I guess it is the little things that make her happy. Of course, she ran the one red light and got a ticket.
- Joe Bassett has a granddaughter singing at Radio City Music Hall. How do you get there, practice, practice, practice.
- Heather McLean was wearing Andrew Benintendi’s shirt which could explain why he cooled off at Fenway on the 24th, he was literally cold without his shirt.
- Conrad Welzel purchased a rainbow wig. I am not making this stuff up.
- President Joe gave an announcement dollar because November is Movember when men are not supposed to shave to show their support for prostate and testicular cancer research and for mental health and suicide prevention. Joe said the club will have a facial hair contest with the ugliest facial hair winning $100 to donate to a cause of your choosing and the best getting $100 to donate as well. Women can participate as well but no one will be judging them, that is not allowed.
- Lucie Kay gave the most sincere (she has no sincerity at all) happy dollar for the upcoming food drive.
- Roland and Lucie, who have been having an on again off / again affair for years paid a dollar each so they did not have to tell their dirty little secrets.
I am sure Matt fined someone for something but they were not worth writing down.