CLYNK Update: We have collected $10.30 for this latest quarter. $676.60 has been collected since the program’s inception. If you need more bags and/or tags see Julie Villemaire.
President Ken called the meeting to order promptly at 12:15 and led everyone in the Pledge of Allegiance. Past President Paul Deschambault was called upon to lead everyone in song; his pick for the week was Grand Ole Flag which Paul noted the women in the club sung the least amount for this song. Joe Moreshead competently led everyone in reciting the Four Way Test and Joe Basset gave the invocation.
For the clubs last meal at the Captain’s Galley we were served up a buffet of fried fish, onion rings, french fries, salad and the usual desserts. This reporter thinks that it could have been freezer cleanout day at the Captain’s Galley! I have seen the menu for next Wednesday’s meeting at the Tiger Gym and without giving out the details I will say that we are in for a substantial meal upgrade!
President Elect Bill Kany introduced the lone visiting Rotarian Rae Smith from the Saco Bay Club and noted that “we will no longer meet here every week”.
Club announcements were as follows (please note I did the best I could taking notes so don’t shoot the reporter for any lack of details):
1. A sign- up sheet was passed around for front desk duty which will take us through the rest of the year.
2. There is a district event to “Bridge the Gap” for polio funding taking place in Portsmouth sometime soon – check your email for more details because I didn’t get them.
3. Sell your $100 raffle tickets! The committee has only received $6,000 as of Wednesday so there is a long way to go. Karen mentioned a deadline of next week to have money or unsold tickets turned back in.
4. The club will be helping to load a truck for crutches for Africa either on 11/7 or 11/8 depending on the truck, more information will be forthcoming
5. Peg Levasseur spoke about the career fair that she is organizing in November and that she has not had a very good response. If she does not get better responses from businesses soon the career fair will most likely either be canceled or postponed until spring time.
6. Next week’s meet (October 29th) will be held at the Tiger Gym at Biddeford High School. Rotarians should use the parking lot across the street from the school, which is student parking, and walk to the Tiger gym on the path between the High School and COT. There are handicap spaces in the parking lot next to the gym for those that need it but this lot is teacher parking and is not for non-handicap Rotarians.
The club passed the hat, in this case a large coffee can, for Diane our server for the last 15 years. President Ken presented Diane with the collection and thanked Diane for all her service to the club over the years and that we would miss her.
Next up was Sargent At Arms Steve Morin. After collecting happy dollars, which last week’s Sargent At Arms Keith Jacques could not be bothered to do, Steve gave out the week’s fines. The only two that I noted were Roland Gagne for being the token male at the lady’s table and Karen Chasse being the token lady at the men’s table.
I will note that President Ken made mention quite often during the meeting that we would have a new meeting location in two weeks but refused to divulge the location. Like an episode of Survivor or Dancing With the Stars President Ken wanted to keep his audience in suspense and told everyone that he would let us know where our new home would be after the speaker.
President Ken introduced the speaker, Tony Scavuzzo of Here.com. Tony was a geography major in college and was told the only job he would have with that major was teaching which turned out to be wrong. With the advent of the Garmin, smart phones, and the wave of mapping technology that is currently in demand Tony was able to find a job running the field office in the northeast for Here.com after working for the government. Tony has been with the company for 17 years and his office and 4 employees are located in the River Dam Mill building.
Here.com supplies the map (cartography) information for a multitude of GPS systems and companies, most notable Garmin and Facebook. The job of the field office is to update maps in the region, which for Tony’s office is from Maine to Ohio to New York City. There is no way I can do Tony’s presentation justice so I will recommend that you go their website to learn more. One interesting take away that I had was that Tony said that 3D navigation systems will be standard in the near future and he talked about the tools that are used to gather information to make the 3D maps of the future. It was a very impressive presentation!
After the speaker was done President Ken announced that our new meeting location starting November 5th will be Run of The Mill. We will be meeting in the first room on the left as you walk in the main entrance. There will be at least four menu selections to pick from every week. President Ken said that the people at Run of The Mill have been extremely accommodating to us and are looking forward to hosting us every week. The cost for the meals will remain the same.
TACK Notes submitted by Denis Elie; any mistakes can be attributed to watching the Patriot’s game while typing the notes and 3 kids asking me questions the entire time
