Speaker/ Presentation

Bill K. introduced Devin Hamilton & Justin Chenette of the Journal Tribune.

As a member of the Saco Bay Rotary Justin reminded us that they were as good a Club as the Biddeford Saco Club.

Everybody has a Passion; the role of the Journal Tribune (JT) is to tell the region about these passions.

Devin recently moved to Maine with his family because he liked what he saw in the community. He started his career as a paperboy.  As a young person in the newspaper business he saw changes coming with the internet. The Journal Tribune is adapting to the new world of media & electronics. Now you can get 10 free stories a month on the website, you can also buy the paper on line or have it delivered.

There are 55K on line users but there is a cost to do that thus you have to charge people to get the service, (The 4 Way Test Banner fell on Andy G. @ that moment) some asked “Is it the Truth?”.

The Obituary Page information is 31 % of the on line use. Devin shared a story of how important it is to get the information correct. Devin also discussed the importance of communication both as the public w/ the newspaper but also the newspaper getting involved with the community. There is an effort to create a Community Education Board for the Journal Tribune  coming soon.

Justin shared the new Journal Tribune brand “JT” & “JT Cares”. There are several additional services that now exist in the “JT One Stop Shopping” including video production & website design., as well as a new Sunday Edition that is filled with local news. If we want info like the “Beer Festival”, in the JT get it to them like 4 weeks in advance.

Q & A: Jim G. commented that he hopes the JT will work with Rotary & the Red Ribbon effort. Joe M. commented that the Rotary & the JT have historically had a good relationship & Devin should consider joining.  Bill K. asked how do we get to the right people to make sure that we are sharing our passion?

 

Biddeford-Saco Rotary Club Tack

Date/Location/ Recorder:

8-10-16

Run of the Mill Pub Saco, ME, Conrad Welzel

Pledge of Allegiance:

President Lucie Kay Lead the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag.

Patriotic Song:

The Run of the Mill patrons were thankful that this was not the week for our Patriotic Song.

4 Way Test:

Sabine McElrath-February Flawlessly lead the 4 Way Test.

Invocation:

Jim Audiffred lead us in Invocation with special remembrances to Neil Morin who has Lung Cancer.

Pres. Elect.; Visiting Rotarians & Guests:

President Elect Jackson Brown welcomed guest;

Bronwyn Barnett & Kate Newman

Announcements:

Lucie K. asked for a volunteer for the Literacy Program, with no takers, the President expressed that there soon would be someone just saying “Yes”. She also reminded us that there will be a Beer Festival on Sept. 10., get your tickets at the meeting &/or sign up on line. She also passed around a “Thinking of You” card for Earl Goodwin who has not been able to attend the meetings for a while.

Ray Demers Put a plug in for the Saco Police Dept. Open House on Sat. 8-13-16 from 10AM to 1PM. He thanked Fausto P. & the Red Ribbon Comm. for donations.

Sue G. passed around a signup sheet for the Summer Outing @ Pres. Lucie Kay’s house on 8-20-16 & reminded us of the Alzheimer’s Walk on 9-17-16, (see Link), there will be a sign up sheet to get T-Shirts next week.

 http://act.alz.org/site/TR/Walk2015/General?team_id=339938&pg=team&fr_id=9057

Jim G. Reminded us that on 9-12-16 the Red Ribbon Comm. Will be hosting 3 Presentations that day 2for students at Biddeford H.S., Thornton Acad. & in the evening for the public @ Biddeford Middle School, he hoped that the Rotary members could show up in force that night. He thanked both Biddeford Savings & Saco Biddeford Savings for their help sponsoring the day.

Next week after Rotary there will be an Interact Comm. Meeting.

After Rotary today Jim McAllister was holding a Committee Meeting, (Sorry I didn’t catch which one).

50/50 Drawing:

Chris Indorf $29.

Sergeant At-Arms:

Happy Dollars

Conrad W. for a healthy new Granddaughter, Baby & Mom are doing GREAT!

Sabine M. -F.  Bank, (?? SORRY, I was sitting right next to her, you would have thought I would have written down more than the word Bank.)?

Ron Drouin for finally being acknowledge by Joe M.

Bronwyn B.  Was happy to have cash in hand, that she is pregnant so it is ok to ask how she is doing.

Roland G. Happy to be back to meetings, Thankful that so many parts of the International Program are going well including 1 of the woman from Kenya got her Nursing License.

Devin Hamilton was Happy we invited him to speak today.

Fines

Lucie K. For so many things; Lobster, not so happy face, not wearing her tiara to name a few.

Chris I., Matt E. for finally coming back.

Bill K. for having a “Dress Code” when he was President & now not “Dressing for Success”.

Karen for hanging out with Fausto.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There were Rotarians and some guests.  Customary traditions were followed to start the meeting.  Thank you’s to our club, thank you’s from our club.  Information on upcoming events.  Someone won money.  Many donated money. Food was eaten.  A great story of two guys with a crazy idea and success.

 

 

President Lucie led us in the Pledge of Allegiance, 4-way test was led by Mark Nahorney and our invocation was performed by Joe Bassett.

Vice President Bernice introduced guests:

                Bronwynn Barnett (new Director at CBC) was a guest of Andy Grief

                Mike Berman and Rick LaRue, both from UNE were guests of Don Pilon.

 

President Lucie passed around some thank you notes we received from:

Dennis Robillard for assisting him and his club with the handicapped ramp at the Ballpark in OOB.

Carson Newman for the scholarship our club awarded him.

Rachel for a charitable request we fulfilled.

 

Thank you to Biddeford Savings Bank for their donation to the Red Ribbon Committee.

 

Thank you to all of the Rotarians who delivered the Lobster Bake this weekend.

 

Jim Godbout’s fundraising beach party at Kinney Shores raised $2,600 – Thanks to Jim for hosting and Conrad Welzel for spending his whole weekend wandering around and judging everything on the beach from sand castles to open beer bottles.

 

Fellowship event at Lucie and Doug Kay’s house at Hills Beach (should be an easy commute for Brian Dallaire) on Saturday August 20^th.  For more info look to the left side of the Tack.  Sign-up sheet went around for food. 

 

Celebration of Suds beer festival will be held on Saturday September 10^th in the Community Room at Pepperell Mill Campus (next to Portland Pie and Banded Horn Brewery) from 1 to 4 pm.  Music will be provided by Pete Finkle.  Volunteer signup sheet will be passed around starting next week.  Tickets are ready and each Rotarian should take some to sell.  People can also purchase tickets on the website EventBrite.com – just search Biddeford Events and you’ll see our event right there.  Tickets are $25. 

 

Alzheimer’s Walk will be held on Saturday September 17.  Our goal is to raise $2,500.  We are currently at $545.  Please donate if you can.  More walkers are welcomed.

 

50/50 was won by Susan Gajewski

 

                Happy Dollars:

                Ken F. for inviting himself to Sue and Chuck’s camp.

                Don P. for having two guests from UNE join him at the meeting today.

                Fausto for Reuben finishing his program and coming back to work.

                Karen C. for a great girl’s weekend.

                Matt S. for getting back to Rotary and for his son’s successful tonsil surgery.

               

                Fines:

                Everyone at the lobster bake that didn’t have their badge.

                Lucie for not having her tiara out, for wanting to institute a new hazing ritual for new members.

                Jim A for reading a book at the lobster bake.

                Bill K. for old times’ sake.

                Keith J. for setting too high a bar for SAA’s.

                Karen C. for a spelling error in an email.

                Lucie K. for caring a little too much about her beverage at the lobster bake.

                Mark N. for something, but I didn’t catch it – no matter justice is had.

                Keith J. for attendance less than 50%.

                Don P. for having his Rotarian magazine delivered to the clubs P.O. Box.

                Susan G – paid her tithe for winning 50/50.

 

 

 

Our speakers were Marc Feldman and Pat Roche from Think Tank – a co-working office environment that is located in Pepperell Mill Campus.

 

Pat moved to Maine 6 years ago.  He was a building contractor that couldn’t afford and office but didn’t like the isolation of working from home and didn’t enjoy the noise or calories afforded by coffee shops.  He then created a 2,500 square foot co-work space in downtown Portland that filled up within months.  They moved and expanded to meet the demand.

 

Co-work space is generally an open concept office intended to bring entrepreneurial people together to foster community and ideas.  They do provide offices with walls to provide privacy.  Co-work space is community focused and provide all of the necessary items an office should have, such as a kitchen space, conference room, internet, printer stations, phone booths, ergonomic desks, etc.  Co-work spaces are popular because they are inexpensive and provide remote or telecommuter employees an opportunity to get away from home or coffee shop. 

 

Marc liked the co-work office idea and looked to bring one to Biddeford several years ago, however timing wasn’t right.  Last year he came back and felt the timing was perfect.  He met with Pat to discuss the concept and get ideas and they became partners on the Biddeford site of Think Tank. 

 

Think Tank finished construction last fall and they opened just before Thanksgiving 2015.  Currently, all but 3 offices are filled and they will consider expanding if demand increases.

 

Space at Think Tank can be rented in a myriad of ways from a monthly rate for a certain number of hours in the space to monthly rate for a private office.  They also offer floating memberships for approximately $125 per month.  They also offer rental of their conference room (based on availability) for approximately $25 per hour.

 

For more information email Marc Feldman – COO at info@thinktankbiddeford.com

 

Meeting adjourned at 1:25

Membership Month:

 

            Did you know that August is Rotary Membership month?  I had no idea and I have to say that I really have a hard time getting excited about Membership (who does) until one considers the following.

 

            First and foremost, many hands make light work.  The more members we have the more we can spread the load around, and let’s face it deep, deep down we are all a little or a lot lazy, so let’s get more people involved to make life a little easier.

 

            More people in the club mean we’re all fined just a little bit less.  The Sergeants could spread the hurt around and undoubtedly have some new material with new targets to go after.

 

            New Members mean more people who might be willing to drive Sue Gajewski home after the beer festival.

 

            New members mean more people who might look wicked sharp in our orange t-shirts.

 

            New Members might actually listen to Lucie during a meeting. 

 

            New Members may also wear long Maude-like sweaters and give Sarah a run for her money or they may have their own painted toenails and vintage t-shirts to show Fausto up each week.  Hell, they might want to join Ken Farley and, as he says, the clubs of yore in having a cocktail at lunch which will certainly spice things up a little.  Heck, we may find a new member with 7 kids or one more than Sarah Neault will have.

 

            While I am only guessing, the average age or our club has got to be around 50. With some younger new members we might get the average age down so that our average does not qualify for an AARP card. 

 

            More new members might mean more people at the cool table.

 

            My guess is that Lucie will be working hard to get our club down to a more manageable size.  We have members who never come to a meeting and never participate in any activity or fundraiser.  Perhaps their schedules have changed, their job responsibilities have increased or they joined Rotary for the wrong reason to begin with and they now realize that it is not for them but they choose not to resign.  I suspect Lucie will clean them out and we will need new Rotarians to take their place.

 

            Hey, let’s face it, the more the merrier (I think I borrowed that phrase from Michelle Obama and want to give credit where credit is due).  More members mean bigger parties, more fellowship and more fun.  Let’s all see if we can all recruit a new member this year to “make our club great again” (I think Michelle Obama said that too). 

 

Board Business:

 

            There are a few things to share regarding our Board meeting on August 3.  The Board voted to accept the resignation of Justyna Cybowicz.  We voted to approve $500 through Red Ribbon in funding for the Saco Police Department’s barbeque and open house on August 13 from 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM.  And the Board voted to do our annual food drive on October 29.  We hope to collaborate with Saco Bay again but that is still in the works.  We also discussed Andy Greif’s impending departure and the indication is that we will fill his board seat for his remaining term with the more than capable Sue Gajewski, a veteran of the Board who attends the meetings anyway as our assistant secretary. 

 

            Finally, the Board agreed that we will not meet on the day before Thanksgiving or the last two Wednesdays in December.  This latitude is part of the kindler gentler Rotary that realizes that people have other things going on in their lives and if we want to retain members Rotary has to accommodate the other demands that we all have.  So mark your calendars accordingly and know that your attendance stats should improve with no meetings on those days.

 

Red Ribbon Event:

 

            As was announced at the meeting, Red Ribbon is sponsoring a nationally known speaker, Tony Hoffman, to speak to the students at Biddeford High School, Old Orchard Beach High School (they will go to BHS for the event) and Thornton Academy on September 12.  Mr. Hoffman will arrive on the 11^th and stay until the 13^th before flying out.  If anyone can help drive him around during his stay please let Jim Godbout know. 

 

            Most importantly, however, there will be a public forum at which Mr. Hoffman will speak at 6:00 PM on September 12 in the beautiful Biddeford Middle School Auditorium.  We need a strong turnout for that event.  Please plan on bringing a few friends, family members or co-workers to that event.  We want to make sure that as many people as possible hear Mr. Hoffman’s message and filling the auditorium will help to spread the word.

 

Next Week’s Speaker:

 

On another note, our speaker for August 10^th will be Devin Hamilton who is the new publisher of the Journal Tribune who will talk to us about the Journal and the future of newspapers.  It should be an interesting discussion.

 

Tribute Regarding Women:

 

Perhaps inspired by our club president, I wanted to share with you the words of Sir William Golding about woman.  Mr. Golding said: “I think women are foolish to pretend they are equal to men, they are far superior and always have been.  Whatever you give a woman, she will make greater.  If you give her sperm, she’ll give you a baby.  If you give her a house, she’ll give you a home.  If you give her groceries, she’ll give you a meal.  If you give her a smile, she’ll give you her heart.  She multiplies and enlarges what is given to her.  So, if you give her any crap, be ready to receive a ton of shit!”

 

 

 

The following Rotarians have been chosen or “voluntold”  by President Lucie to be part of the TACK committee:

 

 Sarah Curley, Naomme Paris, Paulette Bonneau, Don Pilon, Sabine McElrath, Delilah Poupore, Heather Gendron, Chris Indorf, Justyna Cybowicz, Conrad Welzel & Bill Kany.  

 

I’m not sure how many of you actually agreed to this but THANK YOU in advance for helping to keep the TACK alive and well for those members who aren’t able to make it to the weekly meetings & keeping our website up to date & informative.  I (Julie) will send out a separate email to these members with the specifics of the committee, however, I am looking for a volunteer to coordinate the TACK reporter(s) for the month of August.  I’ve taken care of June and July.  You can either take the minutes yourself or ask a fellow member to do it in your place.  Please send me an email to let me know if you are able & willing to take on this task.

 

I can provide more details if needed (villemairej@sbsavings.com).  If you aren’t able to do it this time around, I’ll be sure to provide you with another month later in the year 