Luci Kay lead our club in reciting the four-way test

Paul Deschambault - invocation

 

Guests:

Cashel Stewart

Shawn Moody

Kevin Kaserman

Chuck Gajewski 

Katie Orlando

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Luci Kay announced that the Stuff the Bus event will be held on 27 October. Volunteers will be at the Market Basket and Hannaford locations in Biddeford gathering donations to support local food pantries. 

 

The Alzheimer’s walk is taking place on Saturday, 15 September. As of the meeting time only four walkers have signed up. Looking for more people to attend and participate in this short walk.

 

Bernice distributed tickets to the Celebration of Suds event to be held on 20 October At the Pepperell Mill campus. Ticket prices are $25 until the end of September and then the price increases to $30.

 

Julie Villemaire spoke to the club about this year’s concentrated effort to collect better records of service hours.  Members are encouraged to report their volunteering time for various events during the year.  This information can either be emailed to Julie, or reported to her at a meeting.

 

The 50-50 drawing was won by Conrad Wenzel and donated to Red Ribbon.

 

 

 

Collected happy dollars; Dr. Joe Is happy he made the meeting, and made an announcement about donating books to school projects. Brian Dallaire is happy to be back but suffering from jet lag. Denis Elie beat the school bus on early release day.  Fausto is celebrating his 12 year anniversary of living in Maine. Conrad is celebrating the 37th anniversary of his body work job done by Shawn Moody. 

 

Fines; Fausto didn’t order the Cuban Sandwich; Jim Godbout should have placed the field posts further apart at Waterhouse Field; Alisha for stabbing someone over a tater tot; Luci and Heather Maclean for wearing matching outfits; Dr. Joe for his Mr. Rogers sweater; Roland celebrates 20 years in Rotary; Julie 14 years.  

 

 

 

Sue Gajewski gave a warm Introduction to our speaker, Shawn Moody, the republican Gubernatorial candidate.

 

Shawn spoke about the growth of his auto body business over the years. He was 17 years old in 1977 when he pulled his first building permit. Things were very different back then compared to the present. His new building under construction in South Portland cost over $60,000 just in permitting alone.

 

He attributes the success of his business to his policy of empowering his employees. He has gone so far as to structure of the company so that employees are also part owners.

 

He spoke of the primary challenges facing the state of Maine and it’s elected officials.

 

Healthcare costs – not sustainable

 

Taxes - property taxes, a primary source of educational funding,are too high.  Educational costs are very heavy on bureaucracy, not on the classroom and teachers.  He stressed the importance of giving vocational and technical programs high priority; critical to the successful future of Maine.  

 

 

 

 

Meeting adjourned at 1:25.  

 

HI,

First, thank you all for making my first meeting great. I really am honored to hold the position. I get to follow some fantastic folks who have served as great stewards of our great club.

 

I wanted to write an article for the TACK because sitting outside on the deck for our first meeting was not really conducive to giving some words about what I would like to see us accomplish over the next 12 months.

 

Our motto this year is “ Be the Inspiration”. I will make sure to put the banner out this week. So, what are some of the goals we need to accomplish so we can “Be the Inspiration”- more meetings; not really. One of my biggest goals is to not waste your time. You are willing to give one of the most precious possessions you own, your time. I recognize that fact and will do my best to utilize your time to the fullest.

 

Seriously, as president elect everybody feels that they can give me their advice regarding what is wrong with the club and I have to agree with them on some issues. Even little ones like the check in sheet that we use to check in members every week, it was not working for everybody so it was reformatted and updated; you can thank Julie, our Secretary. People are not crazy about our meeting space, the food, the acoustics, the temperature, the number of meetings we have, etc. Until someone can come up with a better venue we will be at Run of the Mill for a while.  I secretly fantasize that a nice hotel with a great restaurant will open with a beautiful dining room, perfect for hosting meetings. A guy can dream.

 

With respect to meetings, we will still have some 50 or so. I will do my best to be there every week however, I don’t expect you to. I will be proposing a new focus on service work instead of attendance. In order to do that I will need help with a lot of ad hoc committees for the in meeting service projects I want to propose. For example, I want to make a “birthday party in a bag” geared towards children, for the local food pantries. The bags will have everything for a child to have a birthday party. It will include, cake and frosting mix, table cloths, candles, etc. My vision is that 3 to 4 people will go shopping for the items on a Wednesday meeting day instead of coming to the meeting. The following week the club will assemble the bags at lunch- that will be the “program”.

 

I plan on having at least 3 in service meetings such as the birthday bags, hygiene kits for some of the shelters, writing cards and letters to service men and women serving. Help me think of some more.

 

Another project will be field trip meetings. I have already contacted the 3 principals in the local elementary schools, just realized I did not contact St. James… I told the principals that we have 20 to 30 volunteers that would love to show up at their schools on a Wednesday from 12:15 to 1:30 to participate in a project. We could read to the kids, have lunch with them, rearrange furniture, etc. . One principal has already emailed me and is very excited about the idea.

 

We will still have a club assembly meeting the first Wednesday of the month. The meeting will be a briefing on what happened at the Board meeting earlier in the day, a classification talk or two, charitable fund committee discussion and vote and any other issues that need to be dealt with.

 

In order to accomplish all of the things we want and keep people informed it is going to take communication. Bill Kany has agreed to take over the TACK this year. He has 12 volunteers who will each be responsible for the month. The TACK, Facebook and other social media will be important this year as we tackle our ambitious meeting schedule and goals. We have also added all of our past presidents to our email list so that they get the TACK and can be aware of the club happenings.

 

I have not planned any new fundraisers. If you have an idea let’s hear about. I have picked the following people for committees, if I am wrong and you are not interested please let me. My goal with most of the committees is to leave it up to the chair to recruit members. The list is as follows and is not complete:

 

TACK      Bill Kany

Charitable Giving              Jim McAllister

Scholarship         Heather G and Fausto

Front Desk           Heather M

Foundation         Brian D

Website               Brian D

Past President    Keith J

Awards  Bill Kany

Stuff the Bus       Lucie K

Alzheimer Walk  Sue G

Beer Fest             Ken F

Wine Fest            Conrad, ?

$100 raffle          Karen / Earl

Prom / Dance     Bernice

Program Chair    Conrad W

Youth Protection Officer               Chief Ray Demers

Youth Service     Paulette B

 

In closing, 2018/2019 will be a good year to be a part of Rotary; to be the inspiration for people we interact with. I know people get a chuckle when I say my prayer “ Dear Lord, you give us so much yet expect so little in return. Let us live through your example.” I am not overly religious but, I do realize how lucky I am, how fortunate I am. I have been given so much. And as a result I have a deep need to want to give back; I know you feel the same way. Isn’t that why you joined Rotary.

 

Regards,

Joe