Charlotte Shelburne Rotary
Wednesday, September 12, 2012, 7:15 a.m.
Trinity Episcopal Church Community Room

Welcome

President Adam Bartsch opened the meeting with the Pledge and called on Kris Engstrom to give the devotional.

Guests: 

  • Doris Sage, Potential new member (not introduced as she was just a little bit late)
  • RYLA Students and parents

Announcements

Upcoming:

  • September 13:  Board Meeting, 7:30 AM at the Trinity Church Hall
  • September 15: Shelburne Farms Harvest Fest – Club provides parkers
  • September 15: Golf ball Drop at Shelburne Farms – 3PM (More below)
  • September 19: GSE Team from France will visit and make their presentation prior to a visit to Shelburne Farms.
  • September 26: Nancy Herman of the AAA
  • October 3: District Governor Visit (All members are encouraged to attend)
  • October 20: Shelburne LaPlatte Nature Trail – see below
  • October 24: Zack Clemmons – a regular visitor and very popular motivational speaker.  Here is a prime opportunity to invite potential new members.
  • October 28: Shelburne Halloween Parade
  • November 4: Bowlathon (a Sunday afternoon 3-5:30).  This is always a lot of fun and is also an ideal opportunity to invite potential new members.

The Golf Ball Drop tickets are still on sale and members were urged to continue   their sales efforts. John Dupee said he had more than $8310 with more wads in hand. 

Bill Root still was in the need of persons for parking duty at the Shelburne Farms Harvest Fest. 

RYLA Presentation

Judy Christiansen and Sam Titus presented the RYLA finalists for the past summer’s RYLA program. RYLA (Rotary Youth Leadership Award) is a program for high school students to teach leadership.  Students are nominated by their teachers and then selected by a Rotary committee.  This year Tamie-Jo Dickinson, our Rotary member and teacher at CVU, recruited 30 applicants, of which four were chosen.  The RYLAers must attend and pass a rigorous weekend of challenges requiring various leadership skills. This year’s finalists and graduates were: Cally Braun of Charlotte, Emma Griesser of Shelburne, Thomas Clayton of Hinesburg, and Kyle Stanley of Shelburne. All of them commented upon the great opportunity this had been and all expressed appreciation for their experience.  Special mention was made of one of our RYLAers of two years ago, Anna Moser.  She returned as a Junior Counselor last year and as a Senior Counselor this year.

In conclusion, Terrill Titus presented Judy Christiansen with a Paul Harris Award for her continuing and meaningful work with youth.  The award was delayed because Judy was not able to be present at the Changing of the Guard party at which it was to be presented.

Sergeant at Arms

Richard Fox began by saying, tongue in cheek, that it was his job to “Extort the maximum amount of money from members through Happy Fines”:

  • Gary Marcotte – Meeting with Antoine Williams (former member) and his kids. Antoine is building a house in Shelburne.
  • Roz Graham – For the new tourism coordinator at the Lake Champlain Regional Chamber of Commerce – Sarah Beal.
  • Kris Engstrom – RYLA
  • John Hammer – For the birth of a grandson last Friday and a successful Latin Dance Party
  • Ric Flood – RYLA and the return of his office manager after a long maternity leave.
  • Steve Dates – RYLA and the budget to be discussed today
  • Dave Jonah – RYLA Program and the club’s parking efforts at Harvest Fest
  • Jim Spadaccini – Happy
  • Terrill Titus – For the newlyweds Mr. and Mrs. Justin Barker and the generous check of $500 to the Make a Wish Foundation
  • Linda Gilbert – For a successful Latin Dance Party and finally seeing the Harbor Hideaway building being torn down. (Ric Flood noted that The Automaster had bought it and three other adjacent buildings)
  • Howard Seaver – A great weekend in NJ
  • Sam Feitelberg – RYLA
  • John Beal – A great birthday party in Essex, NY
  • Trafton Crandall – Late and RYLA
  • John Dupee – Has picked up 2500 golf balls and is ready to rock and roll.
  • Michael Clapp – Daughter drove from NM to Burlington and back safely a second time.
  • Tod Whitaker – Daughter getting married this coming weekend and he has harvested 100 pounds of honey this year
  • Pat Sokolowski – Son finally got a job
  • Denny Bowen – RYLA
  • Fritz Horton – Has received three RFPs for the study of the Route Seven Corridor
  • Chris Davis – The Latin Dance Party and winning a day’s sail with the redoubtable and witty Captain Hammer.
  • Linda Schiavonne – Finding the funding for the Shelburne Rescue boat
  • George Schiavonne – Pride in the Shelburne Volunteer Fire Department in obtaining their Rescue boat 
  • Rick Fox – Football season has finally started in earnest.

Apologies to those who were missed.

Roz Graham’s  ticket was drawn and she drew the 2 of Hearts.  Rollover.

2012-3 Budget

President Adam Bartsch presented the budget for the Rotary Year 2012-3. He pointed out that is was essentially the same as for the past year.  A new line was added for the Golf Ball Drop, but the expenses and income are the same and therefore a “wash.”  There is also an added expense of $504 which is assigned to the Golf Ball Drop, but for which there was no justification.  He wished to move that to support the new award decided last year for Community Service.  This award would take the place of a Paul Harris Award which is not understood by non-Rotarians.  The Community Service Award will be given to a deserving non-Rotarian member of the community at the annual Changing of the Guard party in June.  This change was approved by vote.

Another line item was discussed but not passed. This was to raise the amount of $500 to $900 assigned to pay for the President-Elect’s expenses to attend the Pre-PETS, PETS, and District Conference meetings.

There was a lively discussion on whether individual line items should be assigned in the budget for specific programs such as supporting the Essex Rotary Golf Tournament and Camp TaCumTA.  The outcome was mixed with only Camp TaKumTa being included (about $550) because it was an event that was already paid during this year (July).  This item was approved by vote. The general consensus was to keep individual programs subsumed within an inclusive charitable line item.

There was discussion on why club meals expenses exceeded income (fees paid by members).  This was explained as covering the costs of guests and a certain amount extra to balance out the present accountability methods.  Were the costs to be applied against individual plates served, the financial administration would become very cumbersome.

In summary, the Budget was approved with the two amendments noted above.

Earlier in the meeting, President Bartsch presented and received voted approval for issuing checks to the following:

  • $500 for the Habitat for Humanity’s ReStore in Williston
  • $500 for Make a Wish Foundation
  • $400 to the Boy Scouts to help in their trip out west
  • Up to $1,000 for the building of two bridges along the LaPlatte River Nature Trail in Shelburne. * Michael Clapp is coordinating this Community Service Project which will take place on October 20.  He will be calling for volunteers from Rotary and the community for joint action.  He presented this as an ideal opportunity to recruit new members. More details next week.

Rotary Golf Ball Drop

John Dupee and Jim Spadaccini briefed the club on the forthcoming Golf Ball Drop at the Shelburne Farms Harvest Fest.  He estimates that the gross might make $10,000 from which $8,000 expenses will be subtracted.

It will take place at 3:00 PM, Saturday, September 15.  We will need all the volunteers that we can get for the following tasks:

  • During the Fest a number are need to circulate about selling tickets.
  • Parkers will have signs to encourage sales – but will not sell as they must concentrate on parking
  • 1-3 to man a tent at the entrance to sell tickets.
  • At 1-1:30 four or five are needed to unload golf balls from boxes, account for them, coordinate with tickets sold, and load into front-loader.
  • Just before 3PM ten persons are needed to hold plastic sheeting on incline to help speed the balls.  They will then stand by to help measure and collect the balls in buckets.  Buckets with balls need to be delivered to an enclosed space where they need to be accounted for and reloaded into their carrying in cases/boxes

Jim has been overseeing the “grounds” preparation and has declared them to be fit and ready.  He was specifically appreciative to Bonnie of the Kwiniaska Golf Club for her help and the loan of a pin and cup.