Charlotte Shelburne Hinesburg Rotary
Wednesday, April 18, 2018, 7:30 a.m.
Trinity Church Community Room
Many thanks to Gary Marcotte and Trinity’s Parish Administrator France LeBlanc, for preparing an excellent breakfast: pancakes with all the sides. Great job.
President Erik Kolomaznik led the club in the Pledge and Kris Engstrom gave an inspiring and seasonally-appropriate devotional, including a moment of remembrance of the late Ray Cooley, a long-time member of Rotary.
Club Assembly:
The Monthly Projects Project:
Beginning in May, we will schedule a hands-on community service project to take place during the regular meeting time, a new commitment that is designed to produce a highly visible service to our community and provide real practical satisfaction for everyone who pitches in.
The schedule so far:
May – inscribing messages of congratulation and encouragement on cards that will be included in packets presented to every graduating eighth grader at Shelburne Community School in June as part of the Green Envelope Project. Cards are being produced and envelopes are being ordered. Linda Gilbert is in charge.
June – preparing 100 to 200 sandwiches for COTS who on a daily basis provide free sandwich lunches to homeless and needy people. Sally Wadhams is in charge and is contacting local businesses about donating sandwich makings.
July – assembling Red Cross Emergency/Disaster kits which are distributed to people in Vermont and New Hampshire who have been struck by fires, hurricanes, floods, etc. Susan Grimes is in charge and will work with the Red Cross.*
Also, on the project list, we have volunteered to build the Charlotte Town Beach Lifeguard Shack, and this is expected to happen about the end of May.
* Kim Bleakley, Account Manager of the VT-NH Red Cross, gave a brief explanation of the work of the American Red Cross and its local affiliate. ARC is 100% non-profit, she said, doing disaster service, humanitarian service, blood collection drives. Their Sound the Alarm campaign focuses on fire safety: anyone in Vermont or New Hampshire can request a visit to check safety and install fire detectors (free). Every day seven people die in fires, and damage is $7 billion yearly. Red Cross also does swim lessons, babysitting classes, first aid and CPR classes, and helps bring home injured military people
She said it is important for CSHR to be involved and that a valuable project would be to raise the awareness and involvement of the community in blood drives. Blood donations are the only source of much needed blood for transfusions. In Shelburne the numbers of donors has fallen dramatically. Currently drives are scheduled for the end of May, Sept. 5 and Nov. 2. Rotary could help with recruiting donors.
In response to a question from Carole Obuchowski who criticized the multiple pages of questions and warnings that are given to donors when they arrive to donate, Kim said that it is also possible to use an online Rapid Pass system which lets donors read the FAA-mandated material before coming to donate.
Board Meeting report:
Erik reported that the April 17 board meeting had reviewed work of committees:
PR
Chair Jane McKnight (who would like to have someone volunteer to become the chair) reported on ways to increase visibility as a step toward attracting more members. These would include encouraging members to be more active on Face Book (like posts, share posts, post pictures, tag Charlotte Shelburne Hinesburg Rotary), researching a proposal from local webpage team to improve our webpage, using Front Porch Forum to keep our name in front of the communities (thanking donors, announcing events and projects), being more intentional about having event organizers inform the PR team of projects so they can spread the word.
Also Jane reported on the PR committee’s intention to get t-shirts/polo shirts with Charlotte Shelburne Hinesburg Rotary insignia. A complicated process since there are infinite combinations of materials, prices, colors, sizes, manufacturers. One plan is to get samples and present to Club for discussion and indication of preferences.
Membership Committee:
Ric Flood reviewed new recommendations from the PETS training event related to the orientation of new members, including meeting with the membership committee for a conversation before officially applying for membership, and a six month program of orientation for new members.
There was also a review of the new dues plan: $140 a year covers CSH Rotary contribution to Rotary International and the 7850 District. An additional $140 a year covers the cost of the meeting room. Therefore annual dues are $280. The cost for each meeting is $8 which covers the cost of breakfast.
Sergeant at Arms:
Ric Flood collected the Happy Fines.
There were many dollars from Rotarians who proclaimed themselves “just happy” and others in memory of long-time Rotarian Ray Cooley.
Other Happy Fines included:
A dollar for skiing (it snowed quite briskly during the meeting)
The Red Sox
Kids and Grandkids traveling to Germany
Thank you to Richard Fox for substituting for President Erik last week.
Coming Events:
June 13 – Changing of the Guard
June 15 – Car raffle.
Recorded by Rosalyn Graham