January 22, 2014 Newsletter

By John Hammer

Charlotte Shelburne Rotary

Wednesday, January 22, 2014, 7:15 a.m.

Trinity Episcopal Church Community Room

Welcome

President Dave Jonah opened the meeting with the Pledge. Dave Rice gave the invocation.

Guests: Tiffany Bluemle, Executive Director of Vermont Works for Women (VWW).

 

Upcoming:

January 29 – Camilla Rockwell speaking on “The Art and Part of Aging”. She was Ken Burns’ director for ten years.

Kris Engstrom will run meetings on January 29 and February 5

Adam Bartsch will run meetings on February 12 and 19

March 22-23 – Shelburne Farms Maple Fest

April – Volunteer projects at Shelburne Nature Path, Charlotte Demeter Park and Hinesburg (TBD)

April 25-27 – 7850 District Conference, Hilton Hotel, Burlington

February 12 – Committee Meetings

District 7850 Calendar: Hot Link http://www.clubrunner.ca/Portal/Events/EventsCalendar.aspx?accountid=50051

Quote of the Day  -  “It’s all about possibilities and that’s what keeps you alive.” By Fritz Horton waxing philosophical about aging and doing unusual things.

Announcements

District Conference

Steve Dates once again reviewed the need for members to solicit contributions to sponsorship of the District Conference in April. He said that if each one of the thirty present got one sponsorship each, there would be more than enough to greatly reduce the registration costs.  A Sponsorship Form is attached to this Newsletter.

Jim Spad’s Humor

Ric Flood reported that he had read Jim Spad’s joke three times before he understood the punch line so he decided to forego all the anticipated groans by withholding the joke for the day. This was met with great approbation. As he put it, the joke had been pre-groaned certified.

Sergeant at Arms – Because Richard was chilled to the bone by the cold temperatures outside he decided to give everyone a break from fines. There was a plethora* of good wishes for the team going to Honduras next Friday.

Sam Feitelberg – Going to Honduras this Friday and thinks it will take a lot of piña coladas to warm him up. (Late breaking news – Sam fell on the Wednesday after this meeting and got cut up badly requiring six stitches. He also suffered compression trauma to his left wrist and will not be leaving for Honduras until some unspecified time.)

Robert Maynes – Has not seen a single black fly lately.

Rosalynn Graham – Shelburne Farms celebrates Winterfest this coming Saturday. Family day, sleigh rides, bonfire, food and a windshield-scraping contest.

Pat Sokolowski – Happy for the beautiful Polio Plus bag she received from Elaine Dates.

Tiffany Bluemly – Happy to be here.

Fritz Horton – He is a glider pilot and he has always heard, “Oh I’ve always wanted to do that.” So this weekend he is going to the 50’s and Boomers meeting and tell them that here is something to do. He will call their bluff. “It’s all about possibilities and that’s what keeps you alive.”

Gary Marcotte – For all the 50’s and over.

Howard Seaver – For Ric Flood’s violating the basic rule of public speaking that is to put the info out there about there being a joke and then withdrawing it after bad-mouthing it.

Terry Kennaugh – For the beautiful frost on the trees around the lake this morning in the sun. Gorgeous!

Michael Clapp – It has been three weeks since he has had a cigarette – he wants to put pressure on himself by bringing attention as to how he is doing.

Tod Whitaker – He has finally satisfied his jury duty.

Dave Rice – For looking so ugly (he had blemishes on his face) because he has had a lot of pre-cancerous growths burned off.

George Schiavonne had the winning ticket and drew the Six of Clubs.  Roll over the pot of $350

Speaker – Tiffany Bluemle, Executive Director of Vermont Works for Women (VWW).

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Mission: Vermont Works for Women helps women and girls recognize their potential and explore, pursue, and excel in work that leads to economic independence. It works to help ensure that they have a perception of what they can do.

Founded by a female carpenter who started a program for the VT Department of Labor to recruit women into the building trades, specifically carpentry.

TVWW concentrates on three strands of activity:

1.     Commitment to non-traditional trades for women; telecommunications, law enforcement, information technology and carpentry. For the most part many women don’t feel that they have the skills or confidence to make a go at them.

2.     Construction trades training for women in prison. The program:

a.     Counteracts their feelings that they wouldn’t be successful

b.     Works on reversing their lack of confidence due to their spotty history and bad financial conditions.

c.     Meets the women prisoners where they are and gets them into an industry. For instance, VWW has started a culinary arts program – Fresh Food – which prepares 60,000 meals a year for school kids. This program has resulted in 78% placement in jobs upon release.

3.     Work to counteract the loss of girls’ confident voices between sixth and tenth grades. She has found that you need to expose the girls as they near tenth grade with the bigger picture of opportunities.

Accordingly the VWW has founded the Dirt Divas and Rosie’s Girls which provide experience for girls in non-traditional areas. The Dirt Divas is a camp that specializes in mountain bike skills and bicycle repair primarily for middle school girls.  Rosie’s Girls is a three-week camp where girls learn welding, carpentry, auto repair and furniture making. These camps are only for females and work against the cultural pressures that come at this age where the males tend to dominate the leadership and decision-making roles in joint work and play.

The VWW conducted research on the reasons why girls are not more outgoing and assertive as they progress through high school.  The girls told them that there were three things that hold them back:

1.     There is a general feeling that they don’t know how anyone expects them to understand finances.

2.     How am I supposed to know how to do mechanics?  No one has given me any exposure to the world of work.

3.     Peer aggression is rampant and demoralizing. Girls are unwilling to push against each other.  Peer aggression is hard to detect in order to prevent it. The groups establish a pecking order. Social media is making it worse.

VWW would like to see a culture shift and has published a national report on the problems facing teenaged girls who are about to go out into the work world. Their report makes Three Recommendations:

1.     Build Personal Financial Skills

2.     Promote Supportive relationships

3.     Expand Exposure to Careers and Role Models.

4.     To this end they have promulgated fifteen things you can do.

 

For more information visit the web site www.vtworksforwomen.org and especially visit the site for Enough Said, a report on what is being done at http://bit.ly/1l7EgiH or call 802-655-8900.

Word of the Day:  Plethora, n. -  a very large amount or number