November 28, 2012 Newsletter
Charlotte Shelburne Rotary
Wednesday, November 28, 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:
- Bill Howland – Speaker
Quote for the day: Fritz Horton was heard to loudly exclaim, “ I feel wonderful!”
The Word for the Day: Bamboozle (meaning incorporated somewhere below)
Announcements
Upcoming:
· December 5: Issa Sawabini, Fuse Marketing
· December 12: Committee Meetings
· December 13: Board Meeting
· December 19: Holiday Party
· December 26: No Meeting
· June 6: District Governor Change of Guard at Shelburne Farms Coach Barn. (Our club will play a key role in this event.)
Charlotte Central School Garden Shed
President Bartsch thanked those members who participated. (Michael Clapp, Bill Deming, Chris Davis, Gary Marcotte, John Hammer, Linda Gilbert, Fritz Horton, Howard Seaver). Michael Clapp reported a great turnout with special thanks to Gary Marcotte and Chris Davis for returning the next day to finish the building. There are still another 2-3 hours of work remaining to nail down the shingle roofing. A number of volunteers agreed to go this Saturday at 9AM to finish the project. Special thanks to Bill Deming, the oldest member there (He is also the one remaining charter member of the club). Lots of publicity was gotten to the extent that the club has been approached by a parent in Hinesburg for a shed at their central school.
Visioning Committee Meeting Next Week
Kris Engstrom asked for members of her Visioning Committee to gather for a short meeting after next week’s club meeting. Present members are: Dave Jonah, Trafton Crandall, Linda Gilbert, and David Cranmer. Any club member is invited to attend and is welcome to join this interesting and important committee.
Rotary Foundation Matching Program
Pat Sokolowski announced that this year’s matching program will be a dual match with the Rotary Annual Fund being added to the Polio Plus. The program will be effective until 12/31/12, so there is not much time. What members may do is contribute $50 and have it matched by our club to equal $100 to the Rotary Foundation for each of Polio Plus and the Annual Foundation. Members can do each or only one, as they wish. This gives them an opportunity to gain up to $200 towards a Paul Harris Fellowship. Pat has the form or it’s possible to do it online – just let her know.
Jim Spad’s Humor
Jim came up with another taxi story. This time, it was he that got involved. He had already begun celebrating the holiday season and had been out on the town. He had had a few beers, then some wine with his meal, and finished off with a few Margaritas. He was feeling no pain, not at all, so he did what he rarely does on his nights out, he took a taxi. On his way home he came to a police roadblock, but they waved him right through because he was in a taxi. He arrived home safely without incident. But it was a real surprise because, as he said, “I’ve never driven a taxi before, and ------- I don’t know where I got it.”
(Disclaimer – Jim never actually did the above. We are indebted to Jim for his enlightening our meetings – each and every gathering. Thanks Jim!)
Sergeant at Arms
Richard Fox began by saying that now that Thanksgiving was over he was looking for leftovers, $1, $5, $20’s…
Fines
Jim Spadaccini – Happy for Don Condon’s being here – he’s always welcome. He was very happy about Bill Deming’s birthday. Furthermore he was happy that the turkey distribution for our three towns went off as scheduled. He expects he will have to arrange for a few more birds to be donated for the Christmas holiday. (It should be noted that Jim should be recognized for his continuing work in coordinating the club’s provision of turkeys to the food shelves of our three towns on Thanksgiving and Christmas. It’s no mean feat. Thanks, Jim!)
Carole Obuchowski – Happy for the post-Thanksgiving with her family.
Sam Feitelberg – Daughter Debbie has become engaged bringing in two new grandchildren (teenagers) into the family.
Gary Marcotte – Thanks for the opportunity to practice his carpentry on the garden shed project before he has to fix his porch roof.
Robert Maynes – Happy to have had a wonderful Thanksgiving with his family.
Roz Graham – Had a wonderful Thanksgiving and was happy to see Dave Jonah on TV cataloging all the wonderful Shelburne Farms goodies available for the holiday season. She was even happier to have missed the last meeting in order to watch the presentation of Fodor’s Award to the Inn at Shelburne Farms as one of America’s Top 100 Hotels!
Michael Clapp – Thankful for the crew who worked on the school garden shed.
Joan Lennes – “Having a very good day!”
Todd Whitaker – Had forty family over for Thanksgiving.
Terry Kennaugh – Birthday but, feigning creeping mental decrepitude (he had forgotten to bring any cash), he presented an IOU. Is this a naked attempt to bamboozle the club? {Definition – (v.) to deceive or get the better of (someone), to hoodwink}
Ric Flood – Thanksgiving with brother near NYC and witnessed the devastation. Happy to be in Vermont and to have missed Sandy.
Trafton Crandall – Was late and thankful that we have Michael Clapp running the projects.
Russ Blodgett – Rather than sing Happy Birthday to Bill he would rather pay a dollar.
Denny Bowen - Fine for missing last Wednesday and happy he had a wonderful trip to Montreal.
Gary Bergeron – Happy to see Don Condon here.
Mark Joczik – Just happy.
Michael Lash – Happy Thanksgiving with all of his girls.
Steve Dates – Happy to see Don Condon here.
Chris Davis – Happy for Thanksgiving with family members and the great group that worked on the garden shed.
Terrill Titus – For a successful Make a Wish Foundation presentation at the Waterbury Rotary Club and Bill Deming’s birthday.
Kris Engstrom – Happy Birthday - Bill Deming. She was thankful for a super Thanksgiving.
Linda Gilbert – For a great crew at the Charlotte Central School garden shed project – “It was amazing.”
Eric Hanley – Had a wonderful Thanksgiving and he was very proud that Megan’s hockey team “beat the boys!”
Richard Fox – Rutgers is playing in the Big East this Saturday. He and Eric are welcoming the first round draft pick of the spring to see what position she is going to play on.
Apologies to those who were missed.
Chris Davis drew the six of diamonds. Rollover the $150+ pot.
Speaker – Bill Howland on the Champlain Basin Program.
Bill is the Manager of the Lake Champlain Basin Program. It was formed by an Act of Congress in 1990 under the sponsorship of Senator Leahy to gather together the states of VT, NY and the Province of Quebec plus a number of other agencies to oversee the health of Lake Champlain. It receives its funding from a direct line item in the President’s budget and the funding is channeled through the Environmental Protection Agency.
President Bartsch with Bill Howland
Its major mission is to monitor and measure the water quality in eighteen major tributaries and conditions in 15 locations throughout the lake during the “soft water” seasons. It also sponsors a large number of education programs and water quality improvement projects through small and large grants. In the past year it finished an $800,000 program of research to identify at the critical sources of pollution in Missisquoi Bay.
The Lake Champlain is a unique body of water because the basin is so large. It has a large drainage basin which contributes 18 acres of drainage for every acre of water.
Every three years the LCP is tasked with compiling a “State of the Lake Report” which was recently finished last summer. This was the subject of the presentation. You can find the report at: http://bit.ly/T38bXS.
As a review, here is the Committee List
At the last meeting President Bartsch handed out a list of members of committees and asked members to review them. See Below. He asked that persons wishing to join any one of the committees should contact the committee chairs.
· Public Relations: John Hammer
· Membership: Ric Flood
· Administration: David Rose
· Projects: Michael Clapp
· Foundation: Pat Sokolowski