April 26, 2023 Breakfast Meeting Notes
Today’s meeting was a Club Forum. Tony was away so no trivia!
Ken Williamson won the 50/50 and donated it to Tom’s tip.
Alicia drew 4 of spades so the card game goes on.
Ken Evans gave an updated club treasurer’s report. We have just under $3000 in the club account. All bills are paid except for card game which we will have to pay out eventually (current balance is approximately $600, of which half will be paid out to the winner. Ken just paid the discounted Chamber of Commerce bill.
Steve was not here but the Foundation account is healthy.
Ken Evans is trying to think about great ideas for spending the money we have in the Foundation. We have had fewer funding requests in last few years. Mo said that in his experience, charitable fund requests ebb and flow. We did receive a request from the Circle Program for a “scholarship” to send a girl to their 2 week program this summer. The board did approve this grant, with the stipulation that it be used for a girl from our local area.
Alicia said that we have received about 20 requests for technical grants. Some students were vague about how much they needed. The next meeting of the committee is next Monday and they want to have the money awarded by mid-May. There are some students who applied to both the scholarship and the training grant programs so we will need to coordinate between the two committees so that each student receives no more than one financial grant. Ken Evans noted that he recently had an electrician at his house who told hi that the state has 8000 electricians between ages of 55 and 65 and only 800 aged 25-45. Denise added that the NH Job Corps is very small; they don’t have an automotive program and while they can handle 300 students, they only have 137.
Sharon gave an update on the Scholarship committee: We had 41 applicants this year. We will meet next week to finalize the selection. Students will not receive their money until they have completed their first semester with a GPA of at least 2.5. They will come to speak to us about their first semester, usually at the meeting between Christmas and New Year’s.
Note that the form for community organizations to request funding from Rotary is no longer on our website. We need to get this fixed! Steve has handled the web page in the past but Sharon noted that it is very convoluted. Lora suggested that we might want to have a webmaster and web page redesign. Mike suggested that we use Margaret LeBarge from Lincoln/Woodstock. Alicia also knows someone in town who designs websites. The district has put forward money for $400 grants for clubs to redesign their websites and only 22/40 clubs have applied for one so far. We will investigate options and discuss last next board meeting. In the meantime, members of the board present at this meeting authorized Peggy to get a grant application prepared.
Mike gave a recap of the styrofoam collection day. Thanks to all who participated. Even people who couldn’t be there in person supplied tarps, cones, clipboards and other useful items. Media and promotions will be critical going forward. One person mentioned that she saw the sign outside the ReStore but had trouble finding information on line. We should find other partners…D Acres, PARY, the Coop Newsletter, etc. If we were to partner with another group that would benefit from any cash donations, that group could help us publicize the event. We also need to get it up on our Facebook page. We should also reach out to appliance/furniture dealers for their styrofoam and also to the hospital as a lot of medications are delivered in styrofoam coolers. Mike went down to Nashua Rotary on Monday to speak to them about this program and they were excited about it. The densifier does generate income from the company in Sherbrooke when they pick up the finished bricks of foam. We had 11 different communities bringing styrofoam to this collection. The next one could be after Christmas to collect foam from packages.
Braden reminded everyone that June 1 is the Fisher Cats game to benefit Ukraine. We will need people to sell 50/50 tickets.
Denise noted that tomorrow North Conway is having a Learn About Rotary event, inviting the pubic to come meet Rotary club members and neighbors. They will provide food and refreshments, and they list their projects and Rotary’s areas of focus and agencies they have supported. She suggested that we could do a Happy Hour in coordination with Chamber of Commerce. The last time we did this, we were at the 6 Burner Bistro and 70-100 people showed up. An event was also held at the Museum of the White Mountains but they partnered with a phone provider so attendees had to listen to a sales pitch.
Respectfully submitted,
Lora Miller, secretary