June 29, 2022 Breakfast Meeting Notes
Plymouth Rotary Meeting Notes for June 29, 2022
The meeting was called to order by Denise Castonguay. Tony was absent so no card game, 50/50 or trivia.
Guest Russ Nagel attended.
Denise thanked everyone for making the changing of the guard such a success. She also announced that Braden got engaged while on vacation in Ireland.
Alex Ray gave us an update on the NH campaign to raise money for Ukraine relief. A team of 7 or 8 people works with him, including the leader of the United Way. Money is collected and sent to Steve Rand, who sends it to his contact Patrick in the United Way who in turn sends it to the rotary club contacts in Poland. They expect to lose 60% of donations to be lost to graft, but there is no way around this. We need to send money rather than food as trucks are backed up with a 5 day wait at the Polish-Ukranian border. In the first month we collected $160,000; our first wave of purchases included a blood mobile for $182,000. Our Rotary connections in Poland have been critical to the success of this project.
The Rotary Foundation has $13 million allotted for Ukraine relief but this is administered in $25,000 amounts to be distributed by each rotary club. Santander Bank in Poland has donated a whole floor in their new building for a relief center for traumatized children. An old military base in Poland has been repurposed as a temporary home for women and children fleeing the conflict. Closer to home, WMUR has been running promotional spots daily at 6:30 and 9 a.m and 4:30, 6, 9 and 11 p.m. Manchester stadium will be having a 50/50 night with the Fisher Cats and they will have a Ukranian band play. Rotarian volunteers will be needed to attend the game and promote Rotary. The Palace Theater will hold a fundraiser as well.
Our club Facebook page has photos of the work in Ukraine You can link to this page and share it with friends to help promote our efforts. Denise also asked if we are getting photos together for a possible article in Rotary magazine.
The next executive board meeting will be held July 15.
Our speaker was Mike Carrier, reflecting on his year as District Governor. One of his priorities was to raise money for Polio Plus and he is proud of the over $5000 that we were able to raise at our fundraiser with EventGroove. Mike noted that Rotary International is geared to helping with long-term projects more than acute emergencies but as the war in Ukraine took off, he was able to steer clubs to work with Shelterbox and now the Common Man fundraiser to help quickly. The Lindenville club will also raise money at a band event and donate it to the fund. Mike also wanted to expand the reach of Rotary, by getting new members and working with new partners in the community. His only regret is that Rotary had to cancel the worldwide DG event that would have been held in Orlando in favor of a virtual meeting.
Mike passed the District Governor flag to our new DG in Barre last night. District governor preparation begins 3 years ahead of time, which allows people time to learn new skills both through in-person contacts (such as our district-wide training event at Lyndonville in November) and via the Rotary Learning Center. The District Governor also gets involved with the PETS (President-elect training) in March to get new club presidents up to speed.
Mike noted that our new Rotary International president, Jennifer Jones, is the first woman to hold that role. Congratulations
Mike closed with a list of ways to kill your Rotary club. They include:
1.Neglect the food
2. Don’t attract businesses
3. Don’t engage youth
4. Remain convinced that you don’t have to sell Rotary
5. Let other service clubs to all the work
6. Don’t worry about first impressions
7. Don’t work with other groups
8. Keep reliving the past
9. Don’t reach out to young professionals
Respectfully submitted,
Lora Miller, secretary