May 27, 2026 Breakfast Meeting Notes

Our guests today were Cory, a local basket weaver, as well as Deb and Sally from the Congregational church.

Ken Williamson won the 50/50 and donated the money to Tom.

Denise won the chance to search for the ace of spades but drew the 5 of clubs.

Rotary highlights: Nothing big happened this week. The changeover is coming up quickly. So far we only have about a dozen signed up and we need to let the Last Chair know by the end of next week how many we will have. UPDATE: as of noon today we expect to have the 30 people that we need. Thanks to all for signing up.

Upcoming service projects: Clean the Kanc will be on June 6. You can go to register on line, where you can also sign the waiver. It would be ideal to car pool. Arrive at 8 am at Loon parking lot. Denise will send you the link if you need it and she will coordinate the car pooling. 

The district conference in Magog will be held on June 13.  If you haven’t registered yet, let Denise know. 

Cruise night will be on July 29; it will be our first activity with the Congregational church. We will have signup sheets to do popcorn, sell 50/50 tickets, or pass out Rotary swag. Denise brought us a pamphlet from the Waterbury VT club; it lists events on one side and info on Rotary on the other. We could do something like this for the Cruise Night.

On August 26th our new district governor will be coming to speak to us. Ariel will be doing a hands-on planting experience for milkweed; details will be provided later. Think about possible locations around town where we could plant the milkweed. 

Steve located the amphitheater sign. It was flaking within a year of purchase and so we took it down. Steve has emailed the company to see if they will redo it; if not, we will have to figure out something else. In addition the octagonal post for the sign is missing. 

Announcements: Moth night will be held at Hubbard Brook this Friday night at 8 pm. There will be an informal moth talk at 8:30 in a screened in porch. The event is free. Contact Raisa if you have any questions.

Rotary Trivia: The best boss you ever had, part 2. 

Public image: We have distributed all of our Rotary clothing. We can order more at any time; we need at least 15 pieces per order (vests can be ordered any time). Badges are the next thing to reorder; if you need a new badge, sign up on the list. 

Today we did a group activity. Tony read a scenario to us all. Pretend our group is the membership chair for the Alice Springs Rotary Club in Australia. We have 3 potential new members who are eager to serve and they have pondered the four way test. They pose difficult questions, most notably, “How do we live the four way test in today’s polarized world?”  We divided our group into 3 subgroups to discuss this question. Each group’s discussion was then shared with the whole group. Suggestions are to use the test as a checklist for our personal conduct, for interactions with friends and family members, and to promote the four way test publicly. Other ideas include being open and honest in our communications, finding empathy when dealing with others, interpreting context in people’s lives, and being willing to recognize the value of differing opinions.  Phil’s group asked if we have a duty to address mistruths by others? It is important to maintain a sense of humor, assume positive intent and be open to joy. Following the four way test is very hard and one group got stuck on the first question, “Is it the truth?”. The truth is dependent on each person’s experience, upbringing, and values. We realized that each step in the test adds to the others.  And the test is aspirational; we can’t observe the test perfectly every moment of every day, but we can try our best to do so. 

Happy dollars were shared by Tony, Lora, Steve, Bill, Phil, Deb, and Denise.

Respectfully submitted,

Lora Miller, secretary