February 14, 2024 Breakfast Meeting Notes

 

The 50/50 was won by Nancy.

 

Bill won the chance to draw for the ace of spades but was unsuccessful. The game will continue. 

 

Tony presented his NH trivia: places in the Plymouth area. 

 

The speech contest was scheduled for today, but we did not have any students elect to participate. Neither did the Bristol club. so the winner of Lincoln/Woodstock will be the area winner. Denise will attend the Lincoln Woodstock contest and it would be nice to have a couple of our members go with her. 

 

We had a discussion of how to encourage participation in the future. We may wish to go into the schools ourselves and be sure we follow up with interested students. The topic is out by early January, so we could perhaps schedule the contest for another time, as the juniors and seniors are working on college applications and financial aid applications right now and this contributed to their decision not to participate. Sharon suggested that speaking to the performing arts people and/or the government courses, rather than just focusing on the English classes, might turn up some interested people. Steve also suggested trying to get a cadre of sophomore students for a local contest so they would be prepared to move up to the district conference the following year. Bill remarked that the teachers start promoting the contest only when the topic is announced; perhaps we should talk to the students at the end of this year or in September to promote it ahead of time. George noted that there is a new principal coming in at Plymouth High School and we should try to get that person involved with promoting the speech contest.

 

The topic of the speech contest may have also posed some problems. This year’s topic was “How can we increase hope in our schools?” Some students were excited about this topic, while others were more confused about how to interpret it. Sharon also noted that this seemed to be a bit negative, presuming that hope was lacking in the school system. The idea was taken from Rotary International President Gordon McInally’s theme for this year, which is “Create Hope in the World.” Mike read a passage from Rotary magazine from McInally’s initial letter to Rotary, which discussed the topic in more detail. Steve noted that Maria Sanders of PSU has written a book on how communities can promote hope; it all centers on building strong relationships with other people. She has done a “happiness quest” here in Plymouth. Tony noted how important it is to treat people with courtesy and respect and try to be positive if you can.

 

Beth reported that the Chamber of Commerce/Rotary joint event last week went very well. People had a good chance to mingle and there were comments and questions, for our speakers, which is unusual for Chamber events. There was particular enthusiasm for Alicia’s presentation on the transition grant. Alicia et al will be meeting at the high school tomorrow at 9:30 to encourage students to participate in the grant process. There may be some potential new members from the Chamber event (Tiffany at the Covered Bridge was very interested). Sharon brought extra fliers from the event to today’s meeting that we can share with our contacts.

 

Steve noted that we now have sponsorship opportunities for our own foundation. If community members want to support our scholarship program, they can go online and donate to it. 

 

Braden announced the winners of the Super Bowl squares: Denise, Lora, Lora, and Ken Smith (Peggy’s husband). Checks will be in the mail soon. 

 

The District is having 4 regional training sessions instead of one large one this year. Ours is on March 2 and is suggested for secretaries, treasurers, board members and other incoming officers. It will be held from 8:30-11am; registration is available at the district website and may be mandatory (there were contradictory statements on the web site). The link to register for this event is:  https://www.crsadmin.com/EventPortal/Registrations/PublicFill/EventPublicFill.aspx?evtid=b3acdb6a-7e2a-4005-8b2c-08ced3226343

 

This Friday morning there will be a Zoom board meeting at 7 am. We have gotten another request for funding from a farm in Bristol that suffered a serious fire recently and this will be discussed at the board meeting.

 

Denise has been trained in grant writing for this year and Tony will take the class at the end of the month. Steve wants our club to apply for a $400,000 global grant for the Common Man for Ukraine.

 

Margaret LaBarge has started to work on our club website in the last couple of weeks. ClubRunner will also be having some changes and they will speak at NE PETS about those changes. 

 

Steve noted that he had sent out detailed financial information to members. We will have him review the numbers at next week’s meeting and he can answer any questions at that time.

 

Happy dollars were shared by Mike, Tony, Beth, Walter, and Alex.

 

Beth noted that the Circle Program has a donor who has made a matching grant of up to $30,000. Donations made to Circle through the end of March will be matched.. 

 

Respectfully submitted,

 

Lora Miller, secretary