Song:                                      Star Spangled Banner led by Suzanne Greenough

Pledge of Allegiance:           Led by Joe Badenhoff, the Acton-Boxboro club President

Prayer:                                   Eloquently led by Rev. Dr. John Lombard

Bulletin Writer:                    Andy Mahoney

 

Provocation or Observations:    It was a gorgeous Fall day outside with the Red Sox in Cleveland to take on the Indians in Game 1 of the ALDS tonight and Tom Brady returning to the Patriots to face the Browns on Sunday, also in Cleveland.

 

Visiting Rotarians & Guests:  Visiting Rotarians included (i) our esteemed District Governors, Skip & Pat Doyle, (ii) our Concord club alum and Assistant Governor, Bob Guernsey (now of the Tyngsboro/Dunstable club) and (iii) the aforementioned President of the A-B club, Bob Badenhoff.  Our guests today included Hillary Taylor’s high school friend, Alexander Peabody from California and Doug Detweiler’s better half, Ingrid.  Neither one availed themselves of our new guest information packet.

 

Happy or Sad Fines:   Ruth Armknecht paid for her sister coming to visit and an extra $5 for having her picture in the paper.  Dave Robertson was saddened by the effects of Hurricane Matthew on our friends in the Caribbean.  Andrea Zall was happy that she and her husband have signed up for the Rotary service trip to Guatemala in February and encouraged others from the club to sign up as well.  Hillary Taylor was happy to be spending a weekend in NH with old friends from her high school days.  Leigh Ann was happy to get an Oktoberfest plug from Carmelita at Bay State Rocks radio.  Florence Goulet was proud of her niece who was the best National Honor Society student.  Joe Badenhoff paid because he was happy to be among friends in the Concord club and Pat Doyle promptly followed him for the same reason.  Therese Olivier paid for her friend coming in from Germany for two weeks and also for someone she knows who managed to get a hotel room in Florida as part of the coastal evacuation.  Rosario Rizzo reminded everyone of the club’s commitment to the Friends of St. Joseph in Haiti through Paul D’Oliveira and reported that they were relatively unscathed by the hurricane but the local clubs with whom we partner in Haiti were not.  Michael Lacorcia paid for all of the October birthdays in his immediate family (of which there are quite a few).  Finally, Frank Chen paid a sad fine because of a malware FEDEX e-mail his wife received while awaiting a package.  Don’t open these e-mails.

 

Announcements:   Bob Badenhoff announced that the A-B Club is hosting a murder mystery dinner on Saturday, October 22^nd with all proceeds going to fight hunger and local food pantries.  If we sell a minimum of six tickets at $55, then he’ll donate the proceeds to our specific food pantry.  Sharon Spaulding relayed what’s happening with our Interact Club (CCHS) and our Earlyact Club (Carlisle Middle School) with Alan Bogosian taking the lead on a fundraiser for Africa and the older students continuing involvement with Stop Hunger Now’s event in Lexington.  After Pres. Steve showed his cool video on Oktoberfest, Chris Alphen announced that he needs up to 100 metal stakes for the snow fence, if anyone has any in their garage.  In addition, there is a huge need for many volunteers so please answer those e-mails.     

 

Program:  District Governors Skip & Pat Doyle were our featured speakers today and spent some time discussing how Rotary is perceived, especially by Millennials.  Essentially, the outside world thinks that Rotarians are old white businessmen who take long lunches and wear brown socks.  Millennials think Rotary is old, traditional and lacks vitality, creativity and diversity.  To address these perceptions, RI has allowed the clubs to do the following: (i) vary the meeting times, including e-meetings, with a minimum threshold of 2x per month, (ii) relax the membership rules, (iii) remove six (6) membership hurdles to narrow it done to just “someone with good character who is willing to serve the community” and (iv) retain the classification system to strengthen clubs through diversity.  Basically, they are looking to increase structural flexibility to grow the membership base.

 

Besides increasing membership, the other themes they touched on included the following:  (A) Re-visit your Visioning effort which may be at the end of its 3-year life, (B) raising the fee for RYLA students to $300 per student to close the deficit going forward on a budget now at $50,000 per year and (C) celebrate the Rotary Foundation Centennial with some music in the hopes of bringing in a new $1.0 million. 

 

Finally, Skip & Pat encouraged everyone to attend the Rotary Conference in Providence, RI during April 28-30, 2017.  That conference will host clubs from Connecticut, Mass. and Rhode Island.  There will be a Paul Harris luncheon on Friday the 28^th followed by a dinner with John Germ, RI’s President.  On Saturday morning, there will be business meetings, workshops and Youth Day.  Your afternoon will be free to explore Federal Hill, the RISD museum and various other local attractions.         

 

Door Prize:  A Starbuck’s gift card (and a lot of free press) was won by Bob Badenhoff, whose name seemed to be mentioned everywhere in this bulletin. 

 

Next Week’s Meeting:  at The Colonial Inn Tuesday, October 11 at 7:30 am and Thursday, October 13^th starting at 12:15pm.  Helen Halloran will be the bulletin writer.