Owego Rotary Club Rotateller

Lori Valentin, who is from Owego and is attending Fredonia. She spent last week at St. Bonaventure in a RYLA program which had participants ages 18 to 25.

MUSIC:

Carl and Carolyn led us in “Jingle Bells” (I think that I felt just a little cooler!)

BIKE TIOGA:

Al is pleased to report that it has been arranged to get all of the markings done. Some Rotarians are still needed to assist the Lockheed Martin employees who will be part of the safety program. Judy also passed around a sign-up sheet for the registration table.

STUDENT EXCHANGE:

Laura announced that our student from India will be arriving on Monday, August 14. Maria, who just came back from the same town, will be presenting on the next day. Our student from The Netherlands will be arriving on August 22.

PROGRAM:

John Spencer introduced Howard Garrity from the Small Business Administration. He has worked in this area for 34 years. When he started, there were 27 people in his office in Elmira. Now it is down to two. This is a federal agency which will guarantee loans. This can be used when you can’t get the bank to loan the money without the SMA guarantee. The purpose is to stimulate business and the economy. He shared that NY is a tough climate for business between energy costs and taxes and it is difficult to measure their outcomes.

Lori won the 50/50.

Linda found an article by Rudy Giuliani in which he discussed the five books on leadership which he feels are the best. One is Churchill: A Study in Greatness. It is a readable study of this unusual man. One aspect which I found different in this book is that more emphasis was put on the importance of his wife, Clementine. While Best is clearly a fan of Churchill, he sees him as human and does not conceal his warts. The following excerpts are ones that I hope you find interesting and thought-provoking.

…he was entirely a man of his day in sharing with all the military men of his age, and without doubt the majority of educated civilians, an unquestioning acceptance of war as the ultimate arbiter of disputes between states and a normal accompaniment of imperial expansion and defense.

The extension of suffrage to women was not the straightforward human rights issue simplistically imagined by the unhistorical. While many men still had no vote, it was a tricky question as to which women should have one; the two questions, suffrage in general and women’s suffrage in particular, could not logically be dealt with separately;

Britain had at last become a recognizable democracy, virtually all men over twenty-one and all women over thirty being enfranchised in 1918;

Nothing makes squabbling parties find common cause more quickly than foreign interference.

Rotary Club of Owego, NY

GUEST:

MUSIC:

BIKE TIOGA:

STUDENT EXCHANGE:

PROGRAM:

Lori won the 50/50.

Rotateller Rotary Club of Owego, NY
Tuesday, August 01, 2006 Gary Williams, Editor