Rotateller Rotary Club of Owego, NY
Tuesday, December 12, 2006 Gary Williams, Editor

GUESTS:

• It was good to have Chuck and Carol Preston back
• Stephen Gregory represented Interact
• We were very pleased to have Suzanne and Mrinalini as “non-guests”

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Carole LaPlante and Debbie Demers

MUSIC:

In honor of Fred (who has been a member for 41 years this month) we sang, “Smile”

FINES: John Spencer

• All those who have birthdays on even days
• Chuck – glad to see him!
• All those who did not participate in the student, holiday weekend.

Judy put in a happy dollar for all of the work that Laura and Carolyn did to make this weekend successful, but there was significant participation of club members. Many of us see this as being the core of Rotary – and yet there is so much more as Orv and Annette shared with us during the program.

Bernie thanked everyone for their generosity with gifts. The Interact members will be assisting at the party.

ANNIVERSARIES:

• Fred 1965
• Mark 1989
• Bernie and Dick Kelly 1992

MEMBERSHIP:

Al announced that there will be a membership meeting at 7:30 AM on Thursday at the Treadway.

MRINALINI got to cook Indian food for the students who stayed with the Armstrongs. One was from India and the other was from Brazil. She moved to a new family on Sunday and now has her own bedroom (and a goat).

SUZANNE was late to the party and missed the photo but Kathleen Adler could add her in later!

STEPHEN reported on the Interact involvement with the past weekend and the coming Christmas Party.

DECEMBER 19: Marie Lusins will come to tell us about her project in Africa

DECEMBER 26: Lindsey Adler will tell us about her experience abroad as a student.

PROGRAM:

Orv and Annette spoke about the Rotary Foundation. Orv reminded us that Rotary was originally formed as a social club, but soon evolved into a service organization. The first international meeting was in 1917 which was held in Atlanta. Clubs from two different countries were invited. The sixth president of RI, Arch Klumph, started what was to become the Rotary Foundation. At that time there were about 5000 members in Rotary. This did not take off quickly. By 1945, there was only $5000 and the first donation was made to an organization which would go on to become the Easter Seals Foundation. When Paul Harris died in 1947, money started to pour in. This year there will be over $100,000,000 in contributions. The Rotary Foundation has two primary arms of service; humanitarian and educational.

Annette shared that the Club has agreed to match individual donations of up to $100 for a total of $1000. This year so far, members have contributed:

• 1 gift of $1000
• 4 gifts of $100
• 1 gift of $200
• 2 gifts of $20
• 1 gift of $50

We have a member working on their fourth Paul Harris Fellowship

The Ambassadorial Scholar Program started in 1947. There have been over 40,000 scholars from 110 countries. Group Study Exchange started with a group from New Zealand in 1965 to see another culture and to see how their profession is practice in another country.

Rotary has teamed with a number of universities around the world on a Masters Program in conflict resolution. How to bring people together who have different ideas, but similar ideals.

District Simplified Grants support short-term community-based humanitarian projects.

Matching Grants commenced in 1965. RI will match the amount of money one district sends to another for a project.

Polio Plus started in 1985. In 1988, the UN put forth the challenge to eradicate polio world-wide. There has been a 99% reduction of polio in the world as a result of this effort. This effort decreased the donations to other RI projects and the need keeps increasing.

50/50 Carl

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