Rotateller Rotary Club of Owego, NY
Tuesday, March 25, 2008 Gary Williams, Editor

VISITORS AND GUESTS:

• Ron LaFritz, guest of Bob Kingston
• Alice Truman, my guest
• Paul Stear, prospective member

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Mati and Michelle

MUSIC:

Carolyn bravely led us through “Smile”. Not easy to play and it achieved its goal. We all sang and smiled.

FINES:

John Spencer stood in for Susan and fined all of the Carols, Caroles, and Carolyns.

• Bob, for the funeral joke
• Janelle seemed guilty
• Bob Fisher paid $5 for shameless self-promotion

HAPPY DOLLARS:

John contributed a happy dollar for Fred who was club president 40 years ago (and sponsored John as a member, Steve, and many more). Fred also contributed.

Orv presided today in Matt’s absence.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

• There are still shirts available for $25
• Donations are still welcome for the STAP Pantry which is a district project for AIDS
• District Conference: There are hand-outs. If you would like to attend, please give your application to Carolyn. Information will be on our web site.
• There is a program tomorrow evening in Waverly on the water project we have jointly sponsored with the Waverly Club.
• Board of Director nominations and voting are coming.
• This is the last week to nominate a high school junior to attend RYLA.

Highlights of the March 20, 2008 Owego Rotary board of directors meeting

February attendance: 60%; 14 members with 100% attendance; 59 members at end of February due to the death of Paul Stear. Recent inductions: Jack Sullivan 3/11, Tara Heiss 3/18; one termination due to death of Paul Stear; also loss of honorary member Betty Richards. Resignations received and accepted: Ann Lowdermilk and Jeannette McMullen. Applications for membership received from Kristen Luce, sponsored by Susan English; Alice Truman sponsored by Gary Williams. A contribution in memory of Betty Richards was received from Olum’s, because Betty’s son is an Olum’s employee. Owego Rotary sent condolences to family of former Rotarian Barbara Fink; sent a club donation to Rotary Foundation in memory of Betty Richards. Owego Rotary received a thank you for club members attending game from Binghamton Bearcats.

Those attending the Rotary Leadership Institute 3/29/08 are: Course I: JoEllen Rose, Carol Cavataio, Tara Heiss, Bill Russell. Course II: Maria Dixson, Laura Costello. No graduate course available.

A project list for Spring/Summer was submitted by the planning group after interviewing Jeff Soules of the village and some suggestions from club members.

It was decided:

• to supply and install mile markers around the walking path and to supply and install benches (as many as are removed from the area of the canoe dock because of the new Riverwalk project) at Marvin Park under the direction of chairman Merle Lessler.
• to accomplish line painting at Marvin Park basketball and tennis courts, and install bricks around village trees to contain mulch. Chairman to be sought for these projects.
• to encourage local scouts to take on the project of replacing a children’s playhouse in conjunction with Owego Rotary.
• to respond with help if the village cemetery group needs help, but not to make this a Rotary initiative.

It was learned that extra trashcans requested are to be supplied by a village grant. No need for Rotary action.

A decision is still out on if/how to recognize village workers for their efforts for the lighting of the village in December.

The flowerbed clean-up and planting in the Spring and road clean-up efforts in Spring and Fall will continue. A person to head these groups will be sought.

Next meeting Thursday, April 17, 2008 at 7:30 a.m. at Owego Treadway Inn

Mati enjoyed Easter at St. Patrick’s Church, especially since churches are not heated in Germany.

Joao enjoyed visiting Rochester, RIT, and Niagara Falls. He is headed to Albany this coming weekend.

PROGRAM:

Steve introduced Bob Fisher who spoke about Community Banks. At this time there are approximately 9,000 individual banks in the country. 15 years ago when Bob started in the industry, there were 15,000 banks. Most countries have only a few banks. John Steele Gordon has written about banking and especially the history of the central bank in our country in a few very readable and interesting books. Bob mentioned the categories of banks:

• Investment banks
• Non-bank banks (like GMAC)
• Money Center Banks (like HSBC)
• Regional Banks (like M & T, Citizens, and Key Bank)
• Community Banks such as TSB and Chemung Canal with a tie to the local community

The original version of TSB was started in 1884 in Spencer. It merged in 1961 with the Candor bank which first started in 1864.

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