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2019–2020
President: Geoff Dunn
President-Elect: Catrina VanAtta
Vice President: Mary Kane
Treasurer: Jay O'Leary • Secretary: Joanne Lamoureux 

Stories
New Story April 07 2021

Today’s meeting:
Orinthia Montague, president of Tompkins Cortland Community College “Our Community College in Times of COVID”

Join the Zoom Meeting

March 31, 2021

WELCOME & TRADITIONS

A few weeks ago, President Geoff Dunn assured us that, unlike his weekly Almanac rundown of days till spring, till summer, till his term ends, he was not going to predict the number of days till the end of the pandemic. My guess is, that date will be different for everyone. How the “end” is defined — how you know you’re there — will be different for everyone, too. For example, here are some points along the continuum in my own life:

  • I spent three and a half days at my Health Department office last week (check).
  • When I got home (got home!) from work on Monday, my wife Chris said maybe it was time to fold up my 18”x36” work table so she could get the living room back (check).
  • I’m going to guess that by the end of this week, just about everyone at the Health Department will have crossed the threshold to the status of “fully vaccinated” (check).
  • COVID-19 is still 75% or more of my work time. And on Tuesday reached 110% (no check).

Conclusion: On my scale, it’s clearly not the end yet. — TS

Heidi GoldsteinPP* Heidi Goldstein’s bell gave a clear and crisp signal to open the meeting, and President Geoff welcomed the group with the weather forecast for April Fools Day — anywhere from 4-8 inches of snow! Welcome to upstate New York, where you can have need to use your car heater and air conditioner on the same day! (And, where even the best predictioneers can be duped my the models; for the most part, the snow did not come.)

President Geoff also noted that Baseball Season was to start the following day (as of Monday evening, the Phillies were 3 and 0, and the Cardinals were 1 and 2). In other almanac news, it was 81 days till the start of summer, and one year ago to the day that we had our first pandemic-induced ZOOM meeting. One entire year! Yikes!

The Four-Way Test was recited by the three Larrys — Thayer, Baum, and Robinson, with Q4 in unison (sort of).

The Thought for the Day was by Heidi Goldstein, who read poem about change by Mona Lake Jones.

There were no guests. Kathryn Mapes was “visiting” from the Lansing Ithaca Club.

* Past President

 



ANNOUNCEMENTS

IPP* Frank Towner was wearing a bow tie in honor of last week’s New Member Moment member, Hal Coghill, who quite often wears that particular sartorial item. After introducing him, Frank turned the yellow Zoom border over to Hal. Hal told the story of meeting Crossroads the Clown and liking him, then meeting YMCA CEO Frank Towner, and liking him, and all along not realizing the two were one and the same! Hal shared his screen and walked through a series of photos, telling us about his family, career, and particular interests as a volunteer firefighter, rock climbing, and in Traverse Ultra hiking.
Frank Towner 

Announcements from President Geoff included a report from the Board meeting on Monday, March 29. The Board regretfully accepted the (temporary) resignation of Stephanie Meyer. Also regretfully, there is a small list of members who have not yet paid their dues. If you know who you are, you are encouraged to get yourself off that list! If you don't know who you are, you will soon find out! In a clarification to the Youth Exchange announcement in last week’s newsletter, Linda Brisson reported that Youth Exchange has 3 of our current 7 students who hope to stay eligible for the currently suspended Youth Exchange program.

Being the fifth meeting of the month, all of last week’s donations were dedicated to the Rotary Fund at the Community Foundation. If you have ever served on the LAFF  committee, you’ll know that ’round about now is when you’d get an email from Jack Roscoe, calling the first meeting for the coming October’s event. And so it was fitting that donations were directed to fund Community Grants for 2021; LAFF as the designated fundraiser for these grants. Mary Berens, Mary Kane and Jean McPheeters spearheaded this drive, which included an email blast to the Club, asking members to consider a donation equal to what they would have spent to purchase LAFF tickets in 2020.

A full $2,200 was raised ahead of the meeting, and those members were recognized for their early contributions. Plus $5,000 had already been budgeted through the Community Foundation fund. The goal for the meeting was to get 20 happy dollars donations, and thereby take full advantage of the sponsor who pledged to match, dollar for dollar, up to $5,000.

  • President Geoff kicked off the donations with a shout out to PP Brian Wilbur, his work and Rotary mate
  • Larry Thayer $66 for his 66th wedding anniversary
  • Dave Martins daughter has purchased a new home
  • Heidi was happy!
  • Jack Roscoe donated in support of the “in lieu of the LAFF show that he was so involved with
  • Ted Schiele dedicated his donation to the club - in honor of every member of the club and all they do
  • Juliet Gibbs is celebrating her birthday today, visiting with friends and family all day long by video chat, including her Rotary Family
  • Brad Olsen added $20 in addition to his already pledged donation in honor of his Covid vaccine
  • Larry Robinson just got back from “The Village” in Florida – a community of old people and blinged out golf cards. Happy to back in Ithaca for snow
  • Millie Clark Maynard donated in honor of the work of the Community Grants Committee, which she is proud to serve on
  • Joanne Lamoureux celebrated the unexpected upside of pandemic – Facetiming with her granddaughter at bath time as the favorite grandparent
  • Dale Johnson celebrating the start of baseball season. As of this date, his Phillies are tied for first!
  • Dale Flinn is happy that he is vaccinated and his wife is now scheduled for her vaccine. Soon all the local Flinns will be vaccinated! Jack and Ron celebrated for their LAFF efforts
  • Linda Pasto donated in honor of all the CMC health workers who have been working tirelessly during this pandemic.
  • Mike Brown noted his 15 minutes of fame as “The Train Guy” in the Cortland newspaper, recognizing his volunteer work at the historical museum. At President Geoff’s behest, he shared the link: “Train guy” returns to railway roots
  • Lenore Schwager shared that her granddaughter is getting married in Florida. Now that Lenore is vaccinated, she will be able to attend on April 10!
  • Brian Wilbur shared a dollar per attending member (48) today as well as the $48 for LAFF, then rounded up to $100
  • Hal Cogill is getting his vaccine tonight
  • Richard Kops (as the 21st donor!) just wanted to support the grants effort, and looking forward to getting to know Hal Coghill
  • Frank Towner donated in chat
  • Nathan and Gail Lyman donated in chat
  • Kelly Buck, too
  • Jim Johnston donated, just because!
  • Ann Coyne donated yesterday by mail

A BIG ROUND OF APPLAUSE FOR ALL! *Immediate Past President

 



LAST WEEK’S PROGRAM

As part of the day’s program, Secretary Joanne Lamoureux offered a quick tutorial on using Clubrunner. Highlights included:

  • We’ve been using Clubrunner for 13 years
  • How to find the home page, which is managed by PP Brett Bossard
  • How to log in to the Member Section, with offers of assistance
  • Where to update your profile information, including encouraging members to use their personal email address rather than work email

The remainder of the meeting time was used in breakout sessions of roughly 8 people per room. The groups were encouraged to discuss the possibility of returning to in person meetings. The questions were:

  1. What “hybrid” approach to future meetings do you prefer?
  2. What change(s) would you make to our weekly meeting?

Kelly BuckThe members broke out for a bit more than 6 minutes, then reported back. President Geoff asked a scribe for each group to share their notes with him. There were lots of suggestions, with an emphasis on:

  1. Keeping the ZOOM option available for those who prefer to keep their distance, have accessibility issues, or are squeezed for time at work.
  2. There was a reiteration of adhering to CDC guidelines.
  3. Suggested signing up ahead to reserve an in-person seat.
  4. Alternating meetings from in person to ZOOM as a possibility
  5. Even now, people would like more break out times during ZOOM meetings as a chance to visit with each other!

President Geoff thanked everyone who stayed on till the end, recognizing that we went over by about 15 minutes!

 



THANK YOU ROTARIANS

Visiting Rotarians: None
Students: None

Workers:
  • Thought for the Day,Heidi Goldstein
  • Introductions, Rotary hosts introduced their guests
Zoom Manager:

Bulletin Reporter: Joanne Lamoureux
Photographer: Mike Brown
Bulletin Editor: Ted Schiele

Club Service Facilitators, Beverly Baker & June Losurdo
Sunshine Chair, Kellyann O’Mara

 



COMING THIS WEEK

April 7, 2021
Orinthia Montague, president of Tompkins Cortland Community College “Our Community College in Times of COVID”

Join the Zoom Meeting

 



 

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