May 31, 2023
Reporter: Gail Lyman
Wednesday’s meeting:Eleni Casseri, student at Cornell’s College of Veterinary Medicine
“Supporting the Health of Dairy Cows”
National Chocolate Ice Cream Day
COLTIVARE and on Zoom
President Mary Kane affirmed that for many of us it has been a week of reflection after last meeting’s inspirational Visitors’ Day where our club did a great job of “spreading the word about Rotary” to our guests.
To think about the truths that guide our lives as Rotarians, we recited the Four-Way Test.
Our sole guest was Kimmy Jones from Hospicare, guest of Frank Towner.
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
As Loretta Goss sees our Rotary Club get back into the swing of things by building our membership, she finds a 1947 message from our Rotary founder Paul Harris to be appropriate for our current times:
“The club grew by leaps and bounds, and representatives of different nationalities, religions and political faiths came in. Complete tolerance prevailed. Our peace and tranquility soon burst their bounds; however, we ceased to be content with isolationism and began Community Service, built upon the rock of fellowship and goodwill and that foundation has never been shaken.”
ANNOUNCEMENTS
- President Mary assured us that although Coltivare is closed to the public from May 26 to the beginning of July, we will continue to “use it as our home” to have lunch meetings
Mary announced that the Binghamton Rumble Ponies plays her hometown team of the Portland Sea Dogs on June 16th (Mirabito Stadium, Binghamton; Service Club Night for District 7170). The group rate is $8.00 per ticket; to order tickets, contact Hannah at 607-722-3866. June 16th is fireworks night at the stadium, and Daryl Strawberry will be making an appearance.- Geoff Dunn reminded us that the Nominating Committee comes to the club membership twice a year, at the end of the calendar year to approve the slate of officers and again at the end of the Rotary year (June 30th) to approve the slate of board members-at-large. The slate of candidates includes Aly Evans, Jeremiah Craig, and Susan Riley. We will pass a motion next meeting to move and approve this slate. Geoff thanked Richard Kops for completing his maximum of three one-year terms as an at-large board member.
FOUNDATION MINUTE
Jean McPheeters presented a Paul Harris Fellow +3 pin to Linda Pasto.
Linda taught nursing at TC3 for many years and is a “fine fellow person.”
LAST WEEK’S PRESENTATION
“Business of the Club”
President Mary presented two topics for decision for this month’s Business of the Club Meeting: 1) Reflecting on last week’s remarkably successful Visitors’ Day, can what we have learned be applied to building our membership? 2) How do we maximize our resources this coming Rotary year when we raise funds, taking into consideration club priorities?
Topic 1Dale Flinn felt our Visitors’ Day was “one of the best possible ways to introduce people to our club” and inspire people to join. Jean McPheeters emphasized the importance of showing visitors how we make a difference in our local and international communities by demonstrating the “before and after” of our contributions. Linda Pasto emphasized the importance of providing a welcome, friendly atmosphere where people can “make connections.” Sherrie Negrea felt it important to communicate how receptive our club members were to provide assistance to her committee that raised funds for Ukraine and concluded her remarks with “you got to ask” if you expect the club to act.
President Mary wrote in her agenda brief how our Visitors’ Day meeting had “a room full of new friends” with all attending having an opportunity to learn about our priorities through Sherrie’s heartfelt, informative and compelling presentation. Ending our discussion, Mary asked each of us to think about the ways we can move forward to increase our membership, especially within the context of what we started on both of our Visitors’ Days.
Topic 2
President Mary then asked us to discuss in our table groups how best to raise funds for our club’s priorities (community and international grants, youth exchange, youth scholarships, Rotary Harvest). She emphasized how the Funds for Action committee is taking its “charge very seriously to make sure that our efforts to raise funds for important causes are aligned, integrated, and effective.” She invited us all to get involved in the process.
Using worksheets containing all the ideas for raising funds from our April meeting, we were asked to choose ideas that we supported and rank each of them (1 as lowest to 3 as highest) in terms of financial potential, level of volunteer effort, fun factor, club interest, need to collaborate with others, and personal interest. One person from each table reported on those responses that were supported.
Some table leaders spoke generally about the entire fundraising process for the year by recommending one signature event and smaller events aimed at promoting our club in the community.
Other club members supported specific actions, such as an in-person auction to be held at the Hanger Theatre, a virtual silent auction, a service auction, Karaoke night, a resurrection of the “Little Apple Fall Follies” concert, a live auction raffle, pickleball tournament, Halloween competition with a march of pets in costumes, Pancake Day designed to make money, and a chicken barbeque.
Kelly Buck, a special events planner, emphasized that we have to keep in mind how many “feet on the ground” are necessary for putting on any big event.
President Mary concluded by asking, “What are we going to do with this information? What strategies are necessary to get these events off the ground?” The club is looking forward to the decisions on this process.
HAPPY DOLLARS
Happy Dollars were offered in support of our Community Grants program:
- Jeremiah Craig: thanked Jean McPheeters for delivering the mixed media artwork that Jeremiah bought from Daniel McPheeters’ art show
- Katie Marks: Heidi Schreck’s “What the Constitution Means to Me” is being co-produced and performed by the Kitchen Theater (May 30–June 11) and the Hanger Theater (June 15–24)
- Greg Kops: proud of his daughter graduating from Cornell University with a double major in French and Psychology
Linda Pasto: thrilled to be the mother-of-the-bride for her daughter’s July 7th wedding- Kellyann O’Mara: proud of her daughter graduating with a degree in Optometry that follows in the footsteps of one sister who is a pharmacist and the other a lobbyist
- Sarah Segal: proud of her youngest son graduating from high school and then off to Buffalo State
Mike Katz: joined Island Health & Fitness after being inspired by Dr. William Shang’s talk on “Age Related Muscle Loss” at our May 17th meeting- Ravi Walsh: appreciated Kelly Buck sharing with his Visitors’ Day guest about all that Rotary does
THANK YOU ROTARIANS
Newsletter Reporter: Gail Lyman
Photographer: Mike Brown
Greeter: Sarah Segal
Newsletter Editor: Loralyn Light
Setup/Teardown: Brad Carruth, Steve Johnson, Harlin McEwen
Cashier/Kettle Watcher: Juliet Gibbs
Audio/Visual Setup: Bez Thomas, Mike Brown
Recording Archive: Paul Martin; click
hereClub Service Facilitator: June Losurdo
