Rotary Club of Nashoba Valley
July 30, 2020
7:30am
Pledge and Words (Mary Ann)
Happy/Sad fines: Bill - happy to be on vacation with family, sad about school postponement for 2 weeks; Susan - happy that son is turning 12 tomorrow, sad about Covid spikes in country; Chris - happy he is taking the week off, doing a PMC ride and having dinner with Howard and Ellen; Howard- congratulations to Glenn for stepping up next year, getting closer to moving his membership to Plymouth; Carol - sad that howard is leaving, can’t find Amex card; Rich - cat got outside but she came back and she is fine; Mary Anne - sad 10 year old grandson broke toe and can’t go to baseball practice but can golf; Laura - happy we have beautiful sunsets recently, playing hookie with Chris tomorrow; Chris M - happy to have seen Chris Spear while out walking the other day; Glenn - happy his daughter graduated from Nashoba last weekend done beautifully, sad about increasing # of Covid throughout country; Jacky - happy about cooler today, getting hang of social distancing; Mary - happy about a friend who graduated but sad she went to a graduation party that had no social distancing or boundaries; Ray - happy that their two grandsons from PA visiting indefinitely, sad about craziness out there with Covid still; Carolyn - happy visiting nephews tomorrow, fabulous job with graduation last weekend, Habitat having a 0.0 race next weekend at Bull Spit.
Donations Update (Chris) - Zelle@spearzone.com - can send all money sent for happy/sad fines to our club
Membership update—reaching out to new members. Please invite new members to one of our meetings. Particular targeting younger new members. Invite them to join us for an on line meeting.
Service projects:
- Lancaster IT tech support: Jacky - 4 students at different levels of comfort, trying to do it every other week. Worst part was getting a connector to the projector.
- Cards and letters for local nursing homes: Chris M. Routine now and going really well - people are really enjoying it. Ray dropped off cards and the activity director said residents love it.
- Repair Café update: Ray. Virtual Cafe June 20 - went very well but will need tweaking. Possible drop off service. Other Virtual Repair cafe’s -webinars on fix its. Info on repair cafe website.
- Service opportunities and resources for Covid-19: Jacky - Food drive last year the stuff a police car - wondering if they could do it again? The list has been updated.
- Backpack project: Catherine - Orders are almost ready. Coordinating now with Ron on actual orders.
- Bolton update: Mary Ann. $14K given to families in grants to families in need. Just funded a few more. 5K in October fundraiser either virtual or in person.
Global and District Grant update (Mary, Ray and Jacky)
Mary - process of continuing Colombia grant - missed RI deadline for matching funds, requesting additional $ from other grants that fell through. It’s been complicated because of delays and changes of leadership. Kenya and Ghana grant both cancelled. Richard asked about Malawi grant project and how to finish that and get it closed out.
Upcoming events and meetings:
- August 6, Club and Board Meeting
- November 8, Devens Dog Festival (Mary)
- Possible Christmas service activity: New England Home and Center for Veterans
- February 6, 2021, Rise Against Hunger
- June 2021: RYLA
8:00 – 8:30 a.m. Club Assembly
Vote on slate of officers for this coming year. Carolyn moves to approve, Glenn 2nd. Motion passes.
Discussion of fall meeting location: Discussion about social gatherings. Slaters no more than 6 people at a table but can’t reserve tables. All outside but under pavilion. Keeping 6’ apart difficult in a restaurant. Things are going well as is, let’s not push it was the overall feeling. Zoom regular meetings. Carolyn might plan an end of August social gathering.
Winter Festival - great event but we have no idea what winter will bring. Mary Ann feels that it probably won’t be because of tents. Brainstorming on ways to do parts of it virtually or modify it.
Visioning review (see attached) - Carolyn would like to do this again during the 2nd half of this Rotary year. District wide they are doing it virtually - faster and is working well. Rolling it out across the district so there will be a system to use.
Meeting adjourned at 8:31am.