After the usual rituals and the usual victuals, Tony hopped out of his seat to offer a Happy Dollar for driving Dick here and arriving with a minute to spare. Next up was Scott who also offered a Happy Dollar, not because his wife is visiting her mother, but because she left recipes for him with a message of how to find the kitchen. Tom proposed a fine of one-and-nine on Tony for rushing into the meeting at the last minute. Tony defended himself by blaming his last minute entrance on heavy traffic on the way from Dick’s house. In a rare move, Tom withdrew the proposal. Brenda gave a Happy Dollar in celebration of the recently conducted food drive by four area high schools for which Spaulding collected an amount equaling the sum of the other three schools. In all, Spaulding students collected 1200 items. Scott proposed a fine of one-and-nine on Tony for being late to the meeting and something about singing. Tony said that he was rehearsing all the while driving through the parking lot. Fine passed. Doug gave two Happy Dollars for attending two days of the Barre Craft Fair and being very impressed.

 

 

 

 

 

Obsession With M&M's Caramels: Sarah rose to gain the attention of President Caroline and proposed a fine of one-and-nine on Tony eating caramel M&M’s meant for his wife, Cindy. [Not sure I got the rest of this right, but here goes.] It seems that Tony stole a bag of the M&M’s from George which he intended to give to Sarah since she is in a delicate condition. I guess Sarah suggested that he give them to Cindy, but a few minutes later, Sarah caught him eating them. Someone proposed two amendments to the fine; one-and-nine on Tony for stealing from George and the same for Scott for introducing caramel M&M’s into our meeting milieu. All fines passed.

 

Karl introduced Tony’s guest, Rennie Hebert, a former member of Barre Rotary and Scott introduced our resident guest Doug Bullett. Sue announced for a second time that Eddie Rousse has applied for membership.

 

 

 

Elizabeth La Perle announced the following:

 

 

 

 

Save the Date: On January 24^th we will be having lunch with members of the Interact Club at Spaulding High School. Brenda will soon be submitting the necessary paperwork in order to be chartered.

 

Next Week’s Meeting: We will meet at Downstreet, 22 Keith Ave. Come a little early, please.

 

Membership Moment: Scott reported on a recent trip to Walmart where his wife found that the small bags of M&M were, including caramel, on a higher shelf. Like Scott who had given up on finding the small bags, perhaps we have given up on finding a potential member and we only need to look on higher shelf to find another, even a caramel-like one. [That was not quite it, but I think that this is close.]

 

 

 

 

On Wednesday, November 22^nd I conducted an After Action Review (AAR) of the Third Annual Rotary Ball with members of the committee. The two basic questions were: What went well? And what can be improved? Regarding the first question there was consensus that the event went smoothly, participation of Rotarians increased, the idea of a masquerade event was well received and the dance lesson and silent auction were successful. There were a number of suggestions for improving the event including: refining the ticket selling process; making some changes in the show’s format; starting the advertisement efforts earlier; making changes in the make-up of the judging panel; including a wine raffle; and making it a dedicated event.

At today’s meeting, I presented the results to the members present and asked for additional ideas. Some of those ideas were: having competitors dance the same spicy dance; developing a system of email addresses; having a raffle to gather contact information; continuing the participation of Spaulding JROTC.

Refinement of these suggestions and ideas will continue and we welcome the input of anyone at anytime. [For the full AAR report, click Read More…]