Granite Chips august 3, 2011

Posted by Carolyn Dawes 
 
 

Jack started us in a very high key, and we squeaked our way through the usual song.  Most people were laughing through the pledge, yet somehow Kevin managed to offer an eloquent grace.  In a preemptive move, Jack fined himself for making the club sound like castrati.

 

Bertil offered a toast to Ron (but no pancakes or eggs) for his incredible work coordinating last weekend’s breakfast.

 

This opened the door for Ron to give a report on the breakfast, though his report was more inspirational than informative.  After the sound of violins died down, he reported that the club served 1,200 (though the actual ticket count was 1,160).  He said the boy scouts were a great help with moving stuff, and he thanked everyone who worked on the event.  Karl said the department of corrections provided people to help, also.

 

http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTdHKh5Q1rlcql5cIVYxlMysyLZ3e0eGcUjlVG0Uf2_JSf1LWn-_A<![endif]>Jack proposed a fine of 1+9 on Karl for wasting food.  Apparently, Karl was tossing pancakes at people during the breakfast.  Bob defended Karl by saying it added ambience.  Claire said she remembered the good old days when grappa was being added to the OJ behind the serving lines, and everybody was singing Italian songs.  Tom rose to amend the fine to include Ron for the light-as-a-feather placemats that were being blown all over the place.  Tom recommended self-adhesive versions next year.  Both the amendment and the original fine passed.

 

Karen gave a Happy Dollar for the hat Karl wore at the breakfast.  If you didn’t see him, he looked something like TV chef personality, Guy Fieri.  It’s a great look for you, Karl!

 

Claire offered a Happy Dollar because one of our regular breakfast attenders offered to help out next year, so has been added to the “Friends of Barre Rotary” group.

 

Tom proposed a fine on Joe.  He said he was All Shook Up when he saw Joe impersonating Elvis in the parade over the weekend.  The fine passed.

 

Karl gave a Happy 47 cents (he claimed that’s all the money he had, but you’ll see later that’s not true) because he recently sold the paging and telephone answering portions of his business.  Only 47 cents!?!?  Must be he hasn’t collected on the sale, yet.

 

Kevin gave a Happy Dollar for the beautiful weather, and because every seat is full.  Bob then proposed a fine of 1+1 ½ on “the administration” for dumbing down the club by setting up less tables and chairs just to improve the numbers.  Sue, who was not happy about being lumped in with “the administration”, said she took exception to being referred to as dumb.  The conversation went south from there.  There was an accusation that Sue was trying to filibuster.  Tom rose to amend the fine to 1+9.  Karen tried the old “glass half full/half empty” metaphor, which nobody was buying, and Bob invoked the name of Norman Vincent Peale.  The fine passed on anybody willing to claim they are part of “the administration”.  Not sure how many people that ended up being.

 

President Karen passed around (another) card for George, who continues to recover from double knee replacement surgery.

 

P. Karen said the Club came within 5 of selling all the Miata car raffle tickets, mostly thanks to Mario.

 

Sue gave the Secretary’s report.  We had two guests:

Bill Brown, frequent visiting Rotarian from Parsipanny, NJ

Jim Toher, visiting Montpelier Rotarian, and Amber’s boss (we don’t envy Jim!)

 

Today we celebrated August birthdays and anniversaries:

Birthdays                             Anniversaries

Dan Jones                           Steve Lambert (1 year)

Adam Martin                     Obie Wells (31 years)

John Nichols                       Ron Parnigoni (41 years – all perfect attendance!)

Bob Pope

Amber Vecciarelli

 

Joe said next week’s meeting will be at Rotary Park, where we’ll have our annual lunch picnic.

 

Joe introduced our speaker, Martin Hahn, executive director of Community Capital of VT.  Martin’s talking points were:

  • He started with a groaner joke about flashers – it could only get better from there.
  • CCV has a pool of funds available for loans, it started in central Vermont, but went state-wide about six years ago.  CCV has about $2.5 million in loaning capacity, and mostly loan to businesses and micro-entrepreneurs (5 or fewer employees).
  • CCV assists people with developing business and marketing plans.
  • Loans range up to $50,000 and are offered for both start-up and expansion.
  • They specialize in supporting higher-risk ventures, and last year wrote off 12% of their loan capital.  The interest rate is high (9-11%) due to the high risk of the loans.
  • The funds come from federal community development block grants.  They also administer the Vermont state JobStart fund, which offers up to $25K for job creation and preservation.
  • Other products offered include a revolving line of credit and grants for technical assistance and materials.
  • CCV currently serves around 100-120 loans at the moment.
  • Most operating money comes through the interest collected on the loans.  They also receive an administrative fee from the state for handling JobStart, and they do some fund-raising.
  • There are volunteer opportunities by serving on the board of directors or on one of the regional loan committees.  Martin said he would also be interested in hearing any great idea for volunteer involvement.

 

Prez Karen thanked Joe for the great programs he arranges, and thanked Amber for filling in as sergeant-at-arms.

 

Karl rose to give a Happy $20 (after having claimed he only had 47 cents earlier in the meeting).  he recently won a court case after many years, and will now be able to install a tower in Hardwick.

 

Ron gave a Happy $5 because of the great family support he has for the breakfast.  His sons-in-law participate each year, and one of them travels all the way from Georgia!

 

Chet gave a Happy Dollar because the City Council approved the Labor Hall requests for funds from the Semprebon Fund.  The money will allow the Labor Hall to pay off its mortgage, replace its ancient tables & chairs, and do some structural repairs to the roof.

 

Not to be outdone by all the money flowing around, Steve self-fined with a dollar, admitting that he dumped a nearly full pitcher of water right at the beginning of the meeting (even before the bell had rung), with most of the water landing at Karl’s place and dripping into his lap.  Karl was nice enough not to fine Steve, but he felt guilty enough that he paid $5 anyway.

 

Bob held the winning raffle ticket, but no luck with the marbles.