Happy Monday Barre Rotarians. 

Last week we had our Club Assembly meeting so there wasn't a special guest speaker. 

FINES & DOLLARS

As everyone got settled Bob started the meeting with a fine on Karl, 1 and 9 for being in his line of sight. The fine received a quick second and passed with very little discussion. Karl did add that he felt like he was in the line of fire. For a little context: Bob was sitting all alone on the opposite side of the room. Perhaps Karl should sit next to Bob next time… purely for safety reasons.

Tony added a sad dollar to the coffers for having to miss lunch with Carol Day, Peggy & Charlene as it was at the same time as our Rotary lunch. Though he is happy Carol is feeling better. 

Caroline added another sad dollar because she was missing Jan's home baked goods for desert last week. Jan will occasionally treat us to something delicious for desert.

Bob had a couple of happy dollars one for safe travels to and from San Diego last week, even though he was a day later returning home than originally planned. He also shared that the top management of Polycorp is leaving. He also shared a little bit about the granite industry and it's inner workings and how this change could affect the industry in either a positive or negative way. 

Jan followed up with a couple of dollars for her granddaughter Chole who has a degree in Civil Engineering from Norwich, where she's been working as a project manager from HP Cummings.  

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Eddie shared that he will be out of town Feb 2-8 and will need help with coverage at the BOR Concession Stand during that time. This weekend was incredibly successful at the concession stand making $1,400 in one day! This last weekend was the Pink the Rink game for SHS where both teams won their games. 

He has also reached out to Michelle at SHS about the potential for them to take over the concession stand in the future. 

We also voted to donate up to $250 to the SHS Hockey senior night programs.

Karl gave us a brief update on the 2027 Barre Rotary Art Splash, things are moving ahead. He's been working on getting the forms for the next art splash and securing some sponsors. We already have one paid sponsor for the next art installment. 

Caroline shared that we have been informed that there are students from SHS that would like to participate in the speech contest, being  held at our regular meeting on Feb 11. She also shared that Brenda Waterhouse, Dan Barlow and Paul will be attending as the judges. 

I shared that we received a thank you card from the Milton/Colchester Rotary club for sponsoring one of their RYLA students last year. We're hopeful that we will have a local student to sponsor this year. 

We held the RI Magazine contest, the only participant was Caroline, who did win! She got a $50 gift certificate to Sarducci's in Montpelier. 

Jim visited Bertil in Woodridge recently and asked the staff there about having lunch one week. Staff gave an ideal timeframe for them, plan to see that on the schedule in April soon. 

CLUB BUSINESS

Financials: 

Ted shared that the foundation accounts are in good shape, we have money earmarked for the 2027 Barre Rotary Art Splash. The Legacy Fund sits at $38K and a reserve for giving. 

Eddie shared that we are also in great shape financially for the clubs operations. 

Upcoming Events:

Pie for Brunch & Community Grants

3/14 from 11am - 1pm, the applications for grants are up on the website. We will have a sign up sheet closer to the event for help, there will be an emphasis on clean up this year as there was little help after the event last year. 

Spring Clothing Drop & Swap

5/16 will be the drop, 5/17 will be the swap. We will be soliciting donations to cover the space rental. 

Caroline is heading up the Membership Committee with the help of Tony & myself to help try to get some new members into the club. 

The next discussion was the proposal for a new meeting time starting July 1st after changeover. At the last board meeting the board discussed the findings of the survey that was given out for members to fill out. The boards proposal was to have a hybrid schedule with one noon meeting and one evening meeting, decreasing the number of meetings a month to 2 per month. The plan is to do this as a trial and review after 6 months to see how it's working. We don't have specifics at this time as to when noon meetings and evening meetings will be at this time and will be hashed out as we get closer to the switch. 

One concern is that there is no Presidential succession at this time. Nicole is the incoming President for the ‘26-’27 Rotary Year. We will be looking for a PE and Vice President, as well as a Secretary to put on the slate of officers for next Rotary year.