Club Meeting of December 16, 2009
This morning's meeting was a club assembly during which committee chairs made presentation to the club on their activities. The report of the International Committee and the Membership Committee follows. In addition, the tree cutting fundraiser held at Maine Bucket on Saturday was a success as much FUN was had and the club raised $1,614.05. Thank you to all who participated. There will not be a meeting on 12/23 as members will take time to enjoy the Christmas week with family. Our next meeting is on 12/30 when Dr. Christopher Cyr will provide a classification speech on the benefits of Chiropractic care. This should be a cracking good time.
International Committee:
We are committed to a project in Haiti called Theo's Work Inc. (Proje Espwa) which was founded by Father Marc Boisvert of Lewiston. This organization brings hope to the children of Haiti, and it functions as an orphanage, school, and medical clinic. It owns its own land, grows much of its own food, provides local employment, and teaches its residents skills in self reliance. It is recognized in international circles as one of the most outstanding grass roots organizations in the world. We have been contributing to Theo's Work since the beginning of this decade, and we are prepared to send the project a check for $1500 this year.
As a result of attending the District (7790) Foundation meeting in Waterville in November, we found out that the District can match local grants $ for $, so we are preparing anapplication for District Simplified Grant (DSG) which is due February 15. We are in communication with Jack Reynolds, the business manager for Theo's Work, and he has given us some language to justify our request for matching funds. We will submit the application to Elaine Toussaint in January 2010.
Thank you,
Christos
Membership:
We currently have two projects ongoing in the Membership Committee. The first project was just launched last week when we passed out Invitation Cards to any club members who were willing to take them. Charlene did a great job in getting the Cards produced and I think that they will be successful. Martin brought this idea from his old club and I am looking forward to making them available for all members to use going forward. The Invitation Cards are an easy way to invite someone to breakfast and it gives them a take-away that they can put in their pocket and remember that they were invited to experience Rotary. The second project is still in the development stages. We want to have every club member take a personal survey about why they are in Rotary and why they stay a member of Rotary. Mike is currently working on developing a Survey Monkey based on a questionnaire that we will modify from the Rotary Leadership Institute.
Thank you,
Van