Whether it was a commitment to helping achieve a quorum for our club’s annual meeting or simply end-of-the-year sentimentality, we had a record number in attendance today.
President Bob started our meeting promptly, leading us in the pledge of allegiance. Then Sue Klock began her invocation with “A Child’s Prayer for Peace” by Ted Geisel aka Dr. Suess, then segued to invoking our members and their partners to work for peace in a variety of ways, including urging us to spread peace by listening to one another, even when we don’t agree.
In addition to Mayor Marcia Leclerc, thanks to Zoom, we were joined by Bill Flynn and Doug Willett from Florida. After a brief admonition they should not tell us about their weather, Rev. Bill admitted he was enjoying his coffee using a new mug which displays this slogan: I might look like I’m listening, but in my head I’m playing golf.
President Bob had a few announcements prior to the formal annual meeting. The amending of the scholarship trust is begin accomplished, and the donations to the Goodwin University and Manchester Community College scholarship funds have been made.
The club agreed unanimously with President Bob’s suggestion that our noon meeting on Wednesday, January 20, 2021, be replaced by the District Foundation Dinner, via Zoom, that evening from 6:45 to 8 PM. A highlight of that meeting will be remarks by both Director Valerie Wafer and the RI President-elect. In order to attend the meeting, each of us needs to go to the district website (https://www.rotarydistrict7890.org/ )
and click on the link under “Upcoming Events” on upper right side of the homepage to open the registration form. Or, you can get to the registration form directly by using this link: https://www.crsadmin.com/EventPortal/Registrations/PublicFill/EventPublicFill.aspx?evtid=2c9b1dfa-f2b7-436a-bfef-03639e19aa9d
If you have your Clubrunner id and password handy, you can use that to fill in the form, but it’s not required. After registering you will receive the Zoom meeting number and passcode for joining the meeting on the evening of January 20, 2021. DG Marc Glass assures us we will want to attend, since our club will be recognized in some way during the event.
Following the information from our president and district governor, President Bob began the annual meeting.
Secretary Wes took the roll. Of our 34 active members, 22 were present as well as two honorary members, Rev. Bill and Ruth Sheehan. Connor Martin and Ray Maselek, corporate members representing Goodwin University, were both with us.
The Secretary’s report and the Treasurer’s report were emailed to club members prior to this meeting. Secretary Wes’s report of last year’s annual meeting was accepted as corrected. Treasurer George gave some details of the account balances in our operating and charitable funds. Trustee Bill gave a report on the funds in the Scholarship Trust. All reports were accepted as presented.
The next item for consideration was the nominations for 2021-2022 officers and directors. These were unanimously approved. Officers will be: President Sue Klock, President-elect Alex Wisz, Secretary Laura Floyd, Treasurer Wes Willett, Immediate Past President Bob Buettner, and Directors Neal Cunningham, Anwar Hossain, Dan Firestone, Jack Sayre and Dan Firestone. Per our club’s bylaws, this 2021-22 Board will select a Sergeant-at-Arms. Also, it’s important to note, that per our bylaws, we can have from three to five directors; so, we have a full Board. Also, per our bylaws, there may be an assistant to the secretary and an assistant to the treasurer. Director George will be assistant treasurer.
After the members approved the various reports and accepted the 2021-22 Board as nominated, President Bob invited comments from the group. This was lively and suggestions were eagerly noted by both the president and president-elect. Highlights were Doug’s suggestions that we keep updated information about our projects, contributions and fundraising efforts front and center on our club website’s homepage and also, show details about these during our Zoom meetings. Believe there’s some screen sharing in our future. We benefitted from Mayor Marcia’s presence when she agreed to bring us up to date on the town’s new senior center. Marcia followed that by detailing some plans to renovate or update some iconic town buildings. We were happy to hear plans to do some work on the Veterans Clubhouse, including bringing wifi to the building.
We adjourned at 1 PM.
Submitted by Sue Klock, note taker