 | East Hartford Rotary Club High Gear Volume 79 | Issue 23 / January 3, 2024 |
Despite the chill in the air and the slow pace of members’ arriving, eventually there were 13 of us gathered in the Community Room at Goodwin University and two on Zoom. The new experiment ordering from Roma’s seemed to work, since there was nothing left of our lunch at the end of the meeting.
President Bob rang our club’s official bell at noon and promptly led us in the pledge. Anwar gave an inspiring invocation with an emphasis on the hope of achieving peace. This was followed by a recitation of the Four-Way Test.
While we awaited the caterer’s arrival, Bob began the meeting with caring moments. Apparently Covid has swept through Evergreen Crossing which helped explain the absence of some of our regular attendees. We wish a speedy recovery to Jan and Jack Sayre, Bill and Bev Saunders, and Pat Gately. Ruth Sheehan continues to improve but is staying isolated considering the rapid spread of Covid since the Holidays. Neal reported that Rosemary is feeling better after her pre-Christmas fall but has a way to go to be 100%. Dan shared that Hope is tired; she is planning to go up to Dana Farber for further treatment at the end of this week.
Jack was able to share his final report on the club’s bell-ringing effort for the Salvation Army. Despite being two hours short the final Saturday, donations totaled $925.70 that day. He reported a record $2573.36 total for this year’s efforts, reflecting 31 hours of community service. The club is again indebted to Jack for organizing this annual effort.
Bob indicated we would be hearing from Alex about his committee’s report on officers and directors for 2024-2025 after lunch. In the meantime, Bob asked if there were any additional nominations. The room was silent!
At this point we broke for lunch, which consisted of pizza, three types of grinders, ending with a very welcome, banana cake baked by Ceil Collins.
Bob brought us to order again at 12:25.
Announcements
- Anwar has lined up speakers, the first of which will be Maya Dutta at next week’s meeting talking about biodiversity.
- The club’s Board will meet Tuesday, January 9th at 6 PM in the meeting room at Evergreen Crossing.
- The initial meeting of the Golf Committee will be January 16th, again in the meeting room at Evergreen Crossing.
After those announcements Bob invited Alex Wisz, our Immediate Past President, and thus Chair of the Nominating Committee, to reveal the slate of officers and directors for Rotary year 2024-2025.
Proposed Slate of Officers for 2024-2025
- President, Rob Rosa
- President-elect TBD
- Immediate Past President, Bob Buettner
- Secretary, Sue Klock
- Treasurer, George Schoen
- Assistant Treasurer/Director, Marc Glass
- Neal Cunningham, Director
- Anwar Hossain, Director
- Ray Maselek, Director
- Bill Saunders, Director
- Jack Sayre, Director
- Jim Watts, Director
The committee’s report was accepted as presented. The nominations will be published in High Gear over the next four weeks, and the election will be held during the first regular club meeting in February.
Treasurer George Schoen summarized the state of club finances for the first six months of this Rotary Year. There is a balance of $3,891 in the operating fund, and a balance of $15,514 in the charitable fund. He reported that paid out $43,280 between July 1, 2023, and December 31, 2023, $18,000 of which was for scholarships, and $200 was for our club’s annual dues for membership in the Chamber of Commerce.
After the business concluded, Bob introduced a general discussion about membership. There was consensus that our club’s trifold brochure is in dire need of updating. We all should focus on bringing in more members who reflect the community’s diversity.
Bob rang the bell to conclude the meeting about 1 PM.
Submitted by Sue Klock, High Gear writer for January.