Chatting before the meeting began, there was general agreement that the cold weather and forecast of snow are not welcome in early May.
President Bob joined today’s Zoom meeting from work so had to open our meeting with a vocal “ding, ding, ding” missing his handy portable bell. 
Bob led us in the pledge, then Laura Floyd delivered a very personal, heartfelt invocation. Laura repeated her daily reminder to herself to be the best she can be to herself and others, of how fortunate she is and of the need to help those less fortunate. It was like a personalized version of Rotary’s “Four Way Test” and very moving.
President Bob gave a recap of last night’s board meeting, including the following:
- Though we had to forego our spring fundraiser, a raffle, the fall golf tournament is still scheduled for September 21st at the Manchester Country Club, depending on the facility being open then.
- Our Rotary District will be giving us $700, the club’s share of a $40,000 grant from The Rotary Foundation to the District. The money must be used for Covid-19 relief. So, this amount will be combined with the $550 raised by the club totaling $ 1250 for local Covid-19 relief.
- Wes Willett, club secretary, is investigating our club’s acquiring the Zoom app to use for future meetings. We currently are relying on the District’s access with our District Governor-elect, Marc, administering.
- Board discussed adding a standard line at the bottom of every High Gear until life gets back to normal. Something like :
- The COVID-19 crisis is having a significant impact on our club’s ability to raise funds for the charities that we support. Please consider donating the money you would have spent weekly on lunches to help fund our COVID-19 related activities, such as additional food bank donations. Checks should be made out to EHRC Charitable Fund for COVID-19 and can be sent to George Schoen at 53 Duxbury Lane Glastonbury, CT 06033. Thanks for your support!
- After a brief discussion among club members in attendance at today’s meeting, the group agreed to suggesting individual club members contribute $60/month while we are having our meetings via Zoom. This is entirely voluntary and anonymous. Checks can be sent to our club treasurer, George Schoen, at his home address (see above). Checks should be made out to EHRC Charitable Fund, may be per month, or for several months at a time, and should include on memo line that this is a donation to be used for local Covid-91 relief. As suggested High Gear editors should include a notice about this at the bottom of each edition.
Caring Moments:
Ruthie has been in touch with Jean McCarthy and relates that Dick is improving, though slowly.
We also heard that a ramp has been built so Debby Wood can get outside to enjoy the spring air.
DGE Marc mentioned that due to shortage of onsite staff at RI headquarters in Evanston, checks are piling up, not being processed in a timely fashion. This has resulted in our annual fund totals as well as totals for PolioPlus being much lower than usual. If you are considering making a donation to The Rotary Foundation of Rotary International, please do so online in My Rotary using a credit card.
George Schoen, our club treasurer, brought us up to date on the club’s bank accounts as of the end of April. There is $ 6,424 in the club’s operating account and $ 22,108 in the charitable account. There are sufficient funds in the trust’s checking account to cover the six $ 2,000 scholarships we expect to award this year. President Bob mentioned that there are just nine applications so far; the deadline for applying is May 20th.
President Bob mentioned the next board meeting will be June 2nd. Any and all are welcome to attend. Zoom meeting info will be available a few days before the meeting. Just contact Bob.
With that announcement and another “ding, ding, ding” our meeting ended.
Here is the information for this next week’s Zoom meetings:
Monday Night Bingo
Time: May 11, 2020 07:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85460254392?pwd=ekliUHNVYTJ1RFpOUHVubTdXOHZYZz09
Meeting ID: 854 6025 4392
Password: 030368
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85460254392?pwd=ekliUHNVYTJ1RFpOUHVubTdXOHZYZz09
Meeting ID: 854 6025 4392
Password: 030368
Wednesday Zoom Club Meeting
Time: May 13, 2020 12:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Join Zoom Meeting
Meeting ID: 856 0482 0016
Password: 025716
Password: 025716
Submitted by Sue Klock, taking notes for our May 2020 club meetings.