Rotary Club
Of East Hartford
  High Gear

Volume 74| Issue 36, March 3, 2021

 
It was an unseasonably high 43 degrees when we logged on to Zoom today. There was a good group shooting the breeze, well before the official starting time. President Bob rang the bell promptly at 12:15 to start the meeting. We said the pledge, all at our varying rates of speed. Something about being together in person makes us be more synchronized. President Bob then gave an invocation. 
There being no caring moments to share President Bob gave us some announcements:
Donations on hold, pending fund raising
  • It doesn't look like we are going to be able to meet in person again for quite a while, but when we do Evergreen Crossing has a venue that will work well for us. We can check it out after things open a little more.
  • At the Board meeting this week, there were several new donation requests received, but it was decided that we are going to hold off approving any of them until we see how much money can be raised by the Raffle.
  • One donation was approved, East Hartford Interfaith Ministries will be receiving $1,000 from money donated for Covid relief.
  • The raffle is off to a good start. Over $6,000 has been raised so far. Everyone please keep sending out links and asking your friends to do the same.
  • The Scholarship committee will have to meet and come up with a plan for how to distribute over $18,000 this year. We have a lot more money that needs to be donated after a sizable donation we received last year. The plan will be presented to the board for approval, but unless the committee decides to contribute $18,000 to Connor for an educational trip to the Bahamas, it will likely be approved.
  • President Elect Sue Klock suggested including giving money to a teacher for continuing education. This would require a change to the guidelines, but the committee will at least discuss.
  • Jack Sayre suggested enlarging the amount per student. $2,000 does not cover anywhere near as much of the cost as it did in years past.
  • We plan to participate in the Halloween Candy event at Rentschler Field again this year, assuming the venue is not still being used for Covid Vaccinations
Marc in a dress could be a draw
The meeting was then opened for general discussion. Anwar is planning a video for next week, but the following 2 weeks we will be having speakers. He is trying to get 2 speakers per month.
 
Marc shared that the registration for the annual District Conference will be opened shortly. If you would like to see Marc in a dress more information can be found here: https://youtu.be/4W49xX6nWmU .
 
Sue would like more people to sign up for the District Grant webinar, and by the way she has a new grandchild! We need some new ideas for potential grants. Laura Floyd suggested a toy drive, but we would need to get creative fitting it in to the District Grant criteria, so maybe we could do that without a grant.
 
Laura also shared that she visited another Rotary club in the area. She said we are a much livelier and more fun group than this other club. She wouldn't tell us who these bland boring people are, but at least that means she is likely to stay with us!
 
President Bob closed out the meeting by sharing some feelings about his stint as President this past year. I think we can all agree that he has done a tremendous job holding the club together throughout this exceedingly difficult time!
Are you doing your part for club raffle? 
A personal message from your scribe:  We need everyone in the club to help make this fundraiser a success! Please Sell those Raffle Tickets! Ask your kids to sell tickets. I have tried both guilt and bribery to get my kids to spread the word. Neither one worked very well, so if anyone comes up with a better way to motive them please share.
 
Until next week, 
Wes
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