Rotary Bulletin 02/10/16 (Feb 10, 2016)

Greetings Fellow Rotarians,

We are finally experiencing a true winter with snow on and off the past several days. Nonetheless, we are on schedule for this Friday’s meeting at 12:30 at the Basketball Hall of Fame

Please mark sign up for the joint St. Patrick's meeting with West Springfield to be held on Tuesday, March 15^th, 2016. Diane Murphy, West Springfield Rotary President, is looking forward to the event and the joint Rotary Band’s performance. As of last week only 4 Rotarians had signed up from Springfield. Please visit the West Springfield Rotary Club's home page to let them know you are planning to attend this popular event: http://portal.clubrunner.ca/6035. We want to be sure to support Dee and Paul Lambert along with the West Springfield Rotarians up on stage. You must RSVP to attend this year’s St. Patrick’s Day luncheon. Please take this as a special opportunity to introduce your spouse or a prospective member to Rotary. The cost is $14 and a cash bar will be available. Remember to wear your green that day! If you don’t have a green jacket, I would be happy to direct you to a Rotarian known to have quite a selection.

I want to send a thank you to Past President Steve Jablonski. Steve has made arrangements to take our meeting on April 22^nd, 2016 on the road. We will be journeying not far to the Clifford A. Phaneuf Environmental Center in Forest Park. Jablonski Devriese Architects transformed the skate house/educational facility on Porter Lake into a world class facility to host the Environmental Center for our schools and other park events. Max’s will prepare a box lunch for the Club for this meeting. Details to follow.

I spent Wednesday morning this week at the Pre-Presidential Elect Training Seminar with 1^st Vice-President Laurie Rosner. The first take a way I have is: time flies. I can’t believe the past seven and a half months have flown by so quickly. Congratulations on all your success thus far. I am excited about the additional positive ripple effect we will continue to make locally and globally.

I was able to share with my fellow Presidents that we have a Global Grant in the initial phases. Most importantly, we now have a partner Rotary Club in Cambodia. I also shared the success of rating the Children’s Study Home a "Corporate Member" allowing flexibility in who attends meetings from the organization. Several other Clubs in District 7890 had faced the same challenge.

Thank you to Peter Pappas who volunteered to assist Laurie in building her team for 2016-2017. Please contact Pete or Laurie if you have an interest in taking this opportunity to help shape the direction of the Club. We have several positons to fill in on our Board of Directors and Committee Structure.

Let’s finish strong. Thank you for commitment to Service Above Self.

In Service,

Jack

Feb 12, 2016
Judge Wm, "Hank" Abrahskin, Exec.Dir.Spfld Housing


Feb 19, 2016
Waleska Lugo-DeJesus
Pioneer Valley Institute for Healing Racism

Feb 26, 2016
District Attorney Anthony Gulluni


Mar 04, 2016
OPEN


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Changing Lives Worldwide

Posted on Feb 10, 2016

The Rotary Foundation recently received the a 4 Star Rating from Charity Navigator Rating. Rotarians have up to June 30, 2016 to make a contribution for the current Rotary Year. The goal is 100% participation.

Click below to see your contributions at work : https://vimeo.com/124205730

Speak Up & Carry A Walking Stick

Posted on Feb 02, 2016

When he spoke to our Club last month, Dene Kimball, made an offer that we can’t refuse, to support our Club’s Service Fund. Dene is a skilled woodworker, in addition to his many other talents as a Foundation Fundraiser, sailor, business and family man. He has given our Club the opportunity to auction one of his custom walking sticks on Friday, February 26^th, 2016. The custom walking stick Dene creates will highlight the family name, accomplishments and characteristics of the recipient. The process will require an interview to determine what you would like on the stick. The work required to make the stick will take 10 to 12 hours. We will be begin the bidding at $60. We will be accepting bids at our February meetings in person.

St Pat's Lunch Planned March 15th

Posted on Jan 26, 2016

If you were with us for this event last year, you'll want to reserve a seat early for this year's joint St. Patrick's Rotary Lunch, a joint meeting with our friends in the West Springfield Club. It will once again be held at the Storrowton Carriage House, but this year takes place Tuesday March 15, 2016 AT NOON (a change from last year's evening version). The St. Patrick's themed buffet lunch is just $12.00.

This is a joint Rotary Club Meeting and will take the place of our regular Friday noon meeting for that week. The program will recognize the West Springfield St. Patrick's Day Parade Committee, the Colleen and her Court and several of the award winners. In addition, there will be a musical performance from a few of our own talented Rotarians, playing some of your favorite Irish tunes.

The Carriage House is on the Grounds of the Big E, 1305 Memorial Avenue, West Springfield, MA 01089. The event will begin promptly at 12:15. It is suggested that you arrive by 12:00 in order to check in and find a seat.

This event is always very well received and one of our most attended luncheons of the year. In order to ensure that enough seating and food is provided, we ask that you RSVP BEFORE March 1, 2016. If you will be attending but not partaking in lunch, we still need to know for seating purposes.

The "wearing o' the green" is strongly suggested. The Sergeant at Arms and the Fine Master will be scanning the room and those not wearing green may be fined. They may also be checking the shade of green and just as an FYI, in the past; 'olive green' did not qualify! Guests are welcome!

Please RSVP to: stella_kalamarakis@comcast.net

District Conference Set for Cape Cod

Posted on Feb 10, 2016

The District Conference is planned for April 29 to May 1st at the Cape Codder Resort & Spa in Hyannis, MA. Our theme is Hawaii 7890.

The Cape Codder Resort & Spa is right off the highway and offers convenient parking. We plan to begin on Friday evening at 6 pm with a cocktail hour followed by a delicious Luau dinner. We are also planning an exciting evening of entertainment. More to come on that.

On Saturday our general session at will begin at 9:00 am with registration and breakfast starting at 7:30 am. Saturday will be filled with exciting breakouts, as well as our Rotaract Conference. If you have a Rotaract Club or are thinking of starting one, be sure to be part of this. Youth exchange students and the South African VTT teams will also be presenting.

It’s been a great year for District 7890 and we plan to celebrate with fellowship and informative breakout sessions. And if anyone can inspire enthusiasm, it's our Rotaractors, Youth exchange students, and VTT teams; they’re an exciting bunch.

Click this link http://goo.gl/2WvEMe to register for this event. Please do register as soon as possible.

Thank you for your continued support!!

Rotaract Club Developing

Posted on Feb 03, 2016

The Club is in the develop stages of establishing a Rotaract Club at Baypath University. Laurie Rosner, 1^st Vice-President, will serve as the director. I am certain that we will be up and running soon. The Rotaract is an excellent tie to efforts to retain talent in our region and create a new wave of Rotarian business leaders. The Rotaract Club will be responsible for creating and implementing two service project in the Rotary Year, one in the fall and one in the spring.

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