Stories

Meeting 10-29-13

50-50 RAFFLE

POT SIZE: $163.00

Tickets: Rob Lutts, Juli Lederhaus

WINNER: No winner

CALENDAR RAFFLE

SOLD BY: Mystery Rotarian

SOLD TO: Ranae Newman

VISITING ROTARIANS AND GUESTS

Guests:

Liz Bradt’s guest was her Mom, Dorothy Bradt

Bruce Whear’s guest was his youngest son, Devan

FINES AND RECOGNITIONS

Rich Eisner gave a consistent and symmetrical report of his two sons’ hockey teams: One son’s Salem/Swampscott Youth Hockey Team lost against Medford and his other son’s Salem Middle School team lost against Peabody!

Bruce and Heidi were judges at the Hawthorne Hotel Halloween Ball and saw beautiful and extravagant costumes.

This Saturday, Bruce is in the Improv Group, Accidentally On Purpose at the Marblehead Little Theatre from 7-9 PM. Admission is $22 and includes limitless beer.

Jason Consalvo paid a fee for the Patriots’ win this past Sunday. Go Pats!

Juli was happy that the Halloween Ball was such a success with 850 people attending. Juli thanked Bruce and Heidi for judging the costumes.

Rob Lutts spent a week in the Mediterranean with his family, including three children and his Mom, visiting Italy, Greece and Ephesus. The trip was a celebration of all three children graduating this past year!

Rinus Oosthoek is happy that October and Haunted Happenings ends in three days, just in time for the 10-day “Restaurant Week” beginning Sunday!

Jim Bailey spent 10 days in his home state of Louisiana, a sportsman’s paradise.

John Fisher was in Florida last week and his heading to Louisiana himself next week.

Mark Leavitt thanked the Rotarians who helped sell calendars on the pedestrian mall. All calendars have been handed out; so sell, sell, sell!

Mark said that there are plenty of volunteers for the Lifebridge dinner on November 6^th. Sponsors to pay for the meal are needed.

Bob Conley went to a Bruins game in Florida and then spent six days in Miami.

Jane Stirgwolt’s daughter Nell and her husband are moving to Stamford. Jane thanked John & Joy Fisher for helping Nell with a dental emergency.

Randy Burba had a wonderful experience with his son as they participated in an Outward Bound session together.

Brenda ran in a 100-mile race which took 22 hours plus a short nap to complete! She began at the start of a Red Sox game on Saturday and finished with the beginning of the Patriot’s game on Sunday! Her calf is three times the normal size after that experience!

ANNOUNCEMENTS AND CLUB BUSINESS

Malia Griffin informed Rotarians that our Board gave the organization “Wreaths Across America” $750 through the local VFW so that 50 wreaths could be laid on Veteran’s graves during the holiday season. The VFW wants to lay the wreaths on 1000 graves at Greenlawn Cemetery so donations for additional wreaths, which are $15 each, are being accepted and volunteers to do that on Saturday, December 14^th are being sought.

A get well card for Ray Hodge circulated.

Thank you cards for donations were received from HAWC and from Salem Jazz & Soul Festival.

President Brenda reminded all that if one needs to leave before the speaker, a fine of $5 should be paid and the speaker should be told.

President Brenda pointed out that there was a menu flyer on the tables seeking opinions and ideas about foods to be served at Rotary meetings. Please let Mark Shaw, Rich Blazo or Brenda know of your ideas.

President Brenda presented Trip Mason with the “Rotarian of the Month” Award in recognition of his work updating our club’s web page. Trip graciously accepted while recognizing the help of other Rotarians in this project.

ROTARIAN BIRTHDAYS

Happy birthday to Marie Gagnon on November 3rd and to Dave Gendall on November 4th!

SPEAKERS OF THE WEEK

There were two speakers at this week’s meeting: Rotarian Bill Henning and District Governor John Hall.

Bill Henning gave his Classification Speech.

Bill has resided in Salem for 15 years and currently works as a Commercial Lender for Beverly Cooperative Bank at the Salem Branch.

Bill was born on his family’s farm in Oconomowoc Wisconsin. Bill’s Mom & Dad, who have passed, had five children, with Bill as the second youngest, with two brothers and two sisters.

Bill went to the University of Wisconsin Whitewater where he received a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with a major in General Management and a minor in German. Bill was very active on campus taking part in numerous organizations including as a fraternity member and President of the Student Body.

Bill’s first employment after college was with the large retail store Marshall Fields in Chicago and then at Bloomingdale’s, both for five years and both in the “back of the house.” Bill then worked for The Gap in sales management. This was when he decided not to stay in retail, taking a career counseling session that showed interest in banking and the travel industry.

Bill then worked for Citizen’s Bank eventually taking advantage of their loan officer training course. Loan Officer work at Brookline Bank and then East Cambridge Savings Bank followed.

While at Marshall Fields, Bill met his life partner of 22 years, Thomas McDonald, who is Director of Sales for the Hawthorne Hotel. Bill and Thomas have settled in their perfect home in Salem.

Last fall, Bill was thrilled to obtain a position at the Beverly Cooperative Bank, first in Beverly and now in Salem. His commute time is so short he doesn’t bother to turn on the radio.

Through his expertise, Bill has assisted clients such as Derby Studio, LLC and Barberry Renovations.

Bill’s hobbies include reading, gardening and assisting his church as its Treasurer. He and Thomas, who at one time worked for Bermuda Tourism, have traveled to Bermuda, Mexico, Germany, London and Venice; with a trip planned to Australia this coming Friday.

Bill loves that the Salem Rotary is so actively involved in the community.

It is great to get to know you Bill! Thank you for your Speech!

The Club had a second speaker this week, our own member and District Governor John Hall.

Governor John said he was proud to be back at his Home Cub! Beginning with our Club, John has visited 42 of the 48 clubs in his District.

Governor John returned to Salem to highlight and discuss two items.

The first item is the concern that Rotary membership worldwide has remained at 1.2M for the past 23 years. Although 115,000 members have been added in the last five years, 115,000 members have also left. In fact although memberships are increasing in India, Asia, and Brazil, North American countries have seen a steady decline. This situation is so critical that there is consideration of moving Rotary Headquarters from the United States, where it was founded, to Asia.

Locally, there is a crisis as well. Our District had 2400 members seven years ago. Today, despite the addition of a club in Newburyport, membership district-wide is now 1950 members.

Rotary hired a consultant to determine the reasons for the decrease in membership in North America. It was determined that:

People don’t know what Rotary does thinking it is an “old men’s club.”
We need to be sure that each Rotarian has a “value-added” experience in Rotary so that individuals enjoy their membership and know how vital Rotary is to the community and to the world.

For example, our own club has donated $1.2M in scholarships to Salem students over the past 40 years. Our Rotary has changed lives!

In addition, Rotary International has received $1.2B in donations to Polio Plus over the past 22 years, helping to eradicate polio from many countries. Now with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation joining Rotary in this effort, there is great hope to erase polio from the world completely.

Governor John discussed a potential source of new members: Home-based business owners. Brian Murphy, previous President of the Beverly Rotary is an example. Brian works at home and joined Rotary for the social aspects of the club. He soon became attached because of all the good work the Rotary does. President John said that there are 17,000 home-based businesses in our District…a great source for new member recruitment!

Therefore, President John will be conducting a direct mail campaign. He hopes for follow-up telephone calls from local Rotarians with a welcoming informational event following at the Hawthorne Hotel.

The second issue addressed by President John is called, “First Class.” At the San Diego training of all new District Governors, Rotary International President Ron Burton challenged that class of new Governors to be the first such group to have 100% donation participation to the Rotary Fund. And it did raising $675,000!

Now there is a goal to have all Club presidents donate to Rotary International. To date that effort has raised $5.7M!

Recently President John went to the International Convention with his wife and 22,000 other participants! Mrs. Hall was so moved by the experience she gave her husband “permission” to do whatever was needed in his year as District Governor to help the organization!

As an example of the work that is needed, the Rotary Fund could help the dire sanitary conditions in India by assisting with the purchases of toilets. Contagious disease is rampant there with 600M people having no access to toilets.

Governor John is asking everyone in our District to make a donation to Rotary Fund in any amount. In particular, he would greatly appreciate 100% participation from his home club. Eventually, 50% of Rotary Fund donations return to the local clubs while 50% goes toward humanitarian efforts in the world, such as in India.

Tim Clarke will be developing a guide on how to more easily donate to the Rotary Fund online. In addition, Keith Linares is making a donation thermometer to track participation by our Club.

President Brenda presented Governor John with a Paul Harris Fellow Award in recognition of his donation to the Rotary Fund.

President Brenda closed the meeting with the Hero Quote by Kobi Yamada, “One by one we can be the better world we wish for.”

NEXT WEEK'S SPEAKER

Next week we will be having Classification speeches.