Meeting: Thursdays, 7:30-8:30 AM, at the Peabody Marriott, Centennial Drive, Peabody, MA
December Theme: Family
How to propose a member:
Identify an individual (would s/he pass the Four-Way Test?).
Invite that person to a meeting.
Fill out a proposal card.
Board votes on the proposed member.
Proposed member has information session with Secretary Gary.
Proposed member is asked if s/he would like to join. If yes, application is signed.
Proposed member's name is published in The Ripple.
If there are no objections sent in writing to the Membership Chair within seven days, the proposed member becomes a member.
December Birthdays:
December 11: Cathy Gravel
December 13: Joanne Donovan
December 14: Loring Merrow
December 20: Cathleen Wardley
December 21: Mel Babner--80th!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
December 26: Margie Kaufman (Steve Smith)
This is how 80 years old looks!! (OK, Mel, I know it's 79 years & 354 days.)
December Wedding Anniversaries:
December 14: Joanne and Robert Donovan
TO ALL MEMBERS: IF THERE ARE ANY ERRORS WITH THE BIRTHDAY OR ANNIVERSARY DATES, PLEASE NOTIFY GARY EPSTEIN. ALSO, THERE ARE NUMEROUS MISSING DATES ON OUR ROSTER. PLEASE GIVE GARY YOUR INFORMATION--JUST THE DATES--NO ONE CARES HOW OLD YOU ARE. BUT WE MAY BE INTERESTED TO KNOW HOW LONG YOU'VE BEEN MARRIED.
NEXT BOARD MEETING: To Be Determined,
5:30PM at GraVoc. E-mail President Cathy (Cathyg@Gravoc.com) with agenda items.
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Citizens For Adequate Housing:
Thursday, January 7, 2010
Team Assignments: LORING MERROW (Meal Pickup), BOB CLATTENBURG (Salad and Cookies)
Arrive by at 42 Washington St., Peabody.
If you're unable to attend on the specified date, it's your responsibility to locate a replacement. Please inform the meal pickup person of the change and the replacement of your assigned responsibility. Thanks. Look at NEWS and Citizens For Adequate Housing Schedule for the future schedule and specific responsibilities.
Meeting notes
Today's visiting Rotarians: None
Guests: John Mekin--Salem Five, Guest of Bob Clattenburg
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President Cathy called on Peggy Lyons and Steve Smith to report on their service at Citizens For Adequate Housing this past Friday. They arrived at 4:30 and by 5:10, NO residents had come down for the meal. President Cathy will talk with the folks there to remind them that we're there to SERVE dinner. It was suggested that we leave a sign with the food that says that it's provided by Peabody Rotary. Steve said that Santoros had everything ready and the pot roast dinner looked great!
President Cathy reminded PE Martha Holden that as President Elect, she will attend PETS (President-Elect Training Seminar) in the exotic land of tropical Nashua, NH, on the weekend of March 11th--13th. All Past (and current) club presidents will attest that this will be a fantastic experience for Martha.
We need to formally present the District with our Slate of Officers for the 2010-2011 year. Gary Epstein will chair the Nominating Committee. If you want to assist him on the committee, e-mail him.
President Cathy mentioned that she'll be attending the District's President's Mid-year dinner on January 20th. Another important date is February 9th, the World Peace and Understanding Dinner. And she wished the following Happy Birthdays: Joanne, Loring, Cathleen, and Mel, conveniently omitting her own birthday.
On December 17th, we will NOT have a breakfast meeting. Instead, we will have our Holiday Fellowship Social, including a special induction of Ann Spac-Danjou as our newest member. Significant others are encouraged to attend. The tentative time is from 5:30 to 7:30. President Cathy circulated a sign-up sheet. If you haven't signed up, send President Cathy an e-mail to let her know that you'll be there with or without your significant other. If you're not going to attend, you can ask Treasurer Loring to bill you for your contribution to the Haven From Hunger fund. If you're going on the 17th, you can bring a check (payable to the club) or ask Loring to bill you. President Cathy will be making a presentation of one check from the club to Haven soon after.
President Cathy reminded everyone about Pennies For Polio. Everyone should be bringing in their loose change and bills every week.
Mel reminds us that there are only TWO WEEKS REMAINING to sell the Entertainment Books!
PP Steve was not at the meeting so we didn't get an update on the Taste of the North Shore. But remember--this holiday time with friends and family is a great time to sell raffle and admission tickets.
Grace introduced our guest speaker, Linda Saris, who is the Executive Director of Salem CyberSpace, a non-profit she founded in 2002. She'd like to partner business with education. She has done adult computer training in Peabody, Salem, and Beverly. And she works quite a bit with low income and immigrant children--most of whom have English as their second language. The goal is to get business owners and managers to mentor these youths so they have a better chance to first graduate high school, then attend and graduate college. She rattled off many statistics about the dropout rates, high school graduation rates, college attendance and college graduation rates--all broken down by economics and backgrounds. Quite astonishing! Linda is asking for a group of businesses to pilot her mentoring program. The students are interested in the following careers: electrician, electrical engineer, pharmacist, fashion designer, modeling, nursing--surgical and pediatric, marketing, veterinarian, real estate development and r/e law. These are all students who do not speak English fluently. But with the help of business mentors, they can succeed! More information can be found at the website: www.salemcyberspace.org. If you'd like to help or want more information, e-mail Linda at lsaris@salemcyberspace.org.
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Happy Dollars: Sergeant-at-arms Steve Padulsky collected $78. His collections were greatly aided by the many members who were late.
Reminder: If you see any news articles or pictures (not Rotary related) of our members, bring them in so the member can donate $$$ to the club. We can use the money!! But more important--we'd like to recognize and applaud our members.
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50-50 Raffle: Neither Peggy Lyons nor Ann SpaK-Danjou picked the new card, the Seven of Clubs so no-one won the $16.00!!!
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Reminders:
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Mel reminds us to keep selling the Entertainment Books. He asks that you bring the sales money each week to the meeting. ONLY TWO MORE WEEKS--SELL, SELL, SELL!!
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Our speaker scheduler, Grace Martins, asks that you tell her of any people who may want to speak to the club or whom you think may be of
interest to the club.
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Secretary Gary Epstein reminds members of Rotary's attendance requirements. Members cannot miss more than three consecutive meetings without making up. However, there are plenty of opportunities to make up. Attend a Board meeting (All members are encouraged to attend, anyway.), attend a committee meeting, work on the website, and the most basic make-up--attend other clubs' meetings. Be sure to steal ideas our club can use!!
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What do you do with your empty bottles and cans? (And we know there must be a lot of empty beer cans and bottles.) Please bring them (both beer and soda) to the meetings every week to give to Mel. Every nickel helps!! Mel thanks President Cathy for her generous contributions.
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NEXT MEETINGS:
December 17: No Breakfast Meeting/Evening Holiday Party and Installation of new member Ann Spak-Danjou
December 24: CHRISTMAS EVE DAY--No Meeting
December 31: NEW YEAR'S EVE DAY--No Meeting
Please make every effort to attend your Rotary meetings. The more members we have each week, the better we look to potential members--and to our visitors and speakers.
Thank you!
UPCOMING IMPORTANT DATES:
January 9, 2010: RYLA Kickoff
January 20, 2010: Mid-Year President's Meeting
January 27, 2010: Pre-PETS
February 9, 2010: World Understanding and Peace Dinner
February 23, 2010: 105th Anniversary of Rotary
March 11-13, 2010: PETS
March 23, 2010: Taste of The North Shore
April 14, 2010: District Assembly
April 19, 2010: 142nd anniversary of Paul Harris's birth
April 26, 2010: Alumni EventY
May 13, 2010: Joint Meeting in Peabody with GSE Team (tentative)
A family had twin boys whose only resemblance to each other was their looks. If one felt it was too hot, the other thought it was too cold. If one said the TV was too loud, the other claimed the volume needed to be turned up. Opposite in every way, one was an eternal optimist, the other a doom and gloom pessimist.
Just to see what would happen, on the twins' birthday their father loaded the pessimist's room with every imaginable toy and game. The optimist's room he loaded with horse manure.
That night the father passed by the pessimist's room and found him sitting amid his new gifts crying bitterly.
"Why are you crying?" the father asked.
"Because my friends will be jealous, I'll have to read all these instructions before I can do anything with this stuff, I'll constantly need batteries, and my toys will eventually get broken." answered the pessimist twin.
Passing the optimist twin's room, the father found him dancing for joy in the pile of manure. "What are you so happy about?" he asked.
To which his optimist twin replied, "There's got to be a pony in here somewhere!"
It's easy to become a Rotary Sustaining member. It's $100 per year, but Loring can bill you $25 per quarter. That's $8.33 a month, or 28 CENTS a day, or a little over a penny an hour.
