Meeting at Quigley’s Restaurant
593 Columbia Turnpike
East Greenbush, NY
May 10, 2018

Members Attending (17): Roberto Martinez, Murray Forth, Pat Bailey, Jim Leyhane, Ray Hannan, Bill Dowd, April Dowd, Peter Brown, Terry Brewer, Geoff Brewer, Dean Calamaras, Doris Calamaras, Debbie Brown, Phil Kellerman, Julius Frankel, Charlie Foote, Becky Raymond.

Guests (2): Fred Daniels, Effie Frankel.

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BUSINESS/ANNOUNCEMENTS

OPENING: President Roberto welcomed District Governor Fred Daniels. He also displayed photos from our website covering last weekend’s recycling effort and dinner prep at Ronald McDonald House.

DISTRICT CONFERENCE: DG Fred described the agenda for the June 1-3 District Conference to be held at the new Rivers Casino & Resort in Schenectady. (SRC is taking out an ad in the event program.) He distributed a listing of nine different local service projects to be available on opening day. Registration information is available by clicking here.

RECYCLING RESULTS: Treasurer Murray Forth reported that the recent “Recycling & Shredding Day” netted nearly $1,800 for our scholarship fund.

GRANT TRAINING: An SRC contingent will attend a District Grant Training makeup session at the home of PDG Sue Austin on May 15, which will make us eligible to apply for a grant by the June 1 deadline. Any grant approved will be for the next Rotary Year. This year we received a $500 grant toward the cost of the Viking Gym installed at Schodack Town Park.

BYLAW PROPOSAL:  Proposed changes to the District 7190 bylaws have been posted on our website (click here to read them). Anyone who attends the District Conference will be eligible to vote on them.

GRANTS TO COLUMBIA HIGH SCHOOL: A $250 grant was approved to help the Columbia H.S. Unified Basketball Team travel to Seattle, WA, for a Special Olympics tournament. And, a $150 grant was given to purchase paint for the school’s mural project,

ROTARACT REPORT: Rotaractors were involved in both of our weekend events — the recycling day and the Ronald McDonald House dinner prep. … Becky Raymond and John Justino, two of our club liaisons with Rotaract, held a meeting with the Danes Rotaract officers at the UAlbany School of Public Health. Becky said the students expressed their gratitude for the support and guidance from SRC during their startup year, that they were impressed with the recent induction ceremony, and are working to recruit more students for the upcoming academic year.

BOARD RETREAT: The second board retreat of this Rotary Year (the first was held in October) is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Monday, June 4, at the Community Care offices in Schodack.

STAR OF HOPE RENEWAL: SRC and Columbia High School are scheduled to clean up the Star of Hope memorial at East Greenbush Public Library and plant several trees there as part of RI’s global tree-planting project. We’re unsure of the date but hope to have it firmed up by tomorrow, and are asking volunteers to sign up for the short work m-project with Terry Brewer. (Note: A firm June 9 date was reached the following day. Details available by clicking here.)

INTERNATIONAL WINE & CHEESE TASTING: We have 35 adults and kids signed up so far for this “Rotary Home Cooking Series” event to be held at Roberto’s residence on Saturday, May 19. Deadline for reservations is Tuesday, May 15, with any of the event sponsors — Roberto, Bill Dowd, or Jim Leyhane; just $10 per adult, kids free. In addition  to the international wine-and-cheese samplings we will have “heavy” hors d’oeuvres, designer beers, a spirits bar, and more. All are invited.

NEXT MEETINGS: On Thursday, May 17, we are expecting to have several RYLA student visitors at the 7 a.m. breakfast meeting at the Greenbush YMCA; and, Bill Dowd will present the “4th annual Great North American Whizbang Trivia Test” at the 6:15 p.m. dinner meeting at Quigley’s.

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PROGRAM: “Antiquities of Egypt & Jordan”

Peter and Debbie Brown presented a slideshow on their recent 17-day trip to parts of Egypt and Jordan.

After a visit to Cairo, their party visited the Giza area where they saw the step pyramid, the temple where pharoahs were crowned, the sphinx, the Muhammad Ali mosque, and the famous Aswan Dam. Among many other Egyptian sites visited were the Way of the Sphinxes, the Karnak Temple Complex, and the Valley of the Kings.

The next leg of their trip was to Jordon, where they visited such historic spots as Mount Nebo from where the Bible says the Hebrews first glimpsed the Promised land, a crusader castle built in the Middle Ages to help control commerce in the region, the carved-stone city of Petra — a World Heritage Site, the Dead Sea, and the Moses Spring that runs continuously in an otherwise arid region.

The slideshow has been posted on the Program Presentation Archives on the club website.

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