Those of you who regularly access the meeting minutes on this website will notice a change in the format since we resumed weekly meetings this month. Because our club secretary no longer is keeping minutes of the proceedings, we’ve switched to this format, written primarily in less-detailed note form, so we still will have a record for the club archive.

Members Attending (12, quorum): Andy Leyhane, Murray Forth, Kevin Leyhane, Bill Dowd, Debbie Rodriguez, Terry Brewer, Carole Spencer, Jim Leyhane, Roberto Martinez, Dick Drumm, Phil Kellerman, Ray Hannan.

Guests: None.

PROGRAM: “Tariffs vs. NAFTA” was the topic of a discussion led by Phil Kellerman. It came in the wake of Sunday’s announcement that the U.S. and Canada have reached a deal on a “new, modernized trade agreement” designed to replace the 1994 NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) pact President Trump had long criticized as being harmful to the American economy. In a joint statement, the two nations said the new deal would be called the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), an expansion of a trade agreement reached earlier between the U.S. and Mexico.

Bill Dowd reported on his push for an expanded club donation to ShelterBox, which is juggling multiple disaster relief efforts simultaneously around the world. As one example, he explained that the latest numbers on just the earthquake and tsunami that devastated the major Indonesian island of Sulawesi continue to trend upward, now with more than 1,300 deaths, tens of thousands of injuries, and billions of dollars in damage to buildings and infrastructure. He noted that  the club normally donates $2,000 to $3,000 to ShelterBox each year, and he is shooting for an additional $5,000 by the end of the month. Bill  emphasized that any size donation — $5, $10, $20, $50 or  more — would help toward defraying the cost of $1,000 per ShelterBox, a price that has held steady for years. The cumulative impact is what we’re looking for. We currently are at $3,000, and the push will run through the end of the month. Checks should be made payable to ShelterBox to be eligible for a tax deduction. … President Andy Leyhane announced that, after expenses, our raffle for a wine dinner for 12 at Cafe Capriccio would clear about $2,200 for the club treasury. Carole Spencer drew the winning ticket stub, held by Murray Forth. …

We still are recruiting members to participate in the Saturday, October 20, Rotary Leadership Institute (RLI) workshops. We have four people expressing interest so far: Jim and Andy Leyhane at Level 2, Roberto Martinez at Level 3, and Debbie Rodriguez at the Graduate level. The club will pay the registration fees. The deadline for registration  is Wednesday, October 10. Anyone who would like to participate is asked to contact Bill Dowd, who will handle registration for the club. … We have four students from Maple Hill High School who are enrolled in the 2018-19 Rotary Youth Leadership Awards (RYLA). SRC is paying the tuition for all of them. … Next Thursday, Matt Episcopo, an international motivational speaker, will be our guest, presenting on the topic “Making a Powerful First Impression.”