Meeting at Quigley’s Restaurant
593 Columbia Turnpike
East Greenbush, NY
November 30, 2017

Members Attending (16): Roberto Martinez, Murray Forth, Pat Bailey, Terry Brewer, Bill Dowd, Jim Leyhane, April Dowd, Dick Drumm, Ray Hannan, Debbie Rodrighuez, Peter Brown, Debbie Brown, Adam Roberts, Charlie Forth, Jennifer Felts, A.J. Amato.

Guests (1): Kasie Burello.

Announcements & Business

MEMBERSHIP — Adam Roberts, a financial planner and our newest member, was in attendance. We welcome Adam to Rotary.

ROTARACT FORMATION — Debbie Rodriguez reported that the application to create a Rotaract club at the UAlbany School of Public Health is nearly completed. She and Becky Raymond will be our club’s liaisons and prospective SRC member John Justino will be the faculty adviser.

ADOPT-A-FAMILY — Event coordinator April Dowd said the effort is going well, but that we are working on a short turnaround time. She has to deliver the gifts to Circles of Mercy no later than Monday, December 18, so we have only our next two meetings at which to bring our donated items. She also reminded everyone that each item must be gift-wrapped and given a tag with the recipient’s name so all gifts go to the right kids. The shopping list for the family of eight children we have “adopted” is on our website and is updated regularly. Terry Brewer said he would contact members who usually attend only the monthly breakfast meetings that their participation would be welcomed.

FOOD DRIVES — An estimated $1,500 worth of non-perishable food items was collected for The Anchor food pantry in Castleton during a drive spearheaded by Columbia High School in conjunction with SRC member/school principal John Sawchuk. Our club supports that particular pantry on a regular basis. And, as part of a Thanksgiving push, a large amount of food was collected for a community gift basket drive by partnering with the Greenbush YMCA through executive director/club member Shannon Romanowski.

FOUNDATION DINNER — The annual fundraiser for the Rotary Foundation, this year themed “People of Action,” was attended by 10 SRC members and one guest at the 90 State Street event space in downtown Albany. The gift basket SRC donated for a silent auction sold for $40.

COMMUNITY RECOGNITION DINNER — Our second such event will be held at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, December 5, at Moscatiello’s Italian Family Restaurant in North Greenbush. Among the estimated 40 community members in various fields who will be honored will be our own A.J. Amato for his work with the Rotary Youth Exchange program. Terry Brewer, one of the event organizers, said we can expect to clear up to $5,000 on the event to support our various scholarships.

CALENDAR EXPANSION — The SRC website’s Club Calendar page has been expanded, and contains numerous live links to details of some of the listings.

IN MEMORIAM — Dr. Rahma Mustapha passed away on November 19. She was a founding member of the Kinderhook Rotary Club. Her obituary has been posted on our website.

HOLIDAY PARTY — Murray Forth said he will circulate a signup list next week for our December 21 party and silent auction of themed baskets. He and Maggie are hosting, and club member Jim Mendrysa’s Talk of the Town catering service will provide the dinner. Murray  also noted that suggestions for basket themes are available on the club website. Proceeds from the basket auction go directly to our club treasury, so members’ participation is strongly urged.

NEXT MEETING — 6:15 p.m. Thursday, December 7, at Quigley’s. Mike Harkin, who this week succeeded John Sawchuk as principal of Columbia High School, will be our special guest.

PROGRAM: Changes Inside Our Club (continued)

President Roberto Martinez presented the last in a series of working sessions meant to outline SRC’s scope of initiatives, fundraising, re-categorizing of our areas of interest, and formalization of projects.

Among several items on his agenda, Roberto unveiled a template for cataloging initiatives, one he has revised several times after it was first discussed at a recent club Board of Directors working retreat.

Once finalized, the template will be available for download from the website. Persons who will be the leaders of the initiatives will fill out the forms and submit then to Matt Smith who, in turn, will make such information part of a database he will create and maintain. Then, Bill Dowd will build a new page on the website that will allow all SRC members to view the initiatives to see if they are interested in participating in any of them, to track progress of the efforts, make suggestions, etc.

The template will include such things as names of participants, goals of the effort, cost-benefit information, status, etc.

In addition, two other members have been assigned to look into other items that came out of the Board Retreat — Shannon Romanowski for e-voting and Jim Butterworth for e-meetings. They will report their progress at future meetings.