Author: SRCrotary

A volunteer service club located in Rensselaer County, NY, that is part of Rotary International, the 1.23 million-member international organization of men and women serving their community and their world.

Be careful, motorists, Troy is going back in time again

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James Franco

Attention Rotarians (and everyone else, for that matter).

First Street in Troy will be transformed with a 1970s-1980s look and be closed to traffic on Tuesday and Wednesday for yet another movie shoot. That area cuts through the downtown  campus of Russell Sage College.

In the recent past, Troy has been a shooting locale for scenes in such films as “Scent of a Woman,” “The Time Machine,” “Age of Innocence,” “Ironweed,” “The Bostonians” and so on. This week, it will be for “The Pretenders,” starring James Franco, who has been scene in the area recently.

If you’re among the few who are unfamiliar with Franco’s work, go here for some help.

 

If you build it (and tell them about it) they will come

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spike

The accompanying graph shows traffic to our club website during a 2 1/2 week period in October. It follows a fairly common pattern of ebb and flow seen throughout most weeks.

However, note that one huge spike on the right? That’s the day the website was featured as part of the District 7190 “Membership & PR Summit” in Clifton Park. It certainly looks as if those in attendance did some further viewing of the site after they got home.

 

Our past is coming alive again

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A screen-grab from the 2015 video.

One year ago this week, we achieved a number of firsts in one swoop.

• The 1,000th post was made on our club website.

• That post also was our first “homemade” You Tube video.

• The video briefly covered our first ” no-sew blanket” project.

It all comes full circle this Thursday when we have a first anniversary blanket-making session as part of our weekly dinner meeting at Quigley’s, in support of the Blue Star Mothers military family support group.

Everyone is invited to participate — Rotarians, family, friends and other guests. Just remember to bring scissors! (And, if you haven’t already done so,  please email dinner coordinator Debbie Brown no later than Tuesday evening to let her know you’re coming and whether you’re bringing a guest — with their own scissors.)

 

A blanket invitation for Thursday dinner

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no-sew-blanket-logoWe all know not to run with scissors, but you can walk briskly to Quigley’s this Thursday for our second “no-sew blanket” session.

If you’re not familiar with that particular project, go here to our archives to see what took place at the first such session.

The dinner menu calls for an entree of beef tips with mushroom gravy, chef’s choice of sides, salad, bread, dessert and beverages. As always, Tuesday evening is the deadline for letting dinner coordinator Debbie Brown know if you’d like to be added to the reservation list (mdbrown@nycap.rr.com). And, as always, please be sure to let her know if you’re bringing a guest.

This blanker-making effort would be a great time to introduce someone to Rotary in an informal, enjoyable way. Everyone who will attend is asked to bring a pair of scissors.

Here’s who has signed up so far:

• Leyhane, Jim
• Martinez, Roberto
• Rodriguez, Debbie
• Taylor, David
• Bailey, Pat
• Brewer, Terry
• Brown, Debbie
• Brown, Peter
• Drumm, Dick
• Forth, Murray
• Hannan, Ray
• Kellerman, Phil

Don’t forget, SRC is on Twitter, too

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screen-shot-2016-10-29-at-10-36-47-pmBy now you know — or should know — that you can get varied, thorough and timely news and information about your club and Rotary in general on both our website and our Facebook page. But …

That dreaded word. But.

We have Twitter followers from other Rotary clubs and various organizations. But, virtually no one from our club is making use of links from our Twitter account to stay in the loop (only 2 members so far). That’s too bad, given that so many people make use of Twitter on a daily basis. Why not join them so you can make your Rotary experience richer and more rewarding?

The address is in the accompanying logo, or you can simply go to the club website and click on the link to Twitter to get started.

See you there!

 

 

Membership & PR Summit draws large, varied crowd

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screen-shot-2016-10-29-at-6-49-48-pmA  crowd of about 50 Rotarians representing dozens of clubs from throughout District 7190 attended the inaugural Membership & PR Summit held Saturday morning at the Clifton Park-Halfmoon Public Library.

The Southern Rensselaer County club was represented by a trio of members. Bill Dowd served as a speaker on public relations, website and social media use, and served on two panels — membership and general information. SRC President-elect Roberto Martinez and Board member Jim Leyhane also attended the event.

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SRC’s 3 amigos — Jim, Roberto, Bill.
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Bill Dowd explaining media guide he created for the District.

In addition to presentations on public relations using social and traditional media from Bill and Melissa Ward, both member of the District PR Committee, our District Membership Committee provided a panel discussion led by chairperson Jennifer Hendricks-Fogg on the trial use by four clubs of a new “Membership Playbook” that provides methods for recruiting and retaining members. The document can be downloaded here.

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Melissa Ward presenting PR information.
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District Membership Chair Jennifer Hendricks-Fogg takes her role seriously, saying,”If you can’t recruit em’, breed ’em.”
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A panel of younger Rotarians who are overseeing their clubs’ trial use of the new “Rotary Playbook” for member recruitment and retention share their findings with attendees.