Members Attending (11, no quorum): Debbie Rodriguez, Dick Drumm, Jim Leyhane, Roberto Martinez, Ray Hannan, Charlie Foote, Pat Bailey, Kevin Leyhane, Debbie Brown, Peter Brown, Phil Kellerman.

Guests: None.

Meeting Notes: President Debbie Rodriguez presided over the Zoom session. There were not enough members attending to constitute a quorum. Thus, no actions could be approved. Two motions reported as “passed” — a $100 donation to the Rotary Foundation for a gift basket to be given at the November 18 Rotary Foundation Dinner and $100 to the USS Slater in memory of our late member Bill Wyld — cannot, by our bylaws, be acted upon until passed at a meeting attended by a quorum.

• It was reported that the club is “paid up” for the year to RI. However, once again we have not collected dues from all people purporting to be members, so the club is in the negative as far as money sent to RI.

• Although it traditionally has been the purview of the president-elect to schedule a lineup of speakers, Kevin Leyhane has agreed to let Becky Raymond handle that chore for the remainder of the 2021-22 Rotary Year after she volunteered to do so. The club will continue covering dinner costs for speakers and student guests. Any others accompanying speakers will need to pay for their dinners. Becky will inform speakers of that policy.

• Treasurer Murray Forth, who underwent knee surgery and subsequent hospitalization, is home and recuperating. He now is able to resume his duties on behalf of the club.

• Kevin Leyhane, Jim Leyhane, and Roberto Martinez will meet with management at Moscatiello’s Italian Family Restaurant before our next meeting there (October 14) to firm up audio-visual resources for speakers and the club in general.

• Rotary Leadership Institute (RLI) dates and registration information are available on the club website. As always, the club will reimburse our attendees for registration costs.

• Ordering information is on the club website for Rotary shirts of various types being sold as a Rotary Foundation fundraiser. Members are asked to bring their needs and orders to next Thursday’s meeting. 

• Our next meeting is scheduled for Thursday, October 14, at Moscatiello’s (5:30 p.m. social period, 6:15 dinner and meeting). Entree choices: chicken Caesar salad, portabella ravioli, sausage and peppers. Cost: $25, no reservations necessary.

Did you know there is an organization called “Rotary Representatives to UN Women”?

One prominent member, Ana Cutter Patel, will be speaking at noon Wednesday via Zoom in an appearance hosted by the Albany Rotary Club but open to any interested Rotarian. (See Zoom link information below.)

Rotary Representatives to UN Women, an all-volunteer group, work to increase Rotary’s visibility and standing within the international community and seek opportunities to collaborate on and advance shared goals.

Ana, a Brooklyn Rotarian who also is a Rotary Peace Fellow, will be speaking on “RI’s Ecosystem for Peace.” Over the past 15 years, she has worked in a variety of areas such as the Outward Bound Center for Peacebuilding as executive director and currently as senior consultant, deputy director of the International Center for Transitional Justice, and as a lecturer at the Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs from which she also earned a master’s degree.

The talk is open to all Rotarians at no fee. To access it, simply use this link to sign in before the noon start:

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84617785750?pwd=S1FURXY2eWF4dE5PNGtROVQxMk1ndz09 

Meeting ID: 846 1778 5750

Passcode: 716497

The most important task for any service organization is to keep it going. After all, without a vital membership core, community and global service is not possible.

To that end, Rotary continually works to refine membership recruitment and retention efforts. The latter probably is even more important than the former.

So, please plan to join fellow Rotarians for the next “Membership Monday” virtual workshop, this one scheduled for 7 p.m. on October 18. It’s titled “Being Flexible No Matter the Challenge: How to Get Back into the Habit of Rotary.”,

Come learn the SODAR approach with Rotarians from Upstate’s Districts 7190, 7120, 7150, and 7170. Register and get your Zoom link by clicking here.

What is SODAR? Join us and found out.

District 7190 is selling shirts as a fundraiser for the Rotary Foundation.

If you’d like to make a purchase, simply download and fill out the form below. You then can turn in your form at the October 14 dinner meeting at Moscatiello’s or, if you do not plan to attend, you can email it to President Debbie Rodriguez.

The former Quigley’s restaurant in East Greenbush, closed since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic last year, has been sold and no longer is available as SRC’s dinner meeting venue.

As a result, we had to remove our collection of memorabilia from the cabinetry installed by the club several years ago and put it in storage. Thanks to everyone who was able to help the effort on Saturday despite short notice. The task was accomplished in less than an hour.

SRC thanks former Quigley’s owner John Walsh for his support over the years.

As members have been informed, we now are alternating our weekly gatherings between 7 p.m. virtual meetings via Zoom, and 6:15 p.m. dinner meetings at Moscatiello’s Italian Family Restaurant in East Greenbush. The schedule is always available on the club website’s calendar page.

Members Attending (15): Debbie Rodriguez, Kevin Leyhane, Dick Drumm, Terry Brewer, Debbie Brown, Peter Brown, Pat Bailey, Phil Kellerman, Charlie Foote, Becky Raymond, Jim Leyhane, Murray Forth, Roberto Martinez, Andy Leyhane (plus Bill Dowd proxy submitted).

Guests: None.

President Debbie Rodriguez presided over our first meeting at Moscatiello’s Italian Family Restaurant in North Greenbush.

• Murray Forth reported that Quigley’s has been sold, but no longer is a meeting-venue option for us despite earlier reports. We need to remove our memorabilia from the meeting room and put it in storage space Murray will secure. He will need help on Saturday to attend to that chore and will advise members of the time. All who can volunteer to assist are asked to please do so.

• Three SRC-sponsored foursomes will be participating in Monday’s Gift of Life Golf Tournament at Pinehaven Country Club in Guilderland.

• The NYSCR Danes Rotaract (the initials are for “New York State Capital Region”) we sponsor at UAlbany is working on several fall projects. Information on the efforts will be shared as they are firmed up.

• For the foreseeable future, we will be alternating dinner meetings at Moscatiello’s with Zoom meetings. Thus, next Thursday we will meet virtually from 7 to 7:30 p.m. (the Zoom access link will be available as usual on the club website calendar page), and the following week (September 30) we will be at Moscatiello’s with District Governor Bruce McConnelee as our guest (5:30 social period, 6:15 p.m. dinner meeting).

Here’s a save-the-date note:

District 7190 will host its annual Foundation Dinner on Thursday, November 18, at the Glen Sanders Mansion in Scotia.

The theme this year is “Roaring Through the ’20s.” Reservations for event, which includes hors d’oeuvres, dinner, a cash bar, and live entertainment, are $100 each.

More details will be shared as plans are firmed up.

 

Rotary partners with a number of other public service-oriented organizations at various times. One upcoming event involves the Peace Corps.

Rotary-Peace Corps Week is coming up, with a webinar kickoff event called “Rotary-Peace Corps Partnership: The Future is Bright.” It is available to all Rotarians and Peace Corps members.

The event, set for 6:30 p.m. next Monday (September 20), will feature Rotary International General Secretary John Hewko and Acting Peace Corps Director Carol Spahn discussing the possibilities for partnering and their vision for the future.

Advance registration, which can be done online is required.

Our friends at Circles of Mercy are teaming up with students and staff at Maria College for a “Walk for Mercy” and they are inviting you to join them as volunteer walkers.

The flyer, cover letter, and signup sheet below have plenty of details, but the gist of it is:

The walk will take place from 2 to 4 p.m. Tuesday, September 28, starting at the Albany school located at 700 New Scotland Avenue. Proceeds earned through pledges will go to supporting programs and services at Circles and at the college.

Goal No. 1 for SRC in the 2021-22 Rotary Year is to regain some semblance of normality by resuming personal interaction among members, and continuing our record of 60+ years of community service. To that end, resuming a schedule of in-person events among our fully vaccinated members was a major component. It gained some momentum during the “Summer Casual” period, and will ramp up as of this coming Thursday, September 16. That’s when we will gather at Moscatiello’s Italian Family Restaurant on Route 4 in North Greenbush, just south of Hudson Valley Community College. (Allow for a bit of traffic at the under-construction traffic circle there; for those coming from the south, we advise trying I-90 Exit 8.) Arrangement have been made to meet there on that date as well as on Thursday, September 30, when our new District Governor Bruce McConnelee will visit us. The details are the same for both events — a $25 fixed price covering dinner (your entree choice this week of chicken marsala or cheese lasagna), a social period beginning at 5:30 followed by dinner and meeting at 6:15 p.m. No advance reservations necessary. In between these two in-person events will be a Zoom meeting at 7 p.m. Thursday, September 23. Just check our club website’s calendar page for the hyperlink that gains access to the session. We hope to see the people we haven’t seen in a long time as well as the regulars we always enjoy seeing. Please join us.