Meeting Clipboard  10/24/24:
Present: (8) Pat Bailey, Peter Brown, Debbie Brown, Dick Drumm, Murray Forth, Ray Hannan, Jim Leyhane, Andy Leyhane
Guests:  Tom and Cindy Leonard
On Zoom: (5)  Dean and Doris Calamaras, Charlie Foote, Carole Heaney, Roberto Martinez

President Roberto Martinez called the meeting to order
Theme for the year: Grow membership, do good in the world, leverage social capital and have fun!

Program:  October 24 is World Polio Day.    To commemorate Rotary’s efforts to eradicate polio, a video of an interview with Dr. Martha Lepow (now deceased) hosted by Dr. James Leyhane was resurrected from our archives and shown.    Dr. Lepow was part of the group developing appropriate methodologies to mass produce the Salk Polio vaccine.  By the spring of 1954 vaccines were available to all school aged children in the US (with parental consent)  In 1988 the effort to eradicate polio world wide became Potary International’s signature effort.  Additional partners included World Health Organization, UNICEF, Centers for Disease Control..  The Gates Foundation joined this effort in 2013.  We are “this” close!!

Meeting Notes:  

Moving things out of storage:  Murray will empty the unit to avoid November rent and will bring contents to the next meeting for distribution to anyone who wants any of it.  Remaining  contents will be disposed.

Global Grant update:  Peter reports the only “missing piece” is the establishment of the bank account to which funds will be deposited.  All other questions have been satisfactorily answered

Tax status: no update

Membership:  a new process is outlined  at Rotary.org/join to make it easier to contact interested potential members

Albany Waterway updates:  Peter announced that the DOT study published recommendations regarding I-787 do not include the Albany Waterway project.   Letters to DOT regarding this glaring omission are encouraged.  

Speakers for the upcoming year are needed;   contact Phil with your potential speaker suggections;

Oct 31:  NO MEETING….Halloween
Nov 7: Post-Election Nonpartisan Special, Robert Conner, guest of Phil
Nov 14:  School and Community Literacy and Heath Wellness Center, Lisa Jackson from Schenectary Club will outline their project.  Representatives from East Greenbush BOE and Administration will also attend
Nov 21: Richard French on disaster response, guest of Ron Annis
Nov. 28  THANKSGIVING  no meeting
Ded 5:  Phil arranging for a speaker
Dec 12:  HOLIDAY party and silent auction at the Brown’s 


RLI NEA Seminar District 7180 November 2 from 7:30-3:30 at the Unitarian Universalist Society of Albany, 405 Washington Avenue, Albany.  Club will cover $70 cost.

CNY News:  CNY Rotary conference April 4-6 in Albany.  The district is hoping to have 50-60 Exchange Students attend and are asking clubs to donate $500 to support this effort (respond by end of November)

FundRaisers:
Cornhole Tournament…..info from our November 14^th program will help shape this event
Café Cappriccio:  Andy and Jim… hoping to involve Columbia HS support as this will help fund the Community Room
Soap….ongoing…See Jim L 

Benefit Concert moved to the spring

This Thursday October 24, 2024 the Southern Rensselaer County Rotary Club will be holding its weekly meeting at Moscatiello’s at 6:00pm. The presentation for the meeting will be a focus on World Polio Day. A video taped interview with Dr. Martha Lepow will be shown as part of the presentation. As usual if you are unable to attend in person you may do so remotely using the Zoom Link located on our calendar page of the website.

Entree choices will be Antipasto Salad, Chicken Limon, or Portabella Mushroom Ravioli. Looking forward to seeing everyone this Thursday.

Tomorrow’s in person meeting has been canceled and the meeting will take place exclusively remotely on Zoom. The Zoom Link can be found on our calendar page. The reason for this move will be explained during the meeting. Dean Calamaris will still be our presenter and he will be joining us via Zoom. Looking forward to seeing everyone remotely tomorrow night.

This Thursday, October 17, 2024, the Southern Rensselaer County Rotary Club will be hosting its weekly meeting at Moscatiello’s at 6:00 pm. Joining us will be SRC’s very own Dean Calamaras. Dean will be speaking about the novel “The Baron of Second Avenue”, a book that he wrote the forward for. As usual if you are unable to join us in person you may do so remotely using the link located on our calendar page.

Menu choices for the evening include: Antipasto Salad, Chicken Lemon, or Portabella Mushroom Ravioli. Looking forward to seeing everyone this Thursday.

On Thursday, October 10, 2024 the Southern Rensselaer County Rotary Club will be meeting a Moscatiello’s at 6:00pm for our weekly meeting. Joining us this week will be Dr. Jonathan Newell, a professor at RPI. Dr. Newell will be speaking on the topic of “Imaging the Body’s Interior with Electricity”. Due a number of conflicts we are unsure if we will be able to make this presentation hybrid so please try to attend in person if you are able. You may still try to join us remotely but we can’t guarantee that the link will be up and running at this time. Looking forward to seeing everyone this Thursday.

October 3, 2024

This meeting was conducted via Zoom.

Attended by: Roberto Martinez, Phil Kellerman, Carole Heaney, Jim Leyhane, Terry Brewer, Kevin Leyhane, Dick Drumm, Pat Bailey, Peter Brown, Deb Brown, Ray Hannan, Charlie Foote, and Andy Leyhane.

Roberto welcomed everyone. The pledge was conducted and Roberto noted that there were no guests.

Next week’s speaker will be Jonathan Newell speaking  on “Imaging the Body’s Interior with Electricity.” It will be hosted by Deborah Rodriguez.

Terry spoke about the untimely death of John Sawchuck. Cards can be sent to: Cathi Sawchuck, PO Box 729, Myrtle Beach, South Carolina 29597. Some on the zoom call said they were going to the calling hours and funeral in our area.  Terry added that the club might want to plant a tree in his memory or do some other type of charitable activity in his honor.

Concerning the Global Grant for the water project in Kenya, Peter said that we were waiting for the bank account to be set up.

Terry then followed up with a tax status update. He said he had been working on the paperwork to be submitted to the IRS for reinstatement of our 510c4 status.  Terry said that he would meet with Phil soon to finalize the paperwork.

Phil provided an update on a benefit concert. He said that a local music group he has been working with is in the process of producing a full length CD. Along with a music group from Florida, both bands wish to play in our area as a benefit for charity. Thanks to Roberto, a connection has been made with the East Greenbush Methodist Church that might be willing to host the concert in the spring of next year.

Phil said that we are still in need of speakers. Roberto mentioned that John Justino would be unavailable for a talk on World Polio Day on October 24th. The group discussed options such as viewing videos about polio which could include a video by Martha Letow which was viewed by the group several years ago. Carole said that she is working to set up a talk by Joan Nicole from the Community House for the Aging. She also suggested that we might want to schedule a Zoom call with representatives from the newly formed Central New York Rotary District to learn more about the changes.

Roberto mentioned that he tuned into a RLI/NEA Seminar and their efforts to get folks to bequeath money to Rotary Foundation. The goal is to raise one million dollars to continue to fund district and global grants.

This week’s in person meeting at Moscatiello’s has been canceled due to a combination of illness and conflicts that will affect attendance. We will be having the weekly business meeting on ZOOM instead. The meeting will begin at 6:00pm and the Zoom link is located on the top of our calendar page on the website.

We apologize for any inconveniences this causes, and we plan to meet in person again next week. Looking forward to seeing everyone on Zoom this Thursday.

The Southern Rensselaer County Rotary Club will be holding its weekly meeting this Thursday, September 26, 2024 at 6:00pm at Moscatiello’s located on Route 4 in North Greenbush. Joining us will by RPI Professor Dr. Chris Bystroff, and his presentation will be on the topic of voting machines. As usual if you are unable to join us in person you may still join us remotely using the link on the calendar page of our website.

Menu for the evening include a choice of Rustica Salad, Eggplant Parmesan, or Spaghetti and Meatballs. Looking forward to seeing everyone this Thursday.

The Southern Rensselaer County Rotary Club will be meeting this Thursday September 19, 2024 at 6:00 pm at Moscatiello’s located on Route 4 in Troy. Joining us will be Richard Zazycki, Executive Director of Circles of Mercy. For several years now, SRC Rotary has partnered with Circles of Mercy in annual projects such as their holiday adopt-a-family and their back to school backpack program. Richard will be presenting on the current status of Circles of Mercy and the various community support programs they offer.

As usual, if you are unable to join us in person you may still do so remotely using the link located on out calendar page. Looking forward to seeing everyone on Thursday.

On September 12, 2024 the Southern Rensselaer County Rotary Club will return to Moscatiello’s at 6:00pm for its weekly meeting. Joining us as our guest speaker will be Dr. Michael Sabir speaking on his journey entitled, “Escape from Pakistan.” Dr. Sabir was a sociology professor in Pakistan and ran a non-profit to empower minority Christian women and the disabled. He and his family were repeatedly attacked by islamic fundamentalists, leading to them fleeing Pakistan and moving to Albany to apply for political asylum. His story is informative as well as heart-breaking. Thank you to Phil Kellerman for arranging this speaker.

As usually we will try and hold the meeting in a hybrid format, and you may join using the Zoom link on the calendar page. Please be aware that the speaker has asked for a microphone, which may produce feedback for the Zoom connection. If this happens we may have to disconnect to Zoom.

Looking forward to seeing everyone on Thursday.