Members in Attendance (12): Jim Leyhane, Roberto Martinez, Pat Bailey, Debbie Rodriguez, Phil Kellerman, Ray Hannan, Murray Forth, Dick Drumm, Peter Brown, Ron Annis, Monica Annis and Carole Heaney.

By Zoom (1): Charlie Foote.

Guests (1): Laurie Pferr

President Roberto Martinez called the meeting to order.

Theme for the year: Grow membership, do good in the world, leverage social capital, & have fun!

Meeting Notes:

Treasurer Update: Phil Kellerman called the IRS. The package has been found. There was a 16 week wait period. The Club should be reinstated around March 24th.

Bowl-A-Thon: Per Phil Kellerman, the Bowl-A-Thon is scheduled for April 6th. Phil met with the Principal of Maple Hill. An email was sent to the teachers. Not one student signed up. Phil will try and schedule another meeting with Maple Hill for Monday. Peter Brown, Roberto Martinez and Jim Leyhane will join Phil. The Club will decide next week whether to hold the Bowl-A-Thon or not.

Benefit Concert: The concert is being held at the East Greenbush Methodist Church’s Fellowship Hall on April 26thf from 7 pm until 8:30 pm. The Club is co-sponsoring the concert with the Malta Club. Donations of $15 will be requested to benefit the St. Paul Center. Phil Kellerman contacted all available media to advertise the concert and posted on music websites.

Publicizing: Carole Heaney reminded us that the Club needs to do a better job of promoting and advertising our activities. Carole will look at publicizing on Facebook. Per Carole, we need to relook at the framework for getting information out to the community. Andy Lehyne is working on facebook and Debbie Rodriguez will look into the price for pushing information out from Word Press out to Facebook.

Image Grants:

Donation Jar: The jar was passed around to raise funds for the Global Eye Clinic in Haiti.

Global Grant: Per Peter Brown, the drilling company, Crown Hydro, received the down payment for the project and should be starting work shortly.

Defensive Driving: The AAA course will be held on May 17th at the Nassau Library from 9 am until 3:30 pm. We need a minimum of 25 people to sign up. If you are a member of AAA, the cost is $22. If you are a non-member, the cost is $27. Depending on your insurance, you can save 10% to 15% off the cost of your insurance and it should be good for 3 years. Contact Pat Bailey if you wish to attend.

Community Project: On Tuesday, March 18th Kevin Leyhane, Terry Brewer, Peter Brown and Phil Kellerman, Roberto Martinez and Jim Leyhane met with staff of the East Greenbush School District about the backpack project to provide food over weekends for at risk students. Kevin Lehyne is working with the School to set up a running event on June 13th at Genet or Goff as a fundraiser for the backpack project. It was suggested that we look at obtaining a commercial grade refrigerator for this project.

Star of Hope: Per Roberto Martinez, will be relocated to Columbia High School this spring. Roberto will speak to Terry Brewer.

Public Image Grants: Carole Heaney noted that the CNY Public Image Committee is offering grants for $250 in matching funds for branded materials. Carole Heaney received approval from the District for a retractable banner. It has been sent to the printer. Peter Brown suggested “Join Rotary, Change the World” for the image board.

Circles of Mercy 2025 Cate’s Kids Easter Basket Program Schedule: Baskets are collected from February 24th to April 14th.The baskets are given out to our client families during Holy Week (April 14 thru April 18) before the Easter Sunday Holiday on April 20. Carole Heaney will oversee the basket collection.

Valley Cats: The game was rained out last year. The Club tickets rolled over to this year. Debbie Rodriguez will contact the Valley Cats. The Club would like to attend the August 7th game.

CNY News: Information on all of the following and more is posted to the website, cnyrotary.org.

CNY Member Orientation is held every 4th Tuesday of each month. The next will be held on April 22nd at 7 pm.

In Person PETS Training: March 15-16, double Tree Syracuse. Roberto Martinez, Jim Leyhane and Phil Kellerman attended. Roberto said he “came back inspired”.

Foundation Grant Management Seminar: Foundation Grants Management Seminar, Zoom, Sunday March 23, 6-7pm, must preregister (Jim, Roberto registered, Debbie Rodriguez and Carole Heaney will register).

District Conference: April 4-6th, Hilton Downtown Albany. Registration required. Roberto Martinez and Jim Leyhane will be going. They are looking for someone to sit at a table and sell the soaps for our fundraiser.

District Conference Learning Assembly: Friday April 4^th 8am-12p. Registration separate from District Conference. This is a FREE learning event designed to prepare club leaders in all roles – Secretary, Treasurer, Public Image, Membership, Foundation, DEI and more. It is open to all members, and you don’t need an official title to come learn something new! Come for general sessions, choose two breakouts based on your interest or role for next year, and enjoy a free breakfast. Registration is required!

Conference of Champions: April 4-6th, Hilton Downtown Albany Registration is open.  Fifty of our inbound and outbound Youth Exchange students will be present, you will have ample opportunities to connect with fellow members and CNY leaders, and we even baked in some site-seeing time before and during conference. Many volunteers are working hard to make sure you get a ton of value for your time and money to be immersed in Rotary all weekend! Register today at cnyrotary.org, Roberto, Phil, Jim going. Hoping for more attendees.

CNY Epic Day of Service: Hold the date and more to come 05/17/25

RI News

RI: Rotary PolioPlus Legacy: March 27, 2025, 10a EST, Live on Zoom.

2026 Rotary Peace Fellowships Applications are open until May 15, 2025.

RI Conventions: Calgary, June 21-25, 2025. Carole Heaney will be attending.

Next Meeting: The next meeting is Thursday, March 27th at 6:00 pm at Moscatiello’s Italian Family Restaurant, Route 4, North Greenbush. Also, you can join by Zoom using the link on the websites calendar page. The guest speaker will be Christine Fowler from the NYSUIT Retirement System.

Entry Choices will be Rustica Salad, Baked Ziti and Veal Parm.

Laurie Pferr graduated from SUNY Rockefeller College where she majored in legislative administration. She started her State service as a Graduate Intern for the NY Senate and moved up to Chief of Staff, Legislative Director and to Senate Aging Director. She went the NYS Office of the Aging (NYSOFA) where she served as Deputy Director. Laurie retired in 2021.

NYSOFA was established in 1965 by the NYS Elder Law which designated a State Unit on Aging. The Office partners with 59 local Agencies on Aging, as well as 1,200 community-based organizations to provide services such as senior center programs, home meals, adult day services and transportation, legal services, respite and caregiver support, case management, non-medical personal care and elder abuse prevention and mitigation. They also oversee the Long-Term Care Ombudsman Program. These programs help people to stay in their community and delays the use of long-term care. Funding comes from federal and state sources. In 2023, 525 million dollars was invested in providing services to over 1 million people. NY Connects is the collaboration between offices of the aging, social services and independent living centers. It provides screening to identify need and eligibility for services and Medicaid.

Federal funding cuts adversely effects programs and services. For further information refer to Inside Aging NYS -Issue #37 – March 2025 https://aging.ny.gov/system/Ales/documents/2025/02/imp. Locally, contact the Rensselaer County Unified Family Services Department for Aging Services as (518) 270-2730 or https://www.rensco.com/159/Aging. Contact NY Connects at (800) 342-9871 or, directly call (518)-270-2767 (AAA) or (518)274-0701 (ILC of the Hudson Valley) https://www.nyconnects.ny.gov/.