Are you familiar with Rotary Action Groups? They are independent, Rotary-affiliated groups of people from around the world who are experts in a particular field, such as economic development, peace, addiction prevention, the environment, or water.
The beauty of many of them is that you sometimes can participate without in-person activity — perfect for the ZOOM culture we find ourselves in. And, you get to network with Rotarians in other states and countries.
Click here to go to the website that explains the wide range of Rotary Action Groups and how you can become involved.
Meanwhile, courtesy of Debbie Rodriguez, here is an excerpt from the latest newsletter of the WASH Rotary Action Group, the name an acronym for “water, sanitation, hygiene). The full newsletter is available byclicking here.
District 7190 Governor Rich Griesche is inviting all SRC members to participate in a “Rotary Opens Opportunities” multi-district event.
The event, involving Rotarians from 7190 as well as 7170, 7150, and 7120, will facilitate discussions on membership, including the development of a club membership plan, innovative club models, “and a few other topics that you’ll just have to join the meeting and be surprised!,” Rich says.
Guest speaker Jason Browne will “make M&Ms” with his presentation titled “Make Membership Memorable.”
“Our four districts have been working diligently over the past two months to present you with a quality, fun, and interesting seminar,” Rich says. “It is extremely important for all District executives, chairpersons, AG’s, club presidents, and membership chairs to be in attendance. And, it’s just as important for all club members to partake in this effort. We all need to take an active part in increasing our district membership so our district remains intact.”
The free seminar is scheduled for 7 p.m. Monday, November 30, via ZOOM video conferencing and will run about 90 minutes. Anyone who plans to participate is asked to register online. The ZOOM link will be sent to you just before the session.
UPDATE: Less than an hour after the following website post went live, our first member pledged to take care of the Bath & Body Works items for Madison Burnett and some Barbie items for Alexia Fitzgerald. (The Barbie Food Truck remains.) So, cross those first two items off the chart!
Our annual “Adopt-a-Family” holiday drive officially got under way today.
SRC will be shopping for two needy families — a total of seven people — this year, in cooperation with Circles of Mercy which screens families for eligibility and distributes the gifts to them in time for Christmas. Bill Dowd will again coordinate our club’s share of the effort.
Our deadline for delivering individually wrapped, and recipient -labeled gifts to Circles of Mercy no later than December 14, so we are under a tight deadline.
Here’s how the project will work:
• Members are asked to review the “needs to have” and “nice to have” charts below.
• Once you decide what you would like to purchase, immediately email Bill Dowd at BillDowd4Troy@gmail.com. He will coordinate to be sure we do not duplicate presents and inadvertently skip others. And, he’ll let you know if a gift already has been reserved and let you know so you can make an alternate selection.
• When you purchase the gifts, please wrap them in festive paper and label them with the name of the individual for whom they are intended.
• Bill will be scheduling dropoff/pickup dates and locations for collecting the gifts.
That’s all there is to it. Here are the gift charts for the families: the Burnetts — mom, dad and 2 teenagers; the Fitzgeralds — mom, dad, and a daughter.
Meeting held virtually via ZOOM videoconferencing.
MEMBERS ATTENDING (15): Dick Drumm, Bill Dowd, Debbie Rodriguez, Kevin Leyhane, Tony Morris, Roberto Martinez, Jim Leyhane, Charlie Foote, Terry Brewer, Phil Kellerman, Ray Hannan, Murray Forth, Peter Brown, Debbie Brown, Pat Bailey.
GUESTS: None
MEETING NOTES: President Dick Drumm welcomed members. He announced a Board of Directors meeting to be held virtually on Thursday, December 3, following the regular meeting. The main topic will be finances. … Treasurer Murray Forth reported that he has submitted the required annual club financial form to the Internal Revenue Service. We have not yet received a response from the IRS on our application for restoration of tax-exempt status. …
In fundraising activities, Phil Kellerman said he will be selling more specialty coffees for the holidays (details to come), and Jim Leyhane and Roberto Martinez said they have sold out of the first batch of 100 bars of scented soaps and expect a second shipment to arrive next week. …
Bill Dowd said he has been in frequent contact with Circles of Mercy about the name of our Adopt-a-Family recipients and their wish lists. He said he has been told that communication has been slowed because of the pandemic, but that we have been promised the information by the end of the week. … Roberto and Dick participated in last Sunday’s virtual Rotary Leadership Institute activity. It was announced there that Larry Jones has succeeded Jack Faddegon as our ShelterBox district coordinator.
Meeting held virtually via ZOOM videoconferencing.
MEMBERS ATTENDING (15): Dick Drumm, Dean Calamaras, Doris Calamaras, Pat Bailey, Jim Leyhane, Roberto Martinez, Murray Forth, Ray Hannan, Debbie Rodriquez, Debbie Brown, Peter Brown, Charlie Foote, Becky Raymond, John Justino, Phil Kellerman.
GUESTS: None.
MEETING NOTES: President Dick Drumm welcomed members. He urged them to check the club website for information and registration links that have been posted there (and on our Facebook page called “SRC Club”) ertaining to two upcoming events:
• The November 24 virtual Foundation Gala for District 7190 that will feature Jennifer Jones. She will become president of Rotary International for 2022-23, the first woman to hold that office in the organization’s 115-year history.
The remainder of the meeting consisted of John Justinio presenting a video made in conjunction with World Polio Day, and facilitating a discussion on the topic afterward.
The link to our 7 p.m. Thursday, November 12, ZOOM meeting will be sent via email to all members on Monday.
Meeting held virtually via ZOOM videoconferencing.
MEMBERS ATTENDING (14): Dick Drumm, Bill Dowd, Terry Brewer, Debbie Rodriguez, Ray Hannan, Charlie Foote, Pat Bailey, Jim Leyhane, Roberto Martinez, Becky Raymond, Kevin Leyhane, John Justino, Peter Brown, Debbie Brown.
GUESTS (6): Lon Penna and Alice Marcus; Rotaractors Dustin Moore, Aubrey Racz, Lindsey Ribac, Felipe Xavier Costa.
ALICE MARCUS
MEETING NOTES: President Dick Drumm welcomed a group of Danes Rotaract members from the UAlbany School of Public Health, as well as special guests Lon Penna of the Niskayuna Rotary Club and Alice Marcus from Nigeria. The bulk of the meeting was given over to an explanation of the Mooncatcher Project and educational efforts Lon, Alice, and others are working on for a Rotary Global Grant.
The project is intended to provide feminine hygiene training and items to young women in Nigeria for whom menstruation and its attendant needs is sometimes a health and cultural problem.
It also is intended to expand on the theme “How To Uplift a Village” by empowering women through educational efforts using memory cards with vocational videos, supplying refurbished laptop computers, and providing large containers of books; plus, gathering micro-loans for business enterprises.
After the presentation by Lon and Alice, 10 SRC members and three of the Rotaractors stayed online following the regular meeting for additional discussion with them. Rotaract will consider taking on efforts to help the project because it has two connections to its members — Rotary public service and their connection to public health.
Meanwhile, anyone wishing to make individual monetary donations in support of the Mooncatcher and educational efforts may send checks made payable to “William Green III – Niskayuna Rotary DAF#451” to:
Lon Penna 39 Saint Stephens Lane East Glenville, NY 12302
Every $10 pays for three Mooncatcher hygiene kits after Rotary’s 50% match.
We will, as has become our practice during the ongoing pandemic, continue to meet virtually via ZOOM, but our Thursday, November 5, session will be a bit different.
John Justino has scheduled a session during which we can view and discuss “RI’s World Polio Day Global Update.” He will host the meeting and will play the video of the October 24 event and guide a brief discussion.
Our club’s ZOOM account limits us to 40-minute sessions, but John’s UAlbany account is more robust and, thus, will enable us to get any club business out of the way at the beginning of the session, then allow him to present the full 32-minute video and field questions.
Please save and use this link to gain access to the November 5 meeting:
In place of the annual Foundation Gala dinner event sponsored by District 7190 each November, the event is going virtual and including more than just our district because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Thus, it’s a “Virtual Empire Multi-District Foundation Event.”
Anyone is welcome to attend at no charge, although there is a suggested donation of $25. All donations will be credited as a Foundation donation to the individual Rotarian.
Registration is required. All participants who register will receive a ZOOM link in an email prior to event. Click here to access the registration form.
The 90-minute event will begin at 7 p.m. Tuesday, November 24, two days before Thanksgiving Day. As a fundraising effort, a special reception will be held with Jennifer Jones for a donation of $250 to The Rotary Foundation.
Jennifer, who will present the evening’s keynote address, will become president of Rotary International for 2022-23, the first woman to hold that office in the organization’s 115-year history.
District Foundation awards will be announced at 7:30 in separate breakout rooms.
The second virtual Rotary Leadership Institute session of the year is scheduled for 4 to 5 p.m. Sunday, November 8.
Rather than a single day-long session as is traditional with RLI, this year in a nod to the restrictions of the COVID-19 pandemic organizers are holding an ongoing series of brief virtual sessions.
As of now, no pre-registration will be necessary. And, rather than being divided into first-, second-, and third-year breakout sessions, it will be open to all attendees as a group. Organizers will send via email a link to the session. The SRC website will publicize it, once received, so we are sure all who may be interested have all the details needed.
For this session, you can join the District Training Team to learn more about the Rotary Foundation , Gift of Life, and Shelter Box — what they are, what they do, and how they serve people all over the world.
If you’re not familiar with the MoonCatcher Project, you will be after joining us next Thursday for our ZOOM meeting. That’s when Lon Penna of the Niskayuna Rotary Club and his co-presenter Alice Marcus will provide a look at the project being nominated for a Rotary Global Grant.
Says Lon, “Like most Rotarians, my wife Helen and I are dismayed by hunger, thirst, extreme poverty, illness, fistula, slavery, injustice, etc. We have completed multiple Rotary Grants on five continents. Our current thinking is instead of giving fish (man eats for a day) or giving a fishing pole (man eats for a lifetime) that we want to give the fishing poles to the village women (her family and community are uplifted for generations.).”
He explains that the symbolic “Fishing Pole” has three components:
1. A MoonCatcher Kit so schoolgirls can handle their menstruation, and are better able to stay in school. 2. K-12 education, vocational education, and vocational ideas. 3. Micro-loans
The MoonCatchers are $5. The education provided electronically is $7.
“My co-presenter, ‘Awesome Alice,’ was born in extreme poverty, was once homeless, and lives frugally (Alice doesn’t own a washing machine; she still uses a bucket.) Yet, when she heard these ideas she immediately put up $25,000, a substantial portion of her life savings.
“So, Niskayuna Rotary drafted a Global Grant to obtain TRF match money and we are hoping Southern Rensselaer might like to chip in. Every $10 pays for three MoonCatchers after The Rotary Foundation’s 50% match, and earns Paul Harris credits.”
NOTE: We will, as usual, be sending a ZOOM link to all SRC members for access to the meeting.
ALICE MARCUS
Southern Rensselaer County Rotary Club 