Morrisville Rotary Club

Present: Susan Bartlett, Tim Sargent, Ted Lambert, Marci Henderson, Gary Nolan, and Mary Metcalf.

For the purpose of conducting business transactions with Ameriprise Financial, Gary Nolan made a motion to authorize any two of the following persons:
Susan Bartlett: President,
Tim Sargent: VP & Sec,
Ted Lambert Jr: Asst Treasurer,
Marci Henderson: 2nd asst treasurer,
to sign for the Morrisville Rotary Club. The motion was seconded by Mary Metcalf. It passed by unanimously.

Tim Sargent made the motion to adjourn, seconded by Mary Metcalf. The motion passed unanimously.

Submitted by Ted Lambert.

Minutes

Present: Tim Sargent, Marcia Marble, Patti Coultas, Davis Koier, Ted Lambert, Sharon Menard, Gary Nolan, Mary Metcalf, and Linda Martin

Guests: Ken Gibbons, Union Bank and Nancy LeBouf, Essex Rotary (formerly of Morrisville Rotary)

Happy dollars from: Sharon, Gary, Tim

Tim announced that he is hoping to break his Happy Dollar record next week. The record now stands at $16. Come happy next week!

Tim said that Jason said that he will give the members an accounting of the Christmas Party/Silent Auction accounting next week.

Tim updated the members on the Polar Plunge. He is working with James to update the website. He talked with Cherisse Desrosiers, Chair of Lamoille County Habitat for Humanity and they are going forward and was really excited that we will donate ½ our proceeds to them this year. They have a family in mind for their first house. Marcia said there was an article in either the Stowe Reporter or News and Citizen last week about pursuing finding the land for the first family.

 Ted said that he is concerned with the number of members the Morrisville Rotary has, and that we are not good at getting new members, or retaining those we have. He said that our Number 1 Priority should be recruiting new members. He said we should have a goal of 20 new members next year. He is concerned that we are either going to grow or go away, we will not have people for leadership positions as we go forward. He asked that this item be starred in the minutes and that this should be on the agenda at each meeting.

Marcia said she was looking at the by-laws this week and it says that our annual meeting is the 3rd week in December, so next week should we should elect officers.

Tim welcomed Ken Gibbons from Union Bank back to the Morrisville Rotary.

Ken talked about two items: The regulatory environment and the local economy. He said that for Union Bank it has not been a bad year, as many people are moving their money away from the big banks to local banks. He said that for the next 4 weeks 6-8 FDIC examiners will be there to do their monitoring. He said that the FDIC and the IRS are both hiring. Ken explained how there are now more regulations, and the house has just passed a bill and the senate will be debating it in early January, so the final regulations are still in flux. He said that they have 4 different agencies/departments that regulate them including the FDIC and the State Department of Banks/Regulations.

He said that no banks in Vermont have closed, and none in New England, though there are two being watched. He said that 136 banks failed this year, though some because they made poor investments, such as in Freddie Mac and Sally Mae, instead of being “bad”. Ken said that in areas of the country that aren’t doing as well as here, 20-25% of their loans are past due, that that isn’t the case here.

Ken said that one reason our building trades aren’t doing poorly is the construction at the Mountain Company and also at Trapps. He said hardest hit have been the smaller companies. Looking optimistically, the Union Bank BUILD Loans will be down by about 10%.

He said there has been as refinancing frenzy, and if you haven’t refinanced in the past year, you should consider doing it. He stressed this again.

He said that when refinancing folks will notice more paperwork than before. This is due to more truth in lending regulations because of how the nonbanks operated in the past.

He said that residential loans have become very complicated and Union Bank now has a couple of loan officers who just work on those.

Ted asked how Union Bank is ranked nationally. Ken explained that there are several ways to categorize banks, but the one they mostly look at is the return on assets of banks in the $300-500 range, non-urban. There are 1,200 in this category and they are in the 85 percentile. Ken said that Sandler O’Neill Partners, LP, a Wall Street investment banking firm ranked Union Bank as one of the top 30 small capital publicly traded financial institutions in the US. (They did not rank one over another but identified the top 30.)

Gary made the motion to adjourn, Mary seconded it. The vote was unanimous.

Minutes submitted by Patti Coultas.

Minutes

Present: Becky Gonyea, Marcia Marble, Patti Coultas, Jason McArthur, Davis Koier, Ted Lambert, Sharon Menard, Gary Nolan, Tim Sargent, Mary Metcalf, Phil Chiaravalle, Marci Henderson, Deanna Wood and Susan Bartlett.

Happy dollars from: Mary ($2), Patti, Davis, Jason, and Tim

Gary needs folks to drop off their silent auction items to Harvey’s (County Oil) to either Debbie or Jaye right away. The latest information on numbers is 40. Last year it was about 65. He needs some help setting up tables at 2:30. Tim said he’d come up and help. Gary said that Karen will man the door.

Gary updated the membership on the handicapped ramp. He said that Tom O’Brien helped him the other day. It needs a bit more work and will be ready to set up.

Polar Plunge. Tim said he heard that Habitat isn’t yet ready for funds so thought we should support transitional housing (United Way). There was discussion about Habitat and whether or not they might need to money to help them organize, versus run their programs. It was discussed that start up money would be a good use of Rotary Funds. Tim is going to do some more checking on their status by talking to their board members. He will get back to us.

Marcia said that Cambridge netted $1500 in citrus sales.

Dr. Phil said that Stephanie Lockhart, who has the Spanish Horse Protection Program on Rte 15, wrote a letter asking for donations. He will pass it on to Susan.

Ted explained to the members that we needed a new updated Corporate Resolution of Authority and to approve Ted as a co-signer with Jason since James is no longer active. He then gave an update on the accounts:

1. General Fund: This is where dues, fund raising, etc. goes. It is used for funding projects. Currently, minus obligations, there is approximately $1900 in it.
2. James Gregg Memorial Fund. This is an old account that Rotary was given to use the proceeds for supporting libraries in the region. The market has not be good in recent years so there have been negligible proceeds to disburse. It only has about $1200 in it. The account is more trouble maintaining than it is worth. Ted would like to make a motion to close this account and divide the money equally between the local libraries. Marcia seconded the motion. Gary asked if there was a paper trail on James Gregg’s wishes. Ted said they cannot find any and that they were probably destroyed in the Charlemont Fire that took most of Rotary’s records years ago. Dr. Phil noted that Mr. Gregg was an English Teacher at Peoples Academy. He said that this seems in keeping with his wishes to support the libraries. The vote was unanimous.
3. Cash Management Account. This account has $1200-1300. It was created when the club had some additional funds coming in through the sale of an antique car. He suggested that we close this account and move it to the General Fund.
4. Club Account. This account has almost $7000 in it and is where the 50/50 money, extra $1 on meals, etc. is deposited. The purpose of this account is specifically for club use on itself. Paul Harris matching funds come from this, and Ted suggested we pay for past for guests for the Christmas Party from it. Gary made the motion to pay for invited guests with any party profits to be deposited into the General Fund. Sharon seconded the motion. It passed unanimously.

Youth Exchange. Ted explained the situation with Antoine. Antoine tried out GMTCC’s Culinary Program on Friday and will go back Tuesday and try the Multimedia Program. Ted is also looking for a more urban host family, perhaps in Morrisville so Antoine can have more freedom. It might not work out and Antoine would go home.

Next year’s selection has been completed, Emma Masi was selected. The other candidate, Oliver Ames, is still very interested and offered to fund raise the additional club expense that would be required to have 2 students study abroad. In the mean time, Chuck in Cambridge said that they did not have a student and would interview Oliver and see if they can support him.

Meeting adjourned at 1:00

Minutes submitted by Patti Coultas.

Minutes

Directors Present: Susan Bartlett, Marcia Marble, Ted Lambert, Jason McArthur, Gary Nolan, Tim Sargent, Mary Metcalf

Members Present: Patti Coultas, Davis Koier

Susan opened the meeting at 1pm.

Marcia made the motion to make Ted Lambert the assistant Treasurer. Gary seconded it. The motion passed unanimously.

Jason reminded the Directors that Tim Sargent was already the assistant secretary so he can sign forms already.

Mary made the motion for Becky Gonyea to be a Morrisville Rotary Member. Ted seconded it. The motion passed unanimously.

Minutes submitted by Patti Coultas.

Minutes

The Rotary Club of Morrisville is at it again by sponsoring the 2^nd annual LAKE ELMORE POLAR PLUNGE (January 30, 2009 at 11:00 a.m.) to be located at Elmore Town Hall on the frozen shores of beautiful Lake Elmore, Vermont.  Half the proceeds will be directed to the Lamoille County chapter of Habitat for Humanity to help jumpstart their organization and provide affordable housing.

There will be a registration/donations party prior to the Plunge on Friday, January 29, 2010 (from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.) at the River Arts building located in beautiful downtown Morrisville. Plungers can pick up their free towel and special gift at this time.

On the day of the Plunge, jumpers are encouraged to arrive an hour or so before the swim.  Parking is available at the Elmore School, Elmore Town Clerk’s driveway, Elmore Methodist Church and Lake Elmore State Park by the beach house (on Beach Road).  A warming tent (next to the Town Hall) will be provided so participants can change and prepare for the plunge.  Once cued, plungers will be led out of the tent and onto the ice.  The time on the ice will be brief.  Then the plunge!  Upon scurrying out of the swimming hole, participants will then be ushered back into the tent to dry-off and warm up.  Expect congratulations for having done something completely nuts.  All plungers will receive a free gift for their efforts!  Once senses have returned, plungers are then invited to the Town Hall where free warm beverages and snacks will be provided.

Applications may be submitted on the day of the event.  If alone, the applicant should raise $150.00 dollars to participate.  If part of a team (teams consist of four (4)) then the team is strongly encouraged to raise $500.00 (or $125 per team member).  Feel free to wear a costume, and if part of a team, try to come up with a theme.  An award shall be given to best costume, best team costume and biggest fundraiser.  Make sure all donations are made out to the Morrisville Rotary Club.  Participants can either deliver or mail your registration/donations prior to January 29, 2010 to Sargent Law Office located at 29 Bridge Street, P.O. Box 696, Morrisville, VT 05661.  *If you use the mail system make sure your registration/donations are sent at least four days before the event*.  If you prefer, plungers can also bring their registration/donations to the Elmore Town Hall on the morning of the event.  Your efforts will be greatly appreciated!!!

Plunging Protocol:

1. No diving.
2. No wet or dry suits permitted.
3. Shoes or heavy duty socks should be worn (you will be on ice).
4. Special costumes are encouraged.
5. Most importantly, have fun!!!

Please reference our webpage for updates leading up to the event at www.morrisvillerotaryclub.org.

Events, Polar Plunge Cold, Elmore, Events, Fund Raiser, Polar Plunge