Morrisville Rotary Club

Present at the Stonegrill Restaurant at Noon: Jason McArthur, Rudy Loyola, Gary Nolan, Marci Henderson, Becky Gonyea, Mary Metcalf, Mark Sinow, Ted Lambert, Marcia Marble, Phil Grant, and Roy Marble.

Guests: Nancy Sinow and our speaker, Eric Nuse.

Acting President today: Jason McArthur called the meeting to order.

Happy Dollars were collected by acting Sargent of Arms, Ted Lambert from: Roy, Phil: $2.00, Marcia, Rudy, Marci and Ted. Ted proposed a fine to all other members in attendance who have not given a Happy Dollars and he collected from: Gary, Mark, and Becky.

Duck Tickets: Gary reported that they will be printed as soon as he receives the Sponsors’  funding.

Gary will speak with the Morrisville 4th of July Committee to confirm our participation.

Mail: Jason shared a note from Bernie Quinlan asking for funding for her next trip to Haiti. Community Committee to take up at next meeting.

Phil invited all to attend the Peoples Academy Memorial Day Ceremony on Friday, May 27^th at 10:00 AM.  In case of rain, the ceremony will be in the PA Auditorium.

NEXT WEEK’S meeting is at Claire’s Restaurant on Main Street in Hardwick.  The menu has been circulated by email.  A car pooling list will be circulated.  It is best to use the parking lot across the street from the restaurant.

Conservation Camp Scholarships: Marcia reported that all three from Rotary and the three from the Fish & Game Club have been awarded.  Roy spoke that scholarships are available from the Federation of Sportsmen Clubs.

College Scholarship requests have been shared with PA, Hazen and LUHS. Craftsbury Academy has asked Ted for confirmation which he sent onto Tim.   Morrisville Rotary awards one $500 scholarship to each school.

Speaker: Eric Nuse is a retired Vermont Game Warden.  Along with Megan Price, Terry Cook and Bob Lutz, they put together a book of game warden tales called ,’Vermont Wild’.  Eric shared about the writing and publishing process as well as his publicizing efforts.  He successfully sold the books that he brought with him!  Rudy shared a story about Game Warden Red Hooper. Eric is planning on another brook to include Red’s and other tales.   Eric to interview Rudy for some of these.  Eric has heard that Maine Game Wardens are planning a book of their stories as well.   One of Eric’s purposes is to encourage young people to enter the game warden profession.  He will see about speaking at the Conservation Camps.

Raffle: Tim donated the Rotary tote bag for this week’s raffle.  Marci won it and donated it back to the club.

Marcia presented two of the third grade dictionaries to Becky to share with the Lamoille Family Center.

Meeting was adjourned at 12:50PM.

Minutes respectively submitted by Marcia Marble

Present at Peoples Academy Art Room: Tim Sargent, Jason McArthur, Cindy Locke, Rudy Loyola, Marc Sinow, Phil Grant, Sharon Menard, Gary Nolan, Ted Lambert, Mary Metcalf, Marcia Marble, Deanna Wood, Geoffrey Blume and Tricia Follert.

Guest: Nancy Sinow

Happy Dollars were collected by Tim from: Sharon, Tricia, Gary, Cindy, Ted, Rudy, Deanna, Jason and Tim.

Jason presented President Tim with a Lamoille Union High School bumper sticker.

Fine: Phil fined Jason for bringing a LUHS bumper sticker into PA.  This was Phil’s first fine. Jason paid  $1.00.

Tim fined Ted for missing Rotary last week. Ted’s defense was that he saw the Stonegrill construction sign and thought that Rotary was not being held there. He then had a business lunch meeting at Stonegrill. 2^nd by Jason. Ted lost the voice vote and paid $1.00.

District Conference: Tim and Marcia shared with the group the highlights of the several speakers.

Discussion: Tim asked for volunteers to set up and maintain a Facebook page for our club. Cindy volunteered to add items once the page is created.

Dictionary Project: Marcia and Bruce delivered the dictionaries to the Eden Elementary 3^rd graders.

Four books are left. Marcia proposed that two be presented to the Lamoille Family Center and two to the Children’s Court Diversion Program.

Pablo: Discussion that he or his family should pay the Exchange Student Participation fee and not our club.

Green Up: Saturday May 7^th: Meet at the Oxbow Parking lot off Bridge Street near the former Station Restaurant at 9:00 AM to do the Rail Trail from that point east and west.  The Lamoille River is too high to do along the river. Tricia spoke that VAST is going ahead with their Act 250 permit and will be showing this area as part of that process and will appreciate Rotary doing Green Up here.  Tricia will obtain the green bags.

All thanked Principal Phil Grant for hosting our meeting.

Meeting was adjourned at 12:50 PM.

Rotarians present at the Stonegrill Restaurant Conference Room in Morrisville: Tim Sargent, Mark Cattelona, Phil Grant, Mary Metcalf, Tricia Follert, Becky Gonyea, Cindy Locke, Gary Nolan, Marcia Marble, Sharon Menard, Jason McArthur, Rudy Loyola, Bruce Shields, and Marci Henderson.

Guests: Vt. Auditor of Accounts, Tom Salmon and Julia Compagna.

Happy Dollars were collected by Sargent at Arms, Mark Cattelona from: Marcia, Gary, Tricia, Becky, Bruce, Phil-$2.00, Tom, Tim, Sharon, Rudy, and Mary.  Most were celebrating our great weather.

District Conference in Stowe: Tim and Marcia are attending Friday and Saturday sessions. Rudy is attending on Friday.

Mary is planning to attend on Saturday along with Pablo Martinez

Japan relief: Ted has collected $140.00. Motion by Jason for the club to donate $60.00 to make a total of $200.00

Tim will present it to the Littleton Club on Saturday in Stowe. Second by Cindy. Vote: all in favor.

Next week’s meeting: to be at Peoples Academy. Principal and Rotarian Phil Grant to confirm the details.

Mail: Tim received the Clarina Howard Nichols Center newsletter. Deb’s Place thanked Rotary for the $100.00 donation for the breakfasts that she provided while we met at the Tegu Building. Morristown Playground Group thanked us for  their $100.00 donation.

Green Up Day: Tim announced that we will do the Oxbow area in Morrisivlle. Meet at the Oxbow parking lot below Morrisville Lumber.  Sam Guy has asked Rotary to do the Rail Trail which will be discussed next week.

Visit at a Florida Rotary Club:  Cindy shared her make up meeting at the Eustis Florida Rotary Club recently.  She did exchange club banners and will bring it in next week.  Eustis is a similar sized club to Morrisville. They moved from a Friday time to Wednesday lunch and lost some members.  They have limited youth members.  They recite the 4 Way Test at each meeting.

Speaker: Tom Salmon opened his presentation with a reference to Paul Harris-keep the love of your fellow man in your heart.  Tom acknowledged our guest, Julia Compagna as she also grew up in Bellows Falls, VT.

The Auditor’s office has a staff of 14 with seven being CPA’s. They do performance audits of state agencies rather than financial audits that are now contracted out to private firms. One of their projects was to work with the Sheriff’s Depts to get them all onto the same financial process.  Lamoille County Sheriff Roger Marcoux was particularly helpful.

The change over process was planned to take 18 months and was accomplished in 14 months.

Mr. Salmon was in New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and saw the lack of governmental accountability and financial management.  He knew then that State Government could be handled in a more professional manner.

Upon his return to Vermont, he was elected to the Rockingham Selectboard and worked on the above issues there.

The Vermont  Auditor’s Office functions independently of politics.

Tom is proud that the 2011 National Auditor’s Conference is coming to Burlington in August.

He was instrumental in the issue of Challenges for Change and the company that reported to the Vt. Legislature.

During the 2010 election,  Mr. Salmon was serving with the Navy Seabees in Iraq. He was a truck driver there and the Iraqis would just watch the US trucks drive thru the villages. At Halloween the drivers would thru candy to the kids who enjoyed it!   The Seabees built housing and steel military buildings during his tour. The State Auditor’s Office created a professional Standards Policy during 2010.

Vermonters need to work together to improve the Vermont economy.  1% annual private sector income growth is not acceptable.  Rotarian question: The Vermont Legislature should have a performance based audit.

Raffle: Bruce the winning ticket and drew the King of Clubs-not the winner.

Meeting was adjourned by 1:00 PM.

Minutes respectively submitted by Marcia Marble

Rotarians present at the Stonegrill Restaurant Conference Room in Morrisville: Tim Sargent, Mark Cattelona, Mary Metcalf, Tricia Follert, Mark Sinow, Becky Gonyea, Cindy Locke, Gary Nolan, Jim Heath, Marci Henderson, Marcia Marble, Sharon Menard, Jason McArthur, Geoffrey Blume, Ted Lambert and Deanna Wood.

Guests: Nancy Sinow, Tom Younkman and Diane Cattelona.

Happy Dollars were collected by Sargent at Arms, Mark Cattelona from: Ted, Marci, Marcia, Gary, Cindy, Tricia, and Mary.

Sad Dollar came from Sharon for the family sugarhouse that burned.

Fine: Marci fined Cindy and lost.

Food Shelf : Tim asked for donations to the Bradley Food Shelf.   $33.00 was collected.  Marcia shared that the Bradley Food Shelf needs to relocate out of the Demar Building.

Mail: Stephanie Spaulding from Morrisville asked for funding for her upcoming Italy Trip with the Global Volunteer Network.  She is set to leave on June 9^th and needs at least $2,395 by May 1^st. Group consensus is to say no due to not meeting our funding criteria.  Tricia volunteered to write the letter  with the thought that she could apply for a Rotary exchange program.  Marcia to email Tricia with past form.

GSE: Tim asked all to think of eligible folks who could go to South Africa in September. Expenses are paid by the Rotary District. Non Rotarians are eligible.

–Turkish GSE will be visiting in our District in May. Tim will let us know when they are to come to Morrisville.

Japan Earthquake and Tsunami Relief Project: Ted spoke that his office has raised $140 by wearing Jeans to work and paying $5.00/day.  Information has been shared to the Lamoille Area thru the weekly Chamber of Commerce newsletter.  All donations are due to Ted by next Wednesday, April  27^th.

Discussion that our Club will participate to send a total of $200 to the District Conference on April 29^th.

Duck storage: Mark C. will ask Demars Properties and Sharon will see if Menard Agway has space to store the boxes. Discussion that rather than pay for the storage, the business will receive a free ad worth $100.00 as a Duck Race sponsor and/or 2012 Polar Splash sponsorship on the tee shirts.

Tickets: Gary will solicit the sponsors and see that the tickets are printed soon.

Morristown Elementary School Playground Committee: Motion by Jason to give the Committee $100.00. 2^nd by Deanna. Discussion: will there be a plaque for sponsors?  Vote was in favor for the $100.00 donation.

Speaker: Tom Younkman is the Lamoille area representative from the VT. Center for Independent Living and the VT. Extension Service with their VT.  Agr Ability Project  and  is working with disabled farmers.  His goal is to promote success in agriculture for people with disabilities and their families so that the farmer can stay in business.  Merton Pike from Stowe has had his equipment modified so that he can continue to do most of his farm’s field work. Tom also works to match up newly disabled folks with peers for support whether they are farmers or not with physical and brain injuries.

Tom recently located a Morrisville office that he is sharing with United Way in the TD Bank building.  25 folks in the Lamoille County area are in Tom’s program.   Tom has worked with the VCIL for the past two years.  The USDA funding may end this April. VCIL is working to continue this needed program.

Marcia announced that a District Public Relations Citation will be awarded to Morrisville Rotary at the upcoming District Conference in Stowe on April 29 and 30.

District Literacy Citation: Tim thanked Deanna for coordinating our several activities and sending the application onto the District.

Raffle: Mark Sinow had the winning ticket and drew the 7 of Clubs-not the winner.

Meeting was adjourned by 1:00 PM.

Minutes respectively submitted by Marcia Marble

April 13, 2011 Letter

Hi Tim,

I hope this note finds you well.  As our first season of “Finding Our Voices”—funded with seed money from the Morrisville Rotary—winds down, I want to share some positive news with members of the Morrisville Rotary Club.

As you may recall, Laraway Youth & Family Services used the Rotary grant money to form an after school group for adolescent girls in our foster care program.  Meeting monthly, our activities focused on theatrical improvisation, literature and personal storytelling activities.  Our goal was to help participants “find and speak their voices”.

I am delighted to report that Laraway presented a workshop this past Saturday at the statewide Vermont Foster and Adoptive Family Association Conference in Burlington—-co-facilitated by the girls in our group! The workshop, “Finding Our Voices:  Improvisation Helps!” was attended by 40 people.  The girls spoke with confidence and clarity while deftly facilitating games, fielding questions from the audience and sharing their insights on Vermont’s Foster Care system.

Thank you for planting a seed that will continue to yield fruit in the lives of those we serve!

Katherine Stamper, MPA
Development Director
Laraway Youth & Family Services

Present: Tim Sargent, Cindy Locke, Geoffrey Blume, Gary Nolan, Tricia Follert, Becky Gonyea, Marci Henderson, Ted Lambert, Sharon Menard, Mary Metcalf, Patti Coultas, Mark Cattelona, Marc and Nancy Sinow, and Marcia Marble.

Guests: Jim Heath, Heidi Dalburg, Michelle Wright, and Alexis Bronner

Happy Dollars: Mary, Sharon, Ted, Tricia, Becky, Jim, Gary, Patti & Tim

Fines. Tim proposed a fine against Marcie, who is not wearing her name tag. Ted seconded him. Marcia said that she has her name tag (it was on the table) but that the clip did not work on her sweater. The members voted to fine Marci. Since this is her first offense, Tim has to pay the fine of $1.

Tim proposed a donation to Deb’s Place for providing well for the morning Rotary meetings. He thought $100 would be nice. Mary made the motion, Ted seconded it, and it passed unanimously.

All mail and passed around:

• Sarah Gruner who was a youth exchange member years ago in Ecuador sent a letter about the day care she has started next to the Women’s prison. Her letter again thanked the Morrisville Rotary for the opportunity.
• Wolcott Elementary School sent a thank you card that the students made for the dictionaries
• The July 4^th vendor application has been received for the duck race.
• The Lamoille Family Newsletter was received.

Tim again mentioned doing Green Up day along the Lamoille River at the Oxbow.

Patti suggested that the meeting be held in Hardwick and the newly renovated Hardwick Inn on May 25^th. She said that there is a nice meeting room on the 2^nd floor and Andrew Meyer, owner of the Vermont Soy and Vermont Natural Coatings companies has agreed to speak that day. Connie’s Kitchen Deli is on the first floor where people can pick up lunch first. There was discussion about the noon hour, and if people could drive over there. Marcia suggested car pooling. A show of hands indicated that people thought noon was preferable over an evening session.

Tim welcomed Michelle Wright and Alexis Bronner from the Morrisville Elementary Playground Committee. Michelle explained that a small group of parents had formed to start to work on a playground up at the Elementary School (not the Graded Building where there currently is a playground). She said they are planning a natural playspace similar to the one at Thatcher Brook School. They are planning to implement it in phases instead of trying to raise all the money at once. This means it will be a 5-7 year project. The first phase is $10,000. They have received a $5,000 donation from AT&T and they have the potential of receiving $2500 more if they can raise the matching amount. They held a fund raiser and have received $1500 to date. They need to raise $1000 more, but will take any amount offered. They passed around plans. The Rotary will discuss this at their next committee meeting.

Geoff’s ticket was chosen, but he did not pick the winning card.

The meeting was adjourned at 1pm.

Present: Tim Sargent, Cindy Locke, Geoffrey Blume, Gary Nolan, Tricia Follert, Becky Gonyea, Marci Henderson, Ted Lambert, Sharon Menard, Mary Metcalf, Patti Coultas, Mark Cattelona, Marc and Nancy Sinow, and Marcia Marble.

Guests: Jim Heath, Heidi Dalburg, Michelle Wright, and Alexis Bronner

Happy Dollars: Mary, Sharon, Ted, Tricia, Becky, Jim, Gary, Patti & Tim

Fines. Tim proposed a fine against Marcie, who is not wearing her name tag. Ted seconded him. Marcia said that she has her name tag (it was on the table) but that the clip did not work on her sweater. The members voted to fine Marci. Since this is her first offense, Tim has to pay the fine of $1.

Tim proposed a donation to Deb’s Place for providing well for the morning Rotary meetings. He thought $100 would be nice. Mary made the motion, Ted seconded it, and it passed unanimously.

All mail and passed around:

• Sarah Gruner who was a youth exchange member years ago in Ecuador sent a letter about the day care she has started next to the Women’s prison. Her letter again thanked the Morrisville Rotary for the opportunity.
• Wolcott Elementary School sent a thank you card that the students made for the dictionaries
• The July 4^th vendor application has been received for the duck race.
• The Lamoille Family Newsletter was received.

Tim again mentioned doing Green Up day along the Lamoille River at the Oxbow.

Patti suggested that the meeting be held in Hardwick and the newly renovated Hardwick Inn on May 25^th. She said that there is a nice meeting room on the 2^nd floor and Andrew Meyer, owner of the Vermont Soy and Vermont Natural Coatings companies has agreed to speak that day. Connie’s Kitchen Deli is on the first floor where people can pick up lunch first. There was discussion about the noon hour, and if people could drive over there. Marcia suggested car pooling. A show of hands indicated that people thought noon was preferable over an evening session.

Tim welcomed Michelle Wright and Alexis Bronner from the Morrisville Elementary Playground Committee. Michelle explained that a small group of parents had formed to start to work on a playground up at the Elementary School (not the Graded Building where there currently is a playground). She said they are planning a natural playspace similar to the one at Thatcher Brook School. They are planning to implement it in phases instead of trying to raise all the money at once. This means it will be a 5-7 year project. The first phase is $10,000. They have received a $5,000 donation from AT&T and they have the potential of receiving $2500 more if they can raise the matching amount. They held a fund raiser and have received $1500 to date. They need to raise $1000 more, but will take any amount offered. They passed around plans. The Rotary will discuss this at their next committee meeting.

Geoff’s ticket was chosen, but he did not pick the winning card.

The meeting was adjourned at 1pm.

Present: Tim Sargent, Becky Gonyea, Marc and Nancy Sinow, Bruce Shields, Gary Nolan, Jason McArthur, Patti Coultas, Marcia Marble, Marci Henderson, Sharon Menard, Mark Cattelona, Geoffrey Blume, Rudy Loyola, Ted Lambert and Tricia Follert.

Guests: Riki French and Jim Heath

Happy Dollars: $15

Fines. Ted proposed a fine against Geoffrey, who he claimed cut in line to purchase lottery tickets. Jason seconded him. Rudy defended Geoffrey. The members voted to fine Geoffrey. Since this is his first offense, Ted has to pay the fine of $1.

Tim welcomed everyone back to the lunch hour. He proposed everyone pay $1 to the club account each week. It was unanimously agreed upon.

Marcia gave an update of distributing the dictionaries to local third graders. They are going well and are being well received.

Tim said that the club had met all 10 requirements of the Literacy Grant. He recognized Deanna for all the work she did. The last item is paperwork.

It was decided to advertise the jeans at work fundraiser in the Transcript for Japan Relief aid.

Tim told the members that he was thinking we should volunteer at Green up day along the Lamoille River around the Oxbow.

Becky introduced Riki French to talk about the Pre-School project for Morrisville and Elmore. The Morrisville and Elmore School Districts and the Lamoille Family Center received a state planning grant to review the pre-school situation and look at the ends of the area and exploring the development of partnerships with existing local child care providers to offer high quality preschool. Riki shared the results of the needs assessment. She said she is going around to various groups and talking with them about the results to gather even more information to come up with their recommendations.

On May 5^th they will host a community forum from 6-7:30 at River Arts in Morrisville to share data, collect input and discuss next steps. She encouraged everyone to attend.  Please RSVP to the Lamoille Family Center at 888-5229.

Tim thanked Riki for coming and presented her with a Morrisville Rotary mug.

Sharon’s ticket was drawn, but she did not draw the winning card.

The meeting was adjourned at 1pm.

Present: Tim Sargent, Jason McArthur, Tricia Follert, Marcia Marble, Roy Marble, Rudy Loyola, Cindy Locke, Gary Nolan and Patti Coultas

Guest: Emma Masi

Cindy collected happy dollars from Mary, Patti, Marcia & Cindy. She also collected $2 sad dollars from Tim.

Tim made a motion to fine Jason for saying whatever when Tim asked him where his Rotary pin was. Roy seconded the motion. Jason lost and had to pay a $1 fine.

Marcia gave an update on the dictionary distribution. She had a picture of the Rotary label that will go in the front. They will be distributed in Johnson on March 31^st at a 1:30 assembly. Please contact Marcia if you can assist her.

Eden Youth sports wrote a letter asking for a donation to help purchase the 5/6^th grade youth softball uniforms. No action was taken.

A thank you letter was received from River Arts for the donation we made for the use of their building the evening before the Polar Splash.

Tim reminded everyone that the next meeting will be Wednesday from 5-6 for a Mixer at the Stonegrill. Then we switch to Wednesdays at 12:05pm. He reminded folks to contact former members to let them know of the date/time change.

Tim welcomed Emma Masi, our exchange student who went to Croatia this fall.

Emma gave a very interesting talk about her time there and showed pictures via a PowerPoint presentation. She said that she was there from August – January and lived in the capital, Zagreb. She said high school is very different, with 45 minute classes and as many as 18 classes per semester. She said that it is totally lecture and that a teacher will call on a student to go to the front and answer questions. If they do not get them all write they fail. She said it is harder and  much more stressful than high school here. She said she liked Croatia but would not want to live there. They are still recovering from the war dividing Yugoslavia and many have an older way of looking at things because of that. She said the food was good, much more seafood than she eats here. She said she got to know the other exchange students and ended up being good friends with them. They took 1 ½ hours of Croatian together every day. She did get to play some soccer there, but it is not usual for girls to play sports. She also was able to visit Venice, Salzburg and the French Alps. She has not had a chance to do a presentation at Peoples Academy but is willing to do so. She highly recommends the exchange program to people.

Mary had the winning ticket, but did not draw the Ace of Spaces.

Minutes taken by Patti Coultas.

Present: Tim Sargent, Cindy Locke, Jason McArthur, Gary Nolan, Mary Metcalf, Deanna Wood, Bruce Shield, Rudy Loyola, and Marcia Marble.

New Member: Tricia Follert.

Happy dollars: $6.

Tim led the discussion about the RI’s new pilot membership programs: Satellite Club, Corporate Membership, Associate Membership or Innovation and Flexibility. Those in attendance chose the Corporate model.  This would allow a company to have one of four possible employees attend a Rotary meeting.

District Conference:  Please consider attending at least one session or meal at the Stowe Mountain Company! Tim emailed you information.  Sign up before March 29^th.

April 25 to May 25: Group Study Exchange from Turkey in our District — Hosts needed.

May 2 to June 2: GSE from our District to Turkey!    Members needed

Meeting was adjourned at 8am

Minutes were taken by Marcia Marble and Tim Sargent