April 11, 2008 Meeting

SUMMARY

After President Helene told us of the honors being presented to club members Len Wilson and Bill Buck (more information below), we were all treated to a “behind the scenes look” into the world of advertising and graphic arts with Paul J. Salafia, who is also Chair of Andover’s Planning Board.

PLEDGE, SONG, AND INVOCATION

On this fine spring morning, President Helene led us through the Pledge of Allegiance, Song-mistress Marie Stultz led us through two choruses of “America the Beautiful” and Dave Sollars spoke inspiring thoughts.

INTRODUCTION OF VISITORS AND GUESTS

We welcomed our guests who included, Kerry Ellen Wright, Patti Richard, Julie Gershick, Merrimack College student Joseph Bonanno, Cole and Jason Spencer, Elizabeth Troiano, Aliya Druth, and our speaker, Paul Salafia.

CLUB ANNOUNCEMENTS

President Helene announced Len Wilson will be receiving the Ralph B. Wilkinson Award at the Merrimack Valley Chamber of Commerce's annual dinner on April 29. The event will be held at DiBurro's Function Hall, with Hors d'oeuvres and cocktails at 6 p.m., followed by the dinner at 6:45 p.m. The confirmed featured speaker is Gov. Deval Patrick. Tickets are $95 per person and Helene would love to have a table of 10 reserved for Andover Rotary.

Bill Buck will be honored by the Yankee Clipper Council of the Boy Scouts with a Distinguished Citizen Award on June 5th. More information will follow.

ROTARY MINUTE

Marie gave a very special minute remembering her father and his participation in the Iola Kansas Rotary. Marie was 16 years old and working as a waitress at the Iola Hotel when her father was president of the club and leading a function at the hotel. A young man working on his doctorate at Kansas University spoke that evening about the theme of stars. Marie said that all Rotarians are stars.

RAFFLE

No raffle this week. Paul Brown was out and Steve Druth took all the money last week anyway.

HAPPY DOLLARS AND DOLLARS OF CONCERN

Today’s Fine-Meister, David Lindsay, collected dollars from all the well-organized folks who have completed their income taxes. He then proceeded to fine the less-organized who showed up without their pins. Bob Troiano threw in a dollar saying that he would not be thinking about it until April 15th when Jim Weisman would make the annual call to him. Steve Druth announced the good news (“good” hardly begins to describe it) that $540,000 was raised by the Boys and Girls Club of Lawrence at their auction. He also said that the next morning he and daughter Aliya got up early the next morning to drive to NYC where she tried out for the “America’s Got Talent” program. Not to be outdone, Peter Cotch announced that he being considered for the re-make of “The Great Gatsby.” Either Cole or Jason thanked the club for supporting them as they and Elizabeth Troiano participate in the “Jump Rope for Hearts” fundraiser. Mark Spencer gave a dollar to welcome our speaker and to express his sympathy for the club members who get fined for being “pinless” each week. Bill Buck gave a dollar but I missed the occasion, Marie gave a happy ten spot for the front page article on her opera group in yesterday’s Eagle-Tribune. Like the Greek Goddess, Persephone, Paul Mercandetti is happy for the return of spring. Speaking of appreciating spring, Dave Sollars is happy for the return of the Red Sox season and applauded the construction worker who purportedly sank a Red Sox shirt in the concrete of the new Yankee Stadium. Alan Michel is happy because Boston English High School won the Fox 25's "My High School Newscast" Contest. Marie celebrated her birthday, causing us all to try and sing as best we could a chorus of “Happy Birthday.” David Lindsay is happy for his and Martha’s birthday. Guest Joseph Bonano gave a dollar for attending our meeting.

TODAY’S PROGRAM

Peter Caruso began his introduction of Paul Salafia by noting that they had first met in 1971 when both worked for The Eagle-Tribune. He noted that Paul is Chairman of the Andover Planning Board and that he designed the logo for Marie’s opera group. Paul spoke on his background, noting that he grew up in Lawrence, went to the Art Institute in Boston, and worked in graphic arts of all kinds with the Eagle-Tribune, which at that time had the largest press in the world. The job prepared him well for his future and at 25 he was hired to run the largest advertising agency in Canada. However, a few years later, due to the high cost of gas and deteriorating US economy, he returned to this area to be with his family. He started his own business and was nominated for a “Clio” in furniture advertising and so, in a sense, he found his specialty. He described the advertising campaign he worked out for Bernie and Phyl’s Furniture, a company that had high awareness (94%) among potential customers but only a 15% market share. Paul devised a kind of guerilla marketing campaign based on the famous jingle, “Bernie & Phyl’s Furniture – Quality, Comfort and Price – That’s Nice!” The highlight has been a casting call sent out to all families with kids. Some 3500 people showed up, including Aliya. The result has been new customers, including younger families, and a distillation of the all the entrants in new commercials to be aired on our local stations - a really interesting story and enjoyable talk.

CLUB ELECTION OF OFFICERS

Yes! We are off to a good start for next year with the election of the slate of officers for 2008-2009. It was unanimous, except for possibly one small yelp from Peter Cotch.

President-Elect: Peter Cotch;
Secretary: Paul Brown;
Treasurer: Paul Mercandetti;
Membership: Richard Brenner;
Community Service: Bill Buck.
Foundation: Brian Dauphin;
Communications & Webmaster: Bob Troiano;

There is still an opening for Public Relations Chair.
Contact David if you can step up to the plate.

NEXT WEEK

Please, Please come early as President Helene will be ringing the bell at 7:30 AM to allow time for our speaker, who is the author of a new book on Islam and the West to talk and take questions.