September 19, 2008 Meeting

Summary

With what seemed like somewhat low attendance, the spirit of Rotary was nevertheless in the room with the Pledge of Allegiance led by Bill Buck, two verses of “God Bless America” led by Marie and an inspiring invocation by the now “Reverend” Len Wilson.  In addition, talks about the Rotary District Conference from Richard Brenner and Cheryl Callahan and a talk about the Andover Coalition for Education by Tina Girdwood helped all of us attending realize more fully our mission.

Visitors & Guests

We welcomed our guests who were “Citizen Who Cares” Tina Girdwood and Kathleen and Caroline Buck,

Announcements

Ray Cannon reminded us that the committee to put together a plan for recognizing Andover’s Educator of the Year was meeting right after the main meeting.

  Filling in again for our peripatetic president David Lindsay, President-Elect Peter Cotch thanked Mark Spencer for the very attractive posters announcing the club’s “Endless Summer” dance on October 24^th.  He reminds us that failure is not an option and we must sell our raffle and dance tickets.   

Richard Brenner described his experience at the recent District Conference. He talked about how everyone needs to be both a Rotarian and a Rotary Member.  People join Rotary to have fun and they find satisfaction in making a difference.  Richard talked about the importance of attendance and the need to make up at other clubs when we miss a meeting.  He suggests that if we have sponsored someone and we notice at some point they have stopped coming, that we pick up the phone and give them a call.  Richard’s goal as Membership Chair is to get 10 new members for the year.  Someone asked what the attendance requirements are.  Editor’s note - They do seem to have loosened up some since I originally joined Rotary, but they still exist and they may be found at this link: http://www.rotary.org/RIdocuments/en_html/attendance_files/v3_document.htm  

Cheryl Callahan followed up with her own observations from the conference.  She noted how she has learned, as a fairly new member, how incredible it is that Rotary has such a strong International Service component.  Her remarks served as a handy segue to the passing of the pillow case to collect everyone’s change for the anti-polio fund.

Raffle

Brian and Richard had their numbers drawn and Richard won the $10, so the pot remains.

Today's Program

Joan Johnson introduced our speaker for the day, former Andover School Committee Chairperson, current President of the Andover Coalition for Education, and Citizen Who Cares, Tina Girdwood.  Tina began with an idea currently in vogue, change.  Schools need to change too and we need to help them adapt to changes.  She spoke of how some school committee members looked around at various communities to see what they were doing to help fund education.  As a result, they founded ACE – Andover’s Coalition for Education.  Our own Ray Cannon helped provide some of the backup that netted $45,000 the first year and over $230,000 over three years.  They began by funding special projects suggested by teachers and are now funding more system-wide efforts such as “Engineering is Elementary.”  Tina gave an example of how the woodworking program we all knew has morphed into a laboratory for engineering.  ACE aims to collaborate with other Andover organizations and they feel as though they are making a difference.  Their current focus is the foreign language lab.  The club’s interest and appreciation for ACE was evident.

Fines and Happy Dollars

Victimized, perhaps, for being late, David Sollars was asked to be Sergeant-at-Arms for the day and he began by heaping insult upon injury with a fine of everyone who had not attended a Red Sox game this year.  Helene offered up $5 to congratulate Richard for his fine presentation on the district conference at which Alan gave a presentation on PR.  David tried to fine past-presidents who were present without their pins, but remarkably they all had them on.  Marie gave for Tina’s presentation and for having her car back after 5 weeks.  Dave gave a dollar in honor of Marie’s question for Tina about pianos. Matt gave a dollar to tell about his singing at Carnegie Hall on Tuesday, Rick Downey gave to announce that his daughter is turning two and she is recovering from medical surgery at Children’s Hospital.  Jim Greeley didn’t have a pin after all and he gave another dollar or more to support Tina and all those who volunteer their time to serve on town boards.  Richard gave $3 for his daughter, Deirdre, who is home and who has recovered from a broken finger sufficiently to resume her concert piano playing.  As luck would have it, they now have a Steinway piano for sale.  Outrageously, Mark Spencer somehow combined Matt’s singing and Marie’s suggestion for new pianos for the high school with proposal that they get married and Richard give them the Steinway for a present.  David wrapped things up with a dollar for the happy couple and for the more harmless Patriots.