Rotattler for January 23, 2020
 
President Jeremy summarized the last board meeting as follows:
  • We voted to maintain the scholarship amounts at the same levels as last year ($2500 first year and $500 the next year of college).
  • We approved presenting for club vote the new membership of state representative Michele Meyer.  She knows that being a part of this club will afford her opportunities to help the community in even more ways.  Members have 2 weeks to raise any concerns before voting.
  • The Red Cross blood drive is February 1.  We need people to sign up to cover the various shifts.  Not many, but a couple of people each shift.
  • Instead of always expecting Jeremy and Brenda to cover food pantry duties, we decided to establish a sign-up for the year, much like speaker assignments, and if someone cannot make his/her date, then he/she will be responsible for finding a substitute to cover the Food Pantry.
  • The Eliot Historical Society has asked for help with their state Bicentennial fundraiser.  It will be a bean supper in March and they have asked for volunteers for set up, clean-up, and pie-making.  We agreed that we could help out with that.  Funds raised by them will pay for fireworks and other special items in celebration of the Bicentennial of Maine in our region.
  • Interact and/or we are mulling over a dodgeball event.
  • March is the Interact regional conference and our club will pay for the registrations of those students who wish to attend.
  • Geography Quiz Night of April 3rd is proceeding.  Looks like we could have 18 teams.  Sponsors are welcome, as well as donations of raffle items.  We will try to optimize funds raised from the  raffles and from concessions.
  • The electronics fundraiser is DEFINITELY scheduled for May 2nd at Eliot Commons, so start collecting your items to be tossed (for a nice donation to our club’s scholarship fund) and we’ll also spread the word through the schools and other outlets.
  • In May will be that senior turkey dinner in Eliot.  More info to come.
  • Strawberry Festival will be the last thing on the agenda in June.  Still moving ahead as planned.
We then had our election of officers.  Our group unanimously elected Jeremy Fogg as Past President, Deb DeColfmacker as Incoming President, Brenda Gagne as President-Elect for the following year, Brian Beeler as Treasurer (with a lot of help from Stan Shapleigh), Helen Goransson as Secretary, Hap Moore as Sargent-at-Arms, and Robin Wheeler and Tom Harmon as Directors-at-Large. 
 
Next meeting will be a club assembly.  We have a lot going on so it should be a worthwhile meeting to attend to get all the details.
 
Speakers of the Day
 
Amy Miller started off with a report on the most recent trip to Haiti to check out the progress of Life and Hope School and their hospitality project for which we are submitting a global grant.  What started out years ago as a little school of about 30 students now serves 500+ students.  Amy is working tirelessly to obtain donations from outside the district of $20K and she is confident we will raise the rest within the district in order to optimize the matching available for the project.  While there she was able to further cement the relationships with Rotarians and others in Haiti that are necessary to make this project work.
 
Mary Onken then explained the ins and outs of being a track official.  She started while working in a high school in New York state when she wanted to learn more about the rules and regulations of all the track and field sports and events.  She became a full-fledged official and must constantly keep updating her knowledge of all the rules and regulations which are ever-changing.  Each sports organization has its own set of rules.  The Federation headquarters are in Indianapolis.  Then there are the NCAA and the USATF.  World Athletics tries to call all the shots (also known as the IAAF).  After being certified at the high school level, Mary became the state officer for New York, which included 14 years as President and she is still on their board.  Some of the officiating for which she has been responsible include the USATF Empire Games and the Army-Navy competitions.  Mary started out officiating for the throwing contests, then became a timer, a starter, a clerk, a referee, all the way up to combined events chief, which include heptathlons, pentathlons, decathlons, etc.  She needs to ensure that the right people are officiating, particularly very alert and agile ones for the throws!  The goal is always that the event be fair and provides equal opportunity for all competing.  Mary is currently on a rules committee for the USATF.  She is delighted that even though she is not as young as most, she is still selected to officiate at even the most important athletic events.  In June she will be officiating at the Olympic trials in Eugene, Oregon, which is quite an honor.