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This week was a Board meeting night, so we had no speaker. We also had no guests and only about 2/3 of the club members showed, but what the heck, summer, amirite? One of the members who was sorely missed during Happy Bucks was Henry, as several present pointed out the Red Sox position heading into September as UNSTOPPABLE! There was also a hearty round of applause for Merril on the eve of his final radiation therapy. Thoughts and prayers are with you, Moone Man! Pres. Gil reported out an the board meeting. Correspondence included thank-you notes from Chariho Youth Task Force for supplying the truck for their Savers fundraiser and from Rick Lawrence for our support of his Guatamala Water Project. We also received another invitation to send members to the new "Nuts and Bolts of Rotary" training session in November at White's of Westport. The training is aimed at President Elects but will have workshops that will be useful to anyone who wants to learn more about how to run a club or about Rotary in general. Sessions will include info on Rotary Foundation, membership growth, how to improve our public image and the functions of the online Club Central. There will also be a Q&A panel. Nuts & Bolts is on Saturday, Nov. 10, from 8am til 2:30pm, and the club will pick up the cost of attending. Coordinate with PE Dave on registration. In other news, Ed Smith has agreed to take over the job of coordinating the speaker program for our meetings - if you have prospects or ideas, make sure you get them to him. His plan is to book out a solid 4 - 6 weeks in advance, though major speakers will likely require more advanced notice. He has had this job several times in the past and does a tremendous job of keeping a lively rotation, but to keep it growing, we need to make sure attendance is good on nights we have speakers. You will find the list of upcoming speakers on this newsletter and at https://charihorotary.com Liz Pasqualini has begun planning for a spring gala, likely with some sort of circus theme, and is looking to recruit committee members to help out. She runs a fun committee and puts on amazing events, so if she asks you, say yes! (Or you can, y'know, volunteer) Liz will also be talking to our Interact Club about putting together a combined team to participate in the upcoming "Walk to End Alzheimers" in Misquamicut on Sept. 23. There is no fee to enter, but individuals and teams get a web page to help them fundraise for the cause. Go to http://act.alz.org/site/TR?fr_id=11828&pg=entry for more info. Jeff Duscha is rolling along with plans for Pasta Dinner in November and says he will have tickets for us to sell shortly. While this tends not to be our biggest fundraiser of the year, it is one where we all get to pitch in and have a good time, so plan to be there on Nov. 13. In probably the most significant news of the night, the Board approved the plan our Treasurer, Frank Hopkins, has developed with the help of Professional Planners' Dan Makin to separate out our Foundation funds into distinct Scholarship and Community Support funds. Basically, it will allow us to honor donors' wishes when they make dedicated contributions. Frank has worked hard on this, and has explained it repeatedly to the Club, going over how he came up with the breakdown of distribution of what is now in the accounts and how future contributions will be handled. It's a brilliant plan and if you want to hear more, he will be glad to give you a tutorial. Finally, you will notice a change in the newsletter you are reading - mainly, that there is a newsletter. After a very hit-and-miss start last year while I tried to do Sgt-at-Arms and newsletter, Frank was good enough to take over the writing duties. Now that he has taken on Treasurer and I have moved to PE, I expect to have time to keep up with our "Do-ins" again. At least, that's the plan. Yours in Service, Dave
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