Board Meeting Minutes — 11 July 2008

R President: Ron Townsend	R Dir-09: Darlene Burns	¨ Dir-11: Donna Burch
R Pres-Elect: Bob Herrmann	¨ Dir-09: PP Keith Butters (E)	R Dir-11: PP Greg Mattacola
¨ VP: Steve Mercurio	R Dir-09: Dave Kobernuss	R Dir-11: Bill Wolf
R Past Pres: Ray Carnevale	¨ Dir-10: PP Debbie Adamo	¨ Dir-12: TBD
R Secy: PP Dennis Schonewetter	R Dir-10: PP Glen Bahr	¨ Dir-12: TBD
R Treasurer: Missy Graves	R Dir-10: Grace Bottini	¨ Dir-12: TBD
R Foundation Chair: Bill Tuthill	¨ Other:	R Other: Puma
¨ VP-Elect: TBD	¨ Other:	¨ Other:

R = Present; (E) = Excused

Call to Order & Roll Call (Quorum = 8): President Townsend called the meeting to order at noon.

Previous Minutes (Townsend): The minutes of the last two meetings were approved as written.

Secretary’s Report (Schonewetter):

· Member proposals. None

· Leaves of absence. None.

· Resignations. Boss, Brockway, Cook, Kiernan, Knowles, Marston, Mendiola, Mott, Pickett, Sticca, Taylor J (on 30 Jun).

· Other matters.

Ø District 7150 Conference — Alexandria Bay, 12–14 Sep. Schonewetter De, Schonewetter Do, Townsend.

Ø Rome Rotary Website/Webmaster Discussion. Deferred until Herrmann and Schonewetter confer.

Ø Honorary Members Discussion. The Board unanimously elected Honorary Members: Baker-Gaffney, Brown, Destito, Dorfman, Gilchriest (Club [Utica]), Griffo, Hearn, Marston, McNamara (Club [New Hartford]), Mead, Occhipinti D, Ocuto K, Picente, and Trowell. (“Club” Honorary Members are already Rotarians in other clubs and are not officially “Honorary” members on our roles.)

Ø Dues not paid or no communication as of 7/8: Casadei, Gulla, Kehoe, LaRue, Lockwood, Moore, Simons, and Taylor.

Treasurer’s Report (Graves): The Treasurer’s Report was received and duly recorded.

Ø 2008-09 Budget Discussion & Approval (w/President Townsend). The Christmas Party line item should be increased to about $15,000. The Roses for the Living line item should be increased to $750. There should be an Interact Club line item of $1,000. The original budget was approved as submitted and Treasurer Graves was asked to incorporate the changes above into an amended budget to be considered next month.

Area Reports:

· Membership (Burch). No report.

· Public Relations (Mattacola). No report.

· Club Administration (Mercurio). No report.

· Club Projects (Herrmann).

Ø Interact Club at RFA & Youth Exchange (Herrmann).

§ The Club Advisor is Greg Ruane but Nancy Neiley goes to most of the meetings and acts as Rotary liaison.

§ The school has graduated a good number of the Interact members. Nancy estimates there are 7 to 8 remaining and 5 to 6 additional have shown interest. 15 to 20 is a good club size so they are looking for additional members. The new president is Ann Hall.

§ This year the Interact Club bought tee shirts with the Rotary logo to show an identity when they have a fund raiser. This year they also donated $500 for sewing machines for women in Uganda. Next year’s goal is to raise money for a school in another country. Finances are being handled by a school organization.

§ The short term exchange student is Susie who is returning to Italy with Mike Occhipinti’s granddaughter, Dona, shortly. The long-term exchange student is arriving in August, and will be initially stay with The Richard Linderman’s, and then the Mark Olney’s. The third host family is yet to be found but Nancy doesn't think this will be a problem.

§ Applications for the 2009-10 Youth Exchanges are due by 15 October.

Ø Calendar Lottery Fundraiser 07–08 Report (Graves/Marston). $9,530 income — $4,760 winnings & ticket printing — $4,770 profit.

Ø Healthcare Professional of the Year (Carnevale). Carnevale announced that the next award will be around the end of this calendar year.

Ø Legends of the Diamond Dinner Discussion (Mattacola). Mattacola reported that it was a great night for about 160 attendees. Profit for the three clubs was $4,500. Committee members feel this is too much work for $1,500 per club. What to do? Possibly commit to a higher tier guest (around $15K fee vs. $5-8K) to draw more audience? The Board agreed to have Mattacola pursue this reasoning with the other clubs and will defer a final decision until he reports back to the Board.

· The Rotary Foundation (Tuthill). Last year there were 25 Sustaining Members of TRF and three new Paul Harris Fellows. There were four additional Sustaining Members in response to the dues letter. Tuthill wants to find four more.

Other Old Business:

· RRC 90^th Anniversary on 1 Dec 2009 — Celebration? (Occhipinti). No report.

· Duck Race Tickets: only two members have sent money back so far. Keep encouraging members to sell tickets for this important club fundraiser.

Other New Business:

· $1,000 per year for three years for PolioPlus (Kobernuss). $1,000 per year for three years for PolioPlus was approved and should be shown in the annual budget.

· Donation Request — Ft. Stanwix 3^rd Grade — $100 (Mattacola). Approved.

· It was suggested by President Ron to combine a social hour with one of our Thursday meetings each month to start in September. It will be held on the third Thursday of the month from 5:00 PM to 6:00 PM, with a Rotary Meeting from 6:00 PM to 6:30 PM. Approved by consensus.

· GD Larry Calabrese is using our district-wide Rotary club map a lot. There is interest in buying them. President Ron is looking into possibility of making a little money by selling copies and will report back to the Board about his progress.

Adjourn:

The meeting was adjourned at 1:05 PM. The next regular meeting of the Board will be at noon on 8 August 2008 at the Savoy Restaurant.

Respectfully submitted,

Dennis R. Schonewetter
Rome Rotary Club Secretary (Past President, 2001–2002)