Board Meeting Minutes — 19 September 2008

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

R = Present; (E) = Excused

Call to Order & Roll Call (Quorum = 8): President Townsend called the meeting to order at 12:09 PM.

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

President’s Report (Townsend): President Ron briefly discussed inexpensive coats for the Children’s Christmas Party; the Northeastern RIP Dinner in Rochester in October; and the farewell party for Nathan Boguhn to be held on 9/21 at Bucky’s.

Secretary’s Report (Schonewetter):

· Member proposals. The Board approved Bob Bird’s membership as a transfer from the Oneida Rotary Club.

· Leaves of absence. None.

· Resignations. Nathan Boguhn has accepted a BSA position in Syracuse (dues are paid through 6/30). SA Captain Rich Smith has left the area (dues are paid through 6/30)

· Other matters. PE Bob Herrmann was commended for the new and improved Rome Rotary Club Web Pages.

Treasurer’s Report (Graves): The Treasurer’s Report was deferred to the October Meeting because it was not possible to provide copies for today’s meeting of the June, July, and August Reports that were to be discussed. These reports will be sent out electronically and then discussed at the next Board Meeting.

Area Reports:

· Membership (unfilled). The Membership Chair and Committee Member job descriptions will be placed in the Newsletter, and volunteers will be solicited.

· Public Relations (Mattacola). No report.

· Club Administration (Mercurio).

Ø Calendar Lottery for 2009 Discussion (Herrmann). Bob will look into NY Gaming Commission number for our games of chance.  He has begun to gather costs of producing the calendars. The target is to get the calendars to the members for sale by early November. It is believed that profits from last year's calendars were $5–7K.

Ø Club Election in December — Nominating Committee? (Schonewetter/Bahr). The Committee on Election Procedure, consisting of PE, VP, Secretary, and PP Bahr will make recommendations to the Board at the October Meeting.

Ø RRC 90th Anniversary on 1 Dec 2009 — Celebration? (Occhipinti).

o Probable date for event is 28 Nov 2009 at the Beeches, the closest to the 1 Dec anniversary as possible.

o Mike has proposed a decorative pillar clock to be installed in the triangle median at the corner of Black River Boulevard and East Dominick Street. He showed some brochures from the Verdin Company. Cost of a 12-foot clock would be about $12K, plus $300 per year for full maintenance. He was asked to provide the board a written statement of his proposal.

· Club Projects (Herrmann).

Ø Interact Club at RFA — Progress (Herrmann/Neiley N).

o The Interact Club has 12 members. About half are from last year. The small numbers are offset by high dedication. They are all girls. Each girl is apparently supposed to bring a boy to a future meeting. Each member is doing a presentation topic at each club meeting. An imminent presentation is about stopping genocide.

o The club is doing several projects including Pennies for Polio, a Haiti water project and a dinner fund raiser.

o The club is considering a field trip to the UN.

o The club is interested in helping with the Halloween parade and activities.

o The club maintains a display case divided into 3 sections: Rotary information, past accomplishments, and current activities.

o One club member and our Youth Exchange Student are going to try to attend our polio eradication meeting on 30 Sep.

Ø YE Inbound Student Information & Host Families (Herrmann/Neiley N). Although our current student wants to attend many Rotary meetings, he will have to balance that desire with the need to attend Physics class, which meets at that time. Simon Kristensen is currently staying with the Linderman’s, the first host family. A second host family has been selected and a third family is being recruited.

Ø Canalfest ’08 Report (Kobernuss). Dave received the financial numbers from Missy the day before the board meeting, and will have a full report for the next meeting.

Ø Halloween Parade/Party 2008 Discussion (Adamo?). The Committee is working on setting the date.

Ø Make A Difference Day Discussion (Herrmann/Winberg). The project for this year is likely to be planting more bulbs.

Ø Rotary Reader Program Update (Herrmann/Packer). Fort Stanwix will have Rotary Readers according to the Safe Schools person Ellen Jamieson, but it will take about one month to set up the Pop It reading schedule. Packer will contact Ellen in a few weeks to see if they have the time slots ready for us to fill.

· The Rotary Foundation (Tuthill).

Other Old Business: None.

Other New Business:

· North-East Dinner in Rochester Attendance (Townsend). President Ron wants to send four Rome Rotarians to this meeting.

· Polio Program on 9/30/08 — PDG Mike Occhipinti is requesting the club pay for lunches for polio-victim guests and to purchase two of the speaker’s books (Occhipinti).

Ø Estimated cost $100. Approved by the board.

Ø Also, Rome Savings Bank has offered to match up to $3K that Rotary may raise for polio eradication. Dave K suggested that the $1K per year that we talked about but didn't commit to could generate our portion of the match, with any donations from Pennies for Polio adding to that total. It is expected that Rotary will be willing to award a PHF to one person to be named by Rome Savings.

· Football Fund Raiser Idea (Foreman). Forman presented a fund-raising idea that may be used in place of the lottery calendars during the next Rotary year. VP Mercurio will explore this idea further with Foreman and report back to the Board with his recommendations about next year’s major fundraiser.

· “Official” Rome Rotary Club position on the proposed pavilion for Bellamy Harbor Park (Townsend). The impact and benefit of this building on Canalfest is being considered by the planners. Also, some Rotary ID (e.g., logo) may be on the building.

· Donation Request — Rome Youth Hockey Association — $2,000 (Till). Tabled.

Adjourn:

The meeting was adjourned at 1:14 PM. The next regular meeting of the Board will be at noon on 10 October 2008 at the Savoy Restaurant.

Respectfully submitted,

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