CLICK HERE TO SEE DOCUMENTS RELATING TO THE LATEST CLUB MEETING
View the Rotary Contribution Form here.
View the Minutes Board Meeting from February 3rd Here.
Flag Salute: Jason Black
Inspiration: President Maureen offered this for the February theme: “All you need is love.”
Song: “I Wanna Hold Your Hand” by the Beatles
Introduction of Visiting Rotarians:
| Club | Classification | Name | Notes |
| Hull, Massachusetts | Insurance Agency Owner | Catherine Hanron | She has moved to Windsor and is a friend of Mayor Dominic Foppoli |
Introduction of Guests of Rotarians:
| Member | Guest | Notes |
| Diane Brabetz | Anna Smith and Diane’s son-in-law Joey | Diane announced that she was changing to corporate membership and these two other people in her office would also be attending as part of her corporate membership |
| Sandy Krutz | Vittoria Castelli | Our Rotary Youth Exchange Daughter |
| Renee Hyde | Barbara McChesney |
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Our February “Powerhouse of the Month” is Leah Hansen. President Maureen made a powerful and heartfelt introduction of Leah: Her quiet love and commitment to our club are consistent. Her heart is BIG. She shows up all the time but never takes the spotlight. Leah had served as Club Secretary for several years and resumes that role next year. She and her husband were burned out of their home in the 2017 fires and are just ready to move back into their re-built home. Leah may not always be seen, because she doesn’t like attention, but her work for our club is definitely felt. Congratulations to the Windsor Rotary Club Powerhouse of the Month, Leah Hansen!
Up on the screen comes a photograph from Orlando, Florida, of our President-elect Bill Bolster, and our Club Director Alison Huber, who are together at a trade show there for HVACR. Brownie points for any member who can correctly unravel the acronym HVACR. The meeting members generally failed after the third letter….(Heating Ventilation, Air, Cooling and Refrigeration)
RECOGNITIONS!
- Dave Culley described a recent cruise with his wife on which he might have been found at Key West, Florida, Aruba, Grand Cayman Islands, and more Caribbean ports of call. Dave is always generous to our club and donated $200 to The Rotary Foundation toward his Paul Harris Fellowship credit.
- JB Leep announced that today, February 4, was his and Carol Martin’s 30th wedding anniversary! They are going to dinner tonight at Bollywood Bar & Grill in Santa Rosa to celebrate, along with JB’s son who is celebrating his 25th wedding anniversary. Continuing the theme that the month of February is all about love. JB offered $30 to his fines.
- Michael Juric went to the Harry Potter double show on Saturday and reports that it was awesome! It was an amazing theater and stage effects. Even if one wasn’t a Harry Potter fan, it was still an excellent show. Michael contributed $30 to his fines.
- Heather Cullen reported that the Windsor Talent Show, to be held on Friday, March 6, at 7 PM, is expecting a big turnout. We have dueling magicians, a 4-year old singer, and lots more talent from the town. It’s a real variety show and the major fundraiser for the Windsor Performing Arts Academy. Both President Maureen and Community Service Chair Carol Martin have served as judges in the past.
- Tom Hassur (a diehard Raiders fan) teased the roomful of 49ers fans, that it was a GREAT fourth quarter in the Super Bowl. He insisted that all 49er fans should cough up $20 (or maybe $21!) toward polio eradication. Put your money in the blue cups.
- Dennis Wilkinson spent New Year’s Eve in Las Vegas, just to see what it was like. It was a zoo! He said he felt very safe because it seemed there was more law enforcement than people on the streets. President Maureen suggested that police are people, too! Dennis saw a Journey concert while there. He made Brian Ling’s train whistle blow by donating $200 to the Windsor Rotary Community Foundation.
Thursday, March 26 is a club mini-fundraiser at Left Edge Theater.
Tri-tip Tuesday (also a club fundraiser) is March 28.
New Mission Statement for the Windsor Rotary Community Foundation:
Thanks to Leslie Lewis, Ken Moulton and Pam Moulton for their work, which was adopted by the Windsor Rotary Community Foundation Board at their February 3 meeting:
The mission is the Windsor Rotary Community Foundation is “to support and enhance the community through charitable donations.” This mission statement is very simple and straightforward and this, along with objectives of the WRCF, was worked on by Ken Moulton, Leslie Lewis and a small team of dedicated members.
Carol Martin, Community Service Chairperson, made a clear, professional and detailed presentation of the WRCF financial report, enclosed here. She answered questions from the members, also in a very professional manner. One line item on the revenue side which deserved attention: Direct Contact Donation. A small team of Board members is asking directly for donations from members – in place of our yearly fundraiser dinner. In this manner, we have over $13,500 in direct donations to WRCF, some quite large and all very generous. This is from only 15 club donors, some of whom wish to remain anonymous.
Carol has convened a “Project Evaluation Task Force” of any members who want to be involved in looking at requests for funding. It won’t involve any big meetings, but rather participation in decision-making about how to spend our money. If you want to be a part of this task force, contact Carol Martin.
President Maureen posed these questions to our Club: How will we be creative in the future? How will we engage with our community? What new ideas do we have about how to both serve our community and involve it in what we do?
Re-imagining our Scholarships / Educational Grants Programs:
Tom Hassur presented an idea that responded directly to these questions. He visited with Allen Christensen (who says he misses us all) and Warin Parker to discuss our scholarship program and how we might improve it. Right now, we cut a check to the student’s college and that’s it. No more contact with our scholarship recipients. The idea for change is to develop ongoing relationships with the kids who receive our scholarships. We have a lot of talent and wisdom in our club and we could offer valuable assistance to our scholarship recipients in overcoming obstacles in their educational or vocational careers. We could offer ourselves as advisors and mentors to assist them through the educational experience. We want to nurture the relationships with kids we give scholarships to, so they can have the most success in college. We can help them to achieve their goals and the life story they have built for themselves. We can assist kids early in their high school years and identify those to nurture and mentor.
One other change we can make is that this year we will try to identify the kids who don’t always apply for scholarships. Generally, the same ones every year apply to a variety of organizations for scholarships, but some simply don’t know how to do it. We need to identify kids from each core at the high school, not just those on a path to college, and encourage them to apply for assistance. This meshes perfectly with our new member Lamar’s (principal at Windsor High School) desire to have every student have an adult mentor and guide.
Rotary cares about every single kid and family, and we can offer a tremendously enriching experience if we expand our scholarship program, not just financially, but by offering our most valuable asset – ourselves.
John LeCave (our Foundation Chair) announced that he wants giving to the Rotary to be easy. Yes, you can give online, and that really is simple. But if you want to fill out the contribution form and just give it to John, he will finish the process and complete it for you. Couldn’t be easier – just use the Rotary Contribution Form
Pegi Ball gave a brief summary of our programs for youth.
- RYLA (Rotary Youth Leadership Awards) is a go this year. We are accepting applications and will choose students for the week-long camp at Westminster Woods in June. This is a camp where they develop their leadership skills.
- Youth Exchange is always satisfying for our club.
- We need an Interact Club coordinator and a teacher at Windsor High School to re-instate an Interact club at the high school
- Continuing involvement with the MET Academy.
President Maureen closed with the opening thought: All You Need is Love.