Greeter: Jim V – Thank you!
Scribe: Nick J
Quote of the day: “I had to live in the desert before I could understand the full value of grass in a green ditch” – Ella Maillart
Today in History:
The great fire of Rome breaks out and destroys much of the city on this day in the year 64. Despite the well-known stores, there is no evidence that the Roman emperor Nero, either started the fire or played the fiddle while it burned. Still, he did use the disaster to further his political agenda.
Guests:
Mona – Jim Rumrell Student Exchange
Sadie – Moriah Nichols scholarship recipient; Kim KJ sister from Brattleboro
New Member
Lois Scott Connoly – Welcome to the Family!
Mariah Nichols – Scholarship recipient graduated from Hinsdale High. Graduated fourth in her class. Interested in pursuing animal science.
Cards: Bethany Wins massive pot
Announcements:
Josh – Membership announcement working on some new initiatives. Came across some data average club size international is 37(our club is 48) and average men/women ratio 80/20 our club is 50/50.
Sadie – Thanks for participating in the welcome center. Almost entire group participated in the event. Special thanks to Katjia, Ali, and Cindy helping out throughout the entire day. Overall great success and made about $1k. Most importantly a great fun day!
Debra – picked a day for the pergola building for September 22th and join forces with Untied Way day of caring. Meeting at turning point today to get the basics of build and BBQ. Going to be sending around sign-up sheets to parce out specific building aspects. More to follow…
Kevin – By-laws review special thanks to Josh, Josh, Stacy, Marcy Michelle, Kevin; available to access by-laws on the website. Need to update to reflect current Rotary International standards.
Marcy – District Governor visiting next week. Board meeting next Tuesday July 24th 5:30 at Marina.
Josh – Partners with united way and auto mall hand out 200 backpacks with all school supplies. Making it more of a family friendly event with bounce houses and maybe Rotary volunteer with BBQs August 15th 2018.
Brags:
KJ – moving over the hill to new house. New house has pool for changeover party.
Second Brag- Kim sister she is going to chat about her work at Gathering Place during job transition. Working to put together larger event 5k run; Looking for community support to launch larger scale event to put together community board; specifically couple people to be on committee; Admin – registration; Volunteers management; and Marketing.
Erin – Event with West Bratt association to determine any grants available for community center or historic center. Melrose Terrace project village center in West Brattleboro.
2nd Brag – huge steel canopy that needs to install large steel structure anyone know someone who could help; Boom truck ideal.
Katja – ATG gave whole case of cookies; Bagel works gave 5 bags of bagles and cream cheese.
2nd Brag – World Cup amazing tournament and great Final between France – Croatia. Great to see so many nations united peacefully.
Jon – great week with family in Canada and Grand Isle lean to. Traveled in Burlington to see KJ bus picture. Did home exchange with family in Canada and locked the sauna.
Bethany – finally got to out on date with Ali in Keene. Friday morning Jeff Dunkley gave tour of dairy Farm and was very exciting.
Ali – pumped to be one brag above the cows.
Valarie – picture of club from original members and a blast back in the past. Live in a period of time where people forget history in moments. Important to revisit our past. Propose show and tell from Ali.
Brag 2 – West Brattleboro lock farm field preserved for public space.
Mona – Shout out to Mark and the Cota team to replace heating system in the house on the hottest days of the year.
Lois - Mentor Christine who brought her into the group. Also to the rest of the club for being so kind and welcoming and inspiring.
Guest Speaker
Jim Rumrell – Rotary Student Exchange – Lucy from Croatia
Overall 8,000 high students participate over the world. In our region roughly about 16 have come in and 20 have gone to other countries. Currently Lucy is begin in process going to US consulate to apply for J-1 Visa for high school year. Lucy speaks fluent English and is a very smart and well educated individual. Paperwork provided regarding timeline of the process. Anticipated arrival on August 20th. There are still some steps required, complete the vetting process by visiting exchangestudent.org; click on volunteer and provide basic information and complete basic back ground check. Rotary only receives a no/yes and contractor provides the answer with no details to approve host family and anyone that will be spending time with the student. Once complete you are vetted and all set to go. Treat her as a young Rotarian and invite her to all events and volunteer activities. Get her involved in all activities as this is a cultural exchange and include her in any event. If having pro-longed 1 on 1 visits with student you should go through vetting process, otherwise the occasional visit or drive to school is ok. Remember this is a cultural exchange and try to include her and get to know her. She will be a full citizen of Brattleboro High and will eventually develop her own social group at Brattleboro and eventually that could occupy much of her time.
Sunday August 26th 12-4PM holding annual welcoming picnic; BBQ with families, youth exchange committies, host families, and others affiliated with process.
Mona has contact info for Jim if any additional information is requested.
Questions:
Valarie – are there any training or information provided about US Culture and behavior?
They have many steps along the way to provide orientation and information regarding cultural differences. Host families provide the guidelines at the beginning of the household rules. Also a clear understanding of legal drinking ages and other US laws.