Providence Rotary - Read Our Newsletter

OFFICERS
President
Richard B. Applebaum

President-elect
Cynthia Leonard

1st Vice President
Barry W. Fain

2nd Vice President
Barbara Harris

Secretary
Susan Johnson

Treasurer
Richard A. Kaplan

Asst. Treasurer
Peter M. Loescher

Sergeant-at-arms
Kevin M. Oates

Past-President
John A. Daluz

Directors to
June 30, 2010:
James Alexander
Richard P. Leone, Sr.
Jenny Miller
Arthur Norwalk
Kathleen A. Swann

Directors to
June 30, 2011:
Holly Applegate
Paul Borrelli
Patricia Germani
Steven M. Rotondo
James C. Scanlan

Pat Germani is happy that her daughter-in-law was running in the Boston Marathon.

Walter Adamowicz was happy that Paul Fournier was at the meeting.

Cy Wyche is happy.

Kris David is happy that her cousin's son ship is back in port. And she's happy about seeing Bronx Tale.

Scituate Rotary Club President Tina Vangel and her husband District Governor Nominee Bill Vangel were happy they were able to attend the meeting.

Linda Xavier, Anthony Hollingshead, Wendy Marcus, Tony Mendez, and Holly Applegate were happy due to the Shadow Day.

Wendy Marcus was also happy for having the opportunity to host several young naval students over the weekend.

Barry Fain was happy about his trip to the City of New York where he viewed a lot of foreign visitors stranded in the city because of the volcano eruption which has shutdown most flights to and from Europe.

Randy Dittmar saluted all the CPAs in the room.

President Richard saluted DGN Bill Vangel and President Tina Vangel from the Scituate club.

Eco-Clubs Attract
Young Members

A growing number of Rotary clubs have found that focusing on the environment helps them bring in new members and gain visibility in the community.

The Rotary Club of Duluth Superior Eco , Minnesota, USA, was chartered in November 2008 with the purpose of attracting younger people by being project oriented and environmentally minded.

Club president Marti Buscaglia says the club founders reasoned that young people would be more likely to have time on their hands than disposable income, and would be more engaged if they could take part in hands-on projects for a cause they felt strongly about.

The club now has 54 members, most under the age of 40, and mostly women. Learn more here

Rotarians and Providence high school students who took part in our annual Shadow Day, organized in collaboration with Terri Adelman and Volunteers in Providence Schools.

Don Saracen introduced John Cronin, a former Rotarian, and executive director of the Rhode Island Small Busienss Develoment Center at Johnson & Wales University. His organization counsels small business, at no fee, in areas such as business and market plan creation. Most of the businesses they assist have between five and twenty employees, and usually need guidance on basic business systems as well as human resources.

He emphasized that his organization helps business people to connect to other business people needing guidance in developing their companies. Most recently the Center has been working with flood-damaged businesses. He found a lot of anger from the impacted business people, from understandable heartbreak at seeing one's business destroyed-and from the fact that businesses only may receive federal loans, not grants.

Longtime Rotarian and Johnson & Wales University Chancellor Emeritus Moe Gaebe reacts with pride as Mr. Cronin expresses his gratitude for J&W's support of the Small Business Development Council.

Editor's Note: President-elect Cynthia "practice-presided" at the April 19 meeting, then both she AND President Richard prepared blogs.

A big shout out to Susan Johnson and Terri Adelman for organizing a successful Shadow Day and to those Rotarians that invited the students to shadow them at work: Anthony Hollingshead, John McGinn, Liz Messier, Holly Applegate, Chuck Carberry, Tony Mendez and Wendy Marcus. I am advocating for a Shadow Day Program that goes beyond this one-day event. A few hours is not nearly enough time for us to spend with these students, who clearly excel at school and intend to go to college.

Six Rotarians are prepping for the trip to the Dominican Republic in a few weeks. They will work on a clean water project, distribute dictionaries and distribute shoes. This is a multi-Rotary club effort involving the Woonsocket club helping with the clean water project and the Kennebunkport, Maine club that offered the shoes to our club for distribution.

It was nice to see so many young people from Shadow Day as well as many guests at the meeting. Great meeting! (Check out the President-Elect Musings on our website www.ProvidenceRotary.org to read about my amusing experience.

Cynthia Leonard

My first club meeting experience as soon to be past president was useful for all concerned, and was and will be somewhat of a personal growing experience. Change is hardly ever easy (although our leadership structure and team is great), and making sure I offer ‘advice' (only) when it is requested is something I am cognizant of and will work at. I will add that it was certainly more relaxing to just listen to our speaker's presentation without taking notes (my habit), and amusing to really take note of those who are nodding off at one time or another.

Some highlights from our Board Meeting this am. There will be a meeting Tuesday, July 6 (hopefully outside on the Aqua pool patio). Effective immediately, financial meal credits will only be granted for Rotary meeting make-ups. Attendance credits will be more widely given; the Attendance committee and Board are working on establishing a list of qualifying meetings, activities and events for attendance credit. Just to restate existing policy, in view of the widening usage of the web, members will not have access to our website (or Club lists) to utilize it (them) to disseminate non Rotary notices or materials. Finally, advertising format and costs for web ads were agreed upon (specifics will be made known shortly).

It is with sadness, but with Rotary spirit and affection, that I will see most of you while attending the calling hours and funeral mass for Jerry's dear wife, and Suzanne's wonderful mom, Joan. Joan and Jerry were a lasting, loving and successful team, and fostered a great family with exceptional values. Joan was very much loved and cared for, and maintained a positive attitude throughout. She will be missed.

Yours in Rotary,

Richard

Thanks from Terri Adelman, Susan Johnson and others for the successful "shadow day" at the office for students. Thank you to all who participated! A number of participating students attended the meeting.

President-elect Cynthia Leonard encouraged Club members to attend A Little Night Music at the Barker Playhouse on Thursday, May 13. Three of our members will be performing in it.

Also, reminded Cynthia, don't forget the Peanut Butter Drive!

Jenny Miller reminded that Rotary After Dark is Thursday, April 22 at Mills Tavern.

Art Norwalk announced that survey forms about the new newsletter are available. The newsletter committee really would appreciate receiving feedback from the membership regarding what they like or dislike about the newsletter and any suggestions.

Maury Ryan announced that the 2010 Street Painting Festival will be returning to the skating rink at Kennedy Plaza and the plan is to ask non-profits receiving grants from the Providence Rotary Foundation to volunteer to help staff the event. He also announced that the final figures for the 2009 Street Painting Festival have not been finalized, but that it looks like the 2009 event did better, fiscally, than 2008.

Special guests at the meeting were District Governor Nominee Bill Vangel, along with Scituate, RI Rotary Club president Tina Vangel, his wife.