Last meeting was May 15, 2012.  Tammy had the Hat and talked about dog agility training as a way to work with the 2 dogs she has rescued, Smudge and Missy.  Dave Reilly did the invocation

The Speaker was Julie Permut who is a licensed acupuncturist at New England Family Accupuncture.  Julie is also a Massage Therapist and Chinese Herbalist.  She taught us about acupuncture as a time tested practice to create wellness.  She spoke about yin and yang as complimentary and opposing forces as well as Qi as energy.  Good health is all about keeping the energy flowing.  Any blockage in Qi creates an imbalance. Many things affect Qi including diet, environment, work, lifestyle, emotions, habits and inherent constitution

Next Meeting is May 22.   The speaker is Emily Hague from the Monadnock Conservatory.  Chuck Simpson has the invocation and Jim Guy, the Hat.

Happy $’s—John Goodhue is excited about the goal to make us a 100/100 Club this year for the Rotary Foundation.  Cassie shared that most of the kids coming this summer for the Cypriot Teens program have a place to stay with just two 2 week spots to fill. Swift wasn’t with us last week because he was picking up his daughter from college and has another daughter who is getting married soon.  Sue Copley has been visiting family and was happy to be back.  Matt Weddle’s wife graduated from Antioch this weekend and Margaret Baker was happy to spend Mother’s Day with her sons.

Announcements—David Sturm our current Assistant Governor joined us today to introduce our incoming Assistant Governor Doug Rupert.  Dues are due (and dosi doe!) and we are coming up on the end of the Rotary year.  Please do everything you can to make your account current.  There is a Board Meeting on Wednesday the 16^th at 7:30 am at the Bagel Mill.  Paul Tuller requested help from members in identifying and calling potential sponsors on the sponsor list.  The Local Food Grower’s Tour is coming up very quickly and we will need all hands on deck to assure a successful outcome over the next 2 months.  Please let Paul know how you can help.

Last Meeting was on Tuesday May 8^th.  Ruth did the invocation and we used time for the Hat to accommodate the Assembly meeting.

The Meeting—Tammy Lenski, Chuck Simpson and Jerry Branch were the main speakers for the Assembly.  Tammy reviewed the updates on the newly revised Club Runner site.  It looks beautiful and is very functional.  The site address is www.MonadnockRotary.com   If you haven’t checked it out, please go take a look.  Use of the website will be increasing as we will not be printing a Club Directory this year as all of our pertinent information can now be found on the website.

Most everything you will need to know is on the Home page which does not require a log in. There are additional functions that you can access when you do log in.  All you need is your user name. If you have forgotten your password or perhaps never used it just click on “Forgot password” and the system will send it to you.  In order to get your password you need to know the email that was originally used for registration. If you don’t remember which email you may have used just communicate with Jerry or Tammy.

Logging in to the system will allow you to update your password and your profile.  Tammy spoke about the value to new members in each of us having an updated profile.  She used these descriptions of our club members to orient herself to the Club when she first joined us.

Chuck Simpson who is the Chair of the Contributions Committee updated us on the group’s activities.  Most importantly, the committee is looking at new ways to update our decision process regarding where the money goes from fundraising.  The group is interested in making our Charitable Contributions more closely tied to the mission of our club which is that we are dedicated to community service, with a special focus on youth development and health advocacy for people of all ages, locally and internationally.  As an example, the MWF currently has identified several recipients of funds that are in line with the Club and the Wellness Festival’s missions such as HCS and MHTTT.  We will be moving toward this approach with all of our fundraising events.

In addition, it makes sense to identify recipients before the fund raising event occurs because it will be very helpful for promotion of the event.  For example, for the RYLA event, it would make sense to identify a youth group that would receive the proceeds.

Jerry Branch recently attended a Rotary sponsored seminar on how to increase Club membership.  He informed us that from a historical perspective, we can expect t to lose about 15% of our membership on an annual basis which means we always need to be sponsoring new members.  Jerry talked about how just inviting someone to a meeting will probably not be as effective as personalizing the invitation and being very specific.  He told a couple of stories which exemplified his approach.  For example, he told Chuck Simpson that he needed his expertise on a project and could he meet him at the Dublin Community Church on Tuesday morning at 7:30.  Of course, helping to create Dublin Rotary Park was right up  Chuck’s alley and he joined the club. 

Jerry used the same approach with Tom Warren when he let him know how important his expertise on birds would be for the Rotary Park.  Let’s make sure we personalize our invites and point out to potential members the benefits they can experience from our club.

We had a quick conversation about some things we can do as a Club to promote our meetings to potential new members.  A sign out in front of the Church on Tuesday’s when we are meeting and a very simple brochure that we can give visitors to help them access more information about our clubs.

Jerry also talked about how we should make sure to consider our speakers as potential members and invite them back to join us.

Next Meeting is May 15, 2012.    Our speaker is Emily Hague from the Monadnock Conservancy.  Tammy Lenki has the Hat and Dave Reilly the invocation.

Happy $’s—Sorry this information did not get recorded this week.  But special kudos to John Goodhue for donating his raffle winnings from the Peterborough Club!!

Announcements—Gavel Night is scheduled for Thursday June 28 when Ruth will be passing the gavel to Chuck Simpson our incoming President!!  Sturdy announced the Lobster fest.  David Sturm our outgoing Assistant Governor will be joining us on May 15 to introduce his replacement.

Last Meeting was May I, 2012.  We met at Reynold’s Hall in Peterborough.  Adrian Robbins-Cole did the invocation and Rebecca Harris had the hat.  She talked about the design of her home which creates all the electricity needed to run the home and 2 in home businesses.  During the ice storm several years ago their home was the most reliable source of power in Francestown and turned into the local internet café and bathing spot.

The Speaker was Eric Masterson from the Harris Center.  He is the Land Protection Specialist who supervises 80 conservation easements for the center.  The mission of the Center is mainly educational but also encompasses direct protection of natural resources and programming to encourage active participation in the outdoors.

 He talked about the importance of the easements in establishing large tracts of land as sanctuary for bear, moose and other large animals.  The contiguous blocks of land created by the easements help to assure that these animals will survive into the future.

One of the biggest responsibilities creating probably the most fun that Eric has; is traveling around the area every year to ensure that the terms of the easements are being met.  Eric also just finished his first book, Birding in New Hampshire which will be out on bookshelves in the Spring of 2013.  He was relieved that Tom Warren didn’t join us Tuesday morning because it is never fun to have a more knowledgeable authority in the audience.

Last Meeting was held on April 24th.  Ruth did the invocation for Dave Reilly and Peter did the hat.  Peter talked about how much he loved trip planning  which play into his love of focus, multitasking and mathematics.  It also helps him learn about different parts of the world.

The Speaker  Rob Harris, a chemical engineer and MBA as well as a retired professor, talked about the value of harvesting natural gas.   Rob has worked for Exxon, BP,  Standard Oil and taught at Case Western.

He explained that technological advancements of hydraulic fracturing perfected in the 1990’s have made drilling for natural gas much more economically feasible.  He talked about the risk reward ratios of fracking.  According to Rob, most engineers feel the reward is worth the risk.  Risks have been associated with pollution and earthquakes.  In addition, most of the regulations around fracking are currently created and enforced at the state level which can be problematic from a consistency perspective.  Regulation at the federal level is needed.

Rob reported that the cost of natural gas/energy content as compared to oil is equivalent to natural gas being 1/12 the cost of oil.  Sounds great but many people continue to voice concerns about fracking as was evident by some of the stories shared by the audience.

As is true with much new science, more will be revealed over time.

Next Meeting is scheduled for May 1.  WE WILL MEET AT REYNOLD’S HALL IN PETERBOROUGH AT ALL SAINT’S CHURCH.  Our speaker is Erik Masterson from the Harris Center.

Eric Masterson works as the land protection specialist for the Harris Center for Conservation Education, which holds conservation easements or fee title on about 18,000 acres throughout the Monadnock Region. Eric oversees the monitoring program for the approximately 80 conservation easements that are held by the Harris Center, and performs due diligence on new land transactions as they occur.

Eric has just completed his first book, Birding in New Hampshire, which is published by University Press of New England and will be on bookshelves in the spring of 2013. He hails from Ireland where he met and married his wife Tricia before relocating to New Hampshire in 1999.

Adrian Robbins-Cole is doing the invocation and Rebecca Harris has the hat.
 

Happy $’s—Igor is back from a trip to Albuquerque for the birth of  a grandchild. Robin is grateful for the fire department who put out a brush fire close to her home.  Paul is appreciative of the rain.  Jerry and Tom were happy to only need to check Jerry’s barred owl house this year. Chuck was happy he didn’t have to get up on the ladder again this year to help them. Cassie’s father in law is doing well after having a stroke.  She also said the Cypriot Teen program is doing well.  Rick saw a sapsucker woodpecker (Was it  yellow bellied—should’ve asked!), Laura is active on a couple of boards.  Bob Ritchie is glad to be back and we loved seeing him.

Announcements—The Dublin Church’s rummage sale is coming up so we are meeting at All Saint’s Reynold’s Hall on May 1.   The Food Growers Tour committee will have a booth to promote the tour at Greenerborough on May 5,  Tammy is looking for a house and pet sitter for her vacation—please let her know if you know someone.  Rick announced the Big Brother and Big Sister golf tournament in Keene is coming up soon.

Rotary Bulletin for April 17, 2012

Last Meeting was held on April 17.   John Goodhue, who did the hat, talked about his experiences job hunting in his career.  This has given him some great knowledge he uses to help others find employment and build their skills and confidence.  Kevin McIlhenney did an invocation focused on gratitude.  Last week we went to the Cheshire County Correctional Facility and Peter Gosline did the invocation

The Speaker, Kathy Harrington is the Executive Director of the United Way for the Monadnock region.  Kathy, who was formerly Executive Director of Stonewall Farm, is also a Rotarian from the Elm City Club in Keene and a Paul Harris fellow.  She was accompanied by Bill Goodwin who is well known to us as Barbara Summers’ partner.   Bill is the Chair of Fund Raising this year for the region.

Kathy talked about some of the changes that have been implemented at the United Way including converting the Board of Directors to a real working board.  She stressed the fact that all funding decisions are made locally through a process where a committee looks at all proposals.  This is a diligent process requiring a huge time commitment on behalf of the volunteers.

Last Meeting was held on April 3, 2012.  Vance talked about her knitting hobby and showed us some fantastic socks she made.  Laura did a great invocation which highlighted Rotary.

The Speaker was Nancy Salwen from Music All Around.  Her mission is to help all people become comfortable with singing.  She talked about how influential music is in our lives.  Her technique is to help people learn through immersion just as children learn language through this technique.  Nancy also emphasized how important play is to the learning process as she shared a number of fun exercises with us.  We actually sounded pretty good!

Next Meeting, on April 10, is at the Cheshire County Jail, located on Rte. 101 on the East side of Keene. We'll start at 7:30. Please bring a photo ID.

We highly recommend you join us for this meeting, as the Jail is VERY interesting.  The staff will serve us a hot breakfast. We'll eat in the Community Room, as a club (not with inmates), then have an abbreviated meeting followed by the tour.  Our plan is to complete the tour by 8:30.  If you need to leave early you will be accommodated.

Please let Laura Keith King know if you plan to attend, so we can plan for breakfast.