I was outraged, OUTRAGED.  Whoever heard of being fined for wearing a pink shirt with a mint green sports coat?  Mr. Mullevey, who by the way is not the editor of GQ Magazine, thought it appropriate for me to contribute $2.  Oh ye of little taste.  

I’m glad I got that off my chest.  Anyway, the Prez got the meeting off with our singing “America the Beautiful”.  It is much more beautiful when Teddie is with us to drown out the singing.  Good to have you back, Teddie.  We pledged, Chuck prayed, and we 4-wayed. 

Hanger steak was on the menu. It is called that because you can choke on it.  Actually, it was OK and the lunch was finished with an unusual tasting Crème Brulee.  I didn’t catch what the Molly put into it.

Not only did Mullevey get me for my outfit, but he also got Robin and Barbara M. for saying they missed him.  Something about the 4-way test not being followed was claimed as the reason.  Mike Bey was clipped for money as was Kevin and Bill D.  I sure hope that Donnelly has money, because it is just so easy to fine him for anything.

Lucy Campanella’s birthday was celebrated with Al giving us $2.  Mike Bey also had a birthday, but Don said it was not current but fined him anyway.  Both Dave Johnson and his wife have birthdays, so he got hit up twice.  Finally, because I will be away for my birthday, I had to pay $2.  It is sort of like a prepaid birthday fine.

I am going to try to get you the Happy $$$, but I am sure I missed some and will offend others.  Addie gave for the speaker and Bill S. gave for being in business for 41 years.  Gail gave for not realizing how much Teddie added to the program, and Clark gave for the beach club opening on time.  Bill D. gave for the District Assembly and Chuck, Harriet and Rob gave but my pencil froze up on me.  I gave $10 for being away from this group for the next 10 weeks, and Frankie gave for his daughter, Maggie, graduating from college.  Kevin gave a buck for the Rangers advancing in the playoffs, and Mike D. paid and chimed in that Boston also advanced.  Denise and Al also gave money, but again, my pencil locked up. 

Frank announced that at this year’s golf outing there would be a car given away at each of the par three holes.  Harry arranged for this.  Great job Harry. 

Some important dates to remember are: June 13^th for the scholarship awards; June 27^th is the Club’s Installation Dinner: July 13^th is the District’s Installation Dinner; and finally, July 29^th is our golf outing.

Our speakers for the meeting were from the Coast Guard Auxiliary.  Glenn Mason, a retired detective for the Hazlet police department, and Miguel Figueroa, a middle school Spanish teacher, represented the Auxiliary. Now, aside from the fact that neither of the Power Points worked, it was an OK presentation.  The men tried to give us an indication of what the Auxiliary does and how it interfaces with the Coast Guard.  They indicated that the Coast Guard has 35,000 men and women in it and the Auxiliary is needed to fill in the gaps.

Bill D. was the 50-50 winner and took home, Kevin said, $5.

The ever lovely Barbara Mullins will be taking over this job for the next few months.  Again, step up and give her a hand. TTFN. 

Hi there Boys and Girls.  Did you all enjoy the program this week as much as I did?  We had John Kalli tell us about the 7 Deadly Sins of Web Surfing, but more about that latter.

The Prez started off the meeting with the Pledge.  Teddie wasn’t there so he asked me to start the singing of “God Bless”.  That is always dangerous for me to do and potentially embarrassing.  Talk about embarrassing, either Chuck or Bill prayed, I can’t remember, but then we 4-wayed.

Good group of visitors with us for the meeting.  Kevin brought his lovely daughter Sara.  Fortunately Sara takes after Kevin’s lovely wife in the looks department.  Dave Legg from Tinton Falls was with us as was Diane Rotondelli from the District Staff and the Brick Club.  Diane brought with her a potential new member, Joan Lerman, from NJ.Com.

We didn’t have our Fine-Master, Jim, with us, but Dr. Tony took over and got Billy S. just in principle.  Not bad, Dr. T.

Again, a lot of Happy $$$$.  Warren, Ken, Linda, Dave Legg, Diane Rotonelli, Steve, Rob, Denise, Chuck, Gail, Kevin and yours truly all made donations.  The best, however, was Jon Schwarz, who gave money for Kevin’s daughter, saying “Kevin, I never knew you had a daughter, because you only talk about the boys”.  Talk about throwing someone under the bus, Jon sure did. 

Diane Rotondelli, representing the Lombardi Dinner, brought the club a check for $1,124.98 representing our share of the proceeds of the Dinner. Bill D. and Paul Z. did a great job again this year on the dinner.  Thanks Guys.

Our speaker, John Kalli is from Trinity Worldwide, a computer consulting company, working with small businesses and non-profits to solve their computer problems.  He discussed with us some of the many recent problems that have occurred with hackers taking over sites.  He also talked about the different types of worms and phishers that hackers are using, and what we can do to avoid having our computers infected with these devices. 

Rather than my trying to get all these suggestions correct, I am attaching to these Cogs the sheet that John handed out.   It was an interesting topic, and John did a great job in presenting it.

PDG Lou took home the 50-50, but I have no idea how much the pot was. 

After next week, I am going to be taking a vacation from writing the Cogs, and instead working on my golf game in Florida. I’m sure that that this news is a huge disappointment for all of you that consider the Cogs your intellectual stimulation for the week.  Barbara and John usually step in when I am away, but that doesn’t mean that others can’t step up and try your hand.  It’s not hard.  If I can do it, anyone can do it.  Pitch in and give it a try.  TTFN

What a beautiful day to be at Rotary and locking out at the Navesink river.  It was such a beautiful day that I am sure some of our members were out on the golf course.

The Prez opened the meeting, we sang “My Country
Tiz”, we pledged, Bill S. prayed and we 4-wayed.  Then on to lunch.

Nice lunch.  We started with the Molly’s lobster bisque, which even had lobster in it. Next we had a grilled chicken Caesar salad.  I think that this is the best way for the Molly to serve chicken.  The lunch was finished with a too small piece of blueberry cheesecake. 

Our gust for the day was a visiting Rotarian from the Flemington Rotary Club, Chris Venditti.  Chris was down working with Jon Schwartz, but luckily, he didn’t have to sit with him.  Come back anytime Chris, and join us.

The only Birthday was for Chuck Watson on May 6^th.  Naturally we sang to him. Too bad.

Apparently, after reviewing the pictures of the Food & Wine, there was a Rotarian who was not wearing his Rotary pin.  Who do you think that might be?  None other than our own Sgt.-of-Arms, Jim.  I think Jim got clipped for about 5$.  Next, Jim brought to the attention of the Club that Larry Thoma was in the newspaper wearing a Hawaiian shirt, but also without a Rotary Pin.  There was another $5.  It’s getting expensive to be in this club.

If I list all of the Happy $$$s. I will never finish this newsletter.  The following invested various amounts of money because they were happy.  Barbara M, Bill S, Teddie, Chuck, Bill D, Barbara N, Rob, Addie, Harriet, Warren, Clark, Kevin and yours truly. 

There will be a District Assembly on Saturday, May 11^th, at the Enterprise Center – BCC, 3331 Rt. 38, in Mt. Laurel.  This is a good way to learn more about what is happening in Rotary.  I know one of the speakers is John T Capp, a wonderful, motivational speaker that the District is bringing up from North Carolina.  He is a hoot.  Come on out and learn more about Rotary.

There is a golf committee meeting in Jay’s office on May 9^th at 5:00pm.  Please try to attend if you are on the committee.

We had a very interesting speaker for our program, Eileen Strong.  She is basically a person who coaches others on making a good first impression and presentation.  Her first comment was that you only have seven seconds to make a good first impression.  If you fail that, it’s all uphill from there.  She trains corporate executive in these arts and also teaches at Kean College. 

Some of her thoughts include, “Is what you are doing the best use of your time”.  “Are you memorable”?  Where do you promote yourself?  For this she suggested using both Smart Brief and LinkedIn.  She also feels that for every feature you are offering your client, you should list three benefits of your service.  Another interesting thought, she asked if there was anything on the back of your business card.  She said, if not we are wasting valuable advertising space.  Finally, she suggested that at the start of each day we should list three goals for the day and do each one completely before starting on the next one.  All in all, I found her to be a very interesting and informative speaker.  Good program. 

Finally, again, Joe Greca’s number was picked to be the 50-50 winner and Joe took home $25.  TTFN.

What a day we had at Rotary.  I didn’t take notes, so you can imagine how accurate this week’s Cogs are going to be.

We had our Career Day as well as our visit from the GSE team from southern Italy.  Naturally, the Molly joined right in and served Veal Parm for lunch with what else, mashed potatoes.  I am certain it was like no other veal parm the Italians had ever tasted.  Veal A’la Molly. 

We had with us 32 students from Red Bank Regional High School for Career Day.  They seemed to be bright and interested in learning what it is like in the business world. Thank you Addie and Barbara N. for you efforts.  We had some help this year from the Tinton Falls Rotary Club which supplied us with about four or five mentors.  As Kevin mentioned, for a project that was nearly cancelled, it really came back to life.

Just to bring you up to date on the GSE Team, there are four members and a team leader.  They arrived on Tuesday, in from the Willingboro Club and Harriet had them for cocktails at her place and then to dinner at the Raven and the Peach.  It was a wonderful evening.  Harriet had wanted to cook, but her serving dishes had all floated away in the storm.  That is the first good thing I have heard happening as a result of Sandy.

Tom Mimnaugh was present for the third week in a row, and Harry Snyder was back with us after a long absence.  Mike
Bey, whom we haven’t seen in a while, was also returning.  It is good to have you people back.  More importantly, Teddie was back with us.  She always adds so much to our meetings.

Those of you that didn’t attend the Food & Wine event this past Monday missed out on a wonderful evening.  Those in attendance enjoyed the fellowship, food and drink. The vendors seemed to be pleased with the turnout also.  By the way, did any of you who attended miss Bill Donnelly, the chairman, not being there?  No, I didn’t either.

Some of us are attending the District Conference this weekend.  Addie and Denise will be there as well as Harriet, Chuck, Nick, Bill D. and yours truly will spend the time in Cape May.  Over the years we have had some great conferences and in two years we will be going to Harriet’s.  Let’s plan on making hers super.

Since I am not reporting on birthdays or happy dollars this week, I wanted to take a moment and push one of my favorite topics.  We are all members of this wonderful organization that helps people around the world, and this wonderful organization has a Foundation.  (Some of you may not be aware of that.)  Take a moment, go to rotary.org and make a contribution to the Annual Fund.  It doesn’t take long to do, and you will be sharing Rotary with the world.  On the same topic, Rotary hasn’t eradicated Polio yet.  There are still three countries that have new active cases.  People, we are very, very close.  Let’s not give up now.  Again, you can donate on line at the Rotary website.  The Rotary year is almost up, don’t put off making your gift to those less fortunate.

TTFN.

Hellooo Rotarians.  Did you miss my not writing the Cogs?  Nah, I didn’t think so.  Anyway, it’s great to have the time to do them, and I must thank Barbara and Jack for filling in for me.  They both do such a great job without all of my sarcasm. 

The Prez started off the meeting indicating that Teddie was not with us again and suggesting we forgo singing.  Denise would have none of that so we sang (?) “America the Beautiful”.  In any case, Billy prayed and asked for blessings on the city of Boston and those grieving there.  Nice touch.  We 4-wayed, and it was off to lunch.

Now, lunch consisted of roast pork with a vanilla apricot sauce that I found very pleasing.  Someone else at my table, who shall remain nameless, but who had a birthday that day and has naturally red hair, thought there was too much vanilla. Can’t please all of the people all of the time. Dessert was an assortment of miniature pastries, which was a change from the cheesecake. 

We had a special event Thursday.  We inducted a husband and wife team into the club.  Joe G. did the honors, and John and Gloria Bohinski are now Red Bank Rotarians.  John and Gloria work together in an insurance and financial planning business and also run a title insurance company.  It is always good to welcome new Rotarians into our club.  John and Gloria, enjoy Rotary.

The ever present Sgt-at- arms, Jim awarded Tom Mimnaugh the two week perfect attendance pin.  Tom, isn’t it great to be back?

Our birthday girl was none other than Harriet.  She felt so strongly about the singing that she wrote a $100 check for us not to sing to her.  That may have been the smartest $100 that lady has ever spent, and she has spent a lot of them.

Happy $$$$$.  Bill S. started off happy dollars with money for our new Rotarian, for Joe and Warren doing a good job with initiating new members and for Teddie being on the mend.  Mike T. gave a buck for only filing a few extensions for his tax clients this year.  Now, recognize people, he only has a few tax clients so it probably worked out to be one each.  Clark gave for his 2 year old, and Warren gave for his pants being 30 years old.  I wish I could get into my 30 year old pants, but no way.  Barbara gave for Harriet’s birthday and for her youngest daughter’s birthday which is on the same day.  Notice, I said day not year.  Jon gave for Warren’s pants and for his son being in Boston but nowhere near the explosion.  Bill D gave for Harriet and the food and wine and I gave for Harriet’s birthday.  Ken gave for the new members and something else, and Frank gave a sad dollar for having to come back from the Masters.  Chuck and Kevin also gave for the new members.  Big day for Happy Dollars.

Don Burden, the Mayor of Shrewsbury, was back with us to give us an update on what is going on in his town.  He gave us some statistics on the tax revenue indicating that some 36% comes from commercial property with 62% from residential.  Not sure where the other 2% comes from.  With the new revaluation, the tax base comes to approximately a billion dollars.

The budget’s revenue goes 19% for operating expenses, 62% for salaries, wages and benefits, and 9% for debt service.  He also indicated that building permit fees have gone up and that there are going to be two new developments in Shrewsbury.  The Ivy on Shrewsbury Avenue is currently being built and will have 77 units when finished, and a second behind the library, The Enclave, will have another 66 units when completed. 

It is always a pleasure to have Mayor Burden with us.  He is an informative and entertaining speaker.

Chuck convinced the Mayor to pull his raffle ticket and took home some $20. 

DON’T FORGET, FOOD AND WINE IS MONDAY.  We need help setting up at around ten and taking down after it is over.

DON’T FORGET CAREER DAY IS NEXT THURSDAY AND SO IS THE GSE VISIT.