Presentations:
Major Awards Presentations
Mark Knittel presented the Will J. Griswold Club Service Award to – wait for it – Ward Naf. An astoundingly good choice this year. Mark led us down a winnowing exercise to end up with Ward. His credentials were: helping to lead every club service activity for the past few years; a chair of two of the four committees he belongs to; found the excellent facility in which we now meet; and part of a dynamic duo of our club sharing the same last name. Finally, this reporter got it (after the name was announced).
The David C. Morse Sr. Community Service Award went to Teri Treat. The award was presented to Teri by soon-to-be-past-president Paul Grey. He noted her dedication to the business community and the social community. Examples are her making the rounds of the bell ringers at Christmas time, supplying hot drinks and non-fattening donuts. She is a chief orchestrator of our Student Awards Program. And Teri has stepped up to become President
of the RCOB Foundation. But perhaps most important, she works to help our inactive members to become more active. Her husband, Matt, snuck in to witness the award.
Then, Shauna Naf, the other half of the aforementioned dynamic duo, stepped to the podium to present the Karen W Morse Vocational Service Award to none other than Sara Maloney. She exhibits the best ideals of Rotary. Her work at the Boys & Girls Club, pulling it through the pandemic maelstrom, is one example. The
reconfiguring of the major project selection process is another. Due to her efforts and that of co-chair Andy Day, we had universal participation in the Early Childhood Learning Center project. And she is a nine-time Paul Harris Fellow.
Finally, Catherine Riordan presented the Michael K. Mischaikov International Service Award to Marty Haines and Roland Trenouth for organizing the meal packing event this past spring. This involved recruiting 110 individuals from RCOB, other Rotary clubs, and the public to show up on a Saturday morning to pack meals, over 37,000 in fact. They secured funding for the food and transportation to get the meals to Sierra Leone. Well done, guys!
Each award recipient received a sustained standing ovation from Club members and guests.
PROGRAM:
Outgoing President Paul made some remarks while presenting gifts to existing and outgoing board members. The one remark that stuck in this reporter's head was that he felt that he and the other Club leaders had been able to remediate most of the negative effects of COVID on the Club.
Paul set 21 Club goals for his year as president. The club achieved 13 of those goals. For the benefit of John Moffat, Paul pointed out that this resulted in a batting average of .620, which would make us a shoo-in for the Baseball Hall of Fame!
He noted that the refreshed website stresses the achievements of the club, not just reciting who we are. We are now letting the community know what we are doing, like providing $90,000 in student scholarships this year. The fund-raiser with Mark Anderson is another example. This is the type of club people should want to be a part of.
Immediate Past President Peter Theisen then gave the oath of office to incoming president Doug Cole. He then passed the ivory gavel to Doug as a symbol of the changing of the guard. Peter then tried his best to roast Paul prior to inducting him into the Past Presidents Club. By a unanimous vote of the past presidents in the room, Paul made it in by the skin of his teeth.
New President Doug Cole set out goals for his term. He thanked Paul for giving him a solid floor from which to work. Doug then listed numerous recent Club activities and, with each activity, asked participating Club members to stand, until all were standing, making the point that every member contributes to making us an active Club. He talked about how Rotary is relevant in this day and age. Examples were, aid to Ukraine, aid to Turkey and Syria (earthquake relief). He emphasized that Rotarians abide by the notion of “service above self” and, by that, make a difference in the world. We are relevant. For 103 years, our Rotary Club has had an impact. In the past few years, over $4,000,000 flowed from our club’s efforts into the community. Doug anticipates working with other local clubs – including the Rotaract – to accomplish great things.
CLOSING
President Doug (has a nice ring to it, doesn't it?) thanked all those who helped with the meeting and rang the meeting to adjournment at 1:25PM.
