Weekly Meeting News - 10 December 2012

                                                                              New Proposed Member Announcement

     The Board has voted to approve Jeff Frenette to become a member of our Club.  A fireside chat will be held on 17 December at 4:00 at the Venice Restaurant  -  any member of the Club is welcome to attend the "chat" and share their reasons for becoming a Rotarian.  Jeff has been sponsored by Honorarian Rotarian Joe Potter.  Jeff is employed by Washington Trust Company in the area of Technology.

                                                                                 Annual Meeting, 10 December 2012

     President Cal called the meeting to order at approximately 6:00pm for the specific purpose of voting in the Nominated Slate of Officers for 2013-2014 and changes to the Scholarship Fund Policy   - 

                    Officers for 2013-2014:  President  Clayton A. Lord

                                                                  President Elect  Steven Salerno

                                                                  Vice President  (July/December)  Daniel Alvino, (January/June) Douglas A. Rayner

                                                                  Secretary  Rosemarie A. Russo

                                                                  Treasurer  Ronald Roberts

                                                                  Director at Large  Frank Celico

                                                                  Immediate Past President  Robert E. P. Elmer III

                   Scholarship Fund Policy Change:  Originally the Club annual event was designated as the Scholarship Fundraising Event - Board and membership voted to change this special function to Scholarship/Charity Fundraising Event.  Originally all funds from the event were to be deposited into the Club Scholarship account  -  Board and membership voted to change to a 50% split of funds between the Scholarship and Charitable accounts.  Originally the dollar amount to be awarded annually was a minimum of $2,000  -  Board and membership voted to increase the annual award to a minimum of $4,000.

Members Present = 12        Members Absent = 11

Guests:  Scott Keller of Reforest the Trees,  Jeff Frenette and members of the Westerly Innovations Network - students Cassandra Lin, Isaac Kaufman, John Perino and Cassandra's parents, Jason and Sherry Lin.

          Project T. G. I. F.  -  Turn Grease Into Fuel.   WIN is a non profit 501(c)(3) organization, a student-led community problem solving team.  Six members of the team are now freshment in high school.  After extensive research and testing, collaboration with a biofuel facility, the group developed a strategy to collect waste cooking oil from local residents and restaurants and convert it into biodiesel.  Then they give the biofuel to families in need through the existing local emergency heat assistance agents.  Currently, "118 restaurants are donating their used cooking oil and 21,000 gallons of biofuel has been donated with a worth of close to $81,000 and helping 210 families."  WIN recently donated $25,000 worth of BioHeat to five charities.

     The Team has won EPA's President's Environmental Youth Awards, the Sea World/Busch Gardents Environmental Excellence Awards in 2010; they represented the USA to compete at UNEP's VolvoAdventure Awards and won fourth place in Sweden in 2011; and they won the Grand Champion on Community Problem Solving at the 2012 FPSP International Conference at the Indiana University.  In 2011 Governor Lincoln Chafee signed the team's Used Cooking Oil Recycling Act into law - it mandates that all businesses recycle their waste cooking oil.  The group also won the John H. Chafee Conservation Leadership Award for its project.   Last week the team was featured on CNN Heroes: An All Star Tribute, hosted by Anderson Cooper, to honor ten CNN Heroes from around the world who have improved the lives of others.  Each honoree will receive a $50,000 grant and the "Hero of the Year" will receive a $250,000 grant.