Weekly Meeting News - 5 November 2012

     Members present  = 12    Honorary Member present = 1     Members absent = 11

                              ANNOUNCEMENTS

WARM Shelter's Dollar Makes a Difference began 1 October and runs through 1 April 2013.  The collection container was passed around at Monday's meeting and will be available each week.

Next week - 12 November - Vicki Anderson of the Pawcatuck Neighborhood Center will be speaking to the membership.  There will be a special auction offered at dinner - two tickets to the Chorus of Westerly Concert on 18 November - $74 value - originally intended to be raffled at the Pasta Dinner

Annual Football Night, 19 November, is hosted this year by our Club, jointly with the Rotary Club of the Stoningtons, and will be held at the Venice Restaurant lower level dining room.  This event celebrates the football teams of the Stonington and Westerly High Schools and their annual Thanksgiving competition.  Steve Cofone asked that members invite a guest.

Prospective Member Night, 3 December 2012, will be held in the lower level dining room at the Venice Restaurant.  Instead of a "sit-down" dinner, we will enjoy appetizers, beer and wine.

Host Dinner on 8 December - Christmas for RICAN - a joint event with the Chariho Rotary Club to benefit Rhode Island Center Assisting Those in Need.  RICAN requests gift cards for teens, instead of toys, and reading books.  Also, Stop & Shop gift cards are a good choice as they can be used to purchase food or gas.  Westerly Club will bring Italian dishes, Chariho will provide meats and Chowder, RICAN staff will bring desserts and sandwiches.  John Huhtala is heading up the search for raffle items.  If anyone can contribute or help him, please contact him at 401.322.4034 or highhook20@aol.com.

Annual meeting will be postponed to 10 December - topics will be election of 2013 officers and approval of Scholarship bylaw changes. Guests at this meeting will include the Westerly WIN Team, who were originally scheduled to attend on 26 October.  Monthly Board meeting will take place on 3December at 4:00pm.

Member holiday party will take place at the Venice Restaurant on 17 December.

Due to the holidays, there will be no meetings on 24 December and 31 December.

                            BOARD NOTES

The Board voted to donate $1,000 to the Jonnycake Center and WARM for their assistance to Hurricane Sandy victims in our area, to donate $500 to the Chamber to provide food for volunteers from Friday to Sunday this week, to donate $500 to the Rotary Club of La Penita, Mexico for their Community Center project - Dan Alvino will be providing hands-on assistance in January, and to pledge $5,000 to the Westerly-Pawcatuck YMCA's Capital Campaign to be paid over the next five years.  

Eight members have 100% attendance, some achieved with makeups, and all dues are current.  Steve Cofone has achieved "exempt member" status.

Clark reported to President Cal that the RI Blood Bank would like our Club to sponsor a blood drive and the Board discussed how we could do this.  It was suggested that the Chowder CookOff event might be a good fit to accomplish both projects.  It will be discussed further.