Welcome
2010-2011 Board
President – John LoBosco
President-Elect – Marge Barker
Vice President – Bob Flynn
Secretary – Paul Butler
Treasurer – Nancy Hawes
Club Administration – Tom Meyers
Community Service – Sybil Riemensnider
Membership – Bob Danielson
International & Foundation – David Lourie
Director-At-Large – Joan Frustaci
Remarks of John LoBosco as outgoing president of the Rotary Club of South Portland-Cape Elizabeth, June 15, 2011, Events on Broadway, South Portland.
It has been a great year! It was an honor for me to serve as your president and I certainly appreciate the opportunity you have given me. I want to thank each of you for making this year a special year.
In particular, I'd like to thank Tony Wagner for his wise counsel, for his dedication to the club and for his friendship. Tony shared plenty of advice during our Sunday morning lam breakfasts at Rudy's. In the coming year Tony will serve on our President's Advisory Board and he'll be the District-wide Coordinator for the Visioning long term planning program.
I'd also like to thank Scott Irving for all of his help. Under Scott's leadership we have a vibrant web page, archived many of our most important documents in electronic form, and developed a presence on Facebook. Scott also will serve on our President's Advisory Board and he'll be the district webmaster too.
I want to thank another member of my Sunday morning kitchen cabinet--Chuck Redman-- for his excellent work on programming this year. Among the many great programs, we laughed with the director of the Levity Institute, got massages and ginger shots during Mojo's presentation, learned about the entrepreneurial programs at UMaine, SMCC and elsewhere, and listened to the inspiring speakers from Color of Community. We also had an excellent program on how to disagree without being disagreeable from our own Marc Mutty and his friend and MCLU adversary, Shenna Bellows. Thank you, too, to our ace video crew: Frank Butterworth and David Lourie, and our program editor, Dan Mooers.
I want to thank our Foundation chairs, Frank Butterworth and Bob Carson, for knocking it out of the park again this year. Under their leadership we donated an average of $209 per person to the Foundation's Annual Programs Fund. We donated the second highest amount of the 42 clubs in the district, and the 4th highest per capita.
I'd like to thank Mike Tranfaglia and Meghan O'Brien for their enthusiasm and help with Interact, RYLA and scholarship programs. Meghan will serve on our President's Advisory Board, providing a strong voice for our younger members.
I want to thank Adrienne Murphy for leading our PR effort and Jack Roberts and Dan Davidson for their PR efforts. I want to thank Phil Dube for always arriving early for our meetings to get us set up and
ready.
I want to thank Jim Russell for his tireless work on the bulletin and Kathy Ray for her flexibility and diligence in sending out communications as we also tested new means of communication.
I want to thank Joe Conroy for leading us at the soup kitchen. Under Joe's leadership, we have served close to 3000 meals this year and many thousands over our 15 year
involvement with that program.
I want to thank Dan Mooers and Mike McGovern for their service to the Club, the District and the International and, in particular, for their support of our DG, Ann Lee Hussey. Ann Lee is an inspiration to me and I could not have had a better DG under which to serve. We are a better club because of Ann Lee's efforts. One of those efforts was to ensure we have a Club Protection Officer and a Club
Protection Policy in place. I want to thank Evelyn Garland for chairing those efforts and I hope we ensure that that office and policy remain vital.
We donated generously to help wipe out Polio, and we are THIS close to wiping it out. I want to thank Kathy Cotter for overseeing our PolioPlus fundraising and keeping track
of the cans each week. I want to thank my wife Sue for her help this year. I also want to thank Sue, Scott and Nancy Irving and Jack and Shari Roberts for hosting our Friendship Exchange guests
from India.
I want to thank Tony, Dan Mooers, Bob Flynn, Frank Butterworth, Jim Rowe, Nancy Irving, Ellie Speh, Chuck Redman and many others for your work on our 50th Anniversary committees. I hope we will have a wonderful celebration next year and that we are able to donate generously to the community in honor of that anniversary. Tonight's program brochure contains a list of many of the programs and causes to which we donated time or money this year. To highlight just a few, we made donations that helped young people in our community feel good about themselves and learn about
helping others. We donated to PATHS, so that carpentry students could help rebuild after Katrina; we donated to Seeds of Independence, so that at-risk young people from Maine could bring supplies and help with a hospital in the Dominican Republic; and we donated to the Compass Project at SPHS, so that at-risk youth could find success in building a boat together. We helped the homeless and the hungry. We made a difference.
I want to thank John Thibodeau for taking on responsibility for championing Visioning for our club as we look to our future, and I want to thank him for agreeing to serve on our President's Advisory Board. Through the Visioning process we confirmed what we already knew: that we are a vibrant and successful club. We also talked about where we'd like to be as a club in 5 years:
- We want to be known as the cornerstone for community service and volunteerism in our community and for projects that benefit the community.
- We want to be diverse, as to age, gender and culture; throughout the business and professional communities; and diverse in our mix of professionals, business people and others.
- We want to be at the forefront in our use of technology.
- We want to recognize members of the business community who exemplify high ethical standards; mentor and support young people; and triple our scholarship giving.
- We want to grow as a club and we want to raise more money so that we can fund more good work.
- We want to increase our already outstanding giving to the Foundation and encourage Every Rotarian to donate Every Year in an amount that works for them.
- We want to display our Rotary emblem when engaging in our good works to promote our public image and to inspire others to volunteer and, perhaps, to join us. It is traditional to recognize and thank our Board. I want to acknowledge them and thank them for their service. I have a modest gift for each of them as a token of our appreciation. You'll recognize the gift--it is one of our t-shirts displaying the 4 way test. Those t-shirts are symbolic of the role--far greater than raising and donating funds--that Rotary plays in the community. As Rotarians, we inspire volunteerism, we promote ethics, and we lead by example.
- First, I'd like to thank Joanie for her counsel as immediate past president.
- Next, I'd like to thank Tom Meyers for his service as Director of Club Administration and for being my sounding board, confidante and friend. Nobody worked harder this year to ensure that our meetings and events ran flawlessly and I thank Tom for his service.
- I'd like to thank Bob Danielson for his service as Membership Director. Bob had a wonderful vision of teaming up club members with activities to improve engagement and retention--and it worked! Thank you Bob.
- I want to thank Paul Butler, our Club Secretary, and Nancy Hawes, our Club Treasurer, for their service this year and for their many years of service to Rotary and to the Club.
- I want to thank David Lourie, our International Service Director, for knocking it out of the park this year. David was tireless in his efforts to ensure the success of the Crutches4Africa program--resulting in 5000 mobility devices being shipped from the SP Armory to Nigeria this year. Each one of those crutches and walkers will change a life.
We also donated to help Partners for World Health save perfectly good medical equipment from our landfills and to get it to folks overseas who need it.
I want to thank our Community Service Director, Sybil Riemensnider, for her service to the Board. Under Sybil's leadership, we held very successful luncheons honoring our senior citizens and our public works personnel.
We also provided $4200 in RYLA scholarships providing leadership training to 14 students at camp this month and $6000 in college scholarships. We donated to the Food Cupboard, the Soup Kitchen, Meals on Wheels, the Step Up Homeless Shelter and other wonderful community organizations and causes. I also want to thank our Incoming President, Marge Barker, and our President Elect,
Bob Flynn, for their service to the Board and I want to wish them well in the years ahead.
Thank you to the Board. Thank you to everyone who worked so hard to make this year a success. You, and the 1.2 million Rotarians around the world are 1.2 million points of light in an often troubled world. Thank you for all you do. And thank you for a great year-- I will remember it fondly.
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