ROTOSCOPE

50/50 Ticket Sales:  $283. Paul Banas drew the Queen of Spades and won $10. Paul donated it back to the Club.

Visiting Rotarians: Sandy Yeager, Buffalo Rotary Club

Guests: Professor Steve Dyson (who has submitted a membership application)     

Program:

This week’s speaker was Philip Wiggle, CSE, CME, CPA / Business Professor at Medaille College. He teaches Strategic Management at Medaille, is a Business Coach to local businesses, and is a Professional Speaker.   A 1959 UB graduate, he worked for an international CPA firm for several years, then joined a Fortune 500 client of that firm in New York City.  Phil then founded a CPA firm in Amherst.  His 1^st client?   The Little White House restaurant, which was located for many years in this very building.  Concurrently, Phil has written newspaper columns for over 25 years and has been a Professional Speaker throughout the United States and Canada since 1985.

Highlights of Mr. Wiggle’s presentation included:

·         The need to choose a strategy that is relevant to your business and strengths.

·         Understanding key costs—those costs that drive/ determine profitability.

·         Several illustrative client stories

Announcements: 

Club Dues:  Invoices have been sent out by the Club’s Treasurer for the 2nd half of the Club’s dues ($100.00) for the period January 1, 2014 to June 30, 2014.  If have you not already done so, please see Treasurer Matt Balling to make payment.   The Club has received its Semi-Annual Report (SAR) and dues invoice from RI.  The invoice total is over $1100 and your responsive dues payment to the Club will allow the Club to pay this invoice to RI. Over 26% of your dues payment goes to cover this RI invoice.

Club Payment Options:  The Club now has the ability to take credit or debit card payments through PayPal.  At tonight’s meeting we had this payment option available as we do a pilot to evaluate this service.  The cost for use of the credit/debit card for the dinner payment was $20.54.  The additional cost of $0.54 is the actual incurred PayPal transaction cost.  Consider this a “convenience fee.”  Our goal is have this working flawlessly for the Club’s Annual Celebration event in March.  We will also be evaluating the ability to pre-sell tickets to our events via the PayPal service. 

Youth Exchange (YE) Officer:  For the past 5-years Mike Sirianno has been the Club’s YE Officer and has provided his excellent and focused talents to achieve success with the Club’s YE program. We have had students from France, Spain, Argentina, and Denmark. And, Mike’s recent success with the Williamsville Central School District (WCSD) has enabled a YE student in the District.  Now, with Mike’s increasing employment responsibilities, it’s a Club position Mike must pass on.  Mike provided information and an overview of the YE responsibilities at the meeting.

We discussed that we have an expressed interest from a Williamsville student to be an Outbound YE.  The family is also interested in being a “Host Family” for a YE Inbound student.  Without a YE Officer, we (Club) cannot participate in the YE program. Lee Broad volunteered for the position.

Archiving Historical Data: The Board approved a Document Retention Policy at last week’s Board meeting. We need a task force to go through about six boxes of materials, catalogue them and make decisions about whether to keep the items. Looking for volunteers. Please let Ed S. know.

Club Weather Cancellation Policy:  Discussed the Club’s new Weather Cancellation Policy. The policy is also available on the Club’s web page under Club Documents. 

Member Contact List:  The January 6th adverse weather brought to light the importance of having an updated and current member contact list.   The current information from the Club’s records was distributed and members were asked to review their particular information.  If any revisions, etc. are necessary, members were asked to inform Ed S. of the changes (efs4170@aol.com).

Valentines Dinner:  A Club Valentines Dinner is being planned for Monday – February 10^th here at Milos.  Members were asked to mark their calendars for a special dinner with a special someone to celebrate the day.  More details will be forthcoming.

Area 11 Mix-n-Mingle: Thursday January 30th, 2014 at 6PM - 8PM at Westwood Country Club, 772 North Forest Road (at Sheridan Drive).   The Rotary Club of Amherst (formerly Amherst East) is the host Club for this event.  Please mark your calendars.   More information will be coming soon and I will update you via E-mail.  If expect other Club participation when we are the host Club, we need to make every effort to attend the other Club’s events.

SLAPSHOT Event:  Distributed information on this youth event.  Do you have an interested candidate?

Annual Meeting:  The Club’s annual meeting is March 3, 2014.  Election to the Club’s Board of Directors is held at this meeting.  It’s time to start considering if you would like to be a Board member of your Club and be more active in the Club’s direction.   President-Elect Kathy Behan will be seeking members for the Nominating Committee (NC).  Please express to Kathy your interest in either the NC and/or the Board. The positions of Treasurer and Secretary are positions of the Executive Board, which are “open.”

Every Rotarian – Every Year (EREY):  Wow!!!!   Did you know that for $0.27 per day, less than $2.00 per week, and $8.33 per month you can be an active participant and be recognized in Rotary International’s (RI) EREY Program?  And you can do this with a simple authorization to RI to charge a credit card account for the recurring period (month / quarter / annual ) amount you designate.  This is simple and straightforward. 

Your commitment provides grant funds for RI and our District 7090 for projects that are used to fund local and international service projects, scholarships, and vocational training teams.

Would you please seriously consider an annual commitment to the EREY program?   There is an aspirational goal of $100 per year per member. Please see the attached EREY form whereby you can make this commitment for a tax-deductible contribution (501.c.3 charity) as a recurring monthly, quarterly or annual donation using a credit card ( www.rotary.org/contribute).  You know the good that Rotary and its members accomplish; please seriously consider your participation in EREY. Our Club number is 4756, District #7090, and your individual member number can be found on the mailing label of the Rotarian magazine, an 8-digit number preceded by “#” just above your name.  Ed S. will have each member’s membership number at the Club meetings for information and ease of reference.       Thank You! 

Program Schedule: The January 16^th issue of the Speakers’ Schedule was distributed. We have openings for speakers.  Doug Littlewood can provide you with the current schedule and available openings.  We have quite a few openings for a speaker after January and into the New Year.  If you have a potential speaker, it is suggested that three (3) open dates, in order of speaker preferred priority, be confirmed with Doug Littlewood or Vern Anderson, who will confirm the specific date, and “lock” that date for your speaker.  This will eliminate any conflict with other confirmed speakers. It will also keep the Program Schedule accurate for dates where speaker dates have been reserved.  Please keep Doug and Vern updated if changes need to be made.  In our social and business lives we may know of individuals who have an interesting background, career, or story.  Ask them: “Would you share this with my Rotary Club?”

Future speakers: Discussions are taking place for speaking engagements with the following: Mark Thomas (Western Regional Director – NYS Parks); Maria Lehman (Peace Bridge); Brian Kulpa, Mayor-Village of Williamsville; and Dr. Barry Weinstein, Supervisor, Town of Amherst.

Annual Celebration:  The date is Saturday – March 29, 2014 at the Park Country Club.  Event Chairman Tim Henderson will provide continuing updates as he and his Committee plan the Club’s annual and major event.  Mark your calendars for this major Club event date.

Meeting Attendance:  Ed S. encouraged members to start 2014 with a resolution to be in attendance at the Club’s scheduled weekly meetings on Monday evenings.

Ed S. noted that the Club, as a whole through the 6-month period ending December 2013, has an average meeting attendance rate of approximately 48%.   Nine (9) Club members have a meeting attendance rate of less than 50%.  That is 26% of the Club’s membership who are not participating in a Club they wanted to join.

Ed S. also noted that members can make-up a meeting via the District’s new eClub (www.rotaryeclub7090.org ), Rotary E-Club of SOWNY.

2014 Calendar Marks:

Club: January 30^th – Amherst Mix ‘N Mingle; February 10^th – Valentines Dinner;  March 3^rd – Club Annual Meeting & Elections;  March 29^th -- Club’s Annual Celebration;  June 18^th – Strawberry Festival; August 10^th – Classic Car Show.

District: February 1^st – Council Meeting; February 20^th and March 21^st – PETS Training; March 31^st – Registration Closes for SLAPSHOT;  April 25-27^th – SLAPSHOT;  June 8-14^th – RYLA /// (See District 7090 web page for details.)

Fines: Vern Anderson, Fine Master.

·         Carrie Leed--$1 for being late

·         Mike Sirianno--$5 for not following the dress code, exceptional circumstances notwithstanding

·         Kevin Flint and Tim Henderson--$1 each for challenging Vern’s Fine Master authority

·         Mike Burns--$1 for not wearing a Rotary pin

·         Lee Broad--$1 for some reason

·         Ed Stachura--$1 for not recognizing our Guest, Steve Dyson

Happy Dollars:

·         $1 for someone’s birthday (sorry, missed it!!)

·         $8.40 from Roger Gross on his 84^th birthday ($0.10 for each year); has a goal of writing a $10.00 check.

·         $1 from Paul Banas for a great vacation

·         $1 from Lee Broad for Matt Balling’s work as Treasurer.

We missed you this evening: 

Ron Axelrod, Mary Biddle-Widman, Tony Cangialosi, Shirley Carnall, Rashmikumar Desai, Elizabeth Ingold, Norm Mattar, Mike Prinzback, Ed Rath, Larry Read, Jim Rumsey, Gary Skalyo, Mark Storch,