Members present:-
Bina, Mahbub, Seeme, Harvey, Barbara, Jeffrey, Matts, Sundra, Peggy and Alix.

Guests: 

Attorney Vincent Castellano, George John Kallor (Prospective Member)

Meeting Highlights:-
Sundra opened the meeting with the Pledge, Invocation was done by Barbara, Members recited the 4- way test and sang the Rotary song.

Happy Bucks in the amount of $19  was collected

Library for Liberia: Jeffrey printed out the rough draft of the flyer for the concert to raise funds to build the free Library in Liberia.  Sam Enders will be discussing the matter of partnership with the Rotary Club of Monrovia this week.  The matter of having baked items was discussed – Bina and Alix volunteered to bring in baked items for sale. Water bottles and bags of chips will be purchased by the Club.  There will be no coffee. Mahbub has prepared the webpage for selling tickets online via PayPal.  $300 will be paid to the custodian for the overtime. Sandy waived much of the other fees. The doors will open at 6:30 and the concert will run from 7 to 10 pm.  Sundra needs to fill out the forms to formally reserve the Library Auditorium.  Harvey and Barbara wanted to know what our expectations are as to how much we are hoping to raise at the event.  Mahbub suggested that we need to get a complete project plan from Sam including total costs, money raised from other sources and project timeline.  There was discussion about tax deductibility of the ticket cost.  It was decided that there will be no mention of that in the flyer.

Guest Vincent Castellano: George introduced attorney Vincent Castellano, who he has known for over 30 years.  Vincent mentioned that this is first visit to a Rotary Club.  He briefly mentioned his area of practice -real estate, general practice including wills.

 

Paul Harris Recognition for Bina: Sundra presented Bina with the Paul Harris Fellow pin., which she received from RI.  Bina explained that she has been contributing $100 every month to Rotary through automatic credit card charges.  She said these funds in 3 years come back to the District to be distributed as Global Grants or District Grants, so she feels it does a lot of good in the world.  To become a Paul Harris Fellow, a total contribution of $1000 is need during a Rotary Year.  Alix said, Bina deserves this recognition, not only because of her own contribution, but for what she has been doing for the Club.

 

Dream Court Bank Account:  Barbara said no new account will be opened for the Dream Court Project.  All the funds from the Rotary Foundation will come to the existing Club Foundation account.

 

Youth Exchange Scholarship program: Our DG Kris Chittur is organizing an information session on Youth Exchange Scholarship program on 13 September at the Will Library Auditorium.  Under this Program, 3 high school students from our District will go to a foreign country to study for a school year.  This program will be undertaken as part of the Eastern Seaboard Student Exchange (ESSEX) – which is a part of Rotary.  Essex will do the screening for Overseas hosts and match students with them.  At the Information session a parent whose child has participated in this program will be present as will an Exchange student sharing their experiences.  A College Admissions Counsellor will also be present.  Barbara stated that her daughter was in the exchange program in Denmark and it was a life changing experience.

 

Strike-out Hunger Night: Matts said that the 34^th Annual Strike-out Hunger Night will be held on August 28.  RI Polio Plus Chair Mike McGovern will be the Guest of honor at the event in Philadelphia.

 

Meeting on West Side: Sundra felt strongly that we should continue to have one of our meetings on the West Side.  There will be more discussions in September, when more members can voice their opinions. Alix also felt that a wider discussion is needed.

 

Pencils for First Graders:  Sundra said our pencils for First graders will be distributed in January.  Teachers needs these supplies in the second school term.

 

Finance Committee Meeting: Sundra said the Finance Committee Meeting will be 29th August at 5pm at Dolphin Restaurant.

Holiday Raffle: Harvey said Holiday Raffle ticket sales will start in September.  The drawing will be in mid-December and  there will be 3 prize winners 1) $2,500, 2) $1,500, 3) $1,000. The cost of ticket will be $100 and we will sell a total of 100 tickets.  We need to sell at least 50 tickets to be able to pay out the winnings.  Seeme suggested a fundraiser to sell tickets to a small gathering to spread news about the raffle and motivate people to buy tickets.  

 

Speaker Suggestion: Seeme suggested that we choose Speakers from among Rotarians to speak on current topics of common interests or about their passions. 

 

Gift of Life: The Gift of Life program was discussed. Alix spoke about this program. We are the international partner club for the GOL Pakistan Project.  There have been some changes in the local Club and there will be another Club in Lahore, Pakistan which will take the lead over there.