Weekly Club Newsletter - 2/20/2013

Meeting Recap

Greetings fellow Rotarians!  We started off today’s meeting by inducting our newest member, Damon Clark into the Club.   Damon is an energy consultant who learned about our Club through our website.  Please take the time to introduce yourselves to Damon and to make him feel welcome.   Today’s speaker was University of Vermont Athletic Director, Dr. Bob Corran.   Dr. Corran informed us that his department consists of 92 fulltime staff members and that it oversees 18 NCAA Division I sports programs, 525 varsity athletes, and 10,000 campus recreation participants.  Dr. Corran provided us with a brief history of the existing sports complex and he mapped out the strategy for the future improvement of these facilities.  After years of studies, a $60 million proposal has emerged that includes construction of a 6,000 seat arena on the university campus.  This new facility would be used by the hockey team, the basketball teams, and by the university and community in general for a variety of sports, entertainment, and educational purposes.  This new sports complex has already been designed and is presently going through the state permitting process.  Private fundraising efforts for this project are also well underway.  Overall, Dr. Corran was very optimistic about the chances of this proposal coming to fruition.  He concluded his talk by addressing questions from members about the proposed new arena and the prospect of the baseball and football teams returning.

Preparations are well under way for this event and we will be soliciting volunteers to help out on game day at our next meeting.  Both games and banquets are being held on Saturday, March 23, 2013.  The banquets will be held at The Essex starting at 9:30am, with the woman’s banquet being held in the ballroom and the men’s banquet being held in the atrium.  The women’s game will be held at the Essex Skating Facility at 1:00pm, and the men’s game will start at the same venue at 4:00pm.  Like the Golf Tournament, the Corn Booth, and the Senior Luncheon, this is an event where we really do need as many volunteers as possible.  As such, we would ask that all Rotarians be prepared to help out at this event.  For more information, please contact myself at JFR@essexvtlaw.com

Essex Rotary Golf Tournament

Please save the date for the 2013 Essex Rotary Golf Tournament!  This year’s event will be held on Wednesday, June 12, 2013 at the Links at Lang Farm Golf Course. For more information about this event, please contact Golf Committee Chair, Dave Johnson at mdjkiln@juno.com

Upcoming Meeting Schedule:  February 27, 2013 –  Committee meetings.

For the complete list of upcoming speakers and general information about the Club, please go to our website at www.essexrotary.org   Be sure to also check out our Club’s Facebook page!

Yours in Rotary, 

Jason Ruwet