Greetings fellow Rotarians!  In 2016, members were asked to participate in a comprehensive survey about our Club.  The purpose of the survey was to get a sense for what people liked about the Club and what things they wanted to see changed.  89% of our members at that time participated in the survey and provided some great feedback about the Club.  Today we took the opportunity today to revisit the results of that survey and to report on what has been done to address some of the concerns that were raised in some of the responses.  Overall, it was determined that our Club has done a great job of addressing many of these concerns.  For those who are interested in reviewing the analysis of the 2016 survey, please visit the following link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1UeXO29-wYe8RtYlRVswjsssLf6uSlmMuIJc1EfHK-9g/edit  Following the survey recap, President-Elect, Heidi Brosseau took the opportunity to discuss some of the current issues our Club faces and she solicited ideas for addressing them. The most common areas of concern centered on attendance at meetings and the difficulty we seem to be facing in finding volunteers for our various events.  There were also some concerns that were raised about the current committee structure. While we certainly weren’t able to resolve these issues in one meeting, today’s forum gave members the opportunity engage in a very constructive discussion about the status of the Club and the challenges we face.  President Andy indicated that this will be an ongoing discussion and that we will explore these matters in greater detail at a Club Assembly in the future.

            Several of our members helped put on the monthly Essex Eats Out community dinner this past Friday night. Thank you very much to all who volunteered and provided baked goods for this event.  A special thank you goes out to Penny Klein for coordinating this event for our Club.

 

 

            Thank you to the 30 Rotarians and family members who have already volunteered for the Feed my Starving Children food packing event! We still have room for 5 more volunteers for this event if you are interested in joining.  This year’s event will take place on Saturday, October 20^th at the Albert D. Lawton Middle School in Essex Junction from 9:00am to 11:00am. If you and your families are interested in helping out, please contact Amy Jackman at amymj@us.ibm.com

 

 

            We are looking for volunteers to help staff the Heavenly Pantry Food Shelf in the next few months.  We will need volunteers for the following dates: Thursday, October 25; Monday, November 12; Thursday, November 15; Monday, December 10; and Thursday, December 20. Please contact Sharon Dettenrieder at sharon.dettenrieder@gmail.com if you are able to fill any of these shifts.

 

Upcoming Meeting Schedule:  Wednesday, October 10, 2018 – Our speaker will be University of Vermont professor, Breck Bowden who will be discussing the University’s SeaGrant program.

 

For the complete list of upcoming speakers and information about the Club, please go to our website at www.essexrotary.org   Be sure to also follow us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/EssexVermontRotary , on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/essexvermontrotary/ and on Twitter at https://twitter.com/essex_rotary

 

 

       Yours in Rotary,

 

Jason Ruwet