AUGUST 12, 2020

Meeting Recap

Greetings fellow Rotarians. Our speakers today were participants from the upcoming Miles for Meals Challenge. In an effort to raise money for the Vermont Food Bank, seven Essex area residents will be embarking on a relay run from the Massachusetts border to the Quebec border. The race will start on the morning of August 14th and end on the evening of August 15th. The team hopes to complete the run in a timeframe between 11 and 18 hours. The runners have raised money by soliciting donations from the public and from corporate sponsors and they are pleased to report that they have already exceeded their initial fundraising goal. If anyone would like to cheer the team on, it is anticipated that they will be running through the Five Corners in Essex Junction at roughly 3:45pm on Saturday afternoon.

COVID Survey – Part 2 Results

Thank you to everyone who participated in our most recent survey! 43 members completed the survey which represents roughly 80% of our current membership. The specific survey results and comments made by members can be viewed at this link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/results/SM-5ZH8G29B7/ Here is a summary of the results:

The majority of respondents (72.09% or 31 respondents) feel that we should be putting most of our emphasis on service projects;
Only 4 people indicated that they are comfortable meeting in person each week. 55.81% (24) say it depends on the safety protocols implemented and 34.88% (15) say they are not at all comfortable meeting in person;
53.49% (23) favor a hybrid approach to meetings; 37.21% (16) prefer virtual meetings only; 3 people want to go back to the pre-COVID model of meeting in person on a weekly basis and 1 person voted that he/she is not interested in meetings at all right now;
Members could vote for more than one option in question 4. Only two choices were selected by more than 50% of the respondents. Packaging food to be delivered to people in need was the most popular choice with 62.27% (27 people) and events that did not involve large groups of people and having little to no contact came in second with 53.49% (23 people). The rest of the options were favored by 32% or less of the respondents with the least popular option being soliciting sponsors for our events (only 5 people expressed a willingness to do that);
The most common service projects proposed involved some form of packaging and delivery of food to those in need;
53.49% (23) think we should just stick with supporting local causes. 14 people say leave it up to the board while 9 say leave it up to the committees;
Nobody is against the idea of donating points to the Foundation, but a significant number of people (18) want more information about the process before committing to it;

Upcoming Meeting Schedule: Wednesday, August 19, 2020 – Our speaker will be Professor Peter Mires, who will discuss growing up in Essex with polio and western architecture. Weekly meetings may be accessed by clicking https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84976905896 After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting. For future meetings, you will need log in at www.zoom.us click Join a Meeting, fill in the Meeting ID of 849 7690 5896 and then the Password of 925477. If you wish to attend by phone, you will just need to dial (646) 558-8656 and then enter the ID and Password noted above.

For the complete list of upcoming speakers and information about the Club, please go to our website at rotaryclubofessex.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