Newsletter 9-10-13

Needham Rotary Club

Rotary Minutes of Meeting   September 10, 2013

Held at the Needham Sheraton

The Pledge of Allegiance was led by our president, Glen Davis, Karen Wetmore led us in ‘America the Beautiful’, and Darrell led us in the Invocation.

Announcements: BOD Meeting next week before the regular membership meeting. Reminder, Rotary Music Night Saturday October 19 6-10pm.

-Bill Paulson read an email from Maria Cronin, who is in France as an exchange student from the high school. Sounds like she is doing well!

-Dictionaries: Starting at 11:30 in the meeting room next Tuesday, we will be assembling and sorting the dictionaries to be distributed to all of Needham’s 3^rd graders. Bill Paulson will have name plates for each student receiving a dictionary. These will be mounted and put into boxes by school by class. Come early and enjoy the fun!

-Providence Bruins Rotary Night Oct 18: If you are interested, call Glen and they are making discounted tickets available. Ryan spoke up and said how good an event it is!

-The NBA Harvest Fair will be Saturday October 4^th. Be prepared to spend an hour there meeting your neighbors and on the lookout for new members!

Birthdays: None.

50/50: The magic number was 550 and Ryan had the ticket (again) , but did not pull the right card (again). The pot is at $68.00.

Guest Speaker-1: Micah Hauben, AD at Needham High School , gave us a quick overview of the sports offerings at Needham High School this year. With 1600 students total, there are 1500 spots available for student athletes at NHS. There are 75 different teams total, 34 of which are varsity.  Plus,, club sports range from ‘sailing’ to ‘Club Dance’ and ‘Club Cheerleading’, with the hope that Club Bowling becomes a qualified sport.

A lot of these teams have ‘no cut’ policies. If you sign up, you are on the team.  Some of the major sports are so popular, they just can’t do that, basketball and volleyball.

The NHS hockey team uses 9 different rinks to practice in, and the swim team uses 2 different facilities to practice at. Yes, both would like their own NHS facilities.

Don Brock has been head of the Soccer teams for 52 (yes folks, 52 years), or, since before our most senior NHS grads went there.

Guest Speaker-2:  As promised, Glen asked the question, what else should Rotary bedoing in the long term. Someone suggested a new ‘hands on project’. Foks then mentioned some of the following:

-Enhancement of Ridge Hill

-A new international project.

-Hands on for the Rail Trail.

-Assist in raising funds for the Dog Park.

-Work at the low income housing.

-Increase our participation at Memorial Field.

-Ask the town what is needed.

-Ask the Needham Community Council what is needed.

The consensus was that what is really needed for a successful project is to have a ‘club champion’ who sees this as his/her cause, and can enthuse others to participate.

Humor:  (Courtesy of Doug George): A helicopter carrying passengers suddenly loses engine power and the aircraft begins to descend. The pilot safely performs an emergency landing in water, and tells the passengers to remain seated and to keep the doors closed, stating that in emergency situations, the aircraft is designed to stay afloat for 30 minutes, giving rescuers time to get to them. Just then a man gets out if his seat and runs over to open the door. The pilots screams at him, "Didn't you hear what I said, the aircraft is designed to stay afloat as long as the doors remain closed?!”

"Of course I heard you", the man replied, "but it's also designed to fly, and look how good that one worked out!!"