Although President Kevin granted permission for us to invade the lunch table, Happy Jack stood up and said, “not so fast”. He then read out all the various choices of soups and sandwiches we have for lunch today. Armed with this new knowledge, we walked towards the lunch table to be further impressed by the clearly labeled choices. As usual, the salad had two choices of dressings. Hot and cold drinks as well as the cookie platter were set up in the Meeting Room. Jack, you have done a great job.

But today I noticed an extra dessert at the table. Come to find out that Bob Wood stayed up all night, not really, to decorate cupcakes with his own topping. I also noticed that the cake had two flags, one for New England Patriots and the other for the Philadelphia Eagles but with a red line drawn through it. So, when President Kevin asked Ned and Marc to come the table and have their picture taken, it was clear that Bob was trying to send a message to Marc that the Eagles are not the Super Bowl champions anymore. Marc, sorry for your loss. But look at the bright side. You don’t have to cough up money each week as you have been doing for a year since the Eagles won the championship last year.

President Kevin rang the bell for the post lunch segment of our meeting. Bill Dougger from the Glastonbury Club was our only guest and he was serenaded with the Welcome Song.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

1.     Marc Glass informed us that Marty Fins will be moving to Pennsylvania by the end of March.

2.     Bob Buettner will be honored on February 10 at the Irish American Society Dinner. Everybody is welcome. There is a charge for the dinner.

3.     President Kevin has picked up ten books from the East Hartford Library for our Guest Speakers.

4.     The Paul Harris Dinner will be held at the Gallery on March 20, 2019 and the Installation Dinner will be held at the same location on June 26, 2019.

5.     A social event will be held on April 27, 2019, at Bill Saunders’ Club House. Stay tuned for more details.

6.     The Mystery Ride will take place on May 18 or 19, 2019. Hope will provide updates as details are firmed up.

7.     The District Conference will be held in Danvers, MA on May 5, 2019. Marc provided some preliminary information. Stay tuned for more specific information about costs and events.

8.     Goodwin College inadvertently awarded a $1,000 Rotary Scholarship without applying to Rotary first. The Board decided to honor Rotary’s commitment regardless. We are extending the invitation through Dan Larson for the scholarship recipient and someone from Goodwin to attend our meeting to receive the check.

9.     Larry Hangland has done a wonderful job of writing about Rotary events in the Gazette.

10.Laura from Middletown Rotary will be our future Guest Speaker and will talk about Long Term Care.

11.The Board decided to give a $50 gift certificate to Jairo for their new baby. We have done the same in the past for another club member for a similar occasion.

12.The Board has agreed to add some new recipients for our donations. A final list will be available soon.

13.Eight members from our Club, Dave Amberg, Bob Buettner, Dan Firestone, Laura Floyd, Anwar Hossain, Bill Saunders, Jack Sayer and Bob Wood helped FoodShare sort out 3000 pounds of meat (which will prepare 3,300 meals) on Monday. This is our second volunteer effort at this location. Anwar will check if FoodShare has volunteer opportunities on weekends.

14.Our yearly Raffle will take place on June 19, 2019. Neal Cunningham and Wes Willett along with other volunteers are working on various steps needed for this event. Anderson Jewelers has decided to sell tickets as George had been doing it for years.

15.Bob Buettner will attend the Pre-PETS meeting.

16.The concert at S. Windsor Woods Memorial Library will be held at 2 PM this coming Sunday. Contact Sheryl to reserve front row seats.

Sergeant-At-Arms Report:

 Jack Sayer reported that Ned paid for the Patriots for being 6-time champions, so did Dan Larson and Kevin. Dick McCarthy paid for a birthday and an anniversary.  Bob Buettner’s picture was in the papers, Steve Jacoby paid for being late and Jack himself because his granddaughter was in the Pepsi Super Bowl commercial. There were a few others who contributed to the coffer but are not listed here because I could not decipher Jack’s hieroglyphics. Sorry Jack, I know it is me and not you.

Happy Jack had Steve Jacoby, last week’s Raffle winner, pick the winning number which was 156, and the cash went to Bob Wood. If Steve was the winner again this week, he was going to triple the amount and give the money to the scholarship fund. Bob Buettner’s floral raffle winner was Bill Saunders.

Next week, please be prepared to spend a few minutes after the meeting to help send out thank you notes to the donors to George Agnelli’s fund.

Your scribe for the month, Anwar Hossain