Rotary Log: February 9, 2012 (Civics in Action)

The meeting was called to order after Rotarians arrived at the Portsmouth Country Club on a cloudless, 42 degree day, with no snow on the ground or in sight (continuing a warm winter).  President Tony began the meeting by announcing the following guests:  Richard Samdperil, Mark Newport, both attending with the speaker; as well as Sylvia, a guest of Bob Field, and Bob a guest of Gene Bailey.

Finemaster Butch, enthusiastically greeted with boos and sighs, then assessed a hefty $5 fine on Attorney Flagg for conveniently sitting with the speaker, the NH Bar Association President; a $2 fine for a table including the Police Chief, a Lieutenant, and two former commissioners (the Chief being assessed the fine); $2 to Dana Levenson for being recognized as an outstanding tennis coach; $2 to Mark Sullivan for his milk mustache; and $2 to Jeff Marple for removing the art from the exterior of his building.   Closing out the fines was an act of revenge by the Finemaster when he levied a $2 fine on Russ Grazier, the Executive Director of PMAC, due to his exceptional ability to offer fine music instruction at PMAC (an ability that recently resulted in the Finemaster purchasing a new saxophone for his son).  Many of today’s fines were further proof that no good deed goes unpunished.   

An auction by Walter followed with the first item being UNH hockey tickets generously donated by Stella Scanmann, won by Jay Gibson, and the second being a $120 massage voucher from Claudia Sylvia of Face-Body-Spirit brought in by Jon Flagg, bid on by Jon Flagg, and won by Jon Flagg for $115 (what Jon won’t do to save $5).  [Editor's note: although Walter gave your Editor credit for donating the massage, the truth is that it was donated by Claudia Sylvia of Face-Body-Spirit and your Editor was simply the courier - THANK YOU, CLAUDIA!!!]   

President Tony then read a letter of thanks from the PHS Band in appreciation of a donation from Rotary for the band's upcoming trip.  

Next Marie Brownell announced the details of the Funky Junk Sale, which is scheduled for June 22, 23 and 24 at the Community Center.  Marie urged that valuable spring cleaning items could benefit the sale and that if interested in making a donation or helping out, you should contact her in person or by email.

President Tony next introduced the guest speaker, Jennifer Parent, President of the New Hampshire Bar Association.   Jennifer is a director in the litigation department in the McLane, Graf, Raulerson & Middleton law firm in Manchester, with particular focus on business and employment litigation.   She received the Robert E. Kirby award, honoring excellence in advocacy, civility and professionalism of a lawyer under 40 years of age, from the NH Bar Foundation in 2003. The topic of Jennifer’s presentation was “Civics in Action”. As described, this presentation is part of an ambitious effort to present the civics program in all 57 Rotary Clubs in New Hampshire prior to May 2012. 

The presentation was an interactive session where cards were distributed to every table, some cards with questions and some with answers, all relating to civics.   Some questions targeted civics education and awareness, focusing on such things as individual rights and responsibilities, the branches of government and their respective powers, as well as basic governance and understanding the function of government.  Other cards contained answers – so once a question card was read aloud, participants gave answers and ultimately the answer card was discovered and read.   It was not until after the presentation that Rotarians, who performed well on the test (as a collective), learned that the questions were culled from the test given to all applicants for US citizenship. 

Also interesting was the fact that the actual civics test is NOT a multiple choice test, it’s an oral test given during a naturalization interview.  During the interview the candidate is asked up to 10 questions from the list of 100 questions. At least 6 out of 10 questions must be answered correctly to pass the civics portion of the naturalization test.

Not surprisingly, when sampled, many adult US citizens were found to be lacking in their knowledge of individual rights, the structure, function and limitations of the government, as well and the political process.  One example provided is that more citizens could name an American Idol judge than a Supreme Court judge.  The Civics in Action program is a collaborative effort of the NH Bar Foundation and the NH Bar Association to assist with raising civics awareness and knowledge; and the Rotary Clubs were targeted as audiences due to their recognition as ambassadors to local communities. 

The presentation concluded with the dissemination of booklets containing important US documents, such as the US Constitution, as well as a questionnaire containing the questions asked.  All of the questions for the test, as well as other information on the Civics in Action program in general, can be found at:  http://www.nhbar.org/law-related-education/CivicsInAction.asp.

Closing things out, Neal Ouellette won the $70 raffle, but missed the $675 match, and Sean O’Rourke won the Portsmouth Country Club gift card. 

See you next week.