Rotary Log for September 17, 2020
President Jon introduced himself as the “certain winner” of the upcoming Rotary Golf Tournament. Then he got on with business and led the Pledge of Allegiance. Judy Ringer offered another beautiful A Capella patriotic song, this time the second verse of America the Beautiful. Jon gave the invocation in Hebrew, as far as we know, marking the Jewish New Year- Rosh Hashanah. Nice touch Jon!
Announcements
The big news is the upcoming Portsmouth Rotary Golf Tournament on October 16th at the Pease course. Sales have been great, we heard, with $23,000 in sponsorships. Only two teams are needed to fill all the available slots. Marie’s Golf Committee has done an outstanding job despite social distancing issues and tough times for many. As he did last week, Jon gave kudos to several generous sponsors.
Non-golfers can also contribute to the success of this important fundraiser. Join Al Lantinen and others by contributing any amount to Friends of Portsmouth of Rotary. Send a check to Joe Bove or use your Venmo account.
John Pappas has invited members to a unique opportunity: Rotary Cigar Night Social.
When: Tuesday, September 22nd from 4 to 7 PM, Rain date September 24th.
Where: The Surf Club, 1200 Ocean Blvd, Rye.
BYOB and bring your own Cigars (BYOC)
Big thanks go to Surf Club member Barbara Miller, who is sponsoring us so that we can enjoy cigars on their smoking deck.
Historical Moment
Ian obviously puts some time and effort into educating the membership.
This week he told the story of the creation of our Rotary District 7780 beginning in 1989. At that time, seventy-two clubs in District 779 had more than 4,200 Rotarians. The District stretched from Newburyport through eastern New Hampshire and into central and western Maine and Quebec province.
The Rotary International Convention in that year authorized two districts– District 779 and a new District 778. Each district had about 2,000 Rotarians and became effective July 1, 1990. Playing a major role in creating what is now District 7780 was esteemed Past-President and Past-District Governor Jim Labrie.
The Speaker- Dave Underhill
James had the honor of introducing Dave Underhill for an overview of SCORE, a source of free business mentoring and education. Dave has put his 40+ year career in media to great use as a SCORE Mentor for the past 13 years. Making effective use of a PowerPoint presentation, which he will gladly share, Dave gave a great overview of the program.
SCORE is a non-profit organization and resource partner of the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA). It has 13,000 volunteers and 300 chapters across the country. All are committed to helping business owners succeed. Mentoring is the big deal, according to Dave.
The Seacoast chapter’s 60 active volunteers represent a diversity of disciplines and backgrounds. They mentor 75 to 80 clients, including James, who offered high praise, consistent with the 94% NPS rating earned by the local chapter.
The pandemic has not slowed their efforts. Dave described the movement to an all-virtual mentoring environment. This fiscal year, some 383 clients have been mentored in 830 sessions. An additional 730 individuals have attended a vibrant series of SCORE workshops.
The fine presentation ended with a description of the many ways SCORE is akin to Rotary. Both put a premium on Service above Self, with the “paycheck” being the satisfaction of helping others.
Interested in learning more about becoming A SCORE volunteer? Contact Dave!
Respectfully submitted, Neal Ouellett
Photo captures by Don Chick
