MINUTES FOR THE MEETING OF

March 31st, 2014 - 12:15 PM

The Pondhouse Cafe

Present: 27 Great Rotarians; 0 visiting Rotarians and 3 guests.

On a slippery, snowy March 31^st, Cindy gave the invocation with thoughts of “the meaning of the Four Way Test”, followed by the Pledge of Allegiance.  Due to the needs of the guest speakers, the meeting was held in reverse (and finished at 1:20…), but the notes will be presented in ‘normal’ order:

Club President's opening remarks:

1.     Kyle Brewer discussed his contact with the organization ‘A Hand Up’, which provides furnishings for recently homeless who are placed into empty apartments.   He discussed the possibility of making this a service project, with quarterly events requiring 4-5 people envisioned – the volunteers would be moving furnishings into one or two apartments.  There may also be drives for furnishings.

2.     The District Conference coming up at the end of April – attendance is encouraged!

3.     Passed around a thank you card from HANOC

4.     Noted that West Hartford Press is celebrating volunteers in April and Dana Gordon was one of the volunteers featured.  He also noted that Dana will be leading the Dictionary Project again this year.

5.     Discussed the upcoming Jazz Brunch on April 6^th – see him if you are interested in attending.  There are still a few seats left.

6.     The meeting on the 14^th will be a club assembly.

7.     Eileen Rau discussed the Annual campaign – you can give online or bring a check.  Note we are tracking the progress in the weekly bulletin.

8.     Don Chandler discussed the upcoming District Conference (25-27 April in Portsmouth, NH) – registration is required by 1 April.  He also noted that we are sharing a hospitality suite with clubs from Manchester and East Hartford.

9.     Don also announced that he was one signature away from finalizing a new project to set up a new audio/visual studio at ASD.  Our club will donate $4K and he secured a $33K grant.  Don thanks Ed Pelletier and the staff at ASD for helping significantly with the application.

10.  Kyle Egress talked up Lobster Fest 2014 – it will be June 21^st on the ASD campus.  A band has been located, and he encouraged us to push attendance, noting that Glastonbury’s event is a significant draw.  He also noted that our profit is driven by attendance.

11.  Kyle also passed out order sheets from Vines of March should anyone be interested.  He encouraged all to support Steve Leon and Wines Cellars 4, since his support makes the Vines event possible.

Sergeant at Arms Todd Bower reports 27 Rotarians are present, with no visiting Rotarians and three guests: the two guest speakers Brendan Fox and Liam Sweeney from MDC and one guest of Cindy, John Smeallie.  There were two anniversaries – the Chandlers, and Eileen Rau.  Coincidentally (???), both Don and Eileen had the winning tickets for the weekly drawing, though neither won.   The 50/50 raffle is up to $32 with no winner today. 

Brendan Fox and Liam Sweeney from MDC were the guest speakers and gave a presentation on the MDC, the Clean Wateron teh y from MDC were the guest speakers and  Project, and your water bill.  Briefly, the MDC has three reservoirs with 42 BILLION gallons of water, plus various other facilities, and they supply nearly 50 million gallons of drinking water and process over 100 million gallons of waste each day (more during wet weather).  Due to various issues, they are spending over $2.1B over the next two decades to increase waste water processing capacity and split the storm sewers from the sanitary sewers in Hartford.

Members of the MDC pay three items on their bill – a water usage charge (currently $2.53 per 100 cubic feet of water), a customer charge of ~$40, and a special sewer charge to cover the $2.1B upgrade – currently $2.90 per CCF of water used but projected to increase to $4.50 to service the bonds for the project (this charge will end in 20 years or so when the project is completed).  Non-members pay an additional fee to cover costs associated with supplying them, but a recent proposed increase has led them to have the state consider a bill (332) which would make the surcharge illegal.  (thus, allowing them to get service without paying for infrastructure or any risk…)

The meeting was adjourned at 1:20, with Hap leading the 4-way test.  The next meeting is April 7th, 2014 at Pondhouse Cafe. 

Respectfully submitted,

 Chad Licht, scribe