We started our meeting right on time today at 7:15.

As we addressed past business:  Blase Mercoglin was recognized for his contribution to the Rotary Leadership Institute.  Four of the five rotarians at the table are past attendees, and we agreed that RLI was a great way to build the power of Rotary.

John Eaton made a very sentimental gift to the club.  He was given a replica of the liberty bell at the Zone Conference this year.  John chose to pass that gift along to the Nisky Rotary today.  We are very grateful.

Our program today took a look at the way ideas and principles are spread.  We looked at how it is studied by epidemiologists, marketers, politician, moralists, and religious leaders.  The conclusions all came back to the importance of living your message, sharing it, and asking others to make the same commitment to it.

John and Phil decided that they would attempt to put this into practice by joining Blase’s “RLI Army.”  Our goal will be to get help from other RLI participants to reach a goal of 100 attendees for the 2009 RLI which will be held on October 10th at Siena College.  If you have had a favorable experience with RLI, we are asking you to join us, and help us spread the word.  We also discussed how we could use our influence to help the children Blase and Marie Mercoglan met on the dictionary project.  David Adikes had some ideas after the meeting that he will formalize and present on next Tuesday.We discussed the needs for Bell Ringers for the Salvation Army.  We agreed that this was a worthy cause and more relevent than ever as we see people suffering financial hardships all around us.  We are looking for another club to partner with.  Although we don’t have enough people to man our own kettle, we can certainlyhelp other clubs in their endeavors.This holiday season will be one where we see fear tightening many peoples giving.  At the same time the number of people in need will climb.  This sounds like a time ripe for Rotary to make dreams real.

The club wishes Lon and Helen Penna safe travel as they go to Florida to celebrate the holiday with family.  They are inspirations to us all.

Attendees this week:  Blase Mergcoglan, John Eaton, David Adikes, Phil Adikes, Lon Penna      

We started our day with Linda ( our beloved waitress at the Blue Ribbon Diner) setting 3 tables for us… she believes in us.

We ended the day with 3 tables full which proves Linda knows what she is doing.

We all tip our hat to John Eaton on this Veterans Day and all of the other men and women who offered their life in service to something greater than themselves.  I for one am grateful for the democracy we live in, and I know that it requires constant vigilance.   We are a blessed people.

We had a club assembly today and discussed pumping things up a notch.  We are instituting a few new things to assure that our attendees have the best experience possible.

• We put together our formal Board if Directors list.  It includes new members Derek Lacakes, and David Adikes in addition to the club officers Blase Mercoglan, Brian Lansley and Phil Adikes.
• We agreed to a structured program
  • The meeting chairperson will arrive at 7:00 and greet attendees
  • The meeting will start at 7:15
  • We will do the pledge of allegiance to the flag
  • We will order breakfast
  •  We will have a 20 minute program that is interesting
  • We will end no later than 8:15 with the 4 way test

In addition members will take responsibility for providing speakers for one month blocks. Phil Adikes has November, David Adikes has December.

Club Member Lannie Thomas gave us all a chance to help out his youth sports program by buying some NFL, MLB and NCAA drinkware for $12.  Lannie is able to really provide so much for kids in need.

Thanks to the Rotarians that joined us this morning:

Blase Mercoglan

Phil Adikes

Lannie Thomas

David Adikes

And to our guests:

John Eaton

Lon Penna

Christopher Adikes

This is the second year I attended the Rotary Leadership Institute.  Both years I left with an incrdible “bounce.”  Instead of striving for the minimums that Rotary requires, I see the full potential of what can happen with a well run club.

I really got the point that we need to increase our membership.  As we put the  point of “many hands make light work” to work, we could really use a dedicated “program chair” a Vice President, and most important President Elect.  We could do much more than we do.

As we looked at the things that new members appreciate 2 things came to mind.  First we need to have a meeting that starts on time, and ends on time.  This has to be less a known quantitity.  I propose we start on the button at 7:15 and end at 8:00.  We can all stay for more coffee if we wish, but it is a valuable thing to tell prospective members that the meeting won’t impose past 8:00.

We can improve our programming.  I intend to as Dave and Derek help me with bringing 20 minute programs to our meetings.

I personally left there with a desire to focus on some goals for our club.  I am going to spend some time working on this.

We have been fortunate to have some very strong meetings lately.  We have had visits from Chris Cross, Lon Penna, and John Eaton.  The table buzzes with activity and we are well on our way to some aggressive projects in 2008.

Tomorrow morning our meeting will host Presidents and Secretary’s from 5 other area clubs.  We are taking the opportunity to roll out our Niska-Bucks fund raiser.

We want to build a book that promotes local business with discount offers.  We will sell the books for $10 each, and sell advertising in the books.  With just a few hundred books sold we will be able to leverage matching grants to fufill our plans and hopefully start a recurring program that will help our club grow.

We had Blase Mercoglan, Phil Adikes, John Eaton, Frank Renna, Lon Penna, and 2 guests onboard.

Today we signed our pledge to contribute to the Water Buffalo Project in Pakistan.  This solved one conundrum and created another.

What are we about?  Why do we meet?  These questions have now been answered.  We meet because we are helping less fortunate people with the gift of independence.  We are promoting peace.  We are feeding the hungry.  We have a purpose.  The long history of the Niskayuna Rotary’s answering the call has been continued.

Now the question of the day is “Who is going to raise these funds and make fulfill our commitments?”

Blase Mercoglan has provided the our stabiliuty while we incubate.  Now he is traveling to Florida, and we will have to step up and fill the breech.  We have about 5 prospective members we hope to add.  We are counting on our less active members to help us as we move forward.

We will be building a “Community Business Guide” that will offer discounts for local businesses.  We will sell these books to raise the funds we need to fulfill our commitments.   Greg from Parcel Post Plus has donated the printing and cutting of these books to help us start.

Our Group is gaining some traction. We have our new sign up and we have become a regular feature at the Blue Ribbon Diner. The food is great, and the meetings are fun.

We had a visit from Lanny Thomas to tell us about the impact he is having in Schenectady with the youth program he is running. We are getting behind him, and hope he will consider joining our group.

I just signed a pledge letter for the Water Buffalo project. This was a great way for our small group to have an impact on an international project. We are building peace in Pakistan in our own way.

Chris Cross is a world traveler who was a Past President of a local Rotary club. He will be a guest at our meeting tomorrow.

We also attended the Rotary Foundation Dinner, and Rotary Leadership Institute.

It’s been a great month for this little club.

I have enjoyed watching Blase do his thing with this Rotary group, and it really is inspirational.

We had our first “regular meeting” yesterday.  We met at the Blue Ribbon Diner at 7:15 AM.  We had the district leadership there.   Brian came and took on the job of being treasurer.  Bill Green and Ted were both there.  It felt like we were beginning to spin the wheel again.

We had a speaker.  After the meeting Blase and I went out to visit 2 local business people.

Our speaker was  Guy Sementilli.  Guy owns Scotti’s Restaurant on Upper Union Street and is also the Director of the Upper Union Street Business Improvement District.  It was a very interesting presentation. We had a few myths shattered, we got some insight about how the shopping district plans to grow.  It was also great to hear how active MetroPlex has been, and how there is another wave of upgrades coming.  We asked about setting up a table for the upcoming Fall Festival.

After the meeting Blase and I stopped at the two Alterra facilitities.  It was a great experience.  I had my rotary shirt on, and at both stops we got warm greetings by people who had great feelings about Rotary.  I wondered why in the past 4 years I had never just stopped and said hello to other business people.  I am looking forward to doing the same next week.

Help Wanted:

Niskayuna Rotary is reorganizing for a fresh start in 2008.  We are looking for leadership from within Nisky and surrounding communities.

We turn social interaction into projects that serve our local community, and people around the world.

If you are too important or too busy, you are probably well qualified for this responsibility.  Rotary works when there are representatives from local business, clergy, schools, civil servants, and community activists.  We want to build a coallition of diverse people who all work together.

The Niskayuna Rotary has a rich tradion, but we are anxious to fill our ranks with fresh ideas, and people who want to get things done locally.  

Please attend our Open House on September 18th at the Mohawk Country Club from 5:30 - 7:00.  You can learn more about us, and share your ideas with us.

Please RSVP by calling Blase Mercoglin at 356-2131.

We look forward to seeing you there!