Meeting date: August 12, 2008

Badge Table Check in: William Quinn & Charles Comtois

Invocation By: John Haas

Bulletin by: Steven Larochelle

Fine Master: The surprise Fine Master was JoAnne Souza (JoAnne was the surprised one). JoAnne was quick on her feet moving the Fine Program to a Happy Dollar program.

Songs: Ralph led us in song. With "Rotary My Rotary' we discovered that as the verse number gets higher the volume of the singers tends to decrease. Rousing renditions of Grand Old Flag & When the Saints Go Marching In.

Raffle Winner: Richard Chavez conducted the Raffle with JoAnne Souza winning on a swapped ticket - congrats JoAnne!

Guests: Guests included Elizabeth Duggan (married to that JAD guy), Sissy from JAD's office and Ziggy Burns from the Lowell Co-Operative Bank.

Visiting Rotarians: Visiting Rotarians were Mark Scholnik from the Westford Club and Paula Eldridge-Yeiter from the Chelmsford Club (and also a co-worker of Past President Naomi at D'Youville).

Announcements:

-The next Board meeting will be Thursday, August 14th at Sullivan Bille's at 7:30 (I 'd guess AM?).

-The September 9th meeting will be at Mark Flaherty's place, Lowell Health Care Center, 19 Varnum Street (off Bridge St. to Sixth St. to Varnum).

-The Harvest Ball is booked for Tuesday, 10/21/08 at Lenzi's in Dracut. Richard Chavez will be contacting you for assistance/sponsorships.

-As published in the Lowell Sun last week, our own Elkin Montoya will be heading to Washington to accept the Neighborworks America's Dorothy Richardson Award. The full story can be seen at http://www.lowellsun.com/ci_10157194 . Congratulations Elkin!!!!!

Chairperson of the day:Bob Belanger introduced our speaker, former Lowell Rotarian and owner of the Lowell Spinners - Drew Webber.

Drew spoke about the Spinners and the Joan Webber Charitable Fund.

Very nice discussion - I must admit that I was listening to the point that I forgot to take notes but here are a few highlights:

-12th season in Lowell

-The Team is currently in 1st place with 3 other team right behind - hoping to make it all the way to the Playoffs.

-The Spinners is the youngest team in the league with 10 players under the age of 20.

-Something about suits with 2 pairs of pants and Mormons (you had to be there).

-David Kronberg assisted Drew with regard to the Joan Webber Charitable Fund which is a foundation directed by Drew, The Greater Lowell Community Foundation and a committee of community advisors (see http://www.glcfoundation.org/ for more info on the GLCF). This year the foundation awarded three grants of $5,000 each to RARA, Wish Project and the Boys & Girls Club.

Assignments for Tuesday August 19th

Chair: Charlie Sullivan: Laurae Richards re Haiti relief

Fines: Jack Pierce

Bulletin Editor: Charles Comtois

Have a great week.