12 November 2020
Etienne Perret, District Grants
12 November 2020
Pre-meeting Chatter! – Gaming headsets are great for Zooming! Potential member to join us! Membership survey on internet for Rotarians, check your email! Nicer weather in Maine than the south! Ken appreciated the official TN Moon Pies dropped at his office last week!
Buckets on the Table: Camden Food Pantry (drop off donations to Kim at the bank in Camden –next to Hannaford- or mail to PO Box 1033, Camden 04843 – or website donation site using the donate button).
Poem for the Day: Ken Again! – Ode to Thanksgiving, Next Week – Gary Walker
Speaker of the Day: Etienne Perret, District Grants
Ken, George and Etienne have been at the Zoom meetings for Grants. The process is easy, everyone should have received the email of the form. Rotary is a bunch of good people that help do god things, grants helps us do this! 3 basic ways of funding projects: 1- club pays for project, 2- district grant, where club contributes and district matches 3- club, district and RI matches (to be covered in another meeting). Our district has about $50K for grants (around $1000 per club but a lot of clubs do not apply). District grants pay up to $2500 (max allowed is $7000/year). We are pretty good at utilizing the district grant matches at our club! These grants can be used for international projects as well. We are close to 100% giving per member as a club and are on goal for this year! Thank you everyone! Look for projects in our community even if we cannot fund ourselves, we can use district grants. We do need quite a bit of lead time, Applications due by May but finds not distributed till September. Don’t let this discourage you! The district is allowing clubs to not be restricted, if the club thinks it’s a good idea – the district will fund it! Remember Rotary Math is a magical thing!
Ideas from club members? We can submit multiple projects and rank them. The club has to approve the money and collect it prior to submitting to the district. Have we gone out to the community and asked what is needed in the areas (A Community Survey process with town managers)? We can partner with other clubs and groups in the community. It’s for a project not so much giving an amount to an organization. The application walks you through the questions that need answered in order to be considered. Gather information and get it out on the table to discuss!
The District does monitor progress on spending, keeping receipts etc. Separate bank account must be set up for each grant. Statements are sent out to the district, upon completion there is a final report summarizing the grant project, including membership involvement, who benefited and many more questions. The files for all the projects are not yet centralized. We may, as a club, need to address this. Develop a system to keep our history. George will start the process in the community survey process. He will compile a quick list and send out for others to volunteer to communicate with leaders in the community. Any ideas on how to raise monies for these projects? Keeping thinking, keep it coming!
Committee Reports:
Book Club: Dec 8th, 5 pm by Zoom. Elephant Company, Vicki Croke. Contact Kristen for link!
Community: Next Habitat Project is Nov 21st. Let Tim Dresser know if you are interested in hanging out with some builders! (Philbrick Ave, Rockland) Come Join Us!! Rotary Supplies to be placed in trailer, let Sandy know!
Satellite: 5:15 meeting by Zoom tonight!
Christmas Tree Sales are rapidly approaching! On line signup for Christmas Tree Sales, begins the day after Thanksgiving. www.Westbaysignup.com. note: need cashiers and tree loaders. Thursday – Sunday shifts only. Sat, Nov 21 for setup date, tree delivery is a couple days later. Would like members to take 3 shifts each if possible!! Safety is in place for social distancing (no folks in building), tree sales and loading people can warm up in their cars, customers can go to door or window for payment and masks are required! 55% of our slots are filled, need more to signup! Need more volunteers to help unload trees noon Nov 25th.
Next Week’s Speaker: Patrisha McLean/Finding Our Voices