THIS WEEK’S PROGRAM
Our own Rubi Simon will be a co-presenter with Ethan LaRochelle, providing us with a report on the ACTS Honduras Trip our club supported. Ethan led the trip accompanied by a travel team of six other individuals with a range of areas of expertise. The goals of trip were to launch the Taking Care of Moms project, and host a teacher-workshop focusing on how to teach fractions. Once the team arrived, though, they took on a broader mission that included improvements to their library.
LAST WEEK'S ANNOUNCEMENTS
Tom Csatari announced the forthcoming Occum Pond party scheduled for February 8. (NOTE: If last weekend’s weather holds we may have a swimming party!)
Liam McCarthy reported that the club pulled in $5,165 for our efforts at bell ringing, a slight improvement over last year. Thanks to Mike Urnezis for his persistence and willingness to expand the ringing to Dartmouth football games!
In other business undertaken by the Board, Liam reported that it may become necessary to hire an event organizer to sustain the Auction given the effort required to sustain the level of funding we currently achieve.
Dakota Hanchette, our 2019 Rotary Scholar, attended the meeting and gave the club an update on his progress at Lakes Region Community College where he is seeking a degree in firefighting. The coursework and internship requires 40 hours per week of classroom time and additional time working with nearby fire departments.
Kevin Wenger offered a Happy Dollar to celebratehis twin daughters’ acceptance into St.Lawrence and Bates Colleges. Future happy dollars will be going to those schools.
Tom Csatari offered a Happy Dollar to celebrate his son’s completion of cancer treatment, his forthcoming trip to Australia, and his forthcoming on-line release of a de facto album. (NOTE to younger generations: We Boomers have no idea what to call music that is released on line).
Jed Williamson won the raffle.
LAST WEEK'S PROGRAM
Our own Stan Williams offered an overview of the “history” of ValleyNet and the direction that organization is taking in the future. Initially developed under the aegis of the Montshire Museum, ValleyNet was one of the first internet service providers in the Upper Valley with many residents and businesses possessing @Valleynet email addresses. ValleyNet is now out of that business altogether and is instead providing last mile connections to homes in communities that avail themselves of ECFiber’s services. He explained how legislation in Vermont made it possible for many small rural towns to get high-speed connectivity despite the unwillingness of the telecommunications businesses to provide it because it was not profitable. He is hoping that New Hampshire might follow suit in the coming session because the current arrangement makes it complicated and costly for either ECFiber or ValleyNet to thrive. Given the financial and technical skills needed to provide high speed internet to relatively underpopulated areas like ours we are VERY fortunate to have someone with Stan Williams’ skill set in our region.
COMING ATTRACTIONS
NOTE THAT WE HAVE TWO WEEKS OPEN IN FEBRUARY AND MANY DATES THEREAFTER. YOUR IDEAS FOR SPEAKERS ARE WELCOME!
January 22 –Dartmouth College President Hanlon will give us an update on the latest developments at the college.
January 29 – Jenn Packard will tell us about the newly merged Lebanon-Hanover Chamber of Commerce
February 5 – Jarvis Green, the Artistic Director of JAG productions, an African American theater group operating out of White River Junction.
February 26 – Perry Allison, the Artistic Director of We The People Theater, will tell us about that group’s latest production: The Man of LaMancha
