OS Rotary Meeting of August 16, 2006
Pledge/Prayer: President Gerri
Song: Led by Andy Anderson
Brents Flim/Flam Winner: Tony Ronca
Sergeants Report:
Raffle Winners: Charley Norz, Peter Manley, Adam Stuart & Ken Roche.
Visiting Rotarion: Ron Lyman, Willimantic
Old Friend and former OS Rotarian: Tony Ronca
Guests: Don Lucas and wife Linda
Happy $'s: Many for Tony Ronca!
Announcements:
Peter Manley: August 30th dinner meeting cruise, 34 signed up, room for 40. $30 per person.
Coming Programs: 8/23 Paul Harris Fellow presentation. 9/6 work on dictionary project. 9/13 DG visit.
Matt Rubin: Soup kitchen dine out tonight books for sale, $35. See Matt.
Program: Ran King introduced two of the three "World Afffairs Seminar" attendees; Andrew Wilson from Westbrook and Will Darenhower from OS. The boys indicated there were about 700 attendees from around the world. They had 2-3 speakers each day on a variety of topics such as the environment, "U.S. Empire in Decline", the military on the war in the mideast as well as many other topics. The makeup appeared to be 60-70% liberal and 30-40% conservative. The U.S. media was criticized for ignoring the situation in Africa. All in all the boys got a great deal out of the conference and were very enthused about it.
Our second speaker was Don Lucas, OS's Building Inspector. Don is agraduate Civil Engineer and a licensed Professional Engineer here in CT as well as NY. Don gave an entertaining talk citing several incidents that happen on an everyday basis. He indicated that there are about 6000 homes in OS and he's been in at least 4000; in the yard, in the house, in the bedroom, probably with your wife. He indicated that many people who know he is coming will leave the home unlocked and leave a note for him. He did compain that he has yet to find milk and cookies with the note. He also indicated that early on in his role as BE there was a lot of work being done with no permits. He started making the rounds of the donuts shops in town talking to the contractors to find out where they were working, permits started to be taken out after that. Former Zoning Enforcement Officer Chet told Don early on that he needed a badge (Chester of course wore a pressed white police shirt and badge). He ordered one and it came in a very attractive badge case however the badge was the size of a postage stamp. He now has a full sized badge.
