Pledge: President Joan
Prayer: Gerri Lewis
Song: Recitation of the 4 Way Test and 'We Old Saybrook' led by Bill McLaughlin
Brent's Flim/Flam: Low hand won by Al Lindquist
Sergeant's Report:
Visiting Rotarian Jordan Welk - Essex
Guests - Linda Silverston, Tom Stevenson and Gary Freudenthal (Speaker).
Raffle Winners - John Donnelly, Sam Fulginiti and Bill Bernhart
Happy $'s: - Al for winning low hand, Carroll Bowser for painful story of his severely
sprained wrist (ouch), Bill suits for Lettuce story, John Donnelly for O.S. Soldier,
President Joan for how ell speaker program seems to be working
Announcements:
Bill Suits announced our 9/29 dinner meeting will be at the Penny Lane Pub with
Jennifer Pace as our guest speaker (singer).
Jason mentioned that Liberty Bank will be accepting donations for Habitat for
Humanity, this coming Saturday morning. Contact him if you have any questions.
Matt Vogt is sorry to miss next Wednesday's meeting but don't feel bad, he'll be in
Bermuda.
President Joan received a thank you letter from one of our scholarship recipients.
She also indicate that we have a group of O.S. Rotarians attending the Chester's
lobster fest. A few more will fill the table, contact her.
Also, there will be a Board of Director's meeting Tuesday morning, August 29th at
7AM at the O.S. Burger King. Topic is to prepare for the DG's visit on 9/15.
Program: Joan Michaud introduced our speaker, Dr. Gary Freudenthal, a clinical
Psychologist discussing how natural and man made disasters effect us, both
consciously and unconsciously. His specific reference was the Gulf Oil Spill.
His message was that we have to be conscious of what we're doing to our planet,
there are profound consequences down the road. He reviewed the history of oil
drilling in Texas/Louisiana and the gulf. When on land, little future consequence
could be expected since old wells could be easily sealed. When the exploration
went into the gulf in shallow water drilling the risks were still not too great. But -
when we went deep water drilling the risks and future consequences increased
dramatically. We're now seeing the consequences of problems from accidents on the
Louisiana coast and fishing industries. Many people may lose their livelihoods, jobs,
homes and their financial lives. Risks increase as production deadlines are pressed.
Higher production and cost controls tend to create safety and health concerns. Dr. Gary
also indicated that we in the northeast may have a hard time comprending the terrible
impact imposed on these folks on the gulf coast. The social and phychological impact
on these people is yet to be seen. It's easy to lose one person in this world, but that one
person probably has lost his world! Comments from the club were:
Donna is concerned about the situation and that we should all try to help in some way.
Paul feels lack of expertise and ignorance of the process led to this disaster. Production
is priority one, proper processes and safety were further down the list.
Charley made a comment correcting our speaker's information that all the Alaskan
oil is being shipped to the west coast and used in this country. That's reassuring and
he should know. He worked in that industry for years.
Stan commented that the media is not always totally correct or truthful in reporting the
status of these current disasters.
Dr. Gary implied that BP's estimates of the cost of recovery of 2 billion $'s may be as
high as twice as much. He also implied that consumer trust is another great concern.
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