Katrina Sullivan explained that the 5th Wednesday of each month is set aside for a Club Assembly. Katrina then opened the meeting with some reminders on upcoming events and fundraisers:
- Day of Service at the Pennypack Ecological Restoration Trust on May 1st, 1-3pm. Events - Pennypack Ecological Restoration TrustPennypack Ecological Restoration Trust (pennypacktrust.org) A head count is needed by April 16th.
- Rotary Foundation Appalachian Trail Challenge (Herb Klotz). Consider making a Foundation donation at https://www.
rotarydistrict7430.org/donate. As an added incentive our District Foundation team created the TRIPLE 110: If you donate $110 or more to the Annual Fund SHARE, and if Herb completes his final 110 miles of the Appalachian Trail, the District will match your donation with 110 Paul Harris points, to get you closer to the Paul Harris Fellow Recognition level. - Penny War fundraiser: Hatboro-Horsham Penny War which will run from April 1st-30th. Please share on social media, in your local Hatboro businesses, and anywhere else that you can think of. It's also a good time to collect the coins around your house that you're "saving for a vacation." Remember, pennies and dollar bills are positive points. Silver coins (dimes, nickels, quarters) are negative points. In other words, you want to put pennies and dollars in the bins around Hatboro and silver coins in the bins around Horsham. The list of participating businesses are on the flyer. We then plan to collect the bins on May 1st and announce the winner. Please do not hesitate to reach out with any questions.
- College Settlement will be having a clean up day on May 22nd that our club could be part of, details will follow.
Katrina then went over some updates and some items for discussion:
- Keep thinking of potential speakers and let Marty know of any ideas.
- The Willow Grove YMCA Playground is now planned to be completed by the end of May. Hatboro and Willow Grove donations are set aside and Horsham's has been made, other donations have to be confirmed.
- Charter Night is traditionally in May, this year the Board decided to move it to June and to hold it outdoors due to COVID-19. Ideas are needed for a venue, considering that if alcohol is to be served not all outdoor locations will allow this. Katrina offered her home, the anticipated Miller Meadow Gazebo was suggested and Nancy said she would see if alcohol could be served. College Settlement and the Horsham VFW building were also suggested.
- Attendance has dropped off since the Zoom meeting times alternate between 8am and 12pm. We anticipate meeting in person again at the Dish within the next few months at the normal time of 7:30-8:30am. Some discussion was had on this and some members expressed their preference for noon meetings.
- Membership is now at 31 members, we have recently lost 3 members. It has been hard to recruit and retain members over the past year, due to just Zoom meetings and a lack of focus on membership. This was discussed at the last Board meeting and the idea of a Social Media Committee was suggested to help raise awareness of what we do and hopefully get others involved. Katrina explained that a chair and members would be needed for this committee. Our current Facebook site was discussed, this is a Group site that is underutilized and not managed by anybody, this would be part of the committees function. Barb manages our Website and does a great job. Katrina will try and arrange a program on showing members how to invite others to like/join it. Jonathan could also help with this if needed and set up for Pages to join the Group.
- Fundraisers have helped raise around 18-19k to give out to charities and organizations this Rotary year. The Gift Card fundraiser will be tried again Nov/Dec. The 5k run/walk may be attempted again in the fall as long as it does not conflict with Lobster Pot. Hopefully Lobster Pot will happen this year, we have to wait and see.
- Katrina asked members how they felt about our club support the District STEM Youth Explorer Academy project that Rolf presented on last week. Most seemed in favor. The Board will decide how to support when allocating funds for this Rotary year and creating the budget for the next.
Katrina adjourned the meeting and some other business was briefly discussed that included Tom sending the current Bylaws and Charter being sent to Karen and Mike Kearns to review before their presidency and to Gary to add to the website along with minutes from Linda's year.