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Beacon News March 26th 2003 |
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Visiting Rotarians Harry Blaeser PDG-Rochester Don Peck- Brockport
Guests Jeff McCann - David Nagel Emily Plantone - Rino Pappano
Birthdays & Anniversaries None celebrated to conserve time
Announcements President Bill read thank you from Hilton School District School Board thanking the club for it’s recent donation. The money will be used to aid handicapped and children at risk understand science better.
Ziti Dinner So far we have collected over $28,000.00 with a net over $24,000.00. There are still a large number of members who are still in need of sending in their moneys. The Board will be reviewing the list of delinquent members at the next board meeting.
District Conference May 2-4th. President Bill has the reservation cards. He stressed that Rotary is more than just coming to weekly meetings!!!!! March 31st is the last date for reservations. The board has decided that it will provides some funds from the unallocated funds account to help offset the cost for any member who may want to attend. Please contact President Bill for more information and reservation cards.
Kim Putman is running for Mrs. NY America again and is asking members to help sponsor her or plan on attending the pageant.
District Assembly- A number of our fellow members attended the assembly this last weekend. Jim Gaudet, Liz Richardson and Sue Edgett gave the club an update on the event. Brad gave the club an update he received from the assembly about the club deciding on a project for the 2004-2005 Rotary year. This year will be Rotary’s Centennial year and many clubs will be doing special projects to commemorate the time.
Dave Nagel reminded the club that our goal this year is to reach 110 members by July. We are now at 101. Please ask prospective members to attend.
Rich Vogelzang announced that our own Dan Richardson has been selected by the Chamber as this year’s Businessperson of the Year. The Awards Banquet is April 25th. Please see Rich is you want further information. Dan Richardson announced that for any member attending the banquet he would be happy to pay for any adult beverages that the club member consumed.
Camp Haccomo- Al Wallace gave an update on the Camps recent Board of Director meeting. The camp is looking for people to run for the Board of Director and serve as officers for the camp. Please contact Al Wallace or Chuck Krause for details.
The camp’s donor designation number with the Untied Way Campaign now underway is #1046.
Al gave a brief review of the funding for the camp. This year the camp may be $50,000.00 short at the end of June. Private donations and the fall in interest rates are the reason for most of the shortfall. Private donations usually are around $50,000.00 this year so far they are only around $10,000.00.
The budget for next year has been cut from $281,000 this year to $254,000 for next year. The proceeds from the LPGA are also expected to be lowered, from $150,000 to possibly a minimum of $65,000 to $85,000.00. The assessment per member will be going up for next year from $40.00 to $50.00 per member.
Special Announcement Dr. Strauss has asked that all Paul Harris Fellows stay for a brief meeting after the regular weekly meeting April 9th. The purpose of this meeting is to select two new Paul Harris Fellows for presentation at his years Induction Dinner.
Fining with Tom. Dr. Strauss and Dave Nagel fined for wearing pink sweaters. Dr. Strauss’s fine was greater since he had long sleeves and Dave did not. Tracy Wooden took trip to Charleston. She did get credit for stating she saw a fellow Rotarian Bill VonDohlen there. Rino Pappano fined for imagined trip to Sardinia Rosa Smith Montanaro, Del Smith, Deb Whitt, Lee Annucci Mike Sofia fined for various numbers of missed meetings.
50/50 - Judy Van Bramer
Today’s program We had two speakers today. Harry Blaeser gave a presentation about the upcoming District Conference in Montreal. He also showed a video about the conference and the location. The entertainment for Saturday’s dinner is Nick and the Nice Guys. Further information can be seen on the District’s web site at: http://www.rotary7120.org or the conference web address at: http://www.montreal03.com Also please review comments made in Announcement section.
Our second speaker today was Carlotta Scarpa our foreign exchange student. She told the club about her homeland Sardinia. She talked about the history, landscape, culture and industries present on her island. Sardinia is the largest island in the Western Mediterranean, slightly smaller than Sicily but with a longer coastline. It is within easy sailing distance of Italy, both directly and across Corsica, and of North Africa and Southern France. Its coasts, especially in the east, are largely rugged and lacking in maritime approaches, but there are useable landings with access to the interior; and the west and south have numerous safe harbors, where Phoenician, Punic, and Roman cities were later to rise. Broadly speaking, three separate geological zones can be distinguished, an eastern and a western mountainous zone and a central zone that was originally submerged and was filled mostly with lime stones, marls, and some sandstones; Ologocene and Pliocene-Pleistocene volcanoes are both attested in the central zone, the former contributing trachytes and trachytic tuffs, the latter, extensive basaltic plains. There are also some older and younger alluvial plains and Aeolian dunes in various regions. Although there are very few high mountains, Sardinia is in fact a mountainous region, characterized by much-eroded high plains and plateaus and by steep and abrupt slopes. About twenty percent of the island is comprised of low-lying plains with adjacent terraces to about 200 meters asl, the largest of which is the Campidano of Cagliari extending for some 110 km from the Gulf of Cagliari to the Gulf of Oristano. About two-thirds of the island's surface lies between the plains and associated terraces on the one hand and the 500 meter line on the other. The coastal region of the southwest (Sulcis) and the southern 25 km of the Campidano are plagued by a semi-arid subtropical climate, with less than 500 mm of rainfall per year; to the interior of Sulcis and the Campidano and along the southern coast to the mouth of the Flumendosa as well as on the plain of Orosei runs a band of subtropical climate up to about 10 km wide, with 500 to 700 mm of rainfall per year. Except for two small, moist regions with more than 1100 mm of rainfall per year, much of the remainder of the island -- the western half, the north, and the eastern coastal area -- is temperate to warm, with 500 to 800 mm of rainfall per year and an average annual temperature of 15° to 16.9° C. The remainder is sub-humid, with average temperatures of 11° to 15° C. and 800 to 1200 mm of rainfall per year. Rainfall in Sardinia is mostly associated with storms that arrive from the west around the end of autumn or early winter and again in late winter and early spring. Fewer than three percent of the rainy days in the year occur in July and August, and only about twenty percent from May to September, while about twenty-five percent occur during November and December and more than fifty percent between November and February. Rain tends to fall in cloudbursts, especially at the beginning of the fall rainy season; at some meteorological stations, a single storm brings half of the winter's and one-fifth of the year's rainfall. In consequence, Sardinia suffers from widespread aridity in the summer, especially in the south. About sixty percent of the island's surface is covered with brown soils that generally have a high level of inherent fertility and support ample deciduous forest cover, ideally suited to pasturage or to supporting wildlife. Depending on slope and availability of water, some of these brown soils can be adapted to agriculture. There are other regions whose soils are suitable for forest and pasture, but most important for historical developments are the numerous regions whose soils are most able to support agriculture or horticulture. In addition to agricultural and pastoral potentiality, Sardinia was also fairly well endowed with mineral resources, especially copper, silver, lead, cassiterite and iron.
Situated in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea,
Sardinia with its app. 1.800 kilometres of coastline, is one of the most
popular destinations for people who love aquatic sports and seaside holidays,
not only for its natural beauty and geographical position but also for its
history. For this reason the Sardinians, until recently, have never loved the sea and they built very few villages along the coast. The most important villages were built during the period of the Roman domination and before that under the Phoenician-Punic domination. Some examples are: Karalis (Cagliari, the capital of Sardinia), Nora, Tharros, Olbia and Turris Libissonis (Porto Torres) on the Northern coast of Sardinia. During the last years of this 2nd millennium, the importance of both the sea and the coast has increased. This is due in part to the relatively recent discovery of tourism, which started at the end of the 1950's, and in part to the development of certain parts of the economy connected to the sea such as fishing and transport. It is neither a coincidence nor a fashion that nowadays Sardinia is the preferred destination for many tourists. The sea around this large Mediterranean Island (second only to Sicily in size among all Mediterranean Islands) is among the most beautiful and transparent in all the world. In fact D.H. Lawrence in his famous book 'The Sea and Sardinia' wrote that Sardinia was a land like no other and the Sardinian writer, Marcello Serra entitled one of his famous books "Sardinia: Almost a Continent", in order to underline the uniqueness of the Sardinian landscapes and the large and deep differences among the Island's various regions which make Sardinia similar to a continent.
Upcoming Meetings
April 2 - Scott Potoniak - sports writer for D & C
Meeting
Make-Up schedule: |