President Markopened the meeting at the meeting site: Holiday Inn Express of Brattleboro, VT
. Mark welcomed all to the August 27, 2026 meeting of the Brattleboro Rotary Club,www.brattlebororotaryclub.org
Invocation:
President Mark asked for a moment of silence.
President Mark led the club with the Pledge of Allegiance
Bill McKim led the club with the Rotary motto and Four Way Test.
Rotary Motto: Service Above Self
Four Way Test -
Is it the TRUTH? Is it FAIR to all concerned? Will it build GOODWILL and BETTER FRIENDSHIPS? Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned?
23 Members, 0 Student Rotarians and 1 guest attended the meeting.
Guests: Quentin Reynolds (Speaker)
JOKE OF THE WEEK - For our joke or song of the week:
Bill McKim sang the Sam Song with help from Roger Miller and included members.
EDITOR NOTE: 2026-27 weekly assignments are posted on the club website.
Rotarians for Rotarians:
Rob Spzila reported that former Rotarian Sandy Rouse is in Vernon Green Rehab Center recovering and would welcome visitors. Related news is that this year is the 25th Anniversary of the Brattleboro Literary Festival which Sandy founded and has run for 25 years. The festival is coming up in October, and they plan to honor her, so they really need her to recover. Any visitors would be beneficial to Sandy and the festival.
Mark reported that he saw Greg Worden who told him that Bridget, who works at Greg’s store, had a stroke and she is in rehab now. It is certainly touching Greg, and he would appreciate our support.
New Members: Two latest Members
Sarah Weiler was inducted by President Mark. She lives in West Brattleboro and is the Operations Manager at BMAC
Mike Wagner recently moved to Chesterfield after living in Arizona for 30 years. Had a career in technology sales and then spent 5 fives teaching English globally
Please welcome Sarah and Mike if you have not done so.
ROTARY MINUTE
Dart Everett asked how many of us have had someone come to our house about the reappraisal and several raised their hands. Dart said we are in the middle of a town-wide reappraisal which will change everyone’s assessment, but it does not mean that everyone’s taxes will go up, some will go up and some will go down, it is an average. They expect that all properties will be appraised by next spring, then they will be working on the calculations and then a year after that we will have a new assessment.
Years of Service in our Club
Stay tuned.
On Behalf of our Club and all Rotarians, thank you for your Service Above Self
Student Rotarian updates:
Birthday greetings -
BIRTHDAY ANNOUNCEMENTS Cindy-
John Meyer’s birthday is on September 4th. John said he will probably be at Rotary next week so we will sing to him then. There were no anniversaries.
Announcements
Mark announced that we still need a Chair for the Ski Jump. This is a big problem we need to solve because this is a key fundraiser for our club and he would hate to say that the committee will disband if we can’t find a Chair. Mark will be there to support anyone and everyone who is willing to step up and chair the committee. It is a 2-day event. This basically involves coordinating the event and there are a lot of people with experience, so it is less about having to know what to do and more about corralling the cats. If you are someone who can do that, please let him know.
Mark made a last call for the survey that he recently pushed out. He sent it through Clubrunner a couple of times. He has received 18 responses out of 47 people. Thank you to those who have responded. The survey closes on 9/3, so if you haven’t responded, please do so. Mark is already talking with Sunrise and Assistant Governor Josh about some ideas; Mark would like to schedule something before it gets too cold. On that note, Josh invited our club to join him and his family at the Food Truck Roundup on 9/3. This will be the last Food Truck Roundup for the season. He will be sitting in the back right corner by the bar. This is an opportunity for fellowship.
George Weir announced that there will be a brief meeting of the International Committee at his table after today’s meeting. It should take about 10 minutes.
Bill McKim announced celebrating 37 years of living in sin with his lady as of 8/16. They celebrated that last week. There were questions about whether that should have been a brag or a fine.
Rob Szpila announced that an email went out with the 11th annual Disc Golf Rotary Tournament sponsorship flyer, if you didn’t see that, take a look. He thanked those who had already responded with their pledges to support the tournament. It is a fundraiser we do in conjunction with the Sunrise Club, and they want to beat their record of last year. If anyone wants to contribute either by donating or by volunteering there are opportunities for both. Please let Rob know if you have any questions.
Happy Dollars and Brags and Fines
Carla had $2 but $1 is an “unhappy” dollar for missing Rick’s presentation last week. She read the summary in the bulletin and read it to her parents as well. She wishes she had been here to read more of it; it sounded very informative and she thanked Rick. The reason she missed it was because she was in New Mexico, they have been going almost yearly for the last 20 years to visit family, and it was just beautiful. She spent one day canoeing where Georgia O’Keefe spent a lot of her time, and she came back wanting to do her own art.
Rudy was going to brag for Cindy for her recovery, but we all saw how she did on birthdays and anniversaries, so he didn’t! He did brag for his colleague, Quentin Reynolds, who he will introduce shortly. Rudy has a wonderful office in Brattleboro with 11 staff members who do a variety of different things. Rudy also bragged for his youngest who is starting her junior year at the University of Washington. She decided she wanted to become an EMT, so she had to take a test in 3 weeks’ time in order to be accepted into the program. She is pretty good at studying. And Rudy helped her study along the way. He believes he was quicker to respond when Cindy had a medical event because he had been refreshed on what kind of things look like emergencies and what kind of things look like you should lay down and rest on the couch.
Mike bragged for his wife Eileen for just completing a 14-week class at the multi-cultural center in partnership with BDCC to educate local refugees.
Mark asked if anyone left a pair of glasses last week, there were no takers.
Gina did not have a brag but she gave money because she hasn’t been here in so long.
George Karabakakis bragged for just getting back from a trip with his daughter. They spent time in Northern Macedonia and Northern Greece. They had an incredible time. In Northern Greece he reconnected with relatives from his mother’s side throughout Northern Greece to almost Turkey. He traced back 3 generations on his mother’s side. It was a great trip.
Chris bragged for her son and his wife who were foster parents of 2 boys. One is back and will be with them for a year. They have made a huge difference in the lives of both boys. Chris also fined President Mark for not bringing out the sound system and mike so people can hear and also for leaving it in a mess last week. He only brought it out today because Chris reamed him out. Chris said she wanted to fine him, he is doing a great job, but this has to improve! Mark’s defense was 1) the first week he came on as President, no one knew how to set it up – Chris was not there that day; 2) on week 2, they thought they had figured it out, they plugged it in and it still didn’t work; 3) on week 3, Chris was there and she showed them the missing component. Mark asked for a vote on the fine and came to the conclusion that the nay’s were louder (Mark spoke very loudly into the mike). He turned the fine into a $5 brag for Chris for always helping out with the transition. When Mark has been away, she always steps up to cover for him. His sincere appreciation. It would have been a $20 brag except he was fined.
Jenifer said that we may remember that during the St. Patrick’s Day storm this year, a tree fell on her Subaru and totaled it. There were many delays, including two months when they thought it was fixable and then decided it was totaled. She has been driving her pickup truck. She has finally received her replacement Subaru, and it is so nice to be driving it with better air conditioning and not having to go to the gas station so often.
Bill McKim bragged $2 for Mark and Chris for doing a great job on the transition.
ED NOTE: Weekly assignments for the invocation or motivational thought can be found on the club
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