Chips February 8th, 2016

Traci Moore's guest, Joel Perry- Business development and marketing director at Ravna

Steve Costello's guest and corporate honorary member, Robert Dostas of GMP

Lenore Haskel-Speaker from Vermont Associates

Teresa Miele of Rotary South

 

Cathy Petrini turned 50 and Caprice bragged for her. Everyone sang Happy Birthday for her. Happy Birthday again, Cathy!

Betsy Bloomer bragged for her husband, Matt, who has been named varsity coach of Rutland's Baseball Team

Joan bragged for Matt Bloomer and said that she remembers watching him as a kid make some great plays on the baseball field and was certain he would make a great coach.

Teresa bragged for the mixer at Stonehenge and that she had a great time. She also is no longer with Rutland Plywood and has started a business on her own in Human Resources.

Tom bragged for the United Way Luncheon where 2 Rotarians were honored. Nicole Fabian was recognized for all her work on The Really Big Show and Traci Moore was awarded Volunteer of The Year! Way to go both of you

Jeremy bragged about passing his securities exams and that he got to go to a Celtics game at The Garden and watch them win.

Dick bragged for the GMP corporate members and that all the members were there today. Definitely a great addition to the club all of you!

Steve White said that the Groundhog Day golf Tournament went great. Really a fun time.

Gary bragged for his daughter, Isabelle, who won a dance competition against over 50 other competitors!

Terry gave us the Castleton Hockey update: The Women lost in OT and the men split a win and a loss.

Peter O'Brien said that the Rutland City Rotarians were voted "Liveliest Table" at Trivia! Sounds like they were having fun...

Nancy Greenwood bragged about the Rutland Cheerleading Team who won a competition in Massachusetts over the weekend.

Jeff G bragged that his wife is really excited about the software that our fundraising got for the school and knows that it will help the kids.

 

Will said that he saw Paula Poundstone at The Flynn Theater recently and recommended anyone to go see her too when she is in town. He then called Teresa Miele out saying that she had bragged at our club, but had not yet coughed up her club's $100 contribution to the charity of our choice for losing the blood drive challenge. She stood up and promplty handed over the check after saying, you weren't a very graceful loser last year, Will!

Mark said that we have a new member, Nancy Greenwood, and encouraged everyone to introduce themselves to her. Mark also said that both school principals that we donated the Santa Raffle proceeds to for software were very grateful.

 

 

She was awarded with a recognition pin in observance of her bringing in a new member to the club, but ALSO a Paul Harris Fellow!!! Congratulations, Caprice.

 

Nancy Greenwood won the small pot, AGAIN! not so lucky on the big one.

 

Our speaker was Lenore Haskel of Vermont Associates. They have 10 offices in Vermont and their mission is to provide training and career services to those in the community who are 55 and older. They have been around since 1983 and are a not-for-profit. They do receive grant funding, but are a private organization. They try to teach job interviewing, soft skills, and also technology skills to help folks get back into the work place. To be eligible for their services, you must be at least 55 y/o, be income eligible, a Vermont resident, and be unemployed.

If you are a family of 1, the income eligibility is around $15,000 a year

The program will place you with a local npo that needs part-time work, but can't afford to pay someone. The agency pays the worker minimum wage of $9.60 per hour and the company gets an employee, so a win-win. After time, the hope is that working for that npo helps the individual build skills that lead to employment. Loren said that many of the participants they serve wind up working full time with the group that takes them on for training in the first place. Ideally, you will be out of Vermont Associates hands within a year, but they can keep you on for up to 4 years. Lorene actually is one of the participants in the program and will, too, have to move on after 4 years to something else. She finds that older workers are great to hire because they tend to have less drama, are more dependable, and have strong work ethics.