Early Riser Newsletter (Sep 23, 2016)

Gary Miller
(If you have any comments or questions, please contact the editor)

Oct 28, 2016

Joe Zone

Nov 04, 2016

Kevin Bradley

Canton Community Emergency Response Team

Nov 11, 2016

Christopher Lee Tabora

Magician/Speaker

Nov 18, 2016

Club Day

Nov 25, 2016

No Meeting

Dec 02, 2016

Jolly Lux

Guiding Light Orphns

View entire list

Club Information

Rotary Club of Avon-Canton - Founded 1973

Service above Self

We meet Fridays at 7:30 AM

Avon Old Farms Hotel

279 Avon Mountain Rd.
Avon, CT 06001
United States

District Site

Venue Map

September 23, 2016

Gabel Basket Brigade

Sergeant-at-Arms Report

September 16, 2016
Members	3
Make-Ups	0
Guests	Colleen Grasso - Larry Sullivan's daughter Kathleen Parr -perspective member Jerry Franklin - CPTV - Speaker
Visiting Rotarians	none
Happy Dollars	$10.00
Fines	none
Raffle	$40 - Rollie Sterrett

Birthdays

No birthdays this week

Happy Dollars

Linda Pendergast gave everyone a big Thank You for all the work in the kitchen and working tables, especially Don Rossler, who has agreed to take the lead next year.

Ann Clark enjoyed working the registration table this year as a good learning experience. The set up worked well. She also thanked Ben Dunning for cleaning all the utensils at the end of the dinner.

Craig Buhrendorf had 3 happy dollars for Larry Sullivan leading the charge for the golf tournament, the Red Sox v Yankees game, and his trip to Portland for the weekend.

Chris Heath said she and Rick were headed off to visit with their granddaughters.

Evan Cooper had a great time selling tickets with Robin Dinicola at the tournament. She wasn't able to give away one of Larry's cars at the hole-in-one despite the great weather. Her son, Ben, in Nimibia was going to get time off when she visits him later this year for his 27th birthday.

Jolly Lux was thankful that Kurt's surgery went well. She also has a big medical camp being organized and needs to be kept in our prayers that it is successful.

Bob Cole had a wonderful day of golf and reminded everyone about the wine and cheese party on Sunday at one of his flip houses at 3 PM.

Nancy Nation thanked all the tournament sponsors with framed certificates. The golf umbrellas are on sale for $25 to help boost the total income from the tournament.

Don Bonner thanked everyone for a "class act".

Larry Sullivan stated that he had been a Manager at the dealership since 1985. He learned that a manager's job was to remove obstacles in order to let the team succeed in their jobs. He really enjoyed managing the golf tournament this year.

Announcements

Meeting on September 30th will be at Tower Ridge Country Club

Rotary Amber Alert Events - September 24th

Talk to Tom Voorhees for details on, and to participate in, an Amber Alert enrollment event for Avon Day.

Avon Day - September 24th

Avon Day will be September 24th, and 12 Rotarians are needed to assist. As Canton's Sam Collins Day will not be held this year, this is our only chance to do our grill cook imitations.

Rotary Chess Club

Join Paul Mikkelson, Brian O'Donnell and Mike Mezheritskiy Tuesday afternoons at 3:30 PM at the Noah Webster School for some challenging chess and exercise for the mind!

Rotary Foundation

Rotarians are reminded to make their voluntary Rotary Foundation pledge, traditionally done at the time of one's birthday, however, the earlier in the Rotary year the better. World Polio Day is October 24th. Happy Dollars will go to Polio Plus to be matched 2:1 by the Bill and Melissa Gates Foundation.

Rotary-in-the-News

All the news that's fit to print: [ !!!!! ].

Presentation:

Bill Barnes introduced our speaker, Jerry Franklin, who has been with us three or four times in the past. Jerry is the current President and CEO of Connecticut Public Broadcasting. This visit was a make-up for a previously schedule visit back in July that had to be cancelled.

Jerry said we had obviously made a mistake by not inviting a prominent sports speaker, but he would talk to us anyhow. The 174 public broadcasting stations in the US are very unique and fall in four categories. First, school owned that report to the Superintendent of schools. Second, state owned and operated companies that report to the Governor. Third, university owned companies that report to a Board of Regents. The fourth category only makes up 30 of the stations that have no institutional restrictions and are market driven. The latter category receives very little state or federal support. In the case of CPB only $5 million of the total $20 million operating budget comes from federal programs. Very diverse areas are covered by CPTV and its companion stations. Jerry estimated that 40% of their audience are viewing their products on individual mobile devices and not likely to provide monetary support. This audience makes up over one million viewers and listeners.

CPB has a 2-3% market share. Cable program has a 0.5% share, while the network stations like NBC, ABC and CBS have 5-7% shares. Jerry said that Downton Abbey had an 18% share which was greater than the Super Bowl. Fans left the Super Bowl station to watch Downton Abbey. Jerry's major task to trying to figure out how to properly fund his network in the face of some much competition and such a diverse audience.

One of Jerry's ideas has been to emphasize "Made in CT". Our state has an impressive manufacturing base. This base is a significant part of who we are. He wondered how CPTV could promote the manufacturing culture. One way was with a project working with Pratt & Whitney, which owns Stanley Tools. Jerry wanted to tell the story of Stanley going back to Fred Stanley with his cart in New Britain just after the Civil War. Another program involves training veterans based on a partnership that started with a CT high school. Seniors spend an entire school year at CPTV learning life skills, proper dress, and timeliness. This program has the highest graduation rate in Hartford. The President of Walmart praised this program saying that of the 44,000 organizations do this work, over 60% are bogus.

Mail Bag

We received a thank you letter from the Nutmeg Symphony Orchestra for the $200 they received in May. They enclosed a flyer detailing their concert series which stimulate an intellectual curiosity in music and encourage participation in school music programs. Their concerts are attended by up to 1400 third graders from area schools.

STRIDE Adaptive Sports thanked the club for the gift of $750 which would enable area children and veterans with disabilities have a place to go for life-changing athletic opportunities.

Special Announcements

None

Photo Credits

Photographs courtesy of Craig Buhrendorf, Bill Barnes, and Gary Miller, unless otherwise indicated.

Editors Notes

Submission Deadline: Members are kindly encouraged to submit all materials for each week's Early Riser as quickly as possible. Please note that some editions may be published and distributed as early as the Saturday following our meetings, and during those weeks further contributions to the Early Riser will be included in the subsequent week's edition.