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Sep 15, 2017
Sep 22, 2017
Sep 29, 2017
Oct 06, 2017
Greater Portland Commercial Real Estate Market
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Communications-WJ Bulletin Ed
 
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Welcome to the Rotary Club of Portland, Maine!
Portland Rotary
Service Above Self
We meet Fridays at 12:15 PM
Holiday Inn By-the-Bay
88 Spring Street
Portland, ME  04101
United States
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Rotary This Week
 
Portland Rotary
meets September 15, 2017 at the  
CLARION HOTEL
1230 Congress Street, Portland
 
                                
*09/15/17 Phil Walsh, Exec. Director of Maine Initiatives


Philip Walsh is the Executive Director of Maine Initiatives, a public, community-based foundation advancing social, economic, and environmental justice in Maine through informed, intentional and collective philanthropy. 

Since 1993, Maine Initiatives has made over $3.5 million in grants to grassroots and community-based organizations in Maine. Under Phil Walsh’s leadership, Maine Initiatives is pursuing a radically-participatory approach to community philanthropy, one that seeks to go beyond money. Phil’s talk will focus on how Maine Initiatives understands and approaches the issues of justice and equity in Maine, the role of private philanthropy, and the importance of both individual and collective action.

Phil’s professional background includes over 20 years of experience designing and implementing innovative community development approaches, with a specific focus on initiatives that engage diverse stakeholders; identify the community’s human, financial, and social assets; and leverage those assets for social change.

Prior to coming to Maine with his family in 2011, Phil worked for 15 years in Latin America: as a program officer with the Inter-American Foundation, director of the Mexico Program at The Synergos Institute, and leader of Mercy Corps’ civil society strengthening program in Central America.

Phil is a graduate of James Madison University and earned a masters degree from Georgetown University. He lives in Cape Elizabeth with his wife, three daughters, and a brood of chickens. He serves on the board of directors of the Maine Philanthropy Center and is the co-chair of the Immigrant and Refugee Funders Collaborative. He is also an active supporter of Maine Adaptive and the Spina Bifida Association of Greater New England.
 

09/08/17 David Pearce, Former U.S. Ambassador

David Pearce, retired from 35 years in the U.S. Diplomatic Corps, and son of former long-time member and Club Secretary, Duane Pearce, joined us last week and shared his observations from a career in diplomacy. “I wish Dad could be here today,” he said. “Rotary was very important in his life, and he always wanted me to come and speak, but we could never work it out.” David shared the story of his first posting to Iraq when his Dad gave him his Rotary pen to take with him. “At first, I declined it. I knew how important it was to him. It had his name imprinted on it, but he insisted. Just bring it back, he said.”

Pearce said he wanted to address the question of whether we needed diplomats in today’s world. He referred to the story of Mu‘awiya I, the 7th Century Caliph of the Muslim Umayyad Caliphate, who governed a complex array of states across the Mid-East and North Africa, and was asked, “How is it that you can rule this fractious country.” His answer, Pearce said, lay in the technique of being aligned with everyone as if connected by a hair, knowing when to yield and when to pull. “The wise ruler stays engaged,” Mu’awiya is reported to have said. “And avoids rupture.” It is costly not to engage, Pearce said, but the trick is to determine the right balance of engagement.

Pearce presented five general observations from his experiences in the diplomatic corps:

First, “Begin at the beginning.” This stratagem requires you to lay out your strategic purpose. When he was appointed Ambassador to Greece, Pearce said that the goal was to ensure that Greece remained part of the European Union. “The U.S. was interested in Greece remaining strong,” he said. “Part of that was because we wanted to decrease economic risk to the country, but part of it also was tied to the fact the country is important to our military strategy—the port at Souda Bay is the only one in Europe that allows the docking of an aircraft carrier.”

Second, “Mind the Five Ps.” Details matter, he said, reflecting on former Secretary of State James Baker’s admonition, “Poor Prep equals Piss Poor Performance.” Pearce said that not only do details matter, but expertise matters, and language matters. He said that he took the time to learn the language of the country where he was assigned so that he could sit down with native speakers and communicate.

Third, “Tend the Garden.” Pearce said: “We need allies, and they need us. Intel is not expertise, it’s just facts and figures. People who love a region know more. We cannot take friends for granted.”

Four, “Drink the coffee.” This means one must learn to be patient, he said. Pearce shared stories of working in Iraq as part of General Petraeus’s staff and visiting with various chieftains. “There was no specific request from them. We just sat and drank coffee.” But as time passed, trust built, and there came times when that patience resulted in strong cooperation that was important strategically.

Five, “Nothing is good.” Pearce referred again to Mu’awiya describing the current state of Iraq and the factions in, and around, the country, and their different viewpoints on Article 140 of the Iraqi Constitution, which called for a referendum on Kirkuk, a city that lies in the heart of the country’s major oil-producing territory. “The Kurds controlled the city, and wanted a referendum in order to establish sovereignty. But it’s a multi-ethnic population, so there were others who objected to the Kurds being in charge. Since there was no clear agreement on a referendum, and there was pressure to have the UN take charge, I met with the leader of the Kurds alone for an hour and we spoke in Arabic. In the end, nothing happened.” Pearce’s point was that since there was fear, there might be unrest or rebellion....the fact that nothing happened was good. “It takes a lot of work,” he said, “for nothing to happen.”


(Photo L-R: Past President Bob Traill, David Pearce, and President Don Zillman.)

In closing, David Pearce said that “I can’t think of anything else I would rather have done than be a part of the diplomatic corps.”

Questions from the members brought lengthy responses describing the tax issues in Greece: “It’s a myth that Greeks don’t work hard. The issue is that the EU creditors want Greece to do more with economic reform and decrease the number of non-performing loans.” He provided an historical perspective of the issues in Iraq and the “tectonic plates” of culture and history involved. He discussed the changing internal dynamics in Turkey and the lack of choices that the Kurds had within and without Turkey for alliances. “It’s extremely complicated.” 

Commenting on North Korea, he said “Ultimatums are not a good idea.” And a long discussion on the issues of Afghanistan, which according to Pearce have deep roots in the U.S. decision not to engage the Afghani officer corps in training after 1989, which resulted in a generation of officers in the Afghan Army who we subsequently decided we needed, but had no effective way of communicating with because we lacked any personal connections with them.

Asked if the State Department understood his rule number one, Pearce responded that he doesn’t understand how you can do business in diplomacy if you cut one-third of your budget and fail to appoint deputies and under-secretaries. “Much work needs to be done on the team side,” he said.
 

09/08/17 Bits & Pieces

President Don Zillman rang in the meeting noting it would be a busy one! 58 members were in attendance, with an exceptionally large guest list of 15 and 1 visiting Rotarian.

Past President Russ Burleigh’s invocation provided a historical recounting of important events on this day in U.S. history. He began by noting that the more things change, the more they stay the same. In 1900, 6,000 people were killed when a hurricane struck Galveston,Texas. In 1965, Hurricane Betsy killed 75 in Louisiana and Florida. Russ ticked off a list of other not-so-great news, however, was able to sprinkle in a few stellar moments in baseball, from Bob Feller – youngest pitcher to win 20 games (1939) to the ’78 game between Red Sox/Yanks, with the Yanks winning 13-2.  


Our guest speaker, Ambassador David Pearce, led us in the Pledge of Allegiance, and Kathy Grammer tapped out the Star-Spangled Banner on the keyboard as we sang along. 


Returning attention back to the impending hurricanes down south, President Don spoke of the Rotarian relief effort and opportunities to donate. With Houston/Louisiana looking at $100 billion in rebuilding, and with all eyes on what lay ahead for Florida/Georgia, consider a donation to either the Red Cross, or the Rotary Foundation. 


With back-up singer Past President Russ Burleigh, song leader Andreea Paine,  led us on a vocal expedition of “If I Had A Hammer.” No doubt they did a great job.....however, the rest of the club introduced a variety of rare octaves and awkward tonal qualities to bring the song to its knees.  


Past President Kris Rosado updated us on the Veterans’ Lunch set for November 10th at the Italian Heritage Center. Now is the time to reach out to Veterans you know and invite them. There is no charge for Veterans. The hall can hold 350 people – a perfect lunch would be 300 Veterans. Kris also thanked a growing list of sponsors who have already pledged $500, but we certainly need more. To get the information you need to present to a potential sponsor, contact Kris at kris.rosado@morganstanley.com.


David Small introduced our newest member, Eileen Skinner. Eileen was born, raised, educated and spent the first part of her working career in New Orleans. With a Masters in Health Administration from Tulane, Eileen built an impressive resume before coming to Maine in 2002 to be President and CEO of the Mercy Health System of Maine. Eileen has been the recipient of numerous leadership awards from a wide range of organizations, including the American Heart Association, Salvation Army, Girl Scouts of Maine and the Maine Business Hall of Fame, and that’s just the short list. Eileen’s newest adventure is a weekly commute from her home in Falmouth to Boston where she is now at the helm of the internationally renowned Boston Shriner’s Hospital For Children. Her husband John is a board-certified pathologist at Central Maine Medical Center. They have three grown children (youngest 23). Welcome, Eileen, to Portland Rotary!


President Don thanked the club members who handled the meeting’s tasks, and then moved to the all-important raffle draw. With $782 on the line, Matt Wolcott oversaw the name draw by our speaker, who drew the name of Past President Tom Talbott. Looking confident, Tom proceeded to draw the unforgiving Two of Spades, leaving the pot safe for at least another week.


Gus Karlsen announced that the MS Regatta trophy won last week in a show of superior skill and seamanship should be back in the club’s possession next week. There was no direct specific mention that our competition failed to show up, but hey, it’s our trophy now! 


Alex St.Hilaire was in Berlin recently to visit friends and made his way to a local Rotary club for a lunch meeting. With 84 members and similar demographics as our club, Alex remarked that he was welcomed with open arms, even though they were not expecting any guests. “Where ever you go, when you meet other Rotarians, there are immediate friendships.”  Alex presented President Don with their club banner, a fine memento from his visit.
 

This Week's Duty Assignments

Invocation:  Alan Nye
Program Reporter:  John Marr
Bits & Pieces Reporter:  Alan Nye
Registration/Greeter:  Jake Bourdeau
Sell Meal Tickets:  Rusty Atwood
Raffle:  Matt Tassey
Badge Box:  None
Collect Meal Tickets:  Ellen Niewoehner
*
Song Leader:  Janelle LoSciuto
Keyboard Player:  None
Sgt-at-Arms (Setup):  Scott Blakeslee
Sgt-at-Arms (Take Down):  Mac Collins

*if hotel staff is unavailable

 

Rotary Meeting Locations

If you would like to mark your calendars,
we are scheduled at the following locations
through December 2017:

2017
Sep 15 - The Clarion
Sep 22 - Bayside Bowl
Sep 29 - The Clarion

Oct   6 - The Clarion
Oct 13 - TBD

Oct 20 - Holiday Inn By-the-Bay
Oct 27 - TBD

Nov  3 - TBD
Nov 10 - Italian Heritage Center (Veterans' Lunch)

Nov 17 - Holiday Inn By-the-Bay
Nov 24 - NO MEETING - HAPPY THANKSGIVING

Dec 01 - Holiday Inn By-the-Bay
Dec 08 - Holiday Inn By-the-Bay

Dec 15 - Holiday Inn By-the-Bay
Dec 22 - NO MEETING - HAPPY HOLIDAYS
Dec 29 - Holiday Inn By-the-Bay

Blue BOLD dates are scheduled Board meeting days.

Any questions, please contact Loretta at: lrowe@maine.rr.com

 

Volunteer Opportunities
Following is a list of our Club's volunteer projects. If you know of other opportunities, please contact Loretta: lrowe@maine.rr.com
 

                          When
Project              Who to Contact


Preble Street        4th Wednesday ea month
Resource Ctr        4-6:30 pm
Soup Kitchen        Gracie Johnston
                           gracie.johnston@wcsh6.com


Game Night         3rd Tuesday ea month
Long Creek          Mike Fortunato
Youth Center        michael.k.fortunato@gmail.com
                           or Jim Willey
                           jimandbarbarawilley@gmail.com

Item Donations Needed
The following items are needed on an on-going basis. Please feel free to bring them to a meeting where we will collect and distribute them.
 
Crutches4Africa - Crutches, canes, folding walkers and wheelchairs to be shipped to Africa.
 
Toiletries for the Shelters - Collect those tiny bottles of toiletries you are paying for during your next hotel visit and bring them home for members of our society who find themselves staying at a shelter and in need of personal hygiene products.
Prospective Rotarians

As we receive applications for prospective members to join our Portland Rotary Club, the names of the applicants will be included in our Windjammer. Any information and/or comments you would like to share will be handled confidentially. Please contact Loretta Rowe: lrowe@maine.rr.com. Your input will be appreciated.

PROSPECT                 BUSINESS
(Sponsor)                                                                           
Adam Scheppard      Northpoint Mortgage
(Brian McDonough)

Thank you.