You'll be with other Rotarians who have experience
Setup time is 30 minutes before boat arrival.
3 1/2 shifts, but if you need to do less that is OK too.
Free parking at Sun Life lot Mon-Sat. Free everywhere Sunda
Scenes from the booth...
Mark Millar, Roger Fagan, and Niki Curtis hold down the fort. Literally, with wind gusts up to 38mph, they had to batten down the hatches. Still a profitable day - $607 sold, blowing away expectations! That's dedication!
Mark Millar writes: "We met two Rotary Members from Texas, pictured below on the left. She is past President of her club, and they bought 100.00 worth of tickets!" Niki Curtis and Roger Fagan were there to help!
Roger and Liz Fagan, aka Papaw and Grammy, had designs on bringing their grandkids to the raffle booth to help out, but the crazy windy weather ruled that out. Another day! Meanwhile, Mark Millar and Patty Byers dressed to match the gorgeous Portland sky.
BITS AND PIECES | by Jake Bourdeau
President Patty Byers lead the meeting Friday selecting Dan Fahey to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance.
Juliana L’Heureux provided info about the recent hurricanes, and followed with an uplifting poem her friend wrote about hurricane recovery and human survival.
HURRICANE HELP:
Our Rotary leaders in Zones 33 and 34 have established a fund for those who would like to assist recovery efforts by making a donation. Contributions can be made via online payment, mailed check or wire transfer. Information to make a donation is at https://www.rizones33-34.org/disaster-relief/.
GUESTS: Andi Summers presented our three guests: A friend of Dave Putnam, and two others were long time Rotarians from Louisiana who are moving to Maine, hopefully joining our club. Photo- Andi!
HAPPY BUCKS: Paul T Gore noted that family’s sugar shack in Buxton was in operation for this year’s Maine Maple Syrup Weekend, thankful that he may get to make more than 15,000 donuts. David Putnam was happy his colleague Cindy was able to join him at the meeting. Dick Hall welcomed Jerry from District 7780 to the Past District Governors Association. Last weekend Dick was invited to attend and vote at the Zone’s National Nominating Committee meeting, a high honor. Laura Young announced her youngest daughter has earned a promotion at her new job in Boston, and her oldest daughter was selected as a manager to oversee work on major bridge reconstruction in Portland, and a design project for the Maine DOT. Niki Curtis piggy backed on that, and noted that she is happy to be getting married in December. Congratulations Niki! Larry Gross celebrated his climb of Saddleback Mountain and the Horn which knocked off two more 4,000-foot mountains for him. Larry has three more to go to complete all fourteen peaks in Maine. Ben Lowry rejoiced on his win at a disk golf tournament. Ben also had sad dollars noting that this was his last meeting of the year before going south for the winter. Charlie Frair had happy dollars opposite to Ben announcing that he is staying the winter in ME!
CARDS: Bill Blount hosted the Raffle, and the speaker pulled Bowen Depke’s ticket out of the can for a shot at the prize. Bowen pulled a Queen, but only the Queen of Hearts pays off, so the pot grows!
POLIO BRIDGE WALK AND PINTS FOR POLIO: Gervin Gah let us know about the Polio Bridge Walk and Pints for Polio event scheduled for Thursday October 17th is this month’s social. We will start to gather at Broadway Bowl , 725 Broadway, South Portland at 3 pm with the bridge walk at 4 PM. We adjourn to Broadway Bowl at 5pm for our social, with Broadway donating $1 for every drink purchased. Wear red to show your support for the cause. Bring family and friends! Patty thanked Paul Gore for delivering the new red Rotary t-shirts and swearshirts, and she noted that the orders were available for pick up after the meeting.
FLAGS ARE PREPPING: Charlie Frair let us know there is a currently growing team underway supporting next year’s Flags for Heroes’ project. Over the next 4 to 6 weeks, the team will work be working to obtain corporate sponsors for the event. Please reach out to Charlie or Paul Tully if you would like to help with the planning.
LOBSTER RAFFLE: Larry Gross, speaking on behalf of our Lobster Raffle event, that one of the great things about volunteering at the booth is the opportunity to connect with people from around the world. H said he was able to meet people from Cambodia, the Philippines, and from all over the United States. There are more cruise ships coming to port and Larry put out the call for more volunteers to fill the remaining booth sale slots. He noted the time spent with other Rotarians is a great way to make new friends in the club!
DEELY BOPPERS! President Patty noted that the Lobster Raffle winner will be drawn on November 8th, and at that time we’ll recognize our Rotarians who really stepped up to work our sales booth. 37 different Rotarians have pitched in, but the one with the most assists will win the “Golden Deely Bopper Award”. What’s a Deely Bopper? It was invented In 1981, In the Killer Bee’s skit on SNL. Now the lobster-esque head gear will crown our superstar volunteer! Larry shows off his boppers, Patty explains it all!
THANKSGIVING DINNER: President Patty reminded us of our annual help at the St. Paul’s Soup kitchen serving Thanksgiving dinner. We'll start the sign-ups at the end of this month.
RYLA: Dave Patterson informed us of RYLA Coordinator Summits coming up, and they will be held at USM on Saturday, November 16th from about 8.30 to noon. More details will follow in the weeks to come. Dick Hall noted that at the event you will hear from RYLA campers and staff from last year. The magic is when you hear about how RYLA has changed a student's life. If you are interested in attending, please reach out to Bob Clark or David Patterson.
BOOTS IN PLACE: Thanks to the coordination of Amy Chipman and Bruce Jones, 100 pairs of new boots from Lamey Wellahan were successfully delivered to the Amanda Rowe Elementary School , and 60 boots to the aBoys and Girls Club. Great team work! More news to come!
Last Week's Meeting: Brooke Haley of Preti Flaherty Outlines the Maine Paid Family and Medical Leave Act By Ben Lowry
David Putnam had the honor of introducing our speaker, Brooke Haley, an attorney with the Portland firm of Preti Flaherty, to give us an overview of the new Maine Paid Family and Medical Leave Act which will be unveiled this winter. The Act, recently passed by the Maine State Legislature and signed into law by Governor Mills, will allow us to join 13 other states who have enacted this extra layer of protection for employees who are forced to deal with absences that may occur due to various reasons. While we have always had in place the FMLA and the ADA, both available at a federal level, the new protections in Maine will not only allow an employee to miss time for various personal reasons, that employee will now have access to a self-funded insurance program that will allow them to remain with a paycheck while they work to get back to their careers.
Beginning on January 1, 2025, payroll deductions will begin to be withdrawn to get the funding for the benefit payouts to begin on May 1, 2025. With a tiered funding level based on the number of employees, with businesses with over and under 15 employees creating a 1% withholding in varying methods to pay out to those who may become eligible, with family leave, medical leave, safe leave and military deployment as accepted groups to receive the benefits, which can be continuous, intermittent, or reduced for part-time hours. Leave can be taken for family members, with the definition of a family member including: a child, a parent, a grandparent, a grandchild, a sibling, a significant other or someone who can be shown to hold a significant personal bond, a term of art that will need to be more clearly defined as the rollout begins to fully unfold.
The Act is going to go through many blips as we take the next year or more to work out the kinks and come up with clearer definitions and guidelines to use the program. Brooke was able to show some examples of how the program is designed to work and was able to answer most of the questions asked by our curious group of business leaders. With our current program of ten weeks of unpaid leave available to many, this new effort will be a huge benefit to workers and perhaps a logistical nightmare for HR staff and businesses that don’t even have anyone who can focus on HR issues, much less novel programs such as this. Suffice it to say that the state of Maine is going to give this its best shot in an effort to give the rightful support that working Mainers deserve. It will take time, but Brooke feels confident that we can make this program work for us all as it gains momentum over the next few years. (Photo: Patty and Brooke)
Speaker Schedule
October 25 - Cary Tyson - Portland Downtown
November 1 - Kirk Duffy- Visiting Savannah
Club Executives
President Patty Byers President Elect John Thompson Vice President Justin Lamontagne TreasurerDick Hall Secretary Tom Nickerson Board of Directors Dick Hall,
GUESTS: Andi Summers presented our three guests: A friend of Dave Putnam, and two others were long time Rotarians from Louisiana who are moving to Maine, hopefully joining our club. Photo- Andi!
POLIO BRIDGE WALK AND PINTS FOR POLIO: Gervin Gah let us know about the Polio Bridge Walk and Pints for Polio event scheduled for Thursday October 17th is this month’s social. We will start to gather at Broadway Bowl , 725 Broadway, South Portland at 3 pm with the bridge walk at 4 PM. We adjourn to Broadway Bowl at 5pm for our social, with Broadway donating $1 for every drink purchased. Wear red to show your support for the cause. Bring family and friends! Patty thanked Paul Gore for delivering the new red Rotary t-shirts and swearshirts, and she noted that the orders were available for pick up after the meeting. 
FLAGS ARE PREPPING: Charlie Frair let us know there is a currently growing team underway supporting next year’s Flags for Heroes’ project. Over the next 4 to 6 weeks, the team will work be working to obtain corporate sponsors for the event. Please reach out to Charlie or Paul Tully if you would like to help with the planning.
RYLA: Dave Patterson informed us of RYLA Coordinator Summits coming up, and they will be held at USM on Saturday, November 16th from about 8.30 to noon. More details will follow in the weeks to come. Dick Hall noted that at the event you will hear from RYLA campers and staff from last year. The magic is when you hear about how RYLA has changed a student's life. If you are interested in attending, please reach out to Bob Clark or David Patterson.
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