This Week: Thursday Night Club Social at Broadway Bowl, South Portland -
Right up your alley!
Art Howe announced that this Thursday, May 23rd, we'll meet for our club social at Broadway Bowl, 725 Broadway, South Portland, 5p-7p. If you want to bowl, please RSVP with an email to Art Howe or Quinn Slayton, as we have to book the lanes in advance. Great menu, beverages, and a great time with fellow Rotarians! Let's roll! Remember, no club meeting on
Friday!
Ask a friend, "Who is the hero in your life?"
Bits and Pieces | by Laura Young
President Dick Hall called the meeting to order and started the Pledge of Allegiance.
CHURCHILL'S LEADERSHIP TRAITS: Paul Tully spoke about Winston Churchill, who served 50 years in Parliament and 2 terms as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. Like Rotary’s 4 Way Test, Churchill had five leadership traits that he felt were essential for success: 1.) Aim high 2.) Work hard 3.) Recover from failure 4.) Forgive and forget
5.) Save room for joy
WELCOME VISITORS: Laura Green Rothermel welcomed the visitors to the meeting which included the Youth Services Awardee Julie Oplinger from PATHs, her parents John and Tammy Oplinger, and PATHs teacher David Beane. It was also good to see our snowbird members back such as Ben Lowry, Mark Millar, Dave Putnam and Charlie Frair.
HAPPY DOLLARS: Club members shared their happy stories and happy dollars to build the charity funds for Rotary International.
OH HOWE HE STRUCK OUT: Art Howe’s card was picked to potentially win the raffle, but he struck out with a Four of Diamonds. The pot will continue to grow.
OUR HEROES: Paul Tully announced that we have an amazing opportunity at our Friday July 19th meeting at Hadlock Field with the Sea Dogs to launch our Flags for Heroes event. He said on Sunday July 21st it will be "Military Appreciation Day" at the ballpark, and our Flags For Heroes flags will be displayed on the field as part of the ceremony prior to the 1pm game. If you sponsor a flag for $100, you get a free ticket to the game! We are grateful to the major sponsors, so far, Rowe Auto Group of Portland-Auburn plus the Portland Radio Group. He encouraged members to check out the new slick website at flagsforheroesmaine.com/and let him or Charlie Frair know if you have suggestions for other sponsors for the event.
SHRED THE DREAD: Larry Gross announced that Portland Rotary is hosting a shredding event on June 15, 9-1 PM at the TD Bank Branch at 362 Allen Ave in Portland.
GENEROUS WITH TIME AND TREASURE: President Dick announced that $17,850 has been committed towards the $50,000 global grant for the next International Service trip to the Dominican Republic. The donors had all witnessed first-hand the impact of the Fagans’ international service work by attending past trips over the years.
A PATH TO THE FUTURE: Dave Putnam introduced the PATHs teacher David Beane who introduced the Youth Services awardee, Julia Oplinger. Mr. Beane was astounded by the quality of Julia’s multimedia work including an impressive logo for the women’s rights group at Portland High School. He said she has a love of the craft, is a wonderful human being, and the sky is the limit for her in the future. Julia directed her $100 charitable donation to the Trevor Project due to their support for LGBTQ+ youth.
SAVE THE DATE FOR THE PLANET:
Ellen Niewoehner announced that the environmental committee will be planting on June 22nd, 9-12. Amy Chipman announced that the gardening project for Portland High School is on hold as the gardens are undergoing a soil test after a contamination alert was discovered at another area garden.
YOUR ROTARY SERVICE ABOVE SELF: Incoming Portland Rotary President Patty Byers encouraged members to complete the forms on the tables and those coming via email on our selections for committee assignments next year. She also announced that at the May 31st meeting there will be a Circle of 5 lottery and 9 new Paul Harris Fellows will be announced.
ROSTER SPONSORS: President Dick thanked the members who have stepped up to provide sponsorship money for the upcoming Roster.
TENNIS TREE HOUSE:
The Tennis League Finale Social was held at Scott Gorneau’s house on Monday, May 20th. Commissioner Bill Blount went out on a limb to serve custom tennis shirts to this season's team winners/supplicants while perched on high in the Gorneau family treehouse. We all look up to Bill for his social leadership, and a robust group of tennis Rotarians and many spouses were in attendance. Game. Set. Match.
Last Week's Program: Norm O'Reilly, "Business the NHL Way - Lessons From The Fastest Game on Ice"
| by Jake Bourdeau
Norm O’Reilly is a professional accountant, researcher, and he is the Dean of Graduate School of Business at The University of Maine. Norm was our speaker at the Rotary meeting on Friday, and he presented his concepts and lessons learned from the book he co-authored and titled, “Business the NHL Way: Lessons from the Fastest Game on Ice.”
Being from Canada and being a hockey player himself, one can see the enthusiasm Norm has for the book’s content and the sport of hockey. Business the NHL Way details and analyzes the growth and economic success of the NHL in the relatively recent history (30 years) including since the salary cap was enacted, and since the franchise owners agreed to revenue sharing. The book discusses the trials and tribulations of the Covid era, and also how player strike affected the growth, and the lessons learned from these events.
(Photo: Norm with introducer, Roxane Cole.)
The book draws analogies to positions in business, organizational culture, performance evaluations, management, and the values that hockey players generally maintain. With a growing number of over one million registered hockey players in the US and Canada, the value in the book becomes clear.
Some of the key lessons for business from the book include explanations for the following concepts:
Innovate and expand asset value
Focus on brand, brand, brand
Value creation for the shareholders that matter
Integrity matters
You don’t live in a fishbowl
Your boss wants to make money
Make your key staff stars
The book also focuses on investment in new concepts, the overall sport’s performance, and the players’ performance on the ice. The authors discuss revenue sharing, and how the lower performing teams do fine financially (i.e., think Blackhawks and Blue Jackets recently) in the NHL’s current structure.
There have been many changes in the NHL in recent years to make the game more exciting and to grow revenue including: the glowing puck on TV, instituting a department of player safety, opening new non-traditional markets in the southern US, hosting outdoor stadium games, playing games on a typical day off from other sports, and the inclusion of 3 vs 3 overtime (my personal observation: 4 on 4 with goalies).
Other interesting topics presented in the meeting included: opinions on fighting and conflict resolution, woman’s hockey, Hockeyville, Don Cherry, team logos (like the Kraken and Sharks), attributes of a good leader, and comparisons to other sports leagues (e.g., NFL, MLB, and NBA).
After fielding some questions at the end of his presentation, Norm asked three hockey-centric trivia questions, and he donated the book to the first Rotarian to correctly answer each question. Skating to victory – Jake Bourdeau, Ben Lowry, and Tim Donnellon!
May Rotary Anniversaries:
Sam Chipman - 1 year, Mike Taylor -13 years,
Laura Young, -17 years,Tony Manhart-18 years,
Bill Blount, -36 years! Congratulations and thank you all for all you do!
Speaker Schedule
May 24 - No Friday Meeting
May 31 - Jared Cash, President and CEO George Mitchell Institute
June 7 - Mark Dion, Mayor of Portland
June 14- Carolyn Nishon. Executive Director Portland Symphony Orchestra
June 21 - Mike Roughton, Exec. Dir. Association of Maine Manufacturers
June 28 -Dick Hall, Year in Review, Office Changeover
July 5- No Meeting, 4th of July Holiday Weekend
July 12- President Patty Byers
July 19- Portland Sea Dogs- Annual Picnic Lunch at Hadlock Field
Club Executives
President Dick Hall President Elect Patty Byers Vice President John Thompson TreasurerDick Hall Secretary Tom Nickerson Board of Directors Bruce Jones,
Ben Millick, Quinn Slayton, Zachary Newell,
David Ertz, Maggie McGauley Sergeant-At-ArmsJake Bourdeau
The Windjammer is published online by
The Rotary Club of Portland, Maine.
Contributing Editors
Jake Bourdeau, Larry Gross,
Erik Jorgensen, Julie L’Heureux,
Ben Lowry, Zach Newell, Bruce Moore,
Tom Nickerson, Dave Patterson,
Tom Talbott, Laura Young
Program Chair Doreen Rockstrom
4th Quarter Chair Roxane Cole Managing Editor Tom Talbott
CHURCHILL'S LEADERSHIP TRAITS: Paul Tully spoke about Winston Churchill, who served 50 years in Parliament and 2 terms as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. Like Rotary’s 4 Way Test, Churchill had five leadership traits that he felt were essential for success: 1.) Aim high 2.) Work hard 3.) Recover from failure 4.) Forgive and forget 
YOUR ROTARY SERVICE ABOVE SELF: Incoming Portland Rotary President Patty Byers encouraged members to complete the forms on the tables and those coming via email on our selections for committee assignments next year. She also announced that at the May 31st meeting there will be a Circle of 5 lottery and 9 new Paul Harris Fellows will be announced.
TENNIS TREE HOUSE:
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