News of The Rotary Club of Portland, Maine August 19, 2020
Broadcasting Director Bats for Seadogs
Emma Tiedemann, Director of Broadcasting for the Portland Seadogs will speak Friday, August 21 at the Club meeting at Hadlock Field. Tiedemann joined the Sea Dogs in March 2020, becoming just the fifth lead broadcaster in the club’s 27-year history. She spent the previous two seasons as the Director of Broadcasting & Media Relations for the Lexington Legends, the Class A affiliate of the Kansas City Royals in Lexington, KY, where she called back-to-back South Atlantic League Championships. In 2019, she was honored as the South Atlantic League Media Relations Director of the Year. During the off-season, she served as the voice of Morehead State University Women's Basketball on ESPN+ and radio.
Previously, Tiedemann worked as the Broadcast and Media Relations Assistant for the St. Paul Saints, a professional team unaffiliated with any major league club. She spent 2015 and 2016 in Medford, Oregon as Broadcast and Communications Manager for the Medford Rogues, a collegiate summer team. In 2014, she was part of the broadcast duo for the Mat-Su Miners, another summer collegiate team, in Palmer, Alaska.
A native of Dallas, Texas, Tiedemann earned her BA at the University of Missouri where she majored in secondary education with a minor in history.
The August 21 meeting will be at Hadlock Field. There will be no coverage via Zoom. Please reserve your seat by calling the Rotary Club of Portland at 899-6242.
Navy Keeps Blue In The Mighty Deep
By Dick Hall
Paul Tully told us that this week is Navy appreciation week in Portland, and introduced Dr. Susan T. Goodfellow, the senior civilian responsible for five programs directly affecting Fleet and Shore readiness for the U.S. Navy: Environmental Compliance, Environmental Readiness and Planning, Radiological Controls, Readiness Sustainment and Compatibility, and Foreign Direct Investment.
Dr. Goodfellow talked about our enduring Navy. After the revolutionary war, the Navy was disbanded, but then in 1794, Congress reactivated it with the construction of six frigates, including the USS Constitution. The mission has continued ever since to promote prosperity and preserve American interests. The earth is 70% water; 90% of commerce is conducted over the sea; 26% of U.S. employment is tied to global trade; 20% of U.S. agricultural products are sold overseas; 41 million U.S. jobs are tied to sea; and, more than 90% of worldwide communication is over subsea fiber optic cables.
The U.S. projects naval power from the sea with destroyers, aircraft carriers, and patrol vessels. We project naval power from under the sea with submarines. We project naval power from the air with jets, planes, helicopters and drones. In times of need, leaders always ask “Where is the nearest aircraft carrier?” Carriers are equipped with jets, planes, helicopters, and communication assets. The most important resource is people, and Navy focusses on keeping people trained, with 45,000 active and deployed sailors. Maine has made a major contribution.
Fleet forces are active in the U.S., Atlantic, Europe, Mediterranean & Persian Gulf, Black Sea, Ballistic missile defense, Central Command, Southern Command, Africa, and the Pacific-Freedom of navigation in South China sea. Humanitarian pandemic response included the USS Comfort, USNS Mercy, Naval medicine teams, and engineering command with U.S. Army Corp of Engineers building facilities. The Navy, working with allies and strategic partners, is conducting the Rim of the Pacific exercises in 2020 which will have 10 countries and 5,300 people involved.
Challenges: China is building forces 4-5 times faster than the U.S. and rapidly closing the gap. Russia is investing in submarines and is dominating the Arctic Ocean. The U.S. Navy needs to modernize and deal with accelerated wear and tear. In the last several years, we are coming back with investment in ships and forces to support the Navy focus in warfighting, integrating American Naval Power with the Navy, Marines, and Coast Guard working closely together. We need to maintain readiness because if we lose ground, it is much more difficult to get back to where we are. Warfighters: We need to recruit, train and maintain a combat credible maritime force. By accelerating training, we continue to build excellence.
The future Navy must be prepared to fight and win using our integrated forces. To be competitive, the Navy needs to effectively use its funds to maintain superiority. The Navy needs 355 ships to maintain superiority, but not necessarily all manned. The Navy continues to innovate and maintain a robust, flexible, survivable nuclear fleet.
Bits & Pieces | John Marr
Zooming into a Friday afternoon Rotary meeting makes one wonder if it’s not time to drop the “new” from the catch phrase “new normal”. The acceptance of so many limitations might be disquieting to some, but they don’t have the vibrant fellowship of Portland Rotary. We invite all to zoom in, preferably early, to see your friends and join in the banter. It may not be the same as sitting at the table with your usual group, but it does help you keep in touch and learn what going on in the lives of your Rotary family. Zooming into a meeting is easy, convenient, and gives far more flexibility than an in-person meeting. Since it is during the lunch hour you are free to eat what you want during the meeting and get up and move around as you choose. Therefore, we wonder why our attendance isn’t higher than the mid-thirties (34-35 at this meeting).
President Ellen, called the meeting together shortly after noon and noted attendance. She asked that Elise resume the taking of attendance at upcoming meetings. Speaking of up-coming meetings, REMEMBER, NEXT FRIDAY WE MEET AT HADLOCK FIELD, thanks to the hard work of Bill Blount and others. At this time we are unsure if we can adapt to open this get together to include Zoom conferencing. Consequently, Bill asks you to go online and sign up so we have enough Sea Dog ice cream sandwiches for all.
In accordance with common practice President Ellen asked David Small to offer the invocation/inspiration. As is his style David took an expansive approach to task and offered up a personal piece of inspiration recognizing the friendship that Rotary brings to all and asking the Deity to give blessings to all.
Did you know that Paul Tully has moved? He has decided that yard work should be jettisoned by retirees and taken up residence at the new condominium association out on the old Maxwell’s Farm in Cape Elizabeth on Maxwell Way. Paul was doing the intro of today’s speaker and mentioned how important Navy Week was to him and his family, since his son is a graduate of the Naval Academy at Annapolis and gave 13 years of service to our nation as a fighter pilot on the carrier, Enterprise. When he left the service, he did not leave the Navy and has taken on a civilian assignment as a Chief Engineer at Naval Sea Systems Command in Crane Indiana. The buttons on Paul’s shirt did not bust as he spoke of his son, but he was wearing knit jersey with the Navy colors of blue and gold proudly emblazoned with NAVY. Thank you for your service!
With service in mind and time traveling so fast despite our seclusion, Patty Erickson reminded us that the flags will be flying at The Maine Mall, once again this year. Patty has asked that every Rotarian reach out to an associate and ask them to recognize and honor a person of service. She reminded us that those of service are inclusive of first responders, medical personnel, teachers and of course those who serve in uniform, military, police, fire, etc. We are in an inclusive group and the more recognition we bestow the better off we all will be. A Flag for a Hero can be sponsored through the Club website by clicking on Flags For Community Heroes in the middle of the Club website home page, or the link here. The money will be used to benefit the club activities and during these days of limitation, fund raising is more of a challenge than ever.
A Moment of Reflection
An Old Sidewalk
THE PASSING YEARS have broken it
over the knees of tree roots,
those of great maples raining shade,
and of crippled elms whose leaves
in August turn to a lace that sifts
the heat. And the breaks have filled
with mold from which frail seedlings,
already with bark like their parents,
hold up green banners of hope.
For sixty or maybe seventy years
this sidewalk has been lying here,
literally under foot, and suddenly,
one morning when I look,
it’s there, supporting me,
its every pebble like a jewel—
yellow or brown or red or black—
set in the sandy concrete, ants
patching their old gray tent.
Such happiness there is in being
a part of all this, of dismissing
the woman watching from her window
while I bend to one knee to press
my hand against a broken sidewalk,
feeling the heat of that same light
that the sparrow hops over,
and that warms the cricket as it carries
its song across town in its purse.
--Ted Kooser
Speaker Schedule
August 21 | Emma Tiedemann, Portland Sea Dogs
August 28 | Musical Program with Nannette Duncanson
September 4 | No Meeting
September 11 | Flags for Heroes
September 18 | Kevin Hancock on his new book
September 25 | Earle Shettleworth on John Calvin Stevenson
October 2 | Jonathan Sahrbeck, Cumberland County DA
Hadlock Field. Tiedemann joined the Sea Dogs in March 2020, becoming just the fifth lead broadcaster in the club’s 27-year history. She spent the previous two seasons as the Director of Broadcasting & Media Relations for the Lexington Legends, the Class A affiliate of the Kansas City Royals in Lexington, KY, where she called back-to-back South Atlantic League Championships. In 2019, she was honored as the South Atlantic League Media Relations Director of the Year. During the off-season, she served as the voice of Morehead State University Women's Basketball on ESPN+ and radio.
n Portland, and introduced Dr. Susan T. Goodfellow, the senior civilian responsible for five programs directly affecting Fleet and Shore readiness for the U.S. Navy: Environmental Compliance, Environmental Readiness and Planning, Radiological Controls, Readiness Sustainment and Compatibility, and Foreign Direct Investment. 
Ballistic missile defense, Central Command, Southern Command, Africa, and the Pacific-Freedom of navigation in South China sea. Humanitarian pandemic response included the USS Comfort, USNS Mercy, Naval medicine teams, and engineering command with U.S. Army Corp of Engineers building facilities. The Navy, working with allies and strategic partners, is conducting the Rim of the Pacific exercises in 2020 which will have 10 countries and 5,300 people involved.
