Dec. 13, 2012

New Canaan Rotary Club Bulletin                                      December 13, 2012

In an act of self-sacrifice and consideration, President Marty absented himself from the meeting in an effort to halt the chain of contagion which had caused his son to throw up at his school.  Looking increasingly comfortable and confident, a uniformed Fireman Fred stepped to the bell at 12:15 by the nuclear clock on his phone and brought the large and unruly crowd to heal for the Pledge and Eric’s blessing.  After some discussion between Fred and Scott’s guest, Bird Colonel John Kolasheski, it was determined that the Colonel outranked the Fire Marshall and John proceeded to lead us through the chow line.

Guests included Past President of our Club Charles “The Ayatollah” Aysseh and, for the last time [more on this later] Gerri Goerke and Jack Horner.

For those of our faithful readers who have not been paying attention Fred reiterated instructions for the Christmas Party at Waveny Castle Saturday evening commencing at 6:30 PM.  Members whose surnames start with the letters A through P should bring an appetizer or main course and those from Q through Z a dessert.  Spouses and/or significant others are invited/expected and social butterflies whose overextended calendars make full attendance problematic are invited for a look-in.

For this same group Fred explained for the third time that next week’s meeting will be the Annual Christmas Grab Bag Luncheon to which each member is charged with bringing a wrapped gift costing $25.00 or less.  Also bring large amounts of cash to cover the $5.00 price of entry [which will go to the Salvation Army or whatever other charity Santa designates] and to participate in the extra present auction, the traditional grand finale of this extravaganza.  In the good news, bad news department Spider Sovich has not been heard from so Santa thought he could not serve as auction surrogate for anyone until, from the high desert of Rancho Mirage, came a $150 check from our most loyal alumnus, David Bryant, with instructions for Santa to bid on only the highest quality and most tasteful items.  It is with heavy heart that I report that Santa has received word from the Elf that she will be unable to join him here this year.  Some nonsense about being with family dontcha know.

Treasurer Rob had cleverly waited until a meeting at which Rucci the Elder was absent to present the results of the Golf Tournament.  The Tournament netted a number that started with $3,000 but could have been $3,999 [sounded like Dick Morris’ numbers for the recent presidential election] with the NC Club donating $2,300 to polio eradication and the Stamford Club some $1,266.  Congratulations and thanks again to John Engel and Carolyn Clark for their efforts.  While Rob was on his feet he accused poor dead Steve Jobs of sabotaging his computer leaving all local Club financial records in shambles.  His solution is to invoke the Four Way Test and have members step up and do the right thing by paying all outstanding debts before he sends out a new round of bills.

Fred then called on Sergeant Scott who did a one liner from Leviticus and the speediest collection run on record before morphing into the day’s Program Chair and introducing his friend Colonel John Kolasheski.  John and Scott were lieutenants many years ago stationed in Colorado Springs. Scott left the Army, got married, had three kids, and runs the family business while leading an idyllic life in NC.  John stayed in the Army, got married, had three kids and has spent the ensuing years alternating between stateside postings of increasing responsibility and prestige and assignments in Iraq and Afghanistan before landing his current coveted position as Army representative to the Council on Foreign Relations in New York City.  He explained his responsibilities at the CFR as consisting of three parts.  First, he helps inform members on military affairs.  Second, he draws in senior Army leaders to speak to members about their portfolio.  And third, he conducts independent research; in his case on building partner capacity abroad.  He then gave a brief overview of U.S. involvement in Afghanistan from his point of view as a surge Brigade Commander stationed for a year in Kandahar in the SE quadrant of the country bordering on Iran and Pakistan.  While acknowledging considerable challenges still exist he was more optimistic than media reports here in the U.S. would lead us to believe.  He answered a few questions before bolting for the door in hopes of catching his train back to NYC.  An excellent program on a critical subject [65,000 American troops are still there] by an impressive warrior.

Before the audience could decamp Fred leapt to his feet, donned his Membership Chair hat, and inducted Gerri Goerke and Jack Horner as our newest members.  This is getting to be a habit.  Make a point of welcoming Gerri and Jack.

David Petraeus