The Rotary Club of Catonsville - Sunrise, Maryland

Club Meeting March 3

MEETING:
Wednesday March 3, 2009; Rolling Road Golf Club; Open Bar 6 PM, Dinner & Discussion 6:30 – 8 PM
Speaker / Topic: Steve Whalen, Whalen Properties – “Update on Promenade Project”.

MEMBERS:
Larry Aaronson
Steve Arum
George Brookhart
Eric Lamb
Cal Oren
Tonja Ringgold
Russ Witzke

GUESTS (from memory – Steve Arum has complete list)
Steve Whalen
Alan Ray
Maggie Schorr (she helped Steve Arum make arrangements for the program)
Erica and husband (interested in joining)
Toni Manning (evening club)
Rob Brennan (architect)
Mark & Dawn Stout
Maureen Sweeney Smith & Rick (?) Smith
Kirby Spencer (came late just for presentation)
+ 6 more for dinner, plus at least 1 more who came late just for the presentation and discussion.


REPORT:
Very successful event, with good attendance from the community, great participation, and an excellent informative presentation. Nearly every guest in attendance participated in the discussion. Whalen’s presentation lasted almost an hour, at which point the meeting was formally dismissed, but people stayed and continued to ask questions for at least another 20 minutes or so. Of the guests who came, probably half have attended some Rotary event before. The food was served buffet style in the hallway, the service was quick, and the food was great, at least in my personal opinion. It’s nice to have the time to unwind, chat with members and others, and not worry about having to rush off. PLUS, Maryland thumped Duke pretty definitively so the evening ended REALLY well!


COMMENTS:
So far, with three events under our belts (starting in December) these are working great for drawing members of the community, but not so well for our membership. I wonder if we should call these “Community Forums” and not try to make them into meetings? Or, we can still call them “meetings” but understand they are more community events and good for recruiting and socializing.

To me, the Happy Dollars didn’t really work very well with people who don’t know each other well. We could let people make announcements or plug upcoming events, etc., and do the same thing, but no one really felt comfortable sharing the types of personal things that Happy Dollars are usually used for in a regular meeting.

Other than that, the meetings work more or less that same as a regular meeting, but because the guests outnumber the members by a large percentage, we don’t do any club business.

I would really like to hear from as many members as possible, those who were there, and those who could not attend. What are your thoughts about continuing this format? Please respond to the whole group by email.