Antiques Appraisal Night

The date for this event is drawing near but still a few tickets remain to be sold. Don't have anything to be appraised? General seating is always available and Stuart's show never disappoints. Get yours today!

Great Idea !!

If you haven't seen it yet, the Concord Rotary Club is hosting a "Purple Pinkie" day later this month. Follow this link to read more www.concordrotary.blogspot.com

Antiques Roadshow Date announcement

This Fall's Antiques Roadshow fundraiser has been set for November 19th at the First Parish Church United in Westford Center. Doors will open at 6:30 and the show will begin promptly at 7 pm.

Tickets will be available in the coming weeks and available from any Merrimack Valley Club Rotarian. See you there!

Merrimack Valley Rotary to host Antiques Roadshow

Mark your calendars! Stuart Whitehurst, of Antiques Roadshow fame is coming to the Merrimack Valley area on Nov. 18, at the First Parish Church United, 48 Main St., Westford. The Merrimack Valley Rotary Club is sponsoring the show. More details will follow regarding ticket sales - both for appraisals or just coming to watch.

Welcome New President Pat

Pat got his year as president off on a good foot with his and his officers being sworn in at today's meeting. We all wish Pat success in his year as he continues on the legacy left to him by past president Ken.

Our guest speaker this morning was Sgt. Chris Borden of Chelmsford. Chris is back from his assignment in Northern Iraq. Chris explained to us all the positive developments in the region and some of the lesser seen lifestyles of the Kurds.

What a great start to the day!

Jill Lennon - The Rotary Club of The Villages

Jill Lennon is in Florida and has made friends with many Rotarians. The Relay for Life was held Friday, April 24. Over 1000 cancer survivors walked. Jill walked with the Rotary to help raise money for the continuing fight against cancer. The club has almost 125 members; they sold hot dogs and drinks at their booth during the event.

MV Rotary Job Show Continues To Make News

MV Rotarian Bob McDonald, was a guest on The New England Job Show, which is sponsored by Merrimack Valley Rotary. Bob's segment was about getting your finances in order when you lose your job. Also shown is Ajita Perera, show host. The New England Job Show is a show for job seekers, by job seekers. The show has received press from many media including CBS, The Boston Globe, The Associated Press, Public Radio, WHDH, WMUR and much more. For more information about The New England Job Show, go to their blog at thejobshow.blogspot.com or to their web site nejobshow.org.

District Presents MV Rotary With PR Award

District 7910 awarded the Merrimack Valley Rotary Club the award For The Most Innovative Public Relations Project Of The Year at a recent PR Awards Dinner. Shown is Club President Ken Masson (left) accepting the award from District Governor Klaus Hachfeld The project is The New England Job Show, which has received press from around the United States.

Rotary Polio Survivor's Association video

Below is a Rotary Polio Survivor's Association video featuring a past North Carolina district governor.

Kenya medical mission and "Stop Hunger Now

I have two new rotary related posts on my blog, the Chronicles of Carl

http://chroniclesofcarl.blogspot.com/ . One is on my participation in a Stop Hunger Now food packet filling program in Pinehurst NC this Saturday. The other is a presentation I gave at the Southern Pines Rotary club Friday the 13th.

More informaion is also available at http://kenyaaidscarl.blogspot.com/

Rotary License Plates

At the PR event on March 6, Carol Toomey, District Public Relations Chair and District Governor Elect, announced that Rotary license plates may now be ordered for Massachusetts cars.

Information on ordering can be found at the District 7910 web site http://www.rotary7910.org/. Plates must be ordered through Rotary and, at present, are not available directly from the RMV.

According to Carol, a major portion of the proceeds from the sale of plates will go towards the drive to eradicate polio.

Spreading the Word About Blogging

At the District 7910 Public Relations Event on Friday, March 6, Jill Lennon was one of the "speed-speakers" - the topic was Blogging. It was an effective way to reach many people; the speaker remained at a table but every 7-8 minutes, the other table attendees switched. Speakers had 5 minutes to pitch their topic! Let's hope this helps get the blogging interest spread throughout the district! Dan LeBlanc and I are happy to be guest speakers at any club and to present blogging, as well as helping clubs get started.

MV Rotary's Job Show Begins To Come Together

Shown are some of the crew of The New England Job Show as they are editing some of the hours of footage that was taken outside of the studio. The rest of the Show will be shot in the studio at Chelmsford, Massachusetts and will be ready for airing soon. For more information on The New England Job Show write to thejobshow@gmail.com

Chelmsford Man Stays Busy

In case you missed it, we have a new celebrity in our club. Ken was interviewed by the Boston Globe for a Vocational Project our club is currently running to help the unemployed. We've also created a blog for the project http://www.thejobshow.blogspot.com/ and it's listed in the current project on the sidebar.

Here's the Globe link.. http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2009/02/12/life_without_a_job_1234392432/

Planning Begins For TV Show To Help People Get A Job

The MV Rotary is sponsoring the production of a television show that is designed to help people get a job. The show is mostly manned by individuals who are unemployed. The show will be tapped at the TV studios in Chelmsford, Massachusetts and will air on other cable stations around the area. Shown is Matt Scott, station manager, giving the crew an overview of how to produce a show. Stay tuned for updates on this project.

Back From Kenya...MV Rotarian Tells His Story

Late last year, Merrimack Valley Rotarian Carl Good went to Kenya on a trip with 70 Rotarians and non Rotarians to help people in that country impacted by AIDS and other illnesses. It was the largest such excursion in Rotary history. Carl recently made his presentation to the Club about this very special trip. If you want to learn more about Carl's trip (and his earlier trip to Bangladesh) simply type his name in the search widget at the top left of this page.

Rotary Announces This Year's Woodchuck Award Winner!

Dan LeBlanc won this year's Bob McDonald Woodchuck Award.

The Merrimack Valley Rotary honers one of its members with this award each year. The award goes to the member who had the tallest tale to tell during the year. The award is given out at the meeting closest to Ground Hog Day.

Dan won the award this year because of his stories of going into the woods every morning looking for a deer. But never coming back with any evidence to prove it! Congratulations to Dan! Shown is Dan (left) and Bob! Ask Bob how the award got started...he has a tale to tell.

MV Rotary To Air TV Show To Help People Get Hired!

The MV Rotary is sponsoring and creating a television show to help people who are unemployed find work.

The show will be manned by people who are unemployed and will feature experts in the job hunting process giving valuable tips on the challenges that the unemployed face. The show will also give individuals who are unemployed the opportunity to give a 30 second free commercial about themselves in the hopes that an employer will find them and hire them.

The show will be taped locally and will be shared with cable stations throughout the area. There will be two half hour shows each month that will be aired several times throughout the month. For more information contact mvrotary@gmail.com.

Blogging Rotaries Together...One Rotarian's Goal!

MV Rotarian Dan LeBlanc has been visiting Rotaries in the Merrimack Valley area of Massachusetts to promote the idea of creating and linking Rotary Club Blogs together.

Dan's goal is to have all the Blogs linked together for two reasons. First of all, anyone who is researching Rotaries in this area can easily serf from one to the other. And secondly, all the Rotaries in the area can easily keep up with the happenings of each other

Why Blogs instead of Web pages? According to Dan, because Blogs are much more flexible than Web Pages. Articles, photos, power point presentations and more can be easily and quickly added. to the Blog. Plus all members can contribute to the Blog whereas only a few people contribute to the Web page.

So far three Rotaries have created Blogs: Merrimack Valley. Westford and Bedford. Dan has more presentations to come in the upcoming weeks.

MV Rotarian Carl Good Just Cannot Get Enough Snow

There was not enough snow in New England for MV Rotarian Carl Good and his wife so they went where there was more to ski....Aspen Colorado. Carl sent back this beautiful picture.

Rotarians Hear About The Advantages Of Real Estate Investments

MV Rotarians learned about in investing in Real Estate from Nick Aalerud a local Investment Specialist and a licensed Realtor.

Nick said that now is a good time to invest in real estate because of all the foreclosures that are out there. He said that each day 8000 homes are foreclosed on . So the opportunities are there now

According to Nick, real estate investments are secure investments; they supplement your income; they build capital and long term wealth; they provide cash flow and there are tax advantages to such investments.

Nick said that: 'Success comes to those who take action."

Living the Good Life!

Where in the world are Carl and Wendy? In Aspen of course! Don't worry, they'll be back when the snow melts. Looks like they're having a great time.

Bill Gates Talks With Rotary Leaders

Rotary International Ppt Presentation

Here's a presentation we run at many of our events. It gives a brief overview of Rotary and The Merrimack Valley Area Rotary Club.

Rotary International Ppt Presentation

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own.

Career and Business Networking Vocational Project

We're well on our way to creating a monthly networking event as part of our vocational avenue of service. Our goal is to develop a low cost high benefit evening for businesses and people to communicate in a social setting. The response so far has been very positive.

Currently we're looking at locations to hold the event in either Chelmsford or Westford. We've also created a new blog to help keep the communication going between events as well as become a resource tool for job seekers. The site address is http://www.rotaryinmotion.blogspot.com/ . A link is posted in the side bar as well, see Connecting Businesses and People. Future updates will be made on this blog.

The plan is to have a kick off meeting in the 3rd week of February. Subsequent meetings would follow in the 3rd week of each month, from 6 to 8pm. Advertising to businesses, Rotarians and the general public should commence at some point in the next two weeks.

Our Next Event ?

Our members are cooking up some new events for 2009 to strengthen fellowship, create awareness for Rotary and develop funds to support the many programs we're involved with. Want to find out what's cooking with the Merrimack Valley Rotary Club? Sign up for Feedblitz on this page to recieve updates as they occur.

Jill Lennon Joins Merrimack Valley Rotary Club

Jill Lennon, a computer consultant, is the newest member of the Merrimack Valley Rotary. Jill, who resides in Westford Massachusetts, joined the group on December 24. Pictured with Jill is Al Jean, who is presenting her with her Rotary pin. Al is a charter member and the Club's first president. Welcome aboard to Jill....we are very fortunate to have her as a member!