The Rotary Club of
New York
July 6, 2003
Fellow
Rotarians,
People have
often asked how I became a Rotarian, I will tell you about it. I had been an
Affiliate at the United Nations in New York for eight years. Wolfgang Fuerst,
who had retained me for the UN, one day asked me if I could help his friends
out. Wolfgang told me that his friend desperately needed to use a computer in
his business, but he was computer phobic. He asked me if I could help his
friend over his phobia and find him the kind computer he needed. When I first
met Wolfgang’s friend, I tried to be as non-technical as possible and only
brought a pen and a notepad. I only asked general questions about what he
needed the computer for, was he going to use it at home, did he need to use the
Internet? After I received my answers, I told him that I would be back one week
later with the computer he needed.
When I returned
next week to Wolfgang’s friend, I brought with me a laptop computer with
Microsoft Office and AOL installed. Ten minutes later, Wolfgang’s friend was
surfing the Internet for the first time and never looked back. The name of
Wolfgang’s friend is Greg Lynch. He was so happy about my help that he took me
to lunch a couple of times and then asked me if I would like to join Rotary.
That’s how I became a Rotarian.
At our next New
York Rotary meeting on July 8th, which is President’s Day Greg Lynch
will be inaugurated as the 90th President of our legendary Rotary
Club.
Greg is a
native of Boston, Massachusetts and a descendant of Irish immigrants who came
to escape hunger. While in Boston, Greg attended Boston University and received
an A.B. in economics and film. After
that, he started a media production company. He was later recruited into the
U.S. Peace Corps and served two years in Chile. Greg has also been educated at
the University of New Mexico; University of Virginia and Harvard Law School
where he received a J.D. Greg was also educated at the Free University of Brussels
and The Hague Academy of International Law. He is a member of the bar and a
licensed insurance broker in both New York and Massachusetts.
Greg’s
international career started at the United Nations in Geneva. He moved on to
private law practice in Buenos Aires and New York. He also served as an
official of the UN for over ten years. After that Greg went into private
practice as Principal of the Quincy Adams Group, insurance brokers and
consultants, and maintains a law practice related to employment benefits. If
this was not impressive enough, Greg is also the author of a number of
scholarly articles and monographs.
Above all,
Greg joined the Rotary Club of New York in 1994. You can read more about Greg
Lynch and President’s Day in the latest Bulletin at http://ussterilizer.com/bulletin_07-08-2003.pdf
(click on
the link).
Our District Governor David Sullivan (we call him Sully) wrote the
following message to Greg:
President Elect Greg,
Thank you for your kind invitation to your installation on July
8, 2003. As a matter of course and due to scheduling I have been unable
to attend most of the Club installations. I cannot see my way clear to
missing yours. I will arrive in NYC on Tuesday morning @JFK around 8:30 AM and
will proceed to the city. If possible I would love to have a tour of your
Club’s Office as well. I may also take the opportunity to make an
official call at the UN.
LEND A HAND
SULLY
Our District 7230 is an international Rotary District that
includes both New York and Bermuda. Sully is our first District Governor from
Bermuda in approximately 20 years. Sully is of Irish decent like Greg, so this
year we have both an Irish President and an Irish District Governor (something
to remember for our next St Patrick’s Day). Greg and Sully are also members of
the Group Study Exchange Committee. Even though Sully was born in Brooklyn, he
has lived in Bermuda for many years and is now a Bermuda citizen. Here is
President Greg’s reponse to Governor Sully:
Dear
Governor Sully,
Your
message was read with much satisfaction. It will, indeed, be a great
honor and pleasure to have you with us as the leadership team of NY6 is
installed on July 8. Please let us know how we may be of assistance
to you during your visit. Also, please let us know if you will be
accompanied by an aide. As you are well aware, NY6, in recent
years, has grown in its spirit of support for and co-operation
with District 7230. We are gratified that you will be joining the
"family" for this occasion.
Best
regards,
Greg
Lynch
NY6 is the nickname in Rotary for the Rotary Club of New York,
because we are the 6th Rotary Club to be founded out of the now
existing 30,000 Rotary Clubs.
Last week’s Transition Day was a festive event that concluded outgoing
President Silvio Amori successful term. Silvio summed up and shared credit for
the club's many accomplishments during his year in office by presenting a
number of awards and handed the gavel to incoming President Greg Lynch who
presented him with a Service Above Self Rotary clock from the club as an award
for the past year. You can read more about
Transition Day on our website at www.nyrotary.org/president_silvio/transition_day.htm.
There is a list on our website with the names of the members, who received
awards from Silvio. You can find it at http://ussterilizer.com/recognized_2002-03.pdf.
I received the following e-mail from Past President of Rotary
International Frank Devlyn:
Dear Matts:
It is good to see the NYC Rotary Club growing
& moving. Please convey my congratulations to Silvio for bringing in
50 new members in his year. Now we have to keep on growing & keeping
these new members as well as the older ones in Rotary.
The many accomplishments mentioned are
all something to be very proud of. I know that Greg Lynch will keep up the
momentum. You have a legendary club that has to be an example to others
worldwide.
Your Amigo,
Frank Devlyn
Frank is again creating awareness, so that President Greg can take
action. As you can see, Frank reads our newsletters and follows the activities
of our legendary Rotary Club with great interest.
Last week, I told you that we had grown our
membership from 185 to 207 members. Since then I received a message from Silvio
informing me that the membership is now 217 and not 207 any more. What can I
say? Our membership has been growing by leaps and bounds.
John German, who is a new Rotarian, has written the Reporter of
the Week in the Bulletin. Thank you John for a great report about Transition
Day. John is also at work helping us to find used computers that we can send to
schools in developing countries.
Our Traveling Ambassador Bill De Long is 82
years old (or young). In the last two years alone, Bill has traveled alone to
Kenya, Mongolia, Russia, Chernobyl and the South Pole and with his example made
good PR for the Rotary Club of New York. In between his trips, Bill helped out
at Ground Zero after 9/11. Bill, who is a New York Mets fan, is only home
during the baseball season. Unfortunately for Bill, the Mets are not doing so
great. The only time I heard Bill get annoyed, was when I asked him how the
Mets were doing. On the more sunny side, Bill received Rotary International's
Service Above Self Award at our last meeting. District Governor 2002-2003 Bob
Benson presented it on behalf of the Board of Directors of Rotary International. You can read more about
Bill and his award on our website at www.nyrotary.org/bill/index.htm.
The Bulletin
announces the birthdays for Lilian Coury on July 4th, Helmut Fischer
on July 9th, Kurt Leopold on July 11th, Herbert Missry on
July 20th, Achim Moeller on July 21st, Heinz Leichter on
July 24th and Mary Fischetti on July 27th. Happy Birthday to all of you!
I wrote last week:
“For those, who don’t know what a ukulele is, think of it as a
very small guitar with only 4 strings. It is mostly played in eccentric places
like England and Hawaii.”
Shortly thereafter, I receive the following response from Mike
Fagan, who is President of the Rotary Club of Amwell,
District 1260 in Hertfordshire in England:
Dear Matts,
Let me introduce myself. I am the incoming President of the
Rotary Club of Amwell [District 1260 - Hertfordshire in England]. I have been
receiving your newsletter since I sent our Club's salutation immediately after
9/11, when I was Club secretary.
In this week's news letter you printed an article about the
ukulele - the purpose of this e-mail is to point out that we over here on this
side of the pond, whilst having a number of eccentrics, some of whom play the
above mentioned musical instrument, do not regard ourselves as a nation of
being more eccentric than others; describe us eclectic yes- eccentric no!
{I suspect Hawaii would also feel just as indignant as we].
If you want to see how conventional we are, visit our web site:
http://www.amwellrotary.org.uk/
Greetings to all of you and all your readers.
Have a good new Rotary Year
Yours in Rotary
Thank you Mike for your response. I appreciate
that you read my newsletter. I also like the type font that you used in your
message. It is very unusual, even though I would not dare to call it eccentric.
Whether England is eccentric or not, I do like it very much. I spent two
summers in Weston Super Mare (near Bristol) when I was a teenager. So far, I
have not heard any complaints from Rotarians in Hawaii.
Natalie Hahn recently retired from the United
Nations, where she handled funds donated by Bill Gates and Rotary
International. She sent me the following message:
Dear Matt,
My special appreciation for this marvelous
newsletter and the Rotary inspirational news.
I will request a renewal membership in the
Rotary New York Club. It would be an honor to join you.
With my best regards,
Natalie
Dr. Natalie D. Hahn
President
HahnAssociates
Thank you Natalie and welcome back to our legendary Rotary Club.
Natalie is now President of HahnAssociates. Not only do Greg and I share our
Rotary Fellowship with Natalie, we also share with her a history with the
United Nations.
Last week, I included a message from Lou Di Paolo. In follow-up to
that message, Lou sent me a new message:
Matts,
Thanks for printing Helen's Habitat letter. In
the sentence I
asked Lou, Clarence Plummer and Matt Salerno to become involved and connected
them to Habitat's Executive Director. There is a missing
name; Saul Anton also served on the committee. If possible,
could you add his name in the sentence? It is the right thing to do.
Thank you Lou! Let’s make sure that Saul gets credit for his
service.
Even though
the average age of the members (at the Rotary Club of New York) is now reduced
from 56 years to 52 years. There is still a risk for heart attacks at that age.
I have therefore included the following e-mail that came to me last week via
e-mail from Past President Helen Reisler. It could save somebody’s life:
HOW TO SURVIVE A HEART ATTACK ALONE
If everyone who gets this sends it to 10 people, you can bet that we'll save at
least one life.
Let's say it's 6:15 p.m. and you're driving home (alone of course), after an
unusually hard day on the job. You're really tired, upset and frustrated.
Suddenly you start experiencing severe pain in your chest that starts to
radiate out into your arm and up into your jaw. You are only about five miles
from the hospital nearest your home; unfortunately you don't know if you'll be
able to make it that far. What can you do? You've been trained in CPR but the
guy that taught the course neglected to tell you how to perform it on yourself.
Since many people are alone when they suffer a heart attack; this article
seemed to be in order.
Without help, the person whose heart stops
beating properly and who begins to feel faint, has only about 10 seconds left
before losing consciousness. However, these victims can help themselves by
coughing repeatedly and very vigorously. A deep breath should be taken before
each cough. The cough must be deep and prolonged, as when producing sputum from
deep inside the chest. And a cough must be repeated about every 2 seconds
without let up until help arrives, or until the heart is felt to be beating
normally again.
Deep breaths get oxygen into the lungs and coughing movements squeeze the heart
and keep the blood circulating. The squeezing pressure on the heart also helps
it regain normal rhythm. In this way, heart attack victims can get to a
hospital. Tell as many other people as possible about this, it could save their
lives!
From Health Cares, Rochester General Hospital via Chapter 240s newsletter AND
THE BEAT GOES ON ... (reprint from The Mended Hearts, Inc. Publication, Heart
Response)
Don't forget
to reserve your table for our next meeting. You can reserve via e-mail to our
office at ny.rotary@verizon.net, or call Andreas or Ana at 212-633-1311. You
can also fax in the RSVP form, which you can download at http://ussterilizer.com/rsvp_07-08-2003.pdf. Our fax number is 212-633-1954. At our next meeting,
the culinary staff at the Princeton Club will serve us Sea bass.
I recommend
that you visit our New York Rotary website every week at www.NYRotary.org.
Rotary is about having fun
and do good things!
Internet
Communications Division
The
Rotary Club of New York
Chairman
Group
Study Exchange
Rotary
District 7230
Ambassador
The
History of Rotary Project
This newsletter has also been posted on our
website at www.NYRotary.org.
In order to read the
PDF file of the Bulletin-on-the-Web, you need Acrobat Reader Version 5.0 or
later. If you don't have Acrobat Reader, you can download Acrobat Reader 6.0
for free from the web at:
You can find the
following interesting websites at:
1.
New York
Rotary Club at www.NYRotary.org/.
2.
The History of Rotary at
www.rotaryhistory.org/
3.
Rotary District 7230 at www.rotarydistrict7230.org
4.
District 7230 Group
Study Exchange Project at www.nyrotary.org/GSE7230/
5.
Rotary
Youth Leadership Awards at www.rotaryryla.com
6.
Rotary
Radio every Tuesday 5-6 PM EST or 2-3 PM PST at http://12.162.161.64/cart/ProductList.asp?SearchFor=Rotary+Radio&x=36&y=6
7.
Matts
Ingemanson, Helen Reisler and Jim Thompson from the New York Rotary Club were
interviewed on Rotary Radio Tuesday July 9, 2002.
http://12.162.161.64/cart/ProductDetail.asp?PR_ProductID=329
You need Windows Media Player to listen to
Rotary Radio. Windows Media Player is included with Windows Millennium and
Windows XP. If you use Windows 95 or Windows 98, you can download Windows Media
Player for free from Microsoft.
Click here to download Windows Media Player