Coming up

Don’t miss the big event – the 60th annual Rotary Auction will be taking place this Saturday, Aug. 5! Join us at the Boothbay Common for the best stuff you can find anywhere, with all proceeds going back into the community and to people in need.

New studies in leadership training

Dr. Rachel Clapp-Smith gave an informative talk July 27, sharing new insights into global leadership development. Modeled similarly to a TED Talk presentation, she gave an overview about how we are leaders in various domains in our lives: as parents, as spouses, as employees, and in our community. In the academic world, there is focus on integrating our roles in all these domains to make a more complete person.  Understanding the integration of our skills between these environments cannot only make us more effective leaders, but help with that sometimes elusive “work-life balance.”

Rachel is currently an associate professor of leadership in the College of Business at Purdue University Northwest in Indiana, but is a longtime Mainer, having summered here since she was a baby. Rachel is a Bowdoin graduate, followed by an MBA from Arizona and a Ph.D. from the University of Nebraska.  Her first examples of leadership and community service came from her mother Linda who is currently a member of the Boothbay Harbor Rotary Club.

Rachel engaged the group with an exercise where we drew a picture or symbol that showed our vision of leadership.  She then projected images from past seminars where we could “see” how others interpret leadership. From this exercise it was obvious that we all have our own theories of good leadership, based on our personal values and experiences. Interestingly, we tend to follow leaders who match our prototype. Without getting overly political, Rachel alluded to this as perhaps being part of the political divide we are now experiencing in this country.

There were many good questions from the Rotarians in attendance, centered around leading vs. following, the need for mentoring, and the importance of leadership development early in life. Rachel concluded that personality per se is not a predictor of good leadership, and that many people don’t claim leadership until they are nudged into it by their environment. Leadership can be encouraged and developed.

Club business

Guests for the evening were Maren and York Fischer, soon-to-be-member Dan Parrott, and frequent guest Marcus Packard. Summer Rotarians Sid Allen and John Skoglund were welcomed back, with John also winning the 50/50. Bob Jacobson won the larger draw. 

Announcements were many:  Debbie Graves needed help with a bike request and always-ready Vic Taylor leaped for the opportunity. Debbie also solicited additional workers and bakers for the pre-Auction set up breakfast at the clubhouse Aug. 4 at 6:30 a.m. ALL Rotarian workers and as many helpers as they can corral are welcome to partake.  Dwight Swisher informed us that our R.I. president wants every club to embark on some sort of climate-related project. Dwight has some ideas and would like 2 or 3 others to bounce around ideas with him, which will then be presented to the board. Speaking of climate, President Jonathan reminded us to be good stewards of our air conditioning system. The controls are easy: on or off!

Griff Winthrop updated us about the Red Sox evening. District 7780 had already set up a Rotary night for Sept. 13, with 200 left field grandstand seats being reserved for our district.  He and Billy Dodge are going for sure, with remaining hope for a bus if we can partner with other clubs nearby. 

Margi Spratt and Henry Wyatt then updated us about Auction #60, the big event being just days away. Rick Elder has procured two 20-foot box trucks to help transport from the barn to the Common on Friday, all hands on board. Parking during the Auction will be a challenge but there will be a shuttle from the Y running from 7:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday. Margi and Henry are remaining cheerful about the myriad challenges we will encounter this year as the surrounding construction will make this an Auction “like no other.” Let’s make this the best Auction ever!

Exciting news is the generosity of local business partners who are helping underwrite the cost of the Auction. The following sponsors have contributed a total of $3,750 towards the overhead: AC Midcoast Storage, Boothbay Harbor Country Club, The First National Bank, Hodgdon Yachts, J. Edward Knight Insurance, Making History Matter, Paul Whitehead Jr. and Tindal and Callahan Real Estate

Sergeant at arms Bob Pike collected the Happy Dollars. Mike Thompson was happy to share that his letter to the editor of Down East Magazine praising Big Al’s previous Auction support was recently published.

Dwight was thankful for his radar during fogging boating, Jonathon was thankful on his fourth wedding anniversary even thought wife Jessica had left him that morning (just a vacation!). There were many additional thankful dollars for everyone’s contributions towards Auction prep, and for staying cheerful in the process. Rotarians are people of action who really do have fun along the way.