Member CHRIS CASH provided the program last week. He covered many topics and many points for us to pause and think about. Good program Chris!

―Matt Barney, program chair

Blair Hartman, program chair; meeting at Lew Wilson Insurance Agency NEED ATTENDANCE RESPONSE

LAST WEEK—Chris Cash, program chair

Said called the meeting to order and continued to remind members to be careful when replying to email messages. Know who you are replying to. Could be embarrassing if it goes to somebody other than who you were think it was going to!!! Ellen led us in singing God Bless America and John Rose gave the invo-cation. Jill Martucci, guest of Said, and Celia, exchange student, and Corinne Canastra joined us for this meeting.

After dinner President Said began with an announcement of the special Rotary birthday party meeting in Scotia on Feb. 23 at the Scotia Theater, 5:30-7:30 pm. Blair announced that there are now 4 applicants for the STEP program (Short Term Exchange Program). This does not coat the club any money but the par-ticipants have to be endorsed by the club. Several members attended a District Conference planning meeting in Halfmoon last week. Participants included Said, Blair, Olive, Jerry, and John Tryon. Next planning meeting is Feb. 25 in Rotterdam. Next week’s meeting (Feb. 17) will be at the Wilson Insurance Agency on Main Street (across from Burger King). A sign up sheet was passed around for mem-bers to sign up because an accurage number of attendees is need for the catered meal. Price and meeting time is the same as a regular meeting. Matt did the Sergeant-at-Arms report with questions provided by John Rose. #1.) Which is the only state whose entire eastern and western borders are formed by rivers? (Iowa) #2.) Who was the frist US president born in a hospi-tal? (Jimmy Carter) #3.) Red is the color most common in national flags. Pur-

The Accelerator

2015-16 Theme - Be a gift to the world RI President—K.R. “Ravi” Ravindran

Governor District 7190—Milan Jackson ADG— John Dunne

Predent-SAID YASSIN

President-Elect-RAY GILLIS

Vice President-SUZANNE ZIMMER-

MANN

Secretary-CHRIS CASH

Treasurer-BLAIR HARTMAN

Sgt.-at-Arms-JOHN ROSE

Directors-at-Large

SHANE NICKLE (’15-’16)

LARRYJOYCE (’15-’17

MATTHEW BARNEY (’15-’18)

Immediate Past President-LEO McALLISTER

DISTRICT 7190 ROTARY CLUB #4914

COBLESKILL NEWYORK Chartered April 15, 1924

Charter #1717

P.O. Box 654, Cobleskill, New York 12043

www.cobleskillrotary.org www.rotary7190.org

www.rotary.org

Service Above Self

ROTARY CLUB OF COBLESKILL

February 17, 2016 E-mail cobleskillrotary@gmail.com

(continued on page (Continued on page #3)

Peace & Conflict Prevention/Resolution Month

Polio could be the second human disease to ever be eradicated. Find out more about how Rotary took on the fight to end the di

By Anton Polsterer, past governor of Dis-trict 1910 and past chair of the Intercountry Committees Executive Council

I joined Rotary in Vienna in 1986 and transferred to the Rotary Club of Mos-cow while working in Russia from 1989-

92. After moving back to Austria, I became governor of the district covering Bosnia & Herzegovina, Croatia, Hungary, Slovenia, and Austria. After years of war and totalitar-ian government rule, these communities longed for freedom and peace.

Our district had 130 clubs with more than 5,000 Rotarians. We represented five differ-ent nationalities and languages. Croatia and Bosnia were heavily hurt by the civil war in Yugoslavia in the 1990s. Bosnia and Herzegovina had a pre-war population of 4.5 million people including Or-thodox Serbians, Catholic Croatians, and Bosnian Mos-lems. During the war, close to two million people, almost 50 percent of the population was displaced within their own country to create “ethnic” regions. From the very beginning, we have aimed for ethnic diversity in our clubs, which wasn’t easy after all the displacement.

The real breakthrough came with the Rotary Club of Mo-star (Bosnia), chartered in 2002. The club started many projects in the spirit of tolerance and ultimately succeed-ed in reuniting Rotarians from both the Croatian and the Moslem side of a town divided by bloody conflict and physically separated by the Neretva River.

During the war, close to two million people, almost 50 percent of the population was displaced within their own country to create “ethnic” regions.

The rebuilding of the old stone bridge, which was de-stroyed during the war in order to separate the town’s population into Croatians and Bosnian Moslems, became

an important step in reunit-ing the two ethnic groups. Rotary members from the Mostar club were instru-mental in coordinating and overseeing the project, and eventually organizing the bridge reopening ceremony. In 2004, the opening of the bridge served to promote unity. The bridge itself be-came a national symbol of peace.

I have spent time promoting peace between countries and ethnic groups through Rota-ry’s Intercountry Commit-

tees. These committees aim to implement bilateral pro-jects with a focus on peace building. To form an inter-country committee between two countries, clubs and dis-tricts partner together to get to know each other better and create an environment of common understanding and mutual empathy.

I am asking you, my friends in Rotary, and especially on intercountry committees, to refocus your service projects on peace building. Find opportunities to incorporate peace components into all your service projects. Togeth-er, we can build a better, more peaceful, world.

Read more about the reopening of the bridge in the Feb-ruary 2005 The Rotarian

Learn more about Polsterer’s challenge to clubs on the Rotary Service Connections

Photo: The restored bridge over the Neretva River in Mo-star, a symbol of peace in Bosnia.

Peace is possible: lessons from war-torn Bosnia

DISTRICT 7190 ROTARY CLUB #4914

COBLESKILL NEW YORK Chartered April 15, 1924

February 17, 2016

The Accelerator

"We who in engage in nonviolent direct action are not the creators of tension. We merely bring to the surface the hidden tension that is already alive." — Martin Luther King

Rotary members from Columbia, Missouri, USA, volunteer at a regional food bank. Photo Credit: Courtesy of District 6080 (Missouri, USA)

ple can only be found in two national flags. What are they? (Spain and Nic-aragua) Betsy had the winning 50/50 ticket but did not pull out the winning card. Said introduced and welcomed the guests. We sang happy birthday (no royalty) to Celia who will celebrate her birthday Friday. Member Chris Cash provided the pro-gram for the evening. First he put up a slide showing the home page of the District 7190 website and explained what is contained there. He also noted that all members should sign on to the site and complete their member profile. After that he did a slide presentation/talk about science and provided many

examples of how science helps us pointed out examples of movements not based on science that do influence our ways of thinking and reacting/drawing conclusions to events in our daily lives. Some of his talking points included plant breeding, genetic engi-neering, pesticides, drawing conclu-sions by studying (tracking) two or more events which are not backed up by science. He also pointed that Wik-ipedia is NOT a good source for the truth as anybody can edit it and insert their biases and then the next reader can come along and change that. It is difficult to summarize his talk as he covered a lot of topics. It was a very interesting and informative ses-sion. Thank you Chris!

(Continued from page 1)

Join one of 35,000 clubs

to make a difference in

your community and

around the world.

If every car in the country were white, you would live in a white carnation.

February 17, 2016

The Accelerator

DISTRICT 7190 ROTARY CLUB #4914

COBLESKILL NEW YORK Chartered April 15, 1924

Through the Avenue of Vocational Service, Rotarians contribute their professional expertise and skills to address societal problems and needs, g high ethical standards

Mark Your Calendar Feb. 23—Rotary Birthday Party

6pm Scotia Cinema Family Movie TBA Proceeds to benefit POLIO

Feb. 24—PETS Mar. 18 & 19—Multi-District-PETS Apr. 9—District Training Assembly May 13-15—District Conference June 26—District Changeover Event Razia Jan is the Founder of Zabuli Edu-

cation Center, a school that serves over 430 girls in Afghanistan.

Clubs in Ghana and @USAID International are working to improve water and sanitation in their community.

Rotary International @Rotary · Feb 12 Help us #endpolio forever by donating today. Your donation will be tripled thanks to @gatesfoundation 2-to-1 match: http://endpolio.org/donate

\

FEBRUARY: Peace & Con-

flict Prevention/Resolution

Month (♦ = John) February 17 ― Blair Hartman February 24 ― Matt Barney MARCH: Water and Sanita-

tion Month (♦ = Jeri) March 2 ― Anne Myers March 9 ― Ray Gilis

Are you wearng your Rotary pin today? "I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant." Martin Luther King

DISTRICT 7190 ROTARY CLUB #4914

COBLESKILL NEW YORK Chartered April 15, 1924

February 17, 2016

Attendance Members should attend (including makeups) 60%* of the time devoted for regular meetings. *As amended by 1986 Council on Legislation.

1924-25 George D. Ryder 1925-26 R. Guy Leonard 1926-27 William H. Golding 1927-28 Delwin H. Gordon 1928-29 Leland C. Jones 1929-30 Howard J. Curtis 1930-31 William C. Ruland 1931-32 M. K. VanDeusen 1932-33 Frank H. Ryder *Halsey P. Knapp 1933-34 Seward H. VanNess 1933-34 David W. Beard 1934-35 LeRoy Becker 1935-36 Clyde W. Slocum 1936-37 Kenneth H. Fake 1937-38 Lyman D. Bassett 1938-39 Howard W. Hall 1939-40 Roy G.S. Dougall 1940-41 Leland S. Jones 1941-42 C. Russell Selkirk 1942-43 R. Roy Casey 1943-44 Ray L. Wheeler 1944-45 John M. VanVoris 1945-46 Erwin G. Shaver 1946-47 Allen P. Bradley

1946-47 Ward L. Oliver 1947-48 A.J. Van Schoick 1948-49 Earl Benedict 1949-50 Henry C. Sollman 1950-51 Glenn G. Bobst 1951-52 William D. Firman 1952-53 John O'Toole 1953-54 Clifford G. Fisher 1954-55 Herbert C. Frosell 1955-56 Ward A. Rodwe 1956-57 Arthur Ruland 1957-58 Norman Olsen 1958-59 J. Lewis DuMond 1959-60 Lynn J. Secor 1960-61 Kenneth K. Fake 1961-62 Herbert Willis 1962-63 Loren Rodewig 1963-64 John A. Marks 1964-65 A. 1965-66 Robert B. Proper 1966-67 Donald Gaudette 1967-68 John Shear

1968-69 William Wardwell 1969-70 Robert H. Evans 1970-71 Raymond Aldrich 1971-72 Raymond White 1972-73 Randall Schroeder 1973-74 Milan Jackson 1974-75 Theodore Brinkman 1975-76 Lewis L. Wilson † 1976-77 Howard J. Stauble 1977-78 Albert B. Wohl 1978-79 Terry Keller 1979-80 David M. Brown 1980-81 Elbridge M. Smith 1981-82 John F. Murray 1982-83 John B. Elkan 1983-84 Robert A. Guffin 1984-85 Frank Klein 1985-86 William H. Hollenbach 1986-87 Frank A. Decker 1987-88 John L. Lohret 1988-89 Anthony Lambiase 1989-90 C. Blair Hartman † 1990-91 Michael Vandow

1991-92 Olive P. Scott † 1992-93 S. Najam Razvi 1993-94 Ronald L. Hileman 1994-95 Virginia Oliver 1995-96 Thomas Dinnel 1996-97 Daniel Larkin 1997-98 Samuel L. Cooper 1998-99 Leo McAllister 1999-00 Judith Cary 2000-01 2001-02 John Cutler 2002-03 John Rose 2003-04 Tom Elliott 2004-05 Carl Sand 2005-06 Betsy Bernocco 2006-07 Chris Cash 2007-08 Joe Bernocco 2008-09 Harold Loder 2009-10 Roger Mallery 2010-11 Gerald Robideau 2011-12 Lawrence Joyce 2012-13 Martin Thompson 2013-14 Denise Thompson 2014-15 Leo McAllister †

past

dis

tric

t govern

or

Past Presidents

Vocational Guide THE 4-WAY TEST Of the things we think, say or do 1. Is it the TRUTH? 2. Is it FAIR to all concerned? 3. Will it build GOODWILL and BETTER FRIENDSHIPS? 4. Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned?

Projects

· Exchange Student Program

CRHS Scholarship Troop 5, Boy Scouts Community Projects

Assisting the Needy, Polio Eradication, Gift of Life

Cobleskill/Richmondville Creekway Recreation Path

Adopt-A-Highway

Active Members Matthew Barney Betsy Bernocco ● Joseph Bernocco● Chris Cash ● Lisa Crapser Raymond Gillis Blair Hartman ●

Amy Healy DG Milan Jackson ● Lawrence Joyce Daniel Larkin ● Ellen Leverett ● Harold Loder ● Roger Mallery ● Leo McAllister ● Anne Myers ●

Shane Nickle ● Christy Quinn Gary Rightmyer ● Susan Rightmyer ● Gerald Robideau ● John Rose ● Olive Scott ● Allen Smith ● Becky Stanton-Terk

Bonnie Tryon John Tryon Jeri Usatch Michael Vandow ● Lewis Wilson ● Said Yassin ● Susan Zimmermann Edward Zuchorski ●

(●)=Paul Harris Fellow (○)=Paul Harris Sustaining Member (P)= Past District Gover-nor

Exchange Student Inbound Celia Cunado Gutierrez Exchange Student Outbound 2016-17 Julia Galasso

The Accelerator

*Served as club president elsewhere.

Registration is now open for the World Water Summit 8 in Korea. Sign up today. http://on.rotary.org/WWSkorea #Rotary16