Todd Trueblood of the Appleton Breakfast Club was introduced and welcomed as a new member of the committee.
Busey reported that the shipment to Dr. Stoughton in Zimbabwe has been sent, and will leave the Port of New York on March 15th.
Busey thanked Jeff Knezel for his ongoing support and assistance with the project. She also thanked Barb Kelly for her help setting up email communications and recording committee business, and Don Sturtevant for his excellent account of the history of SAMP, which has been and will continue to be used in many situations.
Sturtevant moved approval of the Mission statement reading as follows: "SAMP, sponsored by District 6220, works Rotary-to-Rotary offering medical and other humanitarian supplies, by providing materials to improve the quality of life for people in developing countries." Kidder seconded the motion, which passed unanimously.
Stutevant moved to change the name of the committee to "Sharing Around (the World) Medical Project". Otteson seconded the motion, which passed unanimously. Kidder will explore graphic design possibilities for a new logo. It was suggested that once we settle on a new logo we get stationery printed. The potential to promote our work by having stickers printed for the packing containers was noted. Once we have a new ‘look’ we will consider all of the ways to incorporate it into our work.
Busey has contacted Eric Paulsen who is very supportive of the project and wants to help in whatever ways he can. He is willing to coordinated the development of committee contacts within each district 6220 club. He also knows a person who is a grantwriter and who may be able to assist us in that.
Possible future shipments: Jim Schultz of the Rhinelander Rotary Club has received District funding for another shipment to Russia. Carole will explore options and provide what assistance we can to his project. She will also keep in touch with the Vermont Club that we worked with on a recent shipment to Pakistan. There is funding left from their grant through the American Consulate in Karachi to possibly send another shipment. There may be a delay in our ability to ship supplies to Nicaragua via the Wisconsin Nicaragua Partners of America. They don’t actually ship as often as we thought, and we would rather not let supplies sit there unshipped for months when they could be sent elsewhere. Busey will keep this possibility in mind and try to coordinate sending them supplies closer to their next actual shipment.
Terry Frost from Goodwill has volunteered to help us find better shipping options that those we have been using. This is a very complicated process, and his assistance is greatly appreciated.
We have had good showings at packing sessions lately. That is possibly due to greater visibility of our efforts, and we need to continue to work on keeping our club and the other clubs in the district aware of SAMP activity. Our acquisition of medical supplies is also quite robust lately, with many significant donations. It is important to get shipments out asap as storage is costly and in short supply.
Ram Shet shared a list of volunteers from the IndUS of Fox Valley organization who have offered to help with packing in alternate months, starting in March. The group is comprised of many people with medical expertise who will be of great value in sorting and categorizing items. Thanks to IndUS!
The group suggested it would be a good idea to have a Saturday packing session some time in the near future to get more members involved. Busey will explore.
Meeting adjourned at 6:30 PM.
Next meeting will be Tuesday April 15, 2003 at 5:30 PM at the Appleton Public Library, lower level meeting room.