2/1/2016 - Mid-Year District Dinner at Fireside Inn

5:30-8:30PM  $35

Club Presidents, Presidents-Elect, and Vice Presidents should be sure to attend. Others welcome.

 

2/20/2016 - World Peace and Understanding Dinner at Marriott Sable Oaks

Cocktails 5:30  Dinner 6:30  $45

Francesca Giovannini will be the speaker.  Francesca is a program officer and staff director for global security and international affairs for the International Security and Energy Program at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in Boston.  Her work focuses on nuclear disarmament, arms control and regional nuclear cooperation in Southeast Asia.

 

3/19/2016 - Rotary Leadership Institute - York County Community College, Wells ME - Info at http://www.rlinea.org/

 

4/2/2016 – District Assembly at University of Southern Maine.

 

6/10-6/12/2016 – District Conference at Tarry-A-While Resort, Bridgeton

Thanks to the hard work of our members, our tree sale was a big success again this year.  Special thanks go out to Steve Rand for leading the way. While net proceeds are down slightly from last year due to some one-time expenses, income was up a healthy amount.  We are well positioned for next year. 

 

Also, we raised over $170 for the food pantries.  This money will be sent with our match this week.

 

Great work all!  

The Reverend Dr William Chadwick, otherwise known as VP Bill, was our speaker on December 22^nd.  He presented a topical and interesting program that was a prophetic and scientific examination of the Star of Bethlehem. He examined several quotes from scripture in conjunction with re-creations of astronomical phenomena in the night sky. In addition, he discussed prophecies familiar to the magi of Babylon which tie in with many aspects of the Christmas story.

 

The Babylonian magi were religious scholars who combined astronomy and astrology in interpreting dreams, visions and cosmic events which lead them to look for and eventually follow a bright conjunction of planets (Venus & Jupiter) towards their west in 2BCE.  Likely, there was a triple conjunction (two planets coming close together three times in a short period of time), making the cosmic event even more significant to the magi.  Interestingly, Venus has been called the Mother Planet and Jupiter the King Planet.

 

Johannes Kepler, a German mathematician, astronomer and astrologer discovered laws of planetary motion around 1609.  Using those laws, he could calculate sky maps for any day in history and set out to recreate the night sky at the time of the Jesus’ birth, using the death date of King Herod as a guide. These re-creations found that there were significant planetary and star conjunction events in both 3 BCE and 2 BCE which would explain the magi’s intense interest in the skies over Judeah and their belief that something important was happening in that direction (the birth of a King). Of course, their journey led them to Jerusalem and ultimately to Bethlehem, a small village that was known for raising lambs to be used in the Passover sacrifices each year.

The speaker assignment list has been posted on our website. Look under Site Pages, Program Assignments. Please let Christine Johnson know as soon as you can once you have secured a speaker or if you need help securing a speaker.

 

Dates in January are just around the corner and we'd like to have these slots filled before the next Scribbler is published.  Thanks for your assistance in providing a great mix of interesting programs for our meetings.

 

Here is the list for the first quarter: