President Ham Meserve called the June 30 meeting to order on time. After the pledge and the singing of “God Bless America,” Judy deGraw provided the invocation. Dinner was a Chef Kim’s buffet of grilled chicken, hot dogs and burgers with potatoes and slaw. Bill Kautzman ran the 50/50; guest Marcus won the $5 while Anne Hedgecock won the grand prize.

We had many guests tonight: Marcus Packard, a local who now lives in Spain and summers here in the Harbor, Dale Swihart of Ann Arbor, Michigan, past member and past president Neil Ames, Sydney Pinkham from Texas. Member spouses joining were Andy Mutch, Karen Swisher, Helen Meserve, Anne Hedgecock, Annette Stormont and Claudette Curulla. Finally, we had Dave Underhill and his wife Linda. Dave is the District 7780 Governor nominee for 2017-18.

Special events this evening were the induction of new member Fleet Davies, who enhances the club with his many years of service as director of our local, excellent food pantry; and the presentation of the President’s Award to Mike Thompson for all his work to make our barn a reality.

Ham Meserve then made his final proclamations as president: Thanks to Kim Mills for his excellent cooking but also keeping our food budget in line; thanks to all who served on the 2015-16 board of directors; thanks to Jean Huber for her supporting role as club and foundation secretary; John Welsh for his work managing People Power and our building events; Doug Roberts for his work with the bike program; Brian McGrath for this supporting role as club and foundation treasurer; Jonathan Tindal for this work with the Membership committee, and for directing our weekly programs; and finally Bob Goodrich for his support as legal counsel.

At this point, Ham passed the gavel to Tony Curulla, our new club president for 2016-17. Tony thanked Ham for his service and excellent leadership. Finally, Dwight Swisher passed the coveted “Past President” hat to Ham, and thanked him for his skilled shepherding of the club in our transition to having all properties belong to the Club Foundation, and thereby enabling the start of our final large building project: the long-anticipated and desperately needed Barn.

To learn more about Rotary and about our Club and all the good things we do visit our website: www.boothbayharborrotary.org, or "friend" us on Facebook. Prospective members, visiting Rotarians and guests are always welcome to join us at our weekly meetings, held Thursday nights at the new Rotary Clubhouse, 66 Montgomery Road in Boothbay Harbor. Conviviality commences around 6 p.m., dinner is served promptly at 6:30, and we then have a short business meeting followed by a special speaker. The evening ends at 8 p.m.