Rotations July 15, 2014

President Best Selling Author Sigur rang the bell at 12:33 and warned the assembled members of serious consequences should a cell phone ring. Chuck Spence then led the group in song. In The Good Old Summertime was followed by Sing Out a Song of Rotary. The book slapper It’s a Grand Old Flag completed song making and Joey Rothgery gave the invocation with special mention of the passing of Buck Edmondson. 

School of the Week was Granby Elementary.

Bill Gough gave the visitation report: Morgan Trimyer was not at the meeting because he was at a medical appointment. Buck Edmondson had been very ill and his passing was a blessing. His service is at 4 PM, Thursday, July 17^th at Church of the Good Shepherd on Hampton Blvd.

Dick Lammers introduced our guests, indicating no visiting Rotarians were present.

• Joanne Batson introduced Leslie Van Horn, Executive Director of the Federation of Virginia Food Banks. Apparently Leslie had seen Joanne sneaking off for Tuesday lunches and wanted to see what the big deal was!
• Jennifer Palestrant introduced her husband Chris who is an avid film buff. She called him a something phile but we wanted to keep such terms out of a family newsletter like this.
• Bill Eisenbeiss then introduced Michael Desplaines (who Dick Lammers missed). Mike is the CEO of Norfolk Botanical Gardens and a former GSE team member to India.

President Sigur tried to give George Nottingham his check for winning the raffle but he was AWOL. Apparently he left a big chunk in the raffle since he only had 39% attendance. George, thank you for your generosity. Miss another meeting and maybe President Sigur will put the whole thing back into the kitty!

Announcements:

• Please pick up your Centennial Group picture at the check in table
• Last chance to sign up for Polio Plus Baseball on July 23^rd at Harbor Park
• Condolence card for Buck Edmondson’s family on check in table
• Resolution from Virginia House of Delegates sponsored by Delegate Daun Hester in honor of the Club’s many accomplishments over its first hundred years. (Note that there was nothing from the Virginia Senate.)
• Executive Assistant and right hand lady Jane Dembert will be on vacation through 7/26/14 so blame any mistakes on President Sigur.
• Chief of Police and Rotarian Mike Goldsmith sent a letter thanking the Club for its letter of support of the Police Department
• Long time leave of absence member Pam Tubbs is finally coming back to Norfolk after a long stint at a US Air Force Base in Japan in January 2015.
• District Awards Conference: The Club was awarded the Governor’s Circle Award which recognizes a broad range of contributions and also was recognized for the best website. Past President Susan was recognized with the Outstanding President Award. Well done to Past President Susan and the entire Club for a great Rotary Year! Brava Kellie Dickerson for her restyling and upgrading of our website.

Fines:

• Al Carmichael for phone ringing during Board meeting
• Sharon Laderberg for a successful fund raiser at Harbor Park where Lisa Chandler threw out the first pitch. Plus she was thankful her daughter was home from Israel after spending only two nights in a bomb shelter.
• Lisa Chandler for her first pitch but also for Nancy Chandler Associates selling Linwood Beckner a house.
• Linwood Beckner for buying a house with Nancy Chandler Associates' help. (Is this getting confusing or what?)
• Jennifer Palestrant in recognition of her 20^th wedding anniversary
• Chick Robison in honor of his wife’s 65^th birthday. (It takes a brave man to tell all of us his wife’s age. Look for signs of wear and tear on Chick in coming weeks.)
• Dick Lammers paid up for a new car
• Jim Clary donated because Sentara Norfolk General was ranked #1 in Virginia. His wife works there.
• Dean Thomasson donated for the Club achieving EREY in President Susan’s year. Well-done Dean for leading the way!

And Finally, the Program: We had two speakers, alias Click and Clack (C&C) or is it Frick and Frack? Anyway, Thom Vourlas and Tench Phillips told us all there was to know about independent film theaters from the point of view of the Naro Cinema in Ghent.  The Naro opened in 1936 with a Shakespeare film starring James Cagney among others. (I thought he only did gangster movies.) In the fall on 1977, Tench and Thom took over management of the theater. We note that their fathers were members of our Club and that they have been buddies since grade school. When they took over the Naro, it had been used as an actor’s theater for plays, etc. After interning with Fred Schoenfeld of Commodore Theater fame, Tench was an expert in independent theaters and off they went.

In their years of ownership, a number of watershed events occurred that required them to continually adjust to new realities: Cable, DVD, Blue Ray, Online Streaming and so on. Additionally, over the years the community has rallied to support the Naro by helping fund both repairs to the theater and conversion to digital projection. (Not only did they get community support, the City also ponied up some funds. Maybe these guys need to go to Washington to sort out things up there.)

They have evolved over the years by adding a series of unique offerings such as the Mal Vincent film series each summer (Mal only works in the summer at C&C’s insistence!), the documentary series on Wednesday evenings and a variety of other tailored offerings.  The Mal Vincent series even survived one death of a guest during showing of From Here To Eternity. But the show went on! Monday night is classics night where the viewing public increasingly resemble classics! In general all of their audience comes from an older demographic.

The Naro has become part of the fabric of Ghent since C&C took over management. Restaurants and retail have flourished, and the Naro is so much the center of Colley Avenue activity that the Naro’s marquee is the logo for the Ghent Business Association. C&C tried the movie business at Hilltop but unlike other Ghent retail businesses that moved there, they folded their tent fairly quickly and have since stayed in Ghent.

Independent theaters like the Naro are becoming less prevalent nationwide with many becoming non-profits to survive. The major film companies don’t generally offer most of their films to the Naro (which Tench said weren’t good quality in any case) but they do enjoy booking with more independent distributors and enjoy a good offerings despite the neglect of the majors. The continuing loss of individual film critics such as Siskel and Ebert has been replaced by notice of films via the internet. Locally Mal Vincent is one if the few surviving film critics and his reviews can have  a big impact on ticket sales. (The Mal giveth and the Mal taketh away.)

Another sign of changing times is the demise of the independent video rental store. Locally owned Naro Video carries 35,000 titles and is the only store of its kind locally and becoming something of an icon nationwide. Its competition is Red Box and the younger generation’s phones. Whether the shop will be able to transition from its current aging owners to a new generation is a very real question. There was a suggestion that Norfolk Public Library take over operation at the Naro Video. (Norm Maas, maybe you have a new career in your future!)

There were NO 100% tables.

The raffle had with 52 cards in the deck and $611 in the pot (Thank you George Nottingham.) Joel Heaton drew the 3 of Clubs.

And so the meeting was adjourned.