November 5th meeting :
We met on a drizzly Fall day in Holy Family Church Hall . President Lois Parmelee called the meeting to order. After a tasty lunch and socializing, we heard announcements (see upcoming events section below). Tim Gendron shared a joke and Happy Dollars were collected. We welcomed two guests – Tony Morgan and Peter Gray.
Our guest speaker was Mark Walogorsky, a teacher and the director of the EHS STEM Academy. Mark gave a very entertaining presentation about Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) and how different generations have experienced the digital age. He described some modern advances which are useful but not really A.I. such as calculators, email filters, automatic thermostats, cruise control, as compared to examples of real A.I. such as chatbots, facial recognition, predictive text and autocorrect, streaming, navigation apps and fraud detectors. These A.I. programs learn patterns in data and use it to produce new outputs that resemble the training materials but aren't copies. He stated that A.I. will definitely be part of our future and that the use of A.I. will only increase with time. He demonstrated with several photos that because of the many advances, A.I. generated photos will become harder to detect. He suggested those interested in exploring a couple of fun A.I. programs try out Quickdraw at https://quickdraw.withgoogle.com/data?authuser=0 or Dalle at: https://dallefree.ai/
ANNOUNCEMENTS/ UPCOMING EVENTs
Our club members are very involved in community! If you’d like to see your upcoming event posted in the newsletter please contact Donna Johnson by the 5th of the month.
Events which support Rotary goals and committees will be included since our participation is a way to boost our presence in the community.
The Environment Committee participated in the Window Dressers Community Build of storm window inserts used to cut energy costs. Contact Greg Morgan for more information.
Rally for Healthcare Justice will take place on November 8, from 3;00 - 4:30 pm at Five Corners.
Wood4Good Volunteer opportunity on November 22nd from 9-12. We will be working on the woodlot in Jericho , on Cilley Hill Road. Sign up here if you’d like to help: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0A4EACAD2CABFEC70-59835390-rotary?useFullSite=true#/
Pickle For Prevention, a pickleball event, will be held at The Edge on W. Twin Oaks Terrace on November 22 to raise money for suicide prevention. For more information go to https://pickleforprevention.eventbrite.com
Operation Warm - Winter Coat distribution to schools in Essex Junction, City of Essex, Jericho, Underhill and Westford . Dec 4-Dec 11. See Max Seation
Bell Ringing /Red Kettle Collection for Salvation Army - Dec 5-Dec 6th at Price Chopper in Essex and Essex Discount Beverage. Shifts are 2 hours each, starting at 10am and ending at 6pm. Signups will be available soon. Contact Donna Johnson
Senior Holiday Luncheon at Champlain Valley Expo - Dec 10,2025 . Last year we served 200 meals to Seniors . Contact Bob Mulcahey