Taco Tuesday, 1/30/24. There were no militia, revolutionary or otherwise, gathered at nearby Lexington’s Revolution Hall on Tuesday evening. Rather, a mildly boisterous band of Bedford Rotarians gathered there for the revolutionary first-ever evening weekly meeting of the Rotary Club of Bedford.
The about-face from the traditional midday meeting, initiated by member Paula Gilarde, was an experiment to see if an atypical evening option would bring together many club members who can’t get to the regular meeting in person or virtually because of work, family, or other reasons.
With coordination help from Club President Al Roscoe and member Christine Pinney, the experiment was a tremendous success. More than 70% of club members and five added guests turned out. The enthusiasm over the gathering cemented the plans for one evening weekly meeting each month going forward. Check out photos from the event - with thanks to photographer Christine Pinney.
President Al commanded member attention for a very brief meeting, announcing the future plan and asking members to take the floor and relate news of recent and ongoing activities. Karen Sun spoke of her experience attending RLI. Diane Ryan gave an update about RYLA and then prompted members, while they visited together, to put some thought into some club-centric questions –
- What ideas do you have for our next evening meeting location?
- What ideas do you have for our next Rotary Day of Service?
- Who could we invite to sponsor our Hope for the Hungry meal packaging with Meals of Hope?
Various ideas were heard being batted around in conversations. More will certainly be appreciated. Put them in an email to bedford.rotary@gmail.com.
The greater part of the meeting-length evening was members enjoying tacos, pizzas, and other fare, plus beverages, and members visiting with members, many of whom had not been face-to-face with one another for months. That time of sharing was the greatest value of the very successful experiment.