ROTARIAN’S WINE APPRECIATION FELLOWSHIP

October 22, 2012

Dear Members,

This newsletter will serve as our annual “Goals” statement.

The focus of this year’s efforts of the Rotarian’s Wine Appreciation Fellowship will be four-fold. First, we will attempt to disseminate as much information about wine, wine and food pairings and other wine related topics as we can so that our own appreciation of good wine and food will be enhanced. Second, we will encourage more active participation by all members in the Fellowship, including the continued formation and growth of local RWAF chapters. Third, we intend to host two wine dinners at the RI International Convention in Lisbon, Portugal.  Fourth, we need to get the Fellowship better organized with more members involved. We are getting quite large and the administration needs to get larger and more diverse.

Specifically our goals for the year are:

1. Publish at least 8 newsletters. These will be sent to all current members for whom we have correct email addresses. Please inform us of any changes in your contact information. We will send back issues upon request and they are also available on our website.

2. We have continued our exhaustive effort to confirm our membership and have deleted all those members who have left Rotary, are deceased, contact was impossible and/or those who no longer have interest and/or have not paid their Annual Member dues. We will continue to update contact information as we receive returned emails but we need your help and cooperation. If you intend to change your preferred email address, please let us know. And, when you do change your address, please list our address in your approved address book so that there is less chance that your SPAM filters will reject our newsletters.

3. We will be sending out invoices soon to our Annual Members. We do not enjoy doing this but it is the only way we know to confirm that only those that are truly interested in belonging to the RWAF receive our newsletters and other communications. We do not need a great deal of money to run the RWAF but the extra money we raise can go not only to improving our service to the membership but to doing more international service projects, including our continued support of End Polio Now.

4. Update our website (www.rotarywine.net) and keep it fresh with new information. We encourage members to send us articles, comments, announcements of upcoming events, stories of event successes and any other information that would be of interest to our membership. We will post these on the website and/or include them in the newsletters. We are also looking at using other software to help us administer our Fellowship and the use of other social networking tools. We are in the process of setting up a committee to handle the website and other social networking. If you have the experience and interest in helping with this work and/or with the website, please let us know!

5. Participate in the R.I. International Convention in Lisbon, Portugal, June 23-26, 2013. Host a booth in the House of Friendship. Plan our annual wine dinner, open to all members and their guests on Sunday evening during the convention. Plan our Lifetime Members Only dinner on Wednesday night of the convention. Please book your convention reservations early so you will have less chance of a conflict with the Opening and Closing Ceremonies.

Our annual meeting will be held at the convention center at a time yet to be determined. The following convention will be in Sydney, Australia, and we will be planning events there, as well. As always, your comments and suggestions would be appreciated.

6.      We are also hoping to do a wine tour during the year. Our RWAF members in Lebanon invited us to attend their Rotary events there, including wine tours last year. I was not able to attend but hopefully some of our members did. Contact Ron Farra about future events there. Unfortunately, there will not be an event there this year due to the political unrest. We look forward to future events there and in other wine growing areas around the world.

7. Increase our membership. All of us know at least several Rotarians that would enjoy being members of our Fellowship. We added about 100 new members during and after the Bangkok convention and we have many letters of interest that we are following up. We presently have over 1,200 members from 50 countries. Appoint Country/Zone Coordinators to foster membership and represent the interests of the RWAF.

8.      Our By-Laws for the RWAF are now complete but we need to keep them up to date to reflect current activities. We need to finish our 501C4 application for US Tax Exempt Status.

9. Encourage members to form local RWAF chapters that meet several times during the year for fun and fellowship. These local chapters are encouraged to accomplish service projects as yet another way to extend our Rotary service. New chapters are being planned in India, the US (Minnesota, Texas, North Carolina, California), Lebanon, Russia and hopefully several other locations.

10. Do humanitarian service projects. We contributed RWAF funds for Matching Grant projects in Ghana, Nepal, Lebanon, Armenia, Botswana, Haiti and India.

Fellowships were encouraged to help Rotary meet the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation PolioPlus challenge grant. We have already sent in over $95,000 to TRF from the RWAF for PolioPlus and we are in the process of sending in the remaining funds to meet or exceed our $100,000 goal.

11. Prepare and publish an annual financial statement and adhere to all the rules and regulations that Rotary expects of all Fellowships. The 2010/2011 financial statements have just been completed. Last Rotary year’s financial statements (2011/2012) are being worked on and will be emailed to all members as soon as they are complete. Our financial condition is very healthy.

12. We will mail Lifetime Member corkscrew pins to any current member that requests one. It costs considerably more than regular mail because of the shape and the required hand stamping. We would prefer to hand them out at the various meetings or to send them in quantity to our local chapters for them to distribute. We treat these pins, perhaps the coolest pin in all of Rotary, the same way that we do Paul Harris Fellow pins. You must be a Lifetime RWAF member to have one. A Lifetime Membership is for a couple, even if they are both Rotarians, but there is only one pin given. If you lose your pin or want one for your spouse, they are available at $5.00 USD each.

13. Provide value for our membership dues. By the end of this year we hope every member will have learned a little more about wine appreciation and will feel that belonging to the RWAF has been well worth their modest investment.

14. Have fun. Learning more about any hobby or personal interest should always be fun, but enjoying a good glass of wine over a good meal with family and friends and knowing more about what made this particular pairing of food, wine, people and setting so special, can be memorable. Whenever we mention the Wine Appreciation Fellowship we see smiles and it seems that wine appreciation provides a common language among Rotarians.

These are ambitious but achievable goals for this year. Suggestions and comments from any member would be appreciated. We can add other goals if we want and/or need to.

Dues: If you are an Annual Member and have not sent us dues within the past year, they are now due, $20 for Annual Membership and $100 for Lifetime Membership (no annual billing, special corkscrew pin, invitation to Lifetime Member Only events). You can join or renew online although you will note that Pay Pal charges a small “convenience” fee. If you became an Annual Member from April 1 until now, you have an option to upgrade to Lifetime Membership at any time this Rotary year (i.e. until June 30, 2013), simply by sending in the difference ($80 USD). Use the membership form available on the website as a transmittal so we have your current contact information. Thank you!

 Calendar of Events:

In this section we want to publicize any upcoming events that either the RWAF or local chapters are planning. An annual calendar will be maintained on the new website.

June 23-26, 2013: Rotary International Convention in Lisbon, Portugal. Register early so there will be less chance of a conflict between our dinners and the opening and closing ceremonies. We are planning to have perhaps the best convention experience we have ever had for RWAF members! In addition to our normal two wine dinners, we are scheduling events on every day, including a day or so before and after the convention. We may even be allowed to serve wine samples out of the booth in the House of Friendship, since one of the focuses of the convention seems to be promoting Portuguese wine and other attributes. Our next newsletter will outline our plans.

New RWAF Matching Grant Project: We have been very fortunate in having Claire Larson, president of the Estoi Palace International Rotary Club in Faro, Algarve, Portugal, as our principal point person in setting up our RWAF events in Portugal. To further that warm working relationship and to encourage our members to attend the Lisbon Convention, we have submitted a new Matching Grant application, the successful completion of which we hope will be celebrated at the convention.

When I asked Claire what their most critical need was in their area, she responded, “Food!” - and that her club was working with the local volunteer Food Bank of the Algarve to assist them in procuring all sorts of donations that would enable them to expand their operation to better meet the needs. A refrigerated truck will enable them to go to the outlying areas to collect fresh produce from grocery stores and farms to improve both the quantity and quality of the foodstuffs they could distribute to the poor. This is a $53,000 project. The Portuguese RCs need to raise $10,000 and the rest of the world needs to raise $18,677. Members of the RWAF and our clubs have always been supportive and generous in helping us accomplish significant projects in the past and we would greatly appreciate any and all contributions to MG # 78003. My Grapevine RC has committed $5,000 and our D-5790 has agreed to contribute $5,000 in DDF to the project. Note that all contributions will be credited to every donor, their clubs and districts. The project has not yet been approved by TRF but we anticipate that shortly. Please let me know what you and your clubs can do to help.

Recommended Value Wines:

As we continue to do, we will list about ten value wines with each newsletter. These are wines from around the world that are readily available in many markets, are rated by some “expert” as being at least 88 points (out of 100) and which cost $20 USD or less. We would appreciate any additions suggested by any member. We feel that no matter what type of wine you enjoy, you ought to be able to find a good one at a reasonable price.

Year	Name of Wine	Specific Designation	Type	Cost	Rating	Note
2006	Querceto	Tuscany, Italy	Chianti Classico Reserva	$13	90	WS
2009	Argiano NC	Rosso di Montalcino, Italy	Toscano	$19	93	WE
2008	Chateau Ste. Michelle	Canoe Ridge, Horse Heaven Hills, WA	Chardonnay	$20	90	WS
2010	Framingham	Marlborough, NZ	Sauvignon Blanc	$12	90	WS
2009	Matetic	San Antonio Valley, Chile	Sauvignon Blanc	$16	90	WA
2010	San Pedro	"1865" Leyda Valley, Chile	Sauvignon Blanc	$14	91	WE
2010	Vina Montes	Leyda Valley, Chile	Sauvignon Blanc	$10	90	WE
2005	Wakefield St. Andrews	Clare Valley, AU	Riesling	$20	92	WA
2008	Rocky Gully	Frankland River, AU, dry	Riesling	$10	90	WS
2010	Seghesio	Sonoma County, CA	Zinfandel	$19	90	WE

A Few Special Wines:

Year	Name of Wine	Specific Designation	Type	Cost	Rating	Rater
2007	Marcarini	Brunate, Piedmont	Barolo	$35	94	WA
2004	Aramis	McLaren Vale	Syrah	$33	94	WA

WS =  “Wine Spectator”

WA = “Wine Advocate” (Robert Parker)

WE = “Wine Enthusiast”

CCH = Not yet rated, my score

We will always appreciate your comments and suggestions. You are receiving these newsletters because you are members of the RWAF and publishing a newsletter is one of the duties of a Rotary Fellowship. If you would like to discontinue receiving these newsletters, please so indicate by return email and you will be removed from our address list.

Thank you for the continued opportunity to serve!

Conrad C. Heede, PDG

President