Looking Back

November 1, 2019

The Bennington Rotary Club has a history that can be remembered in many ways. The stories of long time members, old photographs, archives and old newsletters bring back the past. Thanks to Kathy Sollien who has stored much of the club's past in her office basement, I was able to look at some earlier newsletters. Seeing the few that I did makes me eager to see more.

From the few I examined from 1958, 1961, 1969 and 1977 it would seem that they were one page, double-sided weekly papers, discussing projects, events and speakers. They listed members who were in attendance and those who were absent. They also listed guests.

There was a standard page for each issue of the image of The Windmill which had a Roster of the Members on one side of the pictures and the Committees on the other side. Underneath the picture of the windmill was the list of officers and directors and the four clubs where members could make up missed meetings.

Apparently, every member was on a committee. The two major committees were Club Service and Community Service with all the other committees as sub-committees of those two committees. International Service and Vocational Service were under Community Service. Most of the other subcommittees were similar to what we have currently except for Attendance, Classification, Student Guests, and Deer Park.

One of the more interesting columns in a 1977 newsletter was an interview Oakley Frost had with an English Rotary Scholar at Bennington College who noted the regionalism of the United States compared to England. Oakley clarified that by this he meant polarization. However, the young man noted it was probably due to the size of the country and was not that serious.

Author: Sally Sugarman (Club Member & Windmill Editor)
Windmill