Scedule for the Day, Northern Essex Community College Retirement, Fundraiser for the Danvers Library

ESSEX HAPPENINGS, TUESDAY, JUNE 8, 2010

As noted in a posting a couple of days ago, I do not work a regular schedule during the summer, but I will be in the office today, and it will be busy day. I am not even sure if I can get to all of the commitments that I have made for this single June day, but I am going to try to play a role in every scheduled meeting. In my next posting on Friday, June 11, 2010 I will provide a report on the details of the various meetings, and anything that happened that I did not anticipate on this hectic day, but for now I thought that I would provide a outline of the day with a couple of pertinent comments.

• As always, I will begin my day early at a local gym where I will workout as I do on most days.
• At 7:30 am I will attend for at least a portion of the meeting, a board meeting of the Boys and Girls Club of Greater Salem. The work being accomplished by the leadership and the staff of the Salem club are very important in the lives of many youngsters in Salem, and after a brief hiatus from this effort, I recently rejoined this Board. I look forward to continuing to work with them in the future as they continue to serve the youth of Salem. I will need to offer apologies later today, as the time just did not allow a trip however short to Salem this morning, and to still add this post to the Essex Happenings BLOG.
• At 8:30 am, I will participate in the Board of Trustees meeting of the Essex Heritage Commission held at the North Shore Chamber of Commerce in Danvers. This regular, every other month meeting is important as the twenty-five community leaders who serve on the Essex Heritage board provides direction to the Commission as we continue to act on advancing our mission in this region. We will have a new Trustee who we will be introduced this morning who will then take his place on the board and will fulfill the unexpired term of a Trustee that had to submit his resignation. I will provide some additional information on that new Trustee and other actions taken at the meeting in a subsequent posting.
• From late in the morning when I arrive at the Essex Heritage office in Salem, I will spend whatever time is available to catch up on communications and other administrative issues.
• At noon, I will attend one of the most important meetings of the Salem Rotary Club that they schedule all year. On this day, the club and its Scholarship Committee will provide over two-dozen scholarships to the leaders of tomorrow who have graduated in 2010 from local schools and who live in Salem. I was privileged to be a part of the Rotary Scholarship Committee that helped evaluate the applications we received and managed the $40,000 plus dollars that will be provided today. Today’s meeting is special to the students and their parents who also attend the meeting, and the location of the meeting is equally special. Our usual Rotary meetings are held at the historic Hawthorne Hotel, and the meetings are always very impressive, but today through the generosity of the Peabody Essex Museum, this meeting will be held in the famous East India Hall at the Museum. I would suspect that this is a ceremony and a lunch that will be remembered by the scholarship recipients and their families.
• I would suspect that I will be back to the office for a couple of hours after the Rotary meeting, and will use the time wisely to check up on a few more administrative issues with staff.
• At 3:30 pm, this afternoon we have scheduled an Essex Heritage Nominating Committee meeting. Chairman Sumner Jones who after a long career with Eastern Bank and who now is serving as a Trustee for Essex Heritage will preside over that meeting as our Nominating Committee Chair. As a Trustee, I am pleased to serve on this Commission standing committee. This is the first time in many years that we have scheduled a Nominating Committee meeting this far in advance of the Essex Heritage Annual Meeting but we have found the waiting until September each year is too late, and gathering committee members in the summer is sometime difficult. We have called this group of Essex Heritage Commissioners together today and will present potential new Commissioners to the group. We will also seek their input as we continue to try to diversify the commission by color, sex, professional experience and geography. I expect we will have to have a second meeting before the Essex Heritage Annual Meeting in October 2010. We expect that this meeting should finish at about 5:00 pm.
• At 6:00 pm this evening, both Annie Harris and I and several members of the Nominating Committee will head to the Hawthorne Hotel where the Governor of the Commonwealth, Deval Patrick will be the dinner speaker at the twenty-second annual meeting of the Salem Partnership. This annual gathering is always a highlight of the business calendar in Salem, as the Partnership has always been a leader in activities in this community. I still serve as Chairman Emeritus of this group and my partner at Essex Heritage; Annie Harris was the Executive Director of the Salem Partnership before filling the same role for Essex Heritage. I suspect that the dinner meeting will last until about 9:00 in the, so today will be a long but fruitful day.

Northern Essex Community College

We recently learned that the President of the Northern Essex Community College, David Hartleb has announced that on June 30, 2010 he will retire from that position. David has been a wonderful contributor to the success of the college and many other organizations in this region, including the Essex National Heritage Commission. David who has held the position of President of the Northern Essex Community College since 1996 also served as a Trustee of Essex Heritage for three terms totaling nine years, and for the last two years has been an Essex Heritage Trustee Emeritus. During his years at the college he has presided over a dramatic 43% increase in enrollments and an increase in the number of minority students at the college to a record 35% of the total student body. His association with Essex Heritage has been wonderful and we wish him all the best as he enters this new phase of his life where he wants to spend more time with his two grandsons who live in the mid west.

Peabody Institute Library in Danvers

Tonight if you get a chance, a visit to Kelly’s Roast Beef on Endicott Street in Danvers between 5 and 8 will result in a contribution to the reconstruction of the Children’s room at the Danvers Library. Kelly’s has agreed to contribute 25% from the proceeds of sales during that time to the work being done at the library. The Children’s Room at the library has not been updated since 1982 when it was first created. There have been several fundraising efforts undertaken in recent months including a pancake breakfast sponsored by the Danvers Kiwanis Club, and other efforts. If anyone wishes to make a personal contribution to this effort checks can be sent to the George Peabody Society/Children’s Room Renovations addressed to the Peabody Institute Library, 15 Sylvan Street, Danvers, MA 01923.

As always we value your comments, questions and observations about the work of Essex Heritage. Please contact me with your thoughts or any questions you may have at www.essexheritage.org. We are always striving to make Essex Heritage work as effectively as possible and your input and suggestions are always welcome. We can always provide more information and better communication, and one of the goals of these postings on Essex happenings is to provide that opportunity. Thanks You. Tom Leonard