January 21, 2015 Minutes

In attendance: Some are here, some are not, and summer’s coming.

 

We were led today by our own P.I.T. (President-In-Training) Ali Barry.

 

Quote:

 

“Whether we want to or not,

the new year will bring new challenges;

whether we seize the or not,

the new year will bring new challenges.”

                                                - Michael Josephson

 

Our esteemed greeter was Jen who was fined a dollar, 25 cents for each of the four people who arrived prior to her.  Ali reminded all future greeters that they need to arrive first or bear the wrath of Ali and a 25 cent per person fine.  At this point in the proceedings the Sergeant-at-Arms informed the PIT that she was talking too much which is duly noted.  Greeter next week is Dr. Turner Lewis.

Your faithful and diligent scribe this week is me (Ross) to be followed next week by scribe extraordinaire and all around good guy, Jerold (Jerry to most of us) Goldberg.  The list is alphabetical for those keeping score at home.

Guests (all under the age of 18 so we kept things PG):

Tristam – Reminded everyone of the Honduran coffee project.  He is researching a question from Toni which I didn’t hear as people were yakking at our table.  Sorry Tristam.  If you make the announcement again, I will pay a fine for our yakkers (and you know who you were).

Dan – Reminded everyone that we need volunteers for the 3:3 tourney concessions at which point two volunteers to co-chair concessions emerged: Carmen Derby and Jill Terrell-Ouazzani.  As a reminder, the date of the tourney is March 14.

Tristam – As he couldn’t remember when he had the floor, he stood again and mentioned attending the 15^th anniversary of Pure Water of the World which was held in New Hampshire.

Carmen – She reminded everyone of the awesome service that the United Way provides: tax preparation services for people in need (below certain income levels).  She asked for assistance in distributing flyers.

PIT Ali – Mentioned that she is diligently preparing to be president by attending PET (President Elect Training) sessions.  It sounds like great fun.  Ali also mentioned that we will be holding members more accountable for attendance.  General guideline is attendance at least 50% of meetings though you can get credit for meetings by attending other club events.  Just show up was the takeaway as we miss you when you aren’t here (though I am one to write).  Attendance can be tracked on ClubRunner (CR).

Ali also mentioned later in the meeting but I am putting here, where it belongs, that we will not have a Trivia night in February.  This will be a topic of an upcoming club meeting so that we can reorganize and regroup.

 

Scott bragged for his thespian son Matt who will be appearing in ‘Jack and the Devil’s Three Golden Hairs’ as the Devil himself.  Scott reports that Matt is a natural for the role.

Jon bragged for daughter Alexa who, on a school outing, saw a dead and coyote-ravished deer by the side of the road with her teacher and classmates.  The teacher proceeded to drag the deer to their destination where the teacher demonstrated skinning and gutting skills, yielding their venison lunch.  (This ended the eating of breakfast at most tables for which there should have been a fine.)

Josh bragged for the NECCA clown class he attends, a Hanukkah gift from his wife.  It provides stress relief and exercise and is helping Josh be more of a clown than he normally is.

Turner bragged for the celebration in his home of his son’s 42^nd birthday which coincidentally was attended by said son and Turner’s daughter and family.

BRAG OF THE YEAR – Jill made a “Belly Brag”, announcing that she and her husband are expecting their first child in July. 

Jim bragged for a mini-vacation trip to Boston with his wife.  They went to the symphony and the Gardner museum as Jim was too impatient to wait for the Goya exhibit at the MFA.  More importantly, Jim was able to use his Verizon app to watch the football games on his smartphone, meaning his wife drove home while Jim had a good time.

Drew bragged (1) for his cross country trip during the holiday season which ended in Arizona and (2) for going to Missouri to get Rescue’s new ambulance.  He also mentioned that Rescue is 50% towards their fundraising goal to purchase new cardiac monitors. 

Dan followed all of these brags by bragging about his annual snowmobile excursions.  Children were still in the room at this point so Dan wisely spared us any details.

Ali bragged about her daughter who is in driver’s ed and will soon be scattering people off sidewalks everywhere.  Her daughter is also going to China on a school trip, preparing for the SAT’s and looking to leave the womb as she is getting ready to look at colleges.

 

Birthdays – Ralph (in hiding), Tristam and Jim were serenaded by the Sunrise Singers.

 

Cards – After 19 years of buying cards, Jason won today’s pot of $24 with the four of clubs.  This means his cumulative return-on-investment, adjusting for inflation (something the Patriots don’t do) is -3,481%.

 

Bowl of Life – This person, who was in attendance but left and then returned to explain herself, appeared in three productions of The Nutcracker as a child.  The guesses were Ed (yah, right)-Sandy L-Jen-Marcy C-Jim who was given a club list which he read from until he hit the winner, Sadie.  Sadie appeared in The Nutcracker as part of the Cincinnati Junior ballet program.

 

Speaker – Toni took the speaker spot to explain how, once again, to post meeting minutes in CR. The directions can be found in CR as follows:

For those of you who don’t want to do all of that but still need the directions, here they are:

 

When you log in it will bring you directly to the Admin page:

 

1. Click on Edit Stories (under website manager).

 

2. Next click on Add New Story. Give the Newsletter a Title (I usually use the date of the mtg), then copy and paste the newsletter into the Brief box.

 

3. Scroll to the bottom of the page and under Show In section check Home Page as NO and Bulletin as YES

 

4. Click Save and this should bring you back to the Stories page.

 

5. Next click on the Admin tab, scroll to the bottom of the page and click on email bulletin to members and follow the confirmation prompts..…that should do it. (you can view the bulletin first if want to)

 

Dan reminded us that if you are typing directly in CR rather than cut/paste, you run the risk of timing out and having to start over.  Josh thanked Toni for her patience with our technical brilliance and reminded everyone about our Facebook page.  Sadie reminded everyone that CR has a lot of good and useful information, not just the minutes.  Jon suggested that everyone should get on CR at least once before our next meeting which Dan suggested was like being asked to drive on the freeway in LA.  Damon showed that there is an app for CR available.

 

Once we had beaten this topic to a pulp, Ali put an end to the meeting at 8:25am.  A good time was had by all or so I was told.