It's that time again. Another Bulletin. The first one of 2010. We've had two meetings so far and things are pretty rambunctious. But first a couple of important announcements.
Next Monday, January 18th, the Maspeth Club will be hosting the monthly divisional meeting at 7PM at O'Neill's. It's very important that we get a good turnout to show everyone the strength of this club. Please try to make every effort to attend and support Nunzio and your other officers.
The Mid Winter Conference in Ellendale New York is coming up on March 4th through 7th. Nunzio, Tina and Joe DiTroia are already signed up. This is a great way to get really involved in Kiwanis and learn what it's all about, so if you can, think about going. Talk to Nunzio for further details.
Finally the International Convention is in Las Vegas this year. June 24th through 27th. Colin Powell will be the keynote speaker and, more importantly, Jerry Mathers, yep that Jerry Mathers, the Beav from Leave it to Beaver will be there. Word is that he's not so cute anymore, but that's probably just jealously. Anyway, this is an important convention because New Yorker Tom DiGiulio is running for International President. He gets one shot at this, so New York wants to turn out big time. If you'd like to go to this, talk to Nunz or Dave. This will be a fun one.
Now, onto business. We had a lovely board meeting January 7th at our favorite watering hole, the Onderdonk House. They turned on the heat and showed off their very best Victorian Lamps and Christmas tree. Take a look:
Its a lovely room, and how about these two guys getting Illuminated?
The food was good, thanks Dave et. al., the camaraderie was good -- well perhaps a little bit too good:
and, of course, what would a meal be without wine?
Well, at least some of us had a good time, though eating off the floor of an ancient house might be somewhat questionable and that's no shaggy dog story:
Oh yeah and we actually had a board meeting, but you can read all about that in Dave's meticulous minutes. Or given where we were, should that be Minuets? Bad Mike. Anyway, if you were there you had a great time. If you weren't, shame on you. But we forgive you anyway. Some of the discussion was contentious; believe it or not we can be a cantankerous group, but every body went away happy. Mostly because we forgot to collect happy dollars. Let's have more meetings like that. 2009 was a baaaaaad year. But not for the Kiwanis Club of Maspeth. We collected a record amount of money and did a lot of really good things and Nunzio is keeping up the tradition. He has big plans.
Oh and we had our first ever special raffle drawing. As you should know by now, Nunzio has instituted a new plan whereby at every board meeting we draw a ticket from all the tickets that have been sold and the seller of the winning ticket gets a free raffle ticket. Since we missed the November Board meeting we drew two tickets and the winners were Maryanna Zero and Ken Rudzewick. So we put two new tickets in there for Maryanna and Ken. Two more chances to win. You too might be a winner but you've got to be in it to win it, so sell those tickets and send them to me before the next board meeting. So far we've sold a $1050 worth of raffle tickets, so we've still got a ways to go. Sell them early and often.
Moving on to today's meeting, Thursday, January 14th, we had a nice crowd of 14 members and two guests. Webb Schott was there with his blushing bride, Janina. Welcome Janina. We all hope you can tame Mr. Webb. If I were a betting man, oh well, I'm not. I'll leave that up to Jimmy. Michelle Masone was there today and got to give her first happy dollars. Oh happy Day. IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT: Michelle is our new Auction Chair and she's called for a committee meeting on Tuesday January 19th at the Masone offices, 5 PM. Please come and join this important committee. If we spread the work about we'll have another successful auction without breaking everyone's back (or chops).
We also had as a guest, Mr. Salvatore Croce of Croce Entertainment. Mr. Croce would like to partner with us to help raise funds. He gave us several different ideas which we will discuss at the next board meeting.
We also had to do a little business. After determining that we had a quorum, we voted and passed two motions. Jimmy O'Kane moved that we take a table for $300 at the Moose Lodges' Italian Night on January 23rd. It was seconded by Joan Sammon and passed unanimously. We now have 10 tickets to this affair and only 4 takers so far. If you'd like to go with us, please call Nunzio Russo at (917) 626-6069.
We also needed to pass a payment of $100 for the Circle K Club of St. John's for their reinstatement fee to Kiwanis International. The club is now viable and going strong, but they are not allowed to get at their funds from St. John's until they are reinstated, so time is of the essence. Tina DiTroia moved we pay it, Joan Sammon Seconded and it too passed. We should be very proud to have these great kids joining the Kiwanis family.
Lou Bekios announced that we 3 more interclubs to make: Jackson Heights, Rockaways, and Richmond Hill Woodhaven. He will get out a schedule by the next bulletin and maybe we can knock them out. If you've never interclubbed, please thing about doing this. We'll have a great time.
Nunzio announced that we will most probably be assisting the Girl Scouts with a glasses drive. The girls will collect them and bring them to us and we'll turn them over to the lions. If you have any old glasses lying around, please save them for this drive.
Speaking of Girl Scouts, Angelo Russo was selling Girl Scout Cookies today. He sure looked cute in that little green dress and sash. If you need some cookies, please call him. They'll be delivered in March.
And in other Angelo Russo news, he and his wife Andrea are expecting their second child in July. Angelo said he'd been working hard, but I expect that it will be Andrea who does all the difficult work. Congratulations Angelo and Andrea. The kid will have lots of Kiwanis God Parents.
Finally, the editor unashamedly plugs his 17 year old son's Trumpet Recital. It's free, it's fun. It'll be Sunday January 24th at 1PM at the Ascension Church at P.S. 101 Queens in Forest Hills Garden. 2 Russell Place. Forest Hills. Contact, Lisa or me for directions. It's a short concert featuring works by Haydn and Kennon. Come on down.
Well I'm exhausted and you are too, so tune in next week for yet another Bulletin.
Cheers.
Michael Terry
