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OPTIZETTE
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VOL. XXX, NO. 072203 ¨ ERIKA KIRTDOLL, PRESIDENT ¨ DIANE BASS, EDITOR ¨ P.O. BOX 63 NILES, MI 49120 ¨ JULY 22, 2003 |
DATELINE: Tuesday, July 22, 2003. President Erika Kirtdoll opened the meeting and asked our guest Bill Bruinsma to give the invocation and lead us in the pledge of allegiance.
INTRODUCTION OF GUESTS: Dana Trowbridge introduced his guest Bill Bruinsma, Vice President of Standard Federal Bank. Welcome Bill! President Kirtdoll also welcomed back Jon Martin who has relocated back to this area and will be joining with us again. And welcome to new member Jack Arbana who will have his member installation in the near future. Welcome All!
BIRTHDAYS/ANNIVERSARIES: Bob Nemeth celebrates his birthday today. Dave VanStrien will celebrate his birthday on July 24th. Happy Birthday Guys! Mark Whittaker’s anniversary is on July 23rd. Happy Anniversary Mark!
BRAGS: Butch Harrison bragged that his wife is doing great after her kidney/pancreas transplant surgery. Continued good health wishes go out to JoAnn Harrison! President Kirtdoll bragged on a great race at the Venetian Festival this past weekend. She said that Optimists Susan Coulston, Derek Middleton, John Armitage, Robert Rhynard, Osceola Skinner and John Willis helped bring about a perfect outcome for this timing event. John Willis even brought along three or four volunteers from the Whirlpool Corporation. There were 811 registered runners. John Willis bragged that the race officials were very happy with our work. John told us about a story in the Herald Palladium that seemed to indicate there was some controversy about the race results. In the end they were able to say there was no controversy, just a runner listed in the wrong category because he decided to do the 5K run in the middle of the race instead of finishing the 10K run. Everything worked out great at our first Venetian Festival run.
ANNOUNCEMENTS: Sgt. At Arms Andrew Plym has been hospitalized for a respiratory illness. He is due to be released from Lakeland, St. Joseph Hospital on Saturday. Send him a card or email him at
AJP11123@aol.com. David VanStrien announced that Duck Race tickets and money were due to him now. He needs to get all the tickets and money in to do an accurate accounting. Please contact Dave to get the tickets and money to him at dvanstrien@skyenet.net. Tom Majerek announced that we will be building a new club in Three Oaks. He is looking for anyone who knows someone in Three Oaks who may be interested or have business relationships there to help them get off the ground. Please contact Tom if you know of anyone in Three Oaks that may want to become an Optimist member or who may be able to supply names of other interested people. Tom can be contacted at tommajerek@aol.com. Robert Todd announced that we have programs for all of August. We need to schedule programs for every Tuesday in September, except the second Tuesday. Please contact him if you have a guest speaker in mind. President Kirtdoll announced that the next Optimist Board meeting will be held on August 11th at 5:30 p.m. Also, please note that there will be no noon meeting on Tuesday, September 2nd in observance of Labor Day. She also would like Optimists to mark their calendars for September 30th which is the date of our annual Optimist Banquet. There will also not be a noon meeting on that day. The new president Liz Capron takes over the helm on October 7th. President Kirtdoll also announced that we need volunteers to help with the Dragon Boat Challenge during Riverfest on Saturday, August 2nd. At this point we have 11 teams ready to go. We need people there to help suit teams up in life jackets, help with timings and other work that needs to be done in the booth. Please contact her to commit some part of the day to the Dragon Boat races. She can be reached at urbanl@qtm.net. We very much need members to commit to helping out in this endeavor.
50/50 RAFFLE DRAWING: Dana Trowbridge conducted the 50/50 raffle. Don Boyer took home the pot two weeks in a row! Congratulations Don!
GUEST SPEAKER: John Armitage told us that his daughter-in-law from Texas, Jeannie, was to speak to our group regarding the PILOT health care program that is taking place in Berrien County. However; Jeannie rescheduled because the head of her department will be flying into the area and will talk about the privately-funded project at our noon meeting on August 26th . John asked that we please get more folks to come out to our meeting on that day. Also both John Armitage and Don Boyer told a couple of amusing stories about our more "mature" citizens (formerly called The Elderly). Both stories were great fun!
Michel Listenberger told the group about the recent trip he took with the JOOI Club to the international convention in Kansas City, MO. Nine JOOI members from Niles spent four days in the city. The kids cooperated well with each other. Sarah Ganum entered the impromptu oratorical contest and did an excellent job. Steven Rhynard served as an audio person for one of the events. The kids had a wonderful time. There were about 200 young JOOI members at the convention. Mike then talked about the adult side of the convention. He said that new programs in leadership development were unveiled and that there was a whole development curriculum for incoming officers. The best presenters led these interactive training programs. Mike talked about the move to expand the program to 50 certified trainers. He also said that all delegates get to vote on making policy decisions to the Optimist International Constitution and Bylaw amendments. He outlined some of the policy changes that were approved including: JOOI Clubs members became official members of Optimist International; The president of JOOI will set on the Optimist Board representing 17,000 JOOI members; The recognition of a collegiate class of membership; Dues increase of $4 and a restructuring of the dues and the creation of a new website at optimistleaders.org, which among other things will allow us to pay dues online. Mike said that the organization is moving forward and will continue to progress under the new president-elect for Optimist International, Dwayne Seavers whose theme for next year is "Yes We Can". We are thankful to Mike for his efforts to attend these conventions and bring back such valuable information to our group. Hats off to Mike Listenberger!
CLOSING CREED: Don Boyer led the group in reciting the Closing Creed at the end of the meeting.
If you’d like to see previous issues of the Optizette visit our site at
www.nilesoptimist.org or visit the international site at www.optimist.org. Don’t forget the Niles JOOI Club site is www.jooi.org .
THOUGHTS FOR TODAY:
"Never ruin an apology with an excuse." Benjamin Franklin (1706 – 1790), philosopher and statesman
"The Road to Success is a toll road. Pay that small, daily fee and you’ll be able to go most anywhere you want. Leave some time for fun, and you’ll enjoy the ride" Steve Goodier, Writer
"Wisdom is knowing what to do next; virtue is doing it." David Starr Jordan (1851 – 1931) Ichthyologist and educator
TODAY IN HISTORY: July 22nd
1796: Cleveland was founded by Gen. Moses Cleveland.
1933: American aviator Wiley Post completed the first solo flight around the world in seven days and 18 ¾ hours.
1937: The Senate rejected President Roosevelt’s proposal to add more justices to the Supreme Court.
1943: American forces led by Gen. George S. Patton captured Palermo, Sicily.
1946: Jewish extremists blew up a wing of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, killing 90 people.
1975: The House of Representatives joined the Senate in voting to restore the American citizenship of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee.
FAMOUS BIRTHDAYS: July 22nd
Anthony Kennedy, Supreme Court Justice (1936)
Bad Gangadhar Tilale, Indian nationalist (1856)
Raymond Chandler, Novelist (1888)
Sir Richard Rogers, architect (1933)
Vladimir Prelog, chemist (1906)
Pee Wee Reese, baseball player (1918)
DAILY JOKE:
And In A Year I'll Be Five
A man escaped jail by digging a hole from his jail cell to the outside world. When finally his work was done, he emerged in the middle of a preschool playground.
"I'm free, I'm free!" he shouted.
"So what," said a little girl. "I'm four."
WHO AM I?
I was born on this day in 1892. I ruled Ethiopia for nearly 40 years.
WHO AM I ANSWER:
Haile Selassie I was the last emperor of Ethiopia. Among his accomplishments were a major land reform, emancipation of slaves, and a revised constitution that provided for universal suffrage.
