Vero Beach Elks #1774

In order to keep our members better informed of what is going on in the Lodge, please find below the minutes of the House Committee meeting  on July 28th. Although we have 13 members on the Committee, you are welcome to attend the next meeting. We can always use more help, such as cooks, serves, greeters, selling 50/50 tickets etc. You will be advised when we have the next meeting. Hope you find these minutes interesting and helpful.
Les Owen
Acting House Committee Chairman

Les Owen, Acting House Committee Chairman opened the meeting at 6:35 pm.

Les asked the question: How do we get more members to attend our events and volunteer? In other words, more participation.  Some of the suggestions were as follows:

1. Give more advanced notice of our events. List all events and menus for at least one month.
2. Send out a mailer to the 187 members who do not have an e-mail address. The Board is working on this.
3. Review our pricing, particularly our liquor prices. Dennis Ryan requested we get the liquor banquet pricing from the Lodge Treasurer before discussing this matter.
4. Jack Houlihan suggested we send out an e-mail to the members asking them to give their opinion on what  they feel we should do to increase membership participation. It was agreed we would do this. Les and Jim Wilson will work on the mail content.
5. At each of our events we should  consider having questionnaires on the tables which would cover the same information requested in the e-mail.

COOKS: We need more cooks. Right now it is agreed we have 8 cooks. They are;
Ray Foley, Al Glatz (for Bingo), Vic Marsiglia, Al Klager, Peter Budelli, Jack Houlihan, Rose Tufano, and Les Owen.

For Friday nights it was agreed that Al Klager will cook the 1st and 3rd Friday of each month, Vic would cook the 2nd Friday of each month and Peter would cook the 4th Friday of each month. This program will start in September when Al returns from vacation.

Les then asked what we need to do to get young people into the Lodge?
It was suggested we consider doing a dinner once a month for kids offering hot dogs, mac & cheese. This is still up for discussion.

Les stated we need 13 people to sign up to be on the House Committee. He got his 13 names and the Committee is now set up. The names will be announced in the next Elk’s Tale, if not before.

Les stated that we need to review everything to see how we can increase the participation of the members.

Meeting adjourned at 7:30pm

Respectfully submitted,

Jim Wilson

On July 5th through July 11th, Vero Beach Lodge 1774 sent 11 deserving children, ages 9 through 13, from area schools to the award winning, 405 acre, Florida Youth Elks Camp in Umatilla, FL. This wonderful camp is accredited through the American Camp Association, provides a 2 to 7 staff to camper ratio and maintains a dedicated infirmary staffed with registered nurses.

Everyone loaded up on the bus at the Lodge Sunday morning and prepared for the 2 ½ hour ride up to the camp. We watched a movie on the way and stopped for a quick lunch at “Mickey D’s” before our arrival at about 11:30 am. All the children were signed in, given a tee-shirt, hat and camp water bottle. They were then escorted to the air conditioned cabin where they were going to spend the next week with 7 other children from around the state and one counselor. The week was full of canoeing on the property’s lake, swimming in one of the camp’s large pools at the Bates Aquatic Center, state of the art ropes course, the nightly camp fires!

Our return trip was Saturday July 11 and we arrived at the lodge at about 12:30 pm to a parking lot of anxious and excited parents. The children performed several songs and cheers they learned at camp and I could tell all the parents were touched as they were filming with their cell phones. To say the least they all had a good time and many say they will be returning next year.

There are many to thank starting with the volunteers. Margaret Hearndon provided the lion’s share of work in contacting the children and parents that would benefit from this program. Additionally, she arranged the physicals for those who needed them done and chaperoned on the trip too! Michelle Klager who worked with Margaret and the children in getting the applications in as well as chaperoning and raising funds. Craig Waskow for all his help in logistics and chaperoning along with his wife Pat. And last but not least, Jane Burton who has helped chaperone the past two years on our bus rides.

None of this would be possible without the generosity of several of our caring members, Lodge 1774 Charities and the Irish Committee who stepped in to fill the gap. Thank you all so very much.

I am proud to be a part of this charitable endeavor and Lodge 1774 and I look forward to Camp 2016!

Dan Danaher
Youth Activities Chairman