VOL. 59, No. 40, August 4, 2005
Our meeting was called to order on this day at 11:45 with Alberto Duarte at the helm. First of all I would like to apologize to Hal Askew for calling him Bill in last week's bulletin. I know a Bill Askew from Tuscaloosa and had a typo. Sorry Hal!

Before we started Alberto gave an update on Will Sanderson. He needs our prayers. Duane Williamson is home and needs our prayers also. Hershel then led our blessing and our pledge to the flag. We then dug into Holiday Inn Select Salisbury Steak and vegetables. I hope they got Hershel the recipe to the Tomato Soup.

Our weekly moment in history included the 1922 death of Alexander Graham Bell. He' was recognized by AT&T and Bell Systems by shutting down all of its switchboards and switching stations. The shutdown affected 13 million phones. Louis Armstrong was born in 1901.

Fabiani Duarte was on board with an infomercial on his portrayal of Sonny, The Ladykiller, in "Grease" presented by the Huntsville Community Chorus at the Von Braun Center Playhouse. He also announced the Randolph Optimist Club will have a meeting to plan the year. Clyde Nevins had a grant check he presented to Gerri Miles of Christmas Charities.

The Board of Directors met on Tuesday to plan the pancake breakfast for the Hawthorne Conservatory on August 27, 2005. We need to sell between 800-1000 tickets to make this fund raiser worthwhile. Please go door-to-door, find neighbors, friends and relatives to sell tickets to. Each of us need to try and sell 10 tickets each. A reception will be held September 8th for Jeff Smith at the Hawthorne Conservatory at 6:00 PM to present the grant check. Please everyone who can attend. Everyone attend the business meeting and we'll learn more about what happened at the board meeting. A NOW Banquet is scheduled for August 25 at Mayfair Church of Christ. It is encouraged for us all to bring guests to this banquet. This is a great way for us to recruit new members.

Al Castelli has the programs for the month of August. He got the first week off to a great start by inviting University of Alabama sophomore Rebecca "Becky" Shepard. She is a graduate of Sparkman High School. She was on the team that finished 11th in the nation in a Constitution Law contest. She wants to go into law after she finishes school and become a judge. Thank you Al for having our programs for August and getting the month off to a great start. Dick Dougherty won the attendance prize. We recited the creed and then were dismissed.



MARK YOU CALENDARS FOR SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 24TH. THE ANNUAL PICNIC AT RAY SWAIM'S FARM WILL BE THIS DAY. CALENDAR

August 11		Thursday		11:45 am		Holiday Inn Select		Martha Pullen, Sew Beautiful Magazine
August 18		Thursday		11:45 am		Optimist Recreation Center		Business Meeting
August 25		Thursday		6:30 pm		Mayfair Church of Christ		NOW Banquet Key Speaker: Missy Ming
August 27		Saturday		7:00 am to 12:00 pm		First Presbyterian Church		Pancake Breakfast
September 6		Tuesday		4:00 pm		First Commercial Bank		Board Meeting

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THE NO EXTRA CHARGE
OPTIMIST GAZETTE
Vol. 1, No. 1
My Fellow Optimists,

I will be using this Gazette and attaching it to the weekly bulletin during the 2005-2006 administration. It's purpose will be to keep you completely informed as to the behind-the-scenes work going on in OUR Club, the thoughts and actions of the Board of Directors, progress being made by our hard working committees, important dates to get on your calendar, and other Optimist news that doesn't make it to our bulletin.

Here's the HOT TICKET for this week (and I do mean TICKET):

A PANCAKE BREAKFAST
To Benefit The Hawthorne Conservatory
To Honor the Memory of Jeff Smith
Saturday, August 27, 2005
7:00am until 12:30pm
Fellowship Hall Central Presbyterian Church
$5.00

The above is a reasonable facsimile of the tickets we have distributed to Members who attended last Thursday's luncheon, and to members of the Board. I will be calling all other Members, as well as mailing you tickets to sell, within the next 48 hours.

Beyond making a cash donation to the Conservatory in Jeff's honor, we will, if successful with the PB fund raising approach, accomplish something we have all heard Jeff wish for over the last few years: A RETURN TO HAVING THE OPTIMIST CLUB OF HUNTSVILLE ROLL UP ITS SLEEVES, AND GO TO WORK TOGETHER FOR THE GOOD OF THE CHILDREN OF THIS AREA.

We have help from both the Randolph Optimists, the other Optimist Clubs in the Zone, and the Central Presbyterian Church in selling ticket, but cannot rely on them for all sales. We have ambitiously targeted sales of 800 tickets for this to be worth our while, so get busy.

I don't want tickets returned to me, I WANT MONEY. So if you don't want to eat a fair amount of paper with your pancakes and sausage, SELL. Friends, family, neighbors, co-workers, Church members, etc are all fair game. Plan to be with us on that Saturday to work. Tammy Westmoreland will be putting a schedule of volunteers together within the next few days.

Thanks for listening, something you will get a ton of in the next year.

Your Obedient President-Elect,
Will