VOL. 60, No. 30, May 25, 2006

Pres. Will Dawes called on Al Renz to open today's business meeting with a prayer. Then, of course, we pledged allegiance to the flag. About 20 were in attendance, including our newest member Matt Hancock. Duane Plank will officially install him next week and present him with a new member kit and lapel pin.

A mix up occurred and no one arranged for food today at the Optimist Recreation Center. Tom Casteel called Will just before the meeting from Ottawa, saying he wouldn't be able to provide the pizza. Will conducted a somewhat curtailed meeting, and we all adjourned to eat wherever we chose to. There is a new committee exploring possible future meeting places. If you want to make an input on this, contact Will, Sidney, Rebecca or Clyde. The Downtown Holiday Inn has informed us that they are now charging other groups $12 per meal instead of the $9 we've been paying. If we don't find another suitable facility we, no doubt, are looking at a raise of dues sometime down the road.

Pres. Will announced that although we have acquired several new members, mostly as a result of our last NOW Banquet, our membership is at minus 7 for the current Optimist year. He urges everyone to bring guests who might like to join our club. June turns out to be an especially good time to implement this strategy. Our luncheon programs will feature a series of speakers from the charitable organizations we support (about 3 per week). We'll give each speaker 5 or 10. minutes to tell us how our cash contributions will be used. Buddy Beck has the Community Service checks (a total of $20,000 for 10 organizations), and will send them out today.

We completed our election of officers and board members today. Sidney Sandridge will be President, Connie Gipson 1st VP and Byrom Goodwin 2nd VP. As I understand it Byrom, Rebecca and Clyde will continue to serve their 2nd year of their term on the board; and new board members include Jim Roe, Al Renz and Gay Pepper who will start 2-year terms. Whenever Byrom becomes VP, the board will fill his remaining term of 1 year.

George has agreed to develop a new club brochure. Since the year is more than half over Pres. Will suggested that the new brochure reflect the 2006/2007 slate of officers. Will alerted the members to monitor optimist.com on the internet to learn what organizational changes are being proposed and will be voted on at the upcoming Optimist International Convention in Nashville July 4-8, 2006. Since clubs are allowed one vote for every 25 members, our delegate should be entitled to 2 votes. This will be discussed in detail at our June business meeting. This week June 1 we'll meet at the Downtown Holiday Inn and hear from 2 or 3 of our grant recipients. The fishing rodeo that we supported with a grant will be Saturday June 3 at Braham Springs beginning at 7:30 am. The board is scheduled to convene Tuesday June 6 at 4 pm at Gay's bank.

Zack reported that Al Castelli is well enough to embark on a trek to Illinois for a few weeks. After that we might see him back at our meetings. Fred Binner can be found in Crestwood's Room 305. Martha Sue said he is at his best between 4 and 8 pm. We all signed a card for him today. Hang in there, Friend!

CALENDAR

June 1		Thursday		11:45 am		Downtown Holiday Inn		Grant Recipients
June 6		Tuesday		4:00 pm		1st Commercial Bank		Board Meeting
Carl W.