VOL. 61, No. 23, March 22, 2007

This week, Thursday March 29, we'll hold our NOW Banquet at 6:30 pm at the Downtown Holiday Inn. A successful NOW Banquet is crucial to our success as a club. this year. We have the potential to be the No. 1 club in the District. Oratorical Contest and Essay Contest winners will be featured. Your presence is essential! We'll be selling Optimism! There will be no noon meeting on that day (3/29).

Today's speaker was Dr. Shotsie Platt, Director of Huntsville's Community Free Clinic. This was the first such clinic in the state, being operational for 8 years now. We have regularly supported their program via Community Service Grants. There are now several free clinics serving poverty-level patients across he state, however, ours is the largest operation in the southeast.

George Ferrell has a varied set of programs for us during April. On April 5--we can look-forward-to Jimmy Pearson and the "Young and Restless Group" entertaining us with country and western and gospel singing and picking. Our speaker on the' 12th will be Ann Vaughn, Commander of the 8th Air Force Historical Society (North Alabama Wing). Then on the 26th George's broker Donna Epps, Vice President of Investments for Wachovia Securities will discuss the economy. April 19 is a business meeting, including election of officers for 2007/2008. Nominations are as follows:

				BOARD OF DIRECTORS
PRESIDENT:	Connie Gibson		Gay Pepper	'08	Byrom Goodwin	'09
1st Vice President:	Al Renz		Al Renz*	'08	William Clarke	'09
2nd Vice President:	Bob Martin		Jim Roe	'08	Perry Law	'09
Secretary/Treasurer:	Jeff Klimek			Sidney Sandridge, Past President

*A replacement for Al Renz as Director will be appointed by the Board after October 1st.

Other items of note: Rebecca is selling coupon books to support the Sparkman JOOI Club's fund raising project. Gov. Casteel said the 1st new club in .the. District was Chartered in Lawrence County. An article in the Huntsville Times gives credit to former Optimist member Rev. Jim Berry who organized "Meals on Wheels" back in the 1960'x. Matt Hancock is planning a YAW (youth appreciation week) Banquet for the evening of Thursday May 10 at Trinity United Methodist Church on Airport Road. A Zone-wide Respect for Law Banquet will be held at Mayfair Church of Christ the evening of Monday May 7. Also, several middle school band concerts where we present annual awards are scheduled for early May. A May meeting celebrating our club's chartering in May 1947 has also been talked about, so our plate is somewhat full. Since there was no attendance prize box available today Pres. Sidney is holding the money and will add it to the pot on April 5 - an added incentive to attend.

CALENDAR

Mar 29		Thursday		6:00 pm		Downtown Holiday Inn		NOW Banquet
Apr 5		Thursday		11:45 am		Downtown Holiday Inn		Bluegrass Concert
Apr 12		Thursday		11:45 am		Downtown Holiday Inn		Ann Vaughn
Apr 19		Thursday		11:45 am		Optimist Recreation Center		Business Meeting
Apr 26		Thursday		11:45 am		Downtown Holiday Inn		Donna Epps
Carl W.