Eighteen of us enjoyed our field trip to Carlton Cove. President Will Dawes called on Zack Thompson to offer grace before we enjoyed the Carlton Cove food.
We did repeat the pledge of allegiance to our flag even though there was not one in the room. We enjoyed eating with Jerry Shoemaker for a 2nd consecutive week. There was no collection of the customary 50 cents from each member for our attendance prize, so Jerry couldn't make it two in a row.
Will introduced Scott Bemish, marketing counselor for Carlton Cove. Scott gave a detailed description of what CC has to offer, and the cost connected with each option. Apparently there was considerable interest on the part of the membership in learning about this life care retirement community, as demonstrated by the lively question and answer period. The quality of the facility was indeed impressive. Scott made a convincing presentation and later conducted a tour.
Zack announced that Al Castelli continues to make good progress, and will again be meeting with us soon. Alberto has visited Fred Binner at Crestwood Room 205. Fred sends his love to all, and our love goes out to him. Keep Fred in your thoughts and visit him if you can.
We got hung up over our election of officers for next year. There seemed to be a question of not having a quorum present. I'm not sure this is a valid concern. The deadline from Optimist International for this information is May 20, however, John Shirey reached back to his knowledge gleaned from his long tenure as Sec/Treas and informed us that only the name of the President-Elect is needed by OI by May 20. We went ahead and finished electing Sidney Sandridge, Pres.; Connie Gipson, 1st VP and Byrom Goodwin, 2nd VP. Since Byrom is currently a board member and will also be on the board as VP, the nominating committee came up with 4 names for new board members instead of the usual 3. Pres. Will's position is that the board would replace Byrom, rather than the whole club nominating and electing a replacement. In any event he deferred the board election until our business meeting next week at the Optimist Recreation Center.
The Jeff Smith Huntsville Optimist Foundation met at Regions Trust Department on May 17. Documentation on those organizations expecting support from us was inspected and checks will be delivered to the club at our business meeting. The next meeting of JSHOF has been set for Wed. Aug. 16 at 4:00 pm at Regions.
