The Weekly Bulletin
April 24, 2017
Call to order: Ed Musterman, President
Invocation: Red Leighton
Pledge: Jim Beckett
Introduction of Guests
Bob Saterfield
From KIDS FIRST: Tom Luckenbill, Pres, Ed Kinkade, Sec, Steve Boyd, Treas., Rick Kitchen, Pres. Elect; SUNRISE: Douglas Oncken, Jack Andrewson, Don Helmreich
Birthdays and Anniversaries
Max Miller celebrated his 80th birthday on April 14. He received a round of applause.
Mystery Person – Scott Stager awarded the gift card to Pat Brown
Greeter – Larry Fick reported he planted his garden this past week end. And, after finishing all his honey-do chores, he rode his bike for the first time in years, this time for 23 miles.
Announcements
- Sign In and badge on or Pay the Pig – All had signed in and were wearing their badge.
- Board Meeting April 20th – Grants to Mary Lee Johnson Community Learning Center -$2,000 and Phoenix – $1,000. Board Member Mary Dewey voted to a club officer as Vice President.
Four board members approved: Nadia Ryakhmyatullov. Donald Prevost, Anthony Parisio. Leslie Parisio
- Nominations committee is still looking for board and officer candidates. Reading of the candidate slate will be at the lunch membership meetings May 1st, 8th and 15th. A vote by membership present at the May 15th meeting will follow the final reading and the Officer elect report sent to Optimist International prior to May 20.
- Kids First announces Cedar Creek Trivia contest, silent auction and dinner, May 6th. Cost is $30 each and Kids First requests the Downtown Club to send a team of 8. Dinner is included and Kids First says they can use silent auction items. – Rick Kitchen, Kids First Optimist
- Hallsville Optimists- Announcing Cinco De Mayo event in May 5th, 7 to 11 PM. A flyer will be attached to the DO Clubs weekly emailed newsletter. There will be casino games and an auction as well as a taco concession. Cost is $10/person for bottomless margaritas and beer glasses.
- New Member recruitment event (C.O. Mike Hatchet, Jessica, Travis) C.O. reported the next event will take place on Wednesday, May 3 at the Logboat Brewery, 504 Fay St, Columbia.
- Soap Box Derby – (Rick, Chuck) The committee will give a presentation to the Old Wheels Club tonight. Sign-up sheets will be available for DOC members next week.
- Scholarship – Cyrilla, Carl, Max John Sapp will present the Battle H.S awards on May 17, Ed Musterman will present awards at the Rock Bridge H.S ceremony on May 15, Rick McKernan will present at Douglas on May 19 and Scott Steger will present at Hickman on May 15.
- Food Bank – Larry Fick, Jim Murphy, Carl Scott
- Bike Safety May 20th – Mary Dewey
- Art in the Park – Harold Rowe explained to our visitors the DOC presence at the Art-in-the-Park is a $1,500 donation. We will have a 10’ x 20’ tent with a derby car and materials on other DOC events including Bike Safety. Parent accompany children to the “Kid’s Tent” enabling an opportunity to recruit new members for our club.
- Saturday April 29th – 3rd Quarter EMO District Meeting in Creve Coeur, Mo. Hotel reservations at Drury Hotel were due by April 7th. District Oratorical Contest is the headliner.- Ed
- 99th Optimist International Meeting will be held in Albuquerque, July 6-8.
- April 24th program will be Zone 2 Optimist Club members who will join us for conversation on our clubs and Optimism in Columbia.
Today’s Speaker
Zone 2 Columbia Optimist Clubs with Kids First Optimists and Sunrise Optimist joining the Downtown Optimists for today’s luncheon meeting.
Tom Luckenbill, President of Kids First (KF) lead off the meeting with a brief accounting of the history and changes of the club formerly known as the Southside Optimist Club. Over the past several years, KF got out of Christmas tree and concession fundraising programs. The club created an alliance with the American Legion using the AL hall for monthly Texas Holdem nights. This has been the greatest help for membership recruitment. They conduct their regular noon meetings on the 2nd and 3rd Tuesdays at noon at Dickey’ Bar and Barbecue. The 1st Tuesday is an evening meeting and the 4th Tuesday combines a Board Meeting with the luncheon meeting. The club has roughly 35 members, 17-20 of whom are actively involved. Rick Kitchen talked about their May 6 Kentucky derby fundraiser of Cedar Creek Therapeutic Riding Center. The $30.00 per person provides dinner with fabulous entrée choses, followed by 50/50 & dollar games, a silent auction best table decoration contest and a Kentucky Derby Hat contest. The main event is Trivia presented by Smarty Pants Trivia. Steve Boyd followed with news of a Special Olympics Golf tour to be held on June 24. Also, on Dec 2 they are planning a fund raising dinner/dance: prime ribs and line dancing. Flyers will be available soon on both of these events.
Doug Oncken, President of Sunrise, talked of two big grant recipients, Coyote Hills and Big Brother/Big Sisters. Their club works hard manning concessions: the Beer Garden at the County Fair in Sturgeon and this year the Sturgeon Rodeo. Jack Andrewson talked of the Columbia College concessions at their basketball games, the upcoming Show-Me State Games and work with Harrisburg to run the concession at their Bike Safety Rodeo. Sunrise also host a pancake breakfast where they utilize a 32” TV with a Power Point program extolling all the activities in which they engage. Club members wear their Sunrise shirts and they display their club banner wherever they work. They have had some of the groups they support like the Hickman H.S. Cheerleader and Lacrosse Teams accompany them to events to help recruit new members. Later this spring, they will be hosting a Hunter Safety Course put on by the Dept. of Conservation where they will of course run the concession. There is an annual wildlife dinner that draws large crowds. There is a great deal of work required to pull the dinner off but it is so popular the club continues to hold the event. Sunrise has about 50 members of which 17-20 are active. Meeting for the club are held at 6:15 am each Thursday with the exception of the 2nd Thursday of each month when they host a dinner meeting. The evening meetings haven’t been successful in recruiting new members but many of the wives attend which has been good for club fellowship.
C.O. Scheffer explained some of the activities of the Downtown Optimist Club (DOC). In addition to the Art-in-the-Park mentioned above, the club has donated $5,000 to the Food Bank and received their recognition for donating $25,000 over the past several years. A small DOC contingent volunteers weekly to package food. Our member, Jessica Kempf, recently redesigned our website, we put out a weekly newsletter to engage memberswho aren’t able to attend our luncheon meetings and we instituted YOHO (Young Optimist Helping Others) to recruit new members. This meets regularly on the 1st Thursday of each month at a different watering hole in Columbia. The club recently recruited two new members and immediately engaged them in the upcoming Bike Safety program. The Christmas tree lot is the largest fundraiser. The club relies on some of the youth grant recipients for help managing the lot.
Lots of ideas were exchanged on fundraising strategies, new member recruitment and retention.
UPCOMING SPEAKERS
May 1 – Valerie Livingston, Executive Director, The Boys and Girls Club.
May 8 – Dr. Carol Ward, Dept. of Pathology and Anatomical Sciences, UMC
May 15 – MU Swim Coach Greg Rhodenbaugh
May 23 – TBE
May 29 – No Meeting, Memorial Day
June 5 – Welcome Home – Shelter & Assistance for homeless veterans and families.
Downtown Optimist Club 