Downtown Optimist Club of Columbia

Zoom/In Person Meeting Newsletter

Monday, October 17, 2022 at Downtown Optimist Clubhouse

Meeting began at 12:01 pm

Members attend in person President Jerry Sullivan, Tony Pariso, Rick McKernan, Ed Musterman, James Murphy, Charlie Langreder, C.O. Scheffer, Steve Winter, Red Leighton, Mike Hackett, Carl Scott. By Zoom Mary Dewey, Nadia Ryakmyaullov, and Adam Bakos.  Special Guest: Alaina Oliver from the Missouri State Public Defenders, Office Value of an Holistic Defense in a Court Trail and Erinie Wren the East Missouri Optimist District Governor

Prayer: Rick McKerman

Pledge of Allegiance: James Murphy

Birthday/Anniversary:

Paying the Pig: Carl Scott, Mike Hackett and Steve Winter all paid $.25 for not having their name tag on at today’s meeting. (Mary paid for Mike and Steve tags)

Please send him card wish him a speedy recovery. His address is

Red Leigthon

24 Springer Dr

Columbia, MO 65201

1st qtr. East Missouri Optimist District meeting will on October 28 through Saturday, October 29 in Columbia, Missouri at the Courtyard Marriot Hotel of AC Exist. Please let Tony know if you want to go to the conference. It was a great conference learned a lot about leadership. It will be great to see everyone there since here in Columbia and not much traveling or hotel room. We are in charged of the food for the hospitalize room on Friday night. Deb will need help with making bowls for the conference table decoration that will also me auction off at the end of the conference for fundraiser for Children Cancer.   Club will pay conference fee for member who want to attend up now to save the Club $10.00 on registration fee. Price will go up on October 8. We also doing a peanut butter drive during the conference.  Please start bring in your jars of Peanut butters.

Mary is looking for items for the Silent Action if you have anything you would like to donate please bring them to her at the meeting.  Mary also let us know that Zone 2 and 3 are in charge of the hospitality room on Friday night at the East Missouri Optimist District Meeting. Mary will be picking up the sodas, water, fruit & vegetable trays for the hospitality room on Friday night

James Murphy wants to thank the following club members who came out Saturday to help move the tree stands. There are Jack Cruise, Pat Brown, Adam Bakos, and Tony Pariso. The discovered that the plug wasn’t working on the pole when they plugged in the drill to check them out. Carl is going to come over and check to see if any of the lights are out before we call Withrow Electric to fix the plug on the pole.

Deb Swanegan talked about the JIO Club. We are talking to Douglass High School on Monday about starting a JIO club there for their students.  We now have a JIO Club. Mary and Deb will be talking to the youth during lunch break after she gets back into town.

Steve Winter talked about this time in Florida with Missouri Taskforce.  He was there from September 30 through October 1. He was in Fort Meyers where you tell the old part and the new part of the city. The new part of city standing and old part washed away.   

Koeze Nuts: Keep selling first order is due Monday, October 17th. Right now, we are low from where we were last year at this time.

C.O. Scheffer let us know that Fraser tree will be coming in on Saturday, November 12. We will have the Mizzou baseball players to help us unload the trees.  The non-Fraser tree will coming on Monday, November 14. That day we will need help from the members to unload the trees.  C.O. will have a training with new cashier on Thursday, November 17^th before the board meeting.

Adopt a Spot: Mary and Jerry are looking at the Stephen Lake spot. Mary email Leigh to get the answers the club members asked during the meeting today.

Dues for this year: The board voted to increase dues by $15.00 this year. This was needed because OI increased their due $15.00. Dues will now be $97.00 and Lifetime members will be $56.00. Sent around the meeting today was a list of club member please make sure your address is current.

The meeting for October 24 will be an evening meeting at 6:00 pm at the Southside Shakespeare. They are not charging us for the space so members please make sure to order dinner. Then the next two weeks are still at the Clubhouse.

Since Koeze nuts and tree lot activities will occupy the Clubhouse from October 24 to the end of the year, all meetings will be at a different location thru December. The meeting for October 31 will be at Shakespeare South at noon.

Tentative Plans for meetings the rest of the year are: November: All meetings are at the Food Bank at noon. Dates are Nov. 7, 14, and 28. Meals will still come from the Senior Center. December: All meetings will be at noon at the Boys and Girls Club. Dates are Dec. 5, 12, and 19. Meals will still come from the Senior Center. No meeting December 26 or January 2.

Board meetings are scheduled for October 20, November 16, and, if needed, December 21 (?) All Board meetings will be at the Clubhouse at 6:00 pm. Any member is welcome to attend.

Membership: The Board will be setting a goal for new members at our October meeting. One way to increase memberships to contact former members who are still in the area to see if they may want to rejoin the Club. If you know someone who has let their membership lapse, please newsletter. If you contact on of them, please let me know the result. Jerry has heard back from Cyrill Galbreath she said “Her health is not that go any more.” And Jim Yankee will come back after his life slow down.

Committee List: Coming out soon. If you aren’t part f a committee, you should be. If you are interested chairing a committee, let me know which one. Some people currently in charge of a committee are looking for co-chair. Get involved.

Rick let us know about Valerie Goodin ex-husband.  It is with great sadness I notify you of the loss of Richard Goodin, former spouse of past president Valerie Goodin and a dedicated friend of our club.  Valerie notified me that Richard passed away at his home here in Columbia a few days ago.  One of the many ways Richard helped serve our club was through writing and maintaining the database management program used for our Koeze Nut order tracking.

Guest Speaker: Alaina Oliver from the Missouri State Public Defenders. See attached information

Optimist Creed was recited at 12:45 pm

Meeting adjourned at 12:48 pm

Jerry Sullivan: President                                             

573-701-4122

jsulliva@mineralarea.edu