Welcome to January, 2026, and bitter cold weather, Hurry up spring! Oh well, you can't have everything! We had an executive board meeting scheduled for January 15th, but had to cancel it. Why, you ask? Well, first, I had car troubles (nail in the tire). Also, the meeting was a week later than usual, due to a baby shower(hosted by me) at my home for my daughter. This is the third child, another girl. The shower was very nice and fun. Also, that morning, the roads were bad and some schools were canceled. The board meeting was canceled also, and has been rescheduled to follow the regularly scheduled March meeting.
The menus have been set for the year. We will continue to meet at Drake's Landing. However, there is a problem. Drake's Landing has raised our luncheon price to $20 per person. At this time we do not want to raise the price you pay, and will continue charging you $18 for the first half of the year. We will see if the 50/50 raffle will cover the $2 difference. If it does not, then in the summer, we will decided how to handle the issue.. Options are to raise the price to $20, or look for a different venue that is cheaper. We will be taking suggestions.
Phil Butto has arranged the programs for the first half of the year(please turn the page for the highlights). Kim Pontuti chose agencies where community service collection funds will be spent. Kim also tabulated member volunteer service h0urs for the last half of 2025(3,022). I am sure there are more, but we only get a report from members who attend the June -December meeting, Martha Lopez will report deceased members from the past year, and Sally Winsen will speak on the Knapick fund contribution to the public library memorializing those deceased, June Logan provides an update on ORTA, and Iren Scullen will summarize data collected from the member surveys taken last fall.
This is the second year of the biennium, and as such, we will be accepting nominations for officer positions for the next two years. Debbie Haverstock is our nominations chairman. It would be very helpful if some of you would consider taking an office. The positions are: President, 1st Vice-President (program chairman), 2nd Vice-President (membership chairman), Secretary and Treasurer. Hopefully, Debra Mettee will continue on as Treasurer, Barbara Ade will continue to write the newsletter, but would like to relinquish the Secretary's position. Please consider volunteering. It is not a huge commitment, and we need to have more willing to take on some of these roles. Stay warm, and I hope to see a lot of you at our March meeting.