Make up questions:

1 – Why did Anthony Maddalena bring his toy jet to the meeting?

2 – What is our 50/50 up to (approximately)?

3 – How many golfers are we hoping to host on May 20th?

Members in attendance were Kate, Jerry, Ward, Phil, Isadore, Chris, Gabe, Cindy, George, John, Pravin, Mike, Carolyn and John.

Phil led the Pledge of Allegiance and Mike led us in the Four-way Test.

Gabe looked around for guests and, at first glance, he looked right past Cindy’s husband Stephen.  He was escorting his lovely bride as she moved around on her new “scooter,” and his familiar face must have seemed like one of ours to the Prez.  But Cindy did intro Stephen and we learned that Gabe’s wife Kim and son Anthony would also be joining us.

Gabe then thanked Cindy for all of her work in arranging things with Westwood for our Mix and Mingle there on April 18th.  We’re going to start at 6pm and mingle for a half hour.  Then we’ll have each of the club presidents in attendance will talk for a few minutes about their club’s activities.  The buffet dinner will start at about 7pm and their will be no speaker.  Cindy asked if there would be any trivia and some laughed knowingly as Gabe told a story about another such event.  This caused Phil to have to interrupt the meeting and apologize for the damage done by his imitator.

Gabe then continued, saying we may have a 50/50 because we’re not making any money on the meal.  We’ll keep it simple, though.  He also recommended that we bring any potential new members to the Mix and Mingle.

The Prez then asked if there were any confirmed candidates for RYLA.  Katie said that her cousin doesn’t have the time to do it and Ward said that he hadn’t heard back from his candidate yet.  Gabe noted that we budgeted for two, but we don’t necessarily have to send anybody this year.

Jerry’s phone rang and he got up and left the room to answer it.

Chris told us that Saturday’s Habitat volunteering activities would be held at 111 Domedion Avenue, which is off Genessee St near Schiller Park.  He apologized for scheduling it the day before Easter and said that he expected a few kids from Williamsville East to help out.  Cindy and Carolyn wondered if our student contact at the Service Club would be a good candidate for our annual scholarship, and Chris said that he thought Katrina Wagar would be an excellent candidate.  She’s a leader in the Service Club and involved in many community service efforts and projects.

The Prez then called upon Professor Phil, who began by wondering who had missed him.  Ward indulged the Professor as he simultaneously encouraged the adulation and claimed humility.  Phil then asked Isadore about his degrees.  As it turns out, Isadore possesses not one, not two, but three degrees.  Phil asked him if he was surprised that the Professor is a superior intellect.  He then offered the weekly quiz question, which asked how much in debt Dion Warwick reportedly was.  Chris responded first with the correct answer, $10 million.  Phil asked Chris to repeat his answer louder, and Chris whispered instead.  So Phil gave the credit for the correct answer to Cindy and rhetorically asked (referencing one of her famous recordings), “Do you know the way to the tax man?”

Gabe then called upon the Prez Elect to initiate the weekly fines session.  Alas, Mike wanted to wait a bit so that more fines could be accumulated.

So the sitting Prez then continued on to his agenda’s calendar reminders.  April 27th will be our final Habitat date until the Fall.  The District Assembly in Niagara Falls will be held on May 4th.  Our golf outing will be held on May 20th.  And our fearless leader’s year as President will wrap up with our Installation Dinner on June 27th.

Mike then wondered if we would be holding Jokefest on April 11th because we also wanted to have a guest speaker that day to talk about bullying.  He asked George if he would prefer to hold Jokefest later, or if he wanted to combine the two.  George admitted that he had just remembered Jokefest a few days ago, so he wouldn’t mind putting it off a bit to prepare more.  Mike commented that Jokefest had actually been brought up in his PETS training as a way to build rapport and fellowship.  So we will have our guest speaker talking about bullying on April 11th and Jokefest will be scheduled in May.

Kim and Anthony Maddalena joined us and Anthony had his jet fighter with him in anticipation of our scheduled guest speaker that was unavoidably detained.

Mike began separating us from our dollars.  He went for the “low hanging fruit” and sought a buck from those not wearing pins or name tags.

Mike then asked Isadore about the backlog of members lined up before the meeting and waiting to be processed, and Isadore paid up.

Mike then referred to the scooter-like thing that Cindy was using to get around after her foot procedure.  He fined Chris for suggesting to Cindy that there was a bike rack outside the building.

Mike then asked anybody that had not shaken Chris’s hand to pay a fine.  Gabe paid though Chris was sure they had shaken hands.

He then attempted to fine Ward and Jorge for coming in late, but they were actually on time and entered the room before the opening bell.

Gabe was fined for saying that we had no guests.

Phil was fined for interrupting the Prez.

I absolutely missed it, but my own table was fined for making a joke about Willie Nelson and smoking.  John blamed Ward.

Mike then fined his own table because there were no guests seated there and also no women.

The fine-master then solicited some happy fines, and he asked John if he was happy that he had grandchildren coming out of his ears.  John paid a happy fine for his kids’ ability to propagate.

John paid a fine because Brian Ernise, a pilot for Calspan, wasn’t able to join us as scheduled.

Isadore paid a happy fine because his daughter would be turning five on Easter.

Ward paid a happy fine because he was able to walk right after a recent surgical procedcure.

Cindy paid a happy fine because Stephen was helping her get around after her procedure, and another because she was happy that the procedure was over.

Katie paid a happy fine because she booked her travel to Tanzania and she is in the dissertation stage of her thesis.

Gabe paid a pair of happy fines for his kids.  Anthony turned four on the 22nd and his daughter turned six yesterday.

We then broke for lunch.

A few minutes later, Gabe rang the bell to resume the meeting.  He told us about a six-year old girl that died after being mis-diagnosed at an urgent care facility.  The little girl went to St. Amelia School, which is where Gabe’s daughter goes.  Kim wasn’t sure exactly what the cause of her death was, but they seemed to believe that the girl was not tested for strepped throat, and it turns out that her organs shut down and the worst possible thing happened.  The family, of course, is having a difficult time, and a fundraiser is being held for them on April 28th.  Gabe passed around a collection envelope and a couple of members put their donations into it.

Onto the golf outing, Gabe reported that we were up to $2900 so far in commitments for sponsorship.  He’s also still waiting for the final amounts from some big companies like BC/BS, Independent Health, GM, and West Herr Chevy.  John noted that First Niagara had also verbally agreed to participate.

Isadore wondered if we could get an up to date list of sponsors so that we could be sure to not bother those that had already donated.  (Editor’s opinion – go ahead and call them anyways and just thank them if/when they tell you that they made a donation.)  Gabe asked us to make sure that we follow up in a timely fashion.  The mailers were sent out two weeks ago.  We also have to begin printing stuff up soon, so we need to know who is in and who is out for sponsorship.

Mike wondered if the golf outing was on the club web site and on Facebook.  Katie said that she had posted an announcement, though she hadn’t created an event on FB.  Chris wondered how our Public Relations Chair was doing with his end of things.  Of course, in tax season we don’t have access to Ken.

We now have to shift our focus to secure golfers.  Gabe also offered to make follow up calls for any members that weren’t comfortable doing so.  (Editor’s note – this kinda made me wonder why any member would not be willing to do fundraising calls.  Isn’t that what we are here for?)

Gabe also heard this morning that Steve Pease had confirmed for a foursome and a tee sponsorship.  He estimated that we were at about 20 golfers so far, with a goal of 80 – 100 of them.

Jorge asked if we could get a poster up in the lobby of the Westwood and Gabe said that he would ask about that.  Liz said that she’d include the event info in the district communications.  She also said that she’d email Gabe an updated budget soon.

John then brought up an article that he had read in the Amherst Bee, which was about the Buffalo Club instead of us.  Cindy noted that there are Bee publications all over WNY, and the Sunrise Club probably took the initiative to send the article in.  Chris noted that, often the Bee and other small publications allow you to write an advertorial when you place a display ad with them.

Finally, with no other business to attend to, Gabe announced that the 50/50 was up to $1024 and he told his son Anthony to, “Pick Daddy’s number!”  However, young Anthony picked Jerry’s ticket instead, which caused Cindy to remember that she had told Jerry to go ahead of her in line.  Unfortunately, Jerry was not able to pull the joker from the deck, and the money carries over.

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