La Societe des Quarante Hommes et Huit Chevaux Grande Voiture du Texas OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF THE GRAND du TEXAS WINNER OF THE ARTHUR MCDOWELL AWARD 1991 – 1992 – 1993 – 1994 – 1995 – 1996 - 2019 BEST GRAND VOITURE PUBLICATION IN THE NATION WITHOUT ADVERTISING AND WINNER OF THE ROBERT KASEMAN AWARD 2018
Jan - Mar 2020
Volume 63 Issue 1
FROM THE GRAND CHEF DE GARE A few reasons for this letter. First, I want to thank everyone that attended our Merci Boxcar Cheminot. Light attendance but I feel we accomplished our mission. I realize our dates were pushed forward, but we should be back to normal next year. Speaking of back to normal, I hope and pray we can get through our current crisis and our lives can return to regular routine. Much of what we do on a daily basis has been restricted or in some cases even prohibited depending on where you live in Texas. This has affected my locale. Following new city ordinances and CDC guidelines - we have suspended all meetings, promenades and special program events for at least 30 days. But that does not mean we have stopped our job as Voyageurs Militaire. Yesterday, Locale Chef Dale, myself as Correspondant and Roger Folmar, our Commissaire Intendant met at Dales house to go over our calendar, discuss membership and establishing a plan on how to quickly proceed once we are able. We accomplished quite a bit, but without putting ourselves or our membership in jeopardy. I’m telling you this because there are a lot of means to still keep communication going, social media, email and of course the phone and like us, small meetings. I feel this is important. The last thing we discussed was that our Chef Dale was going to personally communicate with each member to see how they are doing, to let them know despite all the restrictions we are still an important and viable organization. Also, to see if any of our membership need any assistance,
rides, going to the store for them, etc. Texas is a big place, we are separated by a lot of distance, our county locales are spread out over a wide area, so our internal public relations is necessary - please stay in contact with each other. This also is important. This means keeping at membership, not just ignoring it until we can get back together again. Dale, Roger and I will probably get together weekly. My locale is five short and it will probably take new members to make goal. That will be hard to do without meetings, so I am encouraging all locales to seek any way and means to keep your locale active during this time, continue growing even if you are at 100% or higher. We do have until July 31st, but I would like to join our Grand Chef de Train John Rodgers in having the expectation of us exceeding 100% for Grand du Texas. And a special thanks for his hard work as Chef de Train, working extremely hard in this position and he has my thanks. It is my hope and expectation that we all get through this current crisis safely and healthy. Please follow everything that you are hearing to the best of your ability. All that being said – keep Ronnie Wheeler and Kathy in your prayers – Ronnie is back in the hospital with a possible infection – not corona related. I am always available, via email or phone. I wish you all good health, safe travels and hope to see many of you at the Grand Promenade.
Renslar “Renny Keagle Chef de Gare, Grande du Texas
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