APRIL 2013 CHEERFUL EARFUL

THE CHEERFUL EARFUL APRIL 2013 This newsletter is brought to you by the Communication Committee of the Macomb Altrusa Club, Macomb, Illinois “Leading to a Better Community” Altrusa is an international non-profit organization making our local communities better through leadership, partnership and service

 Next Meeting Information

Contents

April meeting will be hosted by the Service Committee

 Next meeting information

What: The program will feature speaker Kristin Stevens “Alternatives for the Older Adult”

 “Miriam’s Message” from our President, Miriam Satern

When: April 24

 Minutes from March 27 meeting

Time: 7:00 p.m.

Where: basement of Everly House, 811 S. Lafayette St., Macomb

The committee will provide dessert!

 April Treasurer’s Report  Additional Announcements  Calendar of Events

“Miriam’s Message” From Our President, Miriam Satern As the old adage says… April showers bring May flowers. So…as we temper our annoyance with the rain that has lingered in our area for the past couple of weeks, we know that the sun will shine again and the moisture we’ve been receiving will result in nature’s renewal through the coming of green grass, blooming perennials, trees, and shrubs, and warmer weather. Likewise, in the life cycle of our Altrusa Club, the “old” season is ending and the “new” season is budding. Now that we have elected a new slate of officers to guide our Club for next year, we are organizing our four standing committees, continuing to organize for the Bazaar, and planning an additional revenue source – a garage sale at Nancy Dobey’s house on Friday and Saturday, May 17 and 18. Unfortunately, I won’t be at the April Club meeting to facilitate these planning events because I’ll be out of town attending a professional conference. However, Liz Duvall, our Club President for next year, will lead the meeting and direct the discussion on the abovementioned planning events. We will also receive a report from Penny Pollock and Karen Trusley on the District Six Conference they are attending this weekend in Indiana and the Service Club has an interesting program planned. Oh, and one more thing … it’s time to start thinking about paying your dues for next year.

Additional information about all of these items is included in the newsletter. I hope you’ll be able to attend the next meeting on Wednesday, April 24, at the Everly House.

I’ll be with you in spirit!

Miriam

Minutes from March 27 General Meeting March 27, 2013 General Meeting Minutes As the recording secretary was not present, the corresponding secretary, Heather Munro, took the minutes of the meeting.

Kristi Kupka of the Finance Committee introduced the speaker for the program, Jolene Willis. Ms. Willis is from the Illinois Institute of Rural Affairs at WIU and she spoke about “Wind for Schools”. The Wind for Schools program conducts outreach programs to schools regarding wind energy. Ms. Willis showed an interesting PowerPoint presentation that illustrated what the program is all about.

The meeting was called to order by President Miriam Satern. Pledge was given and there were no guests present.

The minutes from the previous meeting were read. There were two corrections. To change the installation of officers from the April meeting to the May meeting and to change date 2013-2014 to 2013-2015 for the 2 new directors. With those corrections a motion was put forth by Karen Trusley and seconded by Kelly Shiraki to approve the minutes.

The Treasurer’s Report was printed in the March issue of the Cheerful Earful. There were no questions.

Correspondence presented by Corresponding Secretary, Heather Munro.

recruitment of new members. The list was circulated at the meeting.



Finance: Chair of committee Marsha McCormick thanked the Finance committee for the refreshments for the meeting. No other report.

Altrusa members were invited to a VIP Preview Party on March 28 at the Grand Prairie of Macomb.

Membership: Ann Abbott, Chair of committee not present – no report.

Service: Lynn Marlowe, Chair of committee not present – no report

Old Business: 

Spoon River College Foundation sent a thank you for our $1,600.00 contribution for scholarships.



Christine DeVlieger of Altrusa District Six sent a thank you note for her visit she enjoyed with us in Oct.



Karen Trusley shared that Mississippi Valley Regional Blood Center sent a thank you for our Adopt-A-Day blood drive.



Email was received from Dennis Danowski asking for a donation of at least $100 for the library expansion campaign.



Ronda Roberts sent an email resigning as a member.

Reports from committees as follows: Communication – Chair of committee Jackie Lucas was not present. Member of the Communication Committee Heather Munro shared with the members that we now have 135 “Likes” on our Facebook page. Heather had printed out the names of 62 of our “Likes” –only a few of the names were members – she thought that possibly some of the people might be friends of Altrusa members and it might be possible to contact them about their interest in Altrusa. The idea was that the Facebook page might be a jumping off point in

Miriam reported that she has completed compiling the Bazaar notebook and handed it off to Judi Dallinger, one of the Chairs of this year’s Bazaar – the notebook contains all the necessary information to help with the preparation and planning of the Bazaar.

Sandy Collier reported that she and Karen Iversen have begun preparations for the Summer Tutoring program. They are getting packets ready and recruiting tutors.

Miriam reported that the delegates to the conference, Karen Trusley and Penny Pollock were gathering items to take to the conference. At the meeting, members had brought in items for the “Backpacks for Kids” conference service project and some who had not brought items gave money, so that Karen and Penny could buy additional items for the backpacks. Members also brought in items for the conference silent auction basket. Kelly Shiraki will be making the basket.

New Business: Heather Munro shared a “rack card” that the Communication Committee had created for the delegates to take to the conference. It is a 2-sided printed sheet that describes the Altrusa Club of Macomb – to be used for recruitment and outreach. The rack card was created using a template from the Altrusa website.

A suggestion was made by Kelly Shiraki that for the May installation meeting all members should wear their Blue Altrusa shirts so that a group photo can be taken and that the group photo of all Altrusa members could be used for the next version of the rack card or for other promotional purposes. All members agreed that that sounded like a great idea and a mention will be made in the next newsletter to remind everyone to wear their blue shirts. It was noted that all new members should have an Altrusa shirt and any new and/or old members who do not have an Altrusa blue shirt should contact the membership committee regarding this.

Miriam asked members to “pass the hat” to donate to the Macomb Public Library expansion campaign.

Miriam presented the slate of officers for the next year as listed in the previous minutes.

Jean Sowers made a motion to accept the slate and Paula Rhodes seconded. All members voted yes and the slate of officers was approved.

The budget for 2013-2014 was discussed.

The Finance Committee had prepared a draft of the proposed budget for next year. It was

clear from the budget that there would not be enough funds to support all proposed projects. Marsha passed out ballots and members voted on the top 3 projects they wanted funded.

As members were voting, Sara Featherlin wanted to go on record to say that just as in a family if there is not enough money in the budget to pay for something that means you should not buy it, so should it be that in Altrusa

if we do not have the money to fund a project then we should not put it in our budget.

Marsha tallied the ballots and the top 2 projects members wanted funded were the

1. Mosaic bags 2. the MAP program The School sack program and Samaritan Well tied for 3rd place.

All members decided as there was enough in the budget to cover the first 2 projects that they should be in the budget. All other projects were to be removed from the community projects list section of the budget.

The budget was approved with those corrections. It was decided to review the budget after the Bazaar to see how we did, to see if there is additional funding to fund the third place projects.

Miriam noted that Altrusa birthday was April 11 and that Macomb Altrusa birthday was April 30. The members noted that it was Miriam’s’ birthday and we all sang “Happy Birthday” to her!

Miriam reminded everyone that Annual Reports are due in April and that everyone needs to send her volunteer hours.

The total of what was collected when the “hat was passed” was tallied and we collected $140.00 for the Macomb Public Library Expansion campaign. Nancy Jameson volunteered to deliver the money to the library.

Other: Marsha McCormick wanted to share with everyone that the Making Strides against Breast Cancer walk is coming up on May 4th and that we could sign up as a team or individuals. She had information to any who are interested.

Nancy Jameson announced that this was the Everly House’s 60th Anniversary and all Altrusa members were invited to a celebration to take place on April 14th.

Nancy Dobey asked all members if we were interested in having a yard sale fundraiser again this year and if so she would offer her yard/garage for the sale location. She noted that if we were thinking of May then we needed to start thinking of dates so everyone could start planning for the yard sale. Miriam asked for volunteers to be on a yard sale committee. Peggy Ma, Paula Rhodes and Nancy Dobey volunteered to be on the yard sale committee and begin planning with the first step to determine a date for the yard sale and report at the next meeting.

Miriam announced that this was her last General meeting presiding as President, as she will not be at the April General meeting.

Next Board meeting is April 10 at Everly House at 5:30pm and the next General meeting will be April 24 at 7pm also at the Everly House.

Meeting was adjourned at 8:50pm.

Present at the meeting: Heather Munro, Kelly Shiraki, Sara Featherlin, Karen Trusley, Jean Sowers, Sandy Collier, Nancy Dobey, Rosalie Severinsen, Peggy Ma, Marsha McCormick, Nancy Jameson, Judi Dallinger, Kristi Kupka, Paul Rhodes, Miriam Satern.

Respectfully submitted, Heather Munro, corresponding secretary Substituting for Lynne Brinker, recording secretary Photo of the hosts and guest of the April meeting – members of the Finance Committee, from left, Judi Dallinger, Kristi Kupka, guest speaker Jolene Willis, Marsha McCormick and Nancy Jameson.

April Treasurer’s Report Altrusa International of Macomb April 3, 2013 Beginning Balance 3/1/13

$ 8,943.06

Receipts Total Receipts

$

Disbursements: 2/27/2013

2189

Spoon River College Foundation (2 Nursing Scholarships)

$ 1,600.00

3/2/2013

2190

Postmaster (PO Box Rent)

$

78.00

3/18/2013

2191

Ann Abbot (New Membership kits)

$

76.00

3/27/2013

2192

Alzheimer Walk (Sponsorship)

$

100.00

Total Disbursements Checkbook Balance as of 4/3/13

$ 1,854.00 $ 7,089.06

(Bank Statement Balanced) Respectfully Submitted by: Marsha McCormick, Treasurer 2012-2013

Additional Announcements  All members -- please pay your annual dues!

Treasurer Marsha McCormick wants to remind all members that dues are soon due! Dues must be paid by the May 22 meeting – if you do not think you will be at the May meeting please pay Marsha at the April meeting. Yearly dues are $70.00. Thank you!  Reminder to all – PLEASE DO THIS! Our President Miriam needs all of us to send her an email listing all of our volunteer hours from June 1, 2012 to May 31, 2013. She needs this info. for the official Annual Report. Your email should list the following: 1. Your name 2. Total number of hours spent volunteering June 1, 2012 to May 31, 2013 for Altrusa 3. Total number of hours spent volunteering June 1, 2012 to May 31, 2013 for ALL other activities you are involved in – you do not need to tell Miriam what you did – just the number of hours!

Send email to Miriam Satern at mn-satern@wiu.edu.

And thank you for all the hours spent volunteering!

Altrusa members Sandy Collier and Jean Sowers at the April meeting

Group Photo Opportunity!

At our installation of new officers at the May meeting we will be taking a group photo OF ALL MEMBERS PRESENT.

EVERYONE should wear their Altrusa shirt!

Mark your calendars!

YOUR FACE HERE! !

Remember for our May meeting to please wear your navy blue Altrusa shirt!

Please try to come to the May meeting so we have as many members as possible for OUR GROUP PORTRAIT !

Yard Sale is coming in May Tentative dates & times are May 17 – Fri. Noon – 6 PM May 18 - Sat. 8 AM -- 1 PM Yard Sale Information needed from you ASAP!

Garage & table set up date is: May 12 Sun. after 1 PM Deliver & Price items: May 15 Wed. after 6 PM May 16 Thurs. after 6 PM Clean up: May 19 Sunday after 1 PM -if necessary

WHAT ITEMS ARE YOU BRINGING TO SELL AT THE YARD SALE???

NANCY NEEDS TO KNOW!!

Please email Nancy Dobey at Nancy.Dobey@mortonbank.com and tell her what you might be bringing to the sale she needs to know what to list in the yard sale ad and poster!

Please do this ASAP email her BEFORE THE MEETING !!

Start hunting for your valuable items that you can no longer store in addition to clothes, crafts, kitchen items, silk flower arrangements, books, plants and spring bulbs, kids and baby clothes, baby equipment, DVD's/CDs/LPs, electronics, knicknacks, outdoor toys etc.

In other words anything not nailed down. If you have something unique, originally expensive please contact Nancy Dobey Nancy.Dobey@mortonbank.com, phone: 8366395.

At our April 24 meeting we will decide if we want to include a bake sale with the yard sale. Information about bringing items to Nancy's house will be available along with the work schedule to be completed.

Hey - start going through your treasures



Macomb Area Chamber Of Commerce

The Macomb Area Chamber of Commerce has updated their website – you should check it out! http://macombareachamber.com/ Did you know that Macomb Altrusa is a member of the Macomb Area Chamber of Commerce & Downtown Development Corporation? The Chamber produces a monthly newsletter and you can read the entire newsletter by clicking here:

http://macombareachamber.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/April-2013.pdf be sure to click on the inserts http://macombareachamber.com/wpcontent/uploads/2013/04/April-Inserts.pdf for info. about special upcoming events!

 Facebook Did you know Macomb Altrusa has a Facebook page? Check it out at http://www.facebook.com/MacombAltrusa Click the “Like” button when you visit our Facebook page! and share the page with ALL your friends and tell them to like our page too!

Check out the invitation members of Altrusa are invited!

Check out the invitation members of Altrusa are invited!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY! APRIL and MAY

April 11 – Happy 96th Birthday Altrusa!

First Altrusa Club organized in Tenn. 1917

April 20 – Thelma Smiddy April 30 – Happy

Birthday Macomb Altrusa!

May 13 -- Valerie Dugan May 19 -- Kelly Shiraki

Altrusa Club of Macomb – News page http://tinyurl.com/MacombAltrusaNews Macomb Altrusa Facebook page www.facebook.com/MacombAltrusa

April 16 – Peggy Ma

52nd

Members Karen Trusley, Peggy Ma, Rosalie Severinsen, Judi Dallinger and Paula Rhodes enjoying camaraderie at the refreshment table at the April meeting.

Altrusa District Six http://www.districtsix.altrusa.org/WhoWe-Are/Welcome-Message.aspx Altrusa International www.altrusa.org

2012-2013 Altrusa International Macomb Altrusa Officers and Board President Miriam Satern

Calendar of Events

President-Elect Liz Duvall

April 17 64th Kiwanis Pancake Day 5:30am-7:00pm – American Legion Post – Washington St., Macomb

Past President – Nancy Reed

April 19 YMCA Fundraiser – “Dueling Pianos”

Vice-President Rosalie Severinsen

April 20 Rainbow Run for Older Americans –Wesley Village

Recording Secretary Lynne Brinker

April 24 – Altrusa General meeting- 7pm Alternatives for Older Adults at Everly House April 25 President’s Reception – Spoon River College Foundation May 1--“Adopt a Classroom” – Sign up to read to Mrs. Ramos' first grade class May 2 - “Ladies Night Out” Macomb Area Chamber of Commerce May 3 First ParkN Cruise – Courthouse Square May 4 – Making Strides Against Breast Cancer 5K Walk Chandler Park May 8 - Executive Board meeting May 10-12 – WIU Graduation May 17 – United Way Golf Outing-WIU May 18 – Macomb High School Graduation May 22 – Altrusa General meeting- 7pm Installation & Initiation at Everly House May 28 – Happy Memorial Day! June 12 Executive Board meeting June 26 -- Altrusa General meeting-Annual Planning (2013-2014)

Treasurer Marsha McCormick Corresponding Secretary Heather Munro Director (2012-2013) Jackie Lucas Directors (2013-2014) Lynn Marlowe, Ann Abbot NEWSLETTER SUGGESTIONS? Committee Chairs:

Do you have any

Communication – Jackie Lucas suggestions for Finance – Marsha McCormick newsletter?

Membership the – Anne Abbot Comments Service – Lynn Marlowe or

ideas? Please help us to make the newsletter the best it can be!

Email hrmunro@yahoo.com

today!