SONS IN RETIREMENT

TWAIN HARTE BRANCH NO. 172

MINUTES OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

Meeting Date: January 30, 2006 Place: Papa's New Roost

Big Sir Dick Feaster opened the meeting at 8:00 AM. Secretary Dan Mohn reported that a quorum was present (see attached attendance report). Big Sir Feaster introduced Area Governor Al Limon to the group and the group introduced themselves to Sir Limon. The January 2, 2006 Minutes were approved as presented. (Smith/Denhard).

TREASURER'S REPORT: Treasurer Earl Nelson reported a beginning cash balance of $4678.26 and an ending cash balance of $4812.76 for the month of January. The major expense for the month was $160.51 for printing and supplies. Treasurer Nelson reported that 94% of the membership have made their $20 donation for the year.

ATTENDANCE: Attendance Chairman Herb Spierling reported that 22 Sirs have called that they would not be attending Thursday’s meeting; and that 6 visitors, including two guests of the speakers, will be attending.

MEMBERSHIP: Membership Chairman Lee Piercey reported that Sir Bob Morris, #20 has requested a transfer to Sonora SIR Branch 136 and that inactive member Sir Jerry Williams has resigned, as he is no longer able to attend meetings. Sir Piercey recommended approval of the following for membership: Ronald Clark, Duane Melott, and James Hood. Approved (Johnson/Wellwood). Ronald Clark will be inducted at Thursday’s Luncheon Meeting and the remaining two will have to wait until membership openings occur. The membership stands at 150 active, 4 inactive and two on hold. Sir Piercey will call the four inactive members and check on their status.

STANDING COMMITTEE REPORTS:

LUNCHEON: Sir Don Wooldridge reported that all is set for Thursday’s Luncheon. The luncheon price remains at $12.

PROGRAM: The program for Thursday will be a photo-essay on Nature Photography by Jim and Carlene Cunningham. February’s program will be a talk on human organ donations.

COMPUTER USERS GROUP: No Report

WEB PAGE: Sir Don Denhard reported that the Web Page is up to date and the Bulletin as well as the Minutes are now in PDF and can be viewed with Adobe Acrobat Reader so that they can be easily read, down-loaded and printed from the site. Sir Denhard proposed that a bar-code system be set up for easier logging in members at the luncheon meetings. The initial cost of setting this up would be about $250 and some Sir time. The bar codes would be put on the name badges. Discussion ensued. Sir Denhard will elaborate further on this proposal at next month’s meeting.

DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY GROUP: Sir Ray Pfoutz, in absentia, requested approval for a meeting on February 21, 2006, at his house 16373 Ridgewood Drive, Sonora, from 2:00 to 4:00 PM to discuss camera basics. Approved (Smith/Sweeney).

GOLF CLUB: No Report.

BULLETIN: Editor Sir Ed Nissen, in absentia, requested approval to expand the bulletin to four sides (two pages) and mail in an envelope. Past Big Sir Kinsfather and Big Sir Feaster showed examples of bulletins from other branches that were the equivalent of four sides and mailed folded, saving the cost of the envelop. Discussion ensued. Approval was given to expanding the bulletin, details to be worked out with the editor, (Sweeney/Wright). The deadline for the February bulletin is February 3, 2006.

PUBLICITY: Sir Gil Wesson reported that both The Union Democrat and the Sierra Mountain Times published a notice of the luncheon meeting.

TRAVEL: No Report.

RV: Sir Harvey Uhl reported that the group had an excellent Christmas party, and further, had nailed the price of the 2006 Christmas Dinner at 2005 prices. The RV Group now has 39 members. The first trip of the season will be in April to Orange Grove RV Park at Bakersfield. The RV BBQ Picnic will be August 3rd at Rail Town State Historical Park. Sirs, wives and guests are invited.

THEATER GROUP: Sir John Kinsfather reported that the Theater Group’s season would start in March.

HIKING: Sir Jerry Jensen, in absentia, requested approval for a Snowshoe hike at Dodge Ridge on February 15, 2006; actual date will be contingent upon the weather. Sir Jim Johnson will be Trail Master. Approved (Wellwood/Mel Johnson).

MOVIE GROUP: No Report

FELLOWSHIP: Everyone was reminded to let Sir Carl Nunes know if a Sir is ill or has passed away so he can take the appropriate action.

FISHING GROUP: Big Sir Feaster requested approval to form a fishing group, (Approved, Piercey/Johnson) and appointed Sir Herb Spierling, chairman and Sir John Baldwin assistant chairman of the newly formed Branch group. Sir Spierling reported on group activities that have been planned and organized by the SIR Area 27 Fishing Chairman. The next fishing trip will be February 20th to 24th, 2006, to the Chetco River, near Brookings, Oregon. The cost will be $175 per person, meals and lodging extra. Sir Spierling requested approval for the Branch to participate in this SIR Area 27 trip. Approved (Holton/Johnson).

OLD BUSINESS:

The Propane Users Group now has 86 potential users. Little Sir Sweeney will keep the efforts moving to try to sign up 100 potential users before starting negotiations with suppliers.

Sir John Kinsfather will continue research on appropriate guest speaker appreciation gifts.

A new speaker has been added to the sound system to improve the performance in the rear of the room. Sir Bill Bamford assisted Big Sir Feaster in setting and balancing the sound between the two front and the new rear speakers.

NEW BUSINESS:

Big Sir Feaster reported that finding table space for late coming Sirs continues to be a problem and had requested, by email, comments from the BEC for viable solutions. Discussion ensued. It was the consensus of the BEC that; 1) an extra table, over and above the regular seating would be set up and reserved for late comers; 2) the Big Sir would request Sirs that come early and reserve seats for buddies, refrain from doing so unless they are positive that the buddy is actually going to be there; and 3) once or twice a year, have a mixer whereby each attendee would be randomly assigned a table number so that each Sir would have with someone other than his usual table buddies.

Table number signs: Little Sir Sweeney and Sir Nunes will make new signs.

The program speakers have requested permission to bring two guests, at no charge to the Branch. Permission was granted.

The meeting was adjourned at 9:35 AM.

The next Executive Committee meeting will be 8:00 AM Monday, February 27, 2006, at Papa’s New Roost.

Dan Mohn, Secretary