MINNESOTA CHAPTER 18 QUARTERLY MEETING
December 15, 2006
IN ATTENDANCE:LuAnn Chambliss, President
Al Barthel Carol Barthel Sally Bolster
Pat Jeukens Gary GrebKathy Hanson
Dave MassmanLinda MassmanDave Hemmer
Sheryl Wold Bob ClarkBarb Hemmer
Jan SwensonJoe SwensonElsa Ditty
Betty SandersVollie SandersJack Wilson
Mary Ann NeumanMavis HjulbergJohn Stanoch
Paula TrappRuby Wilson
The meeting was called to order at 9:13 a.m. by President LuAnn Chambliss.
Following the Pledge of Allegiance, a moment of silence was observed for those not with us.
Debbie Schraber, Rob Schuman, and Doug Raobel from Liberty Mutual Group shared with us information on Identity Theft.
Secretary’s minutes were presented and approved.
Copies of the Treasurer’s report were given to the attendees by Paula Trapp. Paula explained the report. Report approved
LuAnn called for Committee Reports:
Maps - No activity to report submitted by Kathy Hanson, Placement of Map co-chair
Community Service: Vollie/Betty. This has not been a very productive year as far as the Community Service Team is concerned. We have tried repeatedly to introduce the Electronic Maps to someone and have been unsuccessful. Other than that we have tried to support others in there community service projects.
Membership: Jan Swenson, no written report, we will be getting a new data base. More information will be given.
Project Connect: Joe Swenson, no written report. Talked with a couple teachers but they hadn’t heard about the project and didn’t show any interest.
Calendars: Thanks to all that are going out and selling our Caring and Sharing Calendars. The latest count that Jan gave me was 798 which have been entered in the data base. Last year at this time we had 712, so sales are better this year. Additional calendars were turned in today. Calendars can be sold until January 22, 2007. Any last minute sales call Jan with the name, address, telephone number, calendar number, sellers name and Council so she can input to the data base. Then be sure to send her the registration form and check.
It is anticipated that we will sell more than we did for 2006 which was 1310. Our goal should be at least a 10% increase. The expenses incurred thus far are $1487. Minnesota State License $150 and Johnson Printing $1337.
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Mary Ann and I sold calendars at a Christmas Luncheon at Jax and we sold 11. Calendars will also be for sale at the Metro Pioneer Luncheon, December 16, 2006.
The first drawing will be January 26, 2007, 4:00 PM at 6540 Shingle Creek Parkway, Brooklyn Center, MN. The other drawings will be April 20, 2007 and August 17, 2007 at the same time and location as the first drawing.
Mavis Hjulberg, Chair Calendar Committee
Awards:
Not much to report on Awards other than we have sent in several for the Chapter for 2006. Thanks to all of you who submitted awards and worked with me to put them together. We will have to wait and see if we win an award.
Each of the Presidents/involved Pioneers should remember to write up something immediately following a project that you would like submitted during 2007. Don’t wait until the week prior to the deadline for submitting awards to the Awards Chairperson. Collect any pictures, newspaper articles/press releases, thank you's. It doesn’t hurt to ask the benefiting person or organization to write something and explain to them that it would be used for a Pioneer Award Entry.
Thanks for all the great things you as Pioneers have done in 2006.
Sheryl Wold
Participation: Carol Barthel
PARTICAPTION HOUR REPORT FOR DEC. 15, 2006
Hours are slowly trickling in. I do get reports from Hiawathaland, Metro, and Lakes
and Arrowhead and Central Council. People do use the form on the web which is nice
because everything I need to know is there.
Hours for Sept are 19,714
Hours for Oct are 7,082
Hours for Nov are 1,845
So far this year our total is 59,160
Usually in Dec they will be coming in for most of year. I will have Dave put out
a reminder to people to send in there hours. I have slowly been getting hours already like
that.
The one thing that I would like to do is visit each council in the upcoming year.
There are some who send hours every month that I have never met.
Need a project list from each Council. If possible explain what the project is.
Carol Barthel
Camporee: Kathy Hanson
MN 10,000 Lakes Club of the TPFC
In Sept. 2006 Committee Chairs traveled to Forest City, Iowa to conference with Winnebago personnel and other local contacts and worked through further plans for the 2007 International Rally of TPFC, the Minnesota Club is hosting in August 2007.
Our Fall campout, hosted by Paul & Diane Parenteau was held in southern Minnesota at Schrier’s on Shetek near Currie, MN. We toured the “End of the Line” railroad museum, enjoyed a potluck meal, a community breakfast of Belgian waffles, Diane planned a food collection for the local food shelf and we enjoyed ourselves around the campfire.
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In late September, the campers went on a Mystery Trip led by the Wagon master and her partner, Roger. We toured a coffee roasting factory in LeSueur, a spoon carver’s woodshop workroom in Lanesboro, the Pope and Young International Museum in Chatfield, a box lunch, merry-go-round ride and a mosey around the Lark Toy Factory in Kellogg and finished up in Red Wing where we had a personal tour of the harp making operation at the Hobgoblen Music Company and a winery tour.
Several campers celebrated with members Bill & Isabel Hofer at a surprise 50th Wedding Anniversary party in their honor at the White Bear Lake VFW.
Camper’s members also attended the MS Society’s Sylvie Award Banquet in St. Paul in November 2006.
Submitted by: Kathy Hanson, Wagon master
Web Master
Overall Web site hits are showing a little improvement. Let’s talk up the web site at all meetings to keep this trend going. Family Campers showed the lowest # of hits ever. News, Calendar Winners and Products for sale show a nice gain. I think we can get a boost in web site use if you all promote its use at our various meetings and projects. And keep the web site in everyone’s mind by including the web address in all our emails and correspondence.
Let’s start promoting the web site via the qwestpioneers.org site using
I also think we need to give our members reason to visit the web site and the way to do that is to keep lots of local and current information posted on the web.
Submitted by Dave Hemmer, Webmaster.
MS TRAM
July 22- 27
Minnesota Chapter and The 10,000 Lakes Family Campers will again attempt to secure the operation of Rest Stop # 3 on each day of the TRAM.
This year the TRAM will start in Walker, MN and travel to Park Rapids. 2 nights will be spent in Park Rapids. The Tour will then head to Wadena, Fergus Falls and ends in Alexandria. This should be a really nice area and I am looking forward to camping and following the TRAM.
This year if the Chapter chooses to have the TRAM as a Chapter project and if I am chosen to be the chairman I would plan to make some changes in our operation.
1. I have spoken to Al Barthel who has been the Riding Team Captain and he has agreed to accept that job again. However I will not be involved with the fund raising aspect this year do to my obligations as Wagon Master of the 2007 International Camporee.
2. Al will be asking more for donations from Councils and Individuals and less from the Chapter. We will however ask the Chapter to reimburse us for expenses connected with travel to the various Council meetings to solicit donations.
Submitted by Dave Hemmer, MS-Bike Tour Chairman.
EZ Help;
Fourth Quarter EZ Help 911 Cell Phones for Seniors Project Report 2006.
80 Cell Phones given to Anoka County
45 Cell Phones given out in White Bear Lake
50 given to the City of Blaine Police Department.
10 to Minnesota Project Aids.
120 to the City of Bloomington.Page 3
The Project & Qwest Pioneers were also recognized by Proclamation by the City of Bloomington on October 30, 2006 which was declared “Make a Difference Day in the City of Bloomington”. It was broadcast live on their local cable station.
We are still looking for other locations to start distributing Cell Phones as Bloomington is now doing the project on their own. Areas in Minneapolis are desirable, but also like to start with other Councils as well.
Thank you, Gary Greb Chapter Chairperson.
Membership Drive: No written report however Pat Jeukens reported she had gotten several new members in St. Paul.
.
Cookbooks Scholarships:
Nothing new at this time it continues as normal.
Arrowhead Council: Berger, Gloria
We made over 150 Hug A Bears for the Union Gospel Mission's Children's
Holiday party that is Dec. 16th. I did get pictures of the ladies sewing
and also with over 100 bears in front of the Qwest Pioneer banner. Some
of us have never done Bears before so it was a real learning experience.
We are still making the remainder that was cut & marked & are just about
done. Some of them were sent to Iraq for the soldiers to pass out to
children there & if there are extras after the party they will also go
to Iraq if no other requests for them come in. We had a Coney Dog
luncheon fundraiser also for the holiday party. The party is this
weekend & we have encouraged some local Patch Adams type clowns that
went to Russia in Nov to help us entertain the kids at the party. The
one that I talked to was excited that we had asked as this is the exact
type of community involvement that they want to get into. The woman
reporter from Channels 6 & 10 that we met in Hinckley at the MS 150 was
called & I left a message so hopefully we will get some good media
coverage. We will be stuffing stockings Fri Dec 15th & taking them to
the party on Dec 15th. As you can guess quite a bit of time & effort has
gone into this party. And we appreciate all the help & donations that
every individual & group has given us. Qwest corporate office gave us
small Qwest Frisbee’s, Spirit the pup tattoos & coloring sheets.
We discussed possibly making quilts for children with illnesses as a
future group sewing project to encourage the life member ladies to
continue working with us.
We have a tree up in the Lobby of the Melrose Bldg with tags on it to
bring in gifts for area children as well as hats, scarves, mitten & etc.
So far we have a lot of nice gifts & winter wear.
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The MN Power Credit
Union donated 3 large boxes filled with hats, scarves, mittens & etc for
us to add to our donations that will go to the Union Gospel Mission and
are often displayed for the families to take if needed. Most of the
winter apparel is new or next to and could also be used as Christmas
gifts.
I had short notice but 2 of the Dress A Bear entries were made here. The
Coca Cola Bear & the Casino Bear. The Coke Bear was almost a Skiing Bear
but the 4 women that worked on them voted & Coke won. Maybe next year
there will be a skier.
The subject of Calendar winning was brought up. Duluth had 2 this month,
a $50 and a $500 which made the recipients very happy. I originally had
the idea that everyone’s name was in for every day so everyone had 365
chances to win. But was told that drawings are done quarterly and you
can only win once per quarter. So it makes a lot of difference if you
have potential to win 365 times versus 4 times a year. Can that be
changed? Maybe we would sell more calendars if there was a better chance
of winning. Also (I was told) that the checks are not sent out until the
day of the winning was questioned as especially in Dec it would be nice
to have the money early to spend for Christmas.
Central Council – Harley Forsythe Combine report:
12-15-2006
Life member club Meetings:
Met for lunch and meeting in Sauk Centre on October 10th. There were 27 members present. Bud Smith was presented with an Upholstery Scissors for the over 1000 hug-a bears he has made this year.
Had a breakfast meeting at Perkins downtown St. Cloud on November 14, attended by 22 members.
Christmas meeting was held December 12th, at the Whitney Senior Center with 38 members attending. We had a quartet of men gospel singers they were really good.
We presented a check to the Whitney Senior Center for $100.
A representative from the Boys and Girls Club came and we presented her with a check for $100 and gave her all the toys that were brought by members.
200 Pounds of non-perishable food items were donated to food shelf.
10 Boxes of Cookies were delivered to shut-ins for Christmas.
Since the last Chapter meeting we contributed to our community as follows:
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a. Volunteer Hours 3358
b. Hug-A-Bear 150
c. Wheelchair Bags 226
d. Lap Robes 5
e. We continue to collect EZ Help 911 cell phones and distribute them to our Senior Citizens. 150 have been collected and 100 distributed since our last Chapter meeting.
f. Hats40 Donated to Coborn’s Cancer Center
40 Donated to Catholic Charities
6 Donated to Church Hat and Mitten Tree
At our last council meeting we went over and approved a budget for 2007.
Which well help meet our goals, plus the new objectives for charitable giving.
Our next meeting is planned for Thursday, February 15, 2007 5:30PM at Eastside VFW.
Report respectfully submitted by:
David Massman - Central Council President and for
Elsa Ditty – Harley Forsythe Life Member President
Hiawatha land:
In Fall 2006 donated funds and school supplies to schools in Hiawatha area.
The annual membership luncheon was held November 11, 2006 and about 40 Pioneers attended.
Hiawatha Land Pioneers also sponsored a craft sale the same day.
Gave a donation of $300 to Seniors Place in Owatonna.
Sold calendars at the annual luncheon had very good responsive
Signed Jake Wilson
Lakes:
Metro
12-14-2006
We have been very busy with Operation Share 11. We have approved up to $465.32 to cover postage from the Metro council. Plus all the goodies that have been donated by many Pioneers and Qwest employees. The last packages were prepared to be shipped on Saturday 12-9-06 in the Anoka office many people helped with packing up the goodies. We have been busy getting ready for our Holiday Luncheon for Saturday 12-16-06 at Joseph's Grill in St Paul have 77 signed up, sounds like going to have nice weather for easy travel. The Bell Aire Singers are going to do a short program before lunch. Looking forward to seeing all the old friends and also new friends. Birthday in the Bag is still moving along have delivered more we did get tattoos, Frisbee’s and Spirit Books from Qwest to put in the bags also. We have had many chances to volunteer at different projects one was rake, rattle and roll in November. Had some that worked on the little red stockings doing mailings plus the shelters doing volunteer work. Also we had Caps for the Capital started in the Anoka office had many making baby caps. Still need volunteers for the Pioneer Store in Minneapolis. Still waiting on the Awards that were sent to Denver by Cheryl.
Pat Jeukens, Metro President.
Western Plains: No report
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Metro Area – Life Member
MN Chapter 18 - 4th Quarter 2006 – Metro Life Member Report
The Metro Life Members met in September and November. Our October meeting was a fun Fall Lunch with no business meeting.
We continue to meet at the Ramada Inn and usually have about 35 members at each meeting. Each month we take up a collection at the meeting: September was school supplies and sweat shirts and November was Toes for Joe’s – plus Operation Share collections. Mary Schoelch, Volunteer Coordinator from St. Joseph’s Home for Children addressed our group at the November meeting and let us know how our donations of goodies collected at the meetings and our donated Hug a Bears are used by the residents.
The Metro Life Members approved $2000 in donations to our community since September. The donations include:
Union Gospel Mission $100 (Thanksgiving)
Foundation Fighting Blindness $200
Eyelink Foundation $300
Lennox Senior Center $200
Gifts for Seniors $200
Operation Share – foodstuffs and personal items $200
Union gospel Mission $150 (Christmas)
St. Stephens Human Services $200
SAVE (Suicide Awareness) $200
Operation Share – postage $250
We went to Turtle Lake Casino in November for our semi-annual fund raiser. 134 folks made reservations as a result we made approximately $600 dollars (1/2 of which is ear marked for charitable contributions.