Club Hours and Meetings:
We will continue to be open every Wednesday, Thursday and Friday night during the hours of 4:00 – 9:00 pm throughout the month of December. Thanks to Michael Kabris we now have a full Board of Trustees and they will meet at 5:30 p.m. on the 8th and 22nd of December while the Lodge Officers will meet at 6:30 pm on the same days.

Meals on Membership Nights:
The meals, catered by Hy-Vee on a first come first serve basis every Thursday night from 6:00 – 8:00 pm, have been doing extremely well. Once again, I want to thank all those people who repeatedly come down on Thursday to play cards, to eat or to visit. For those that have never tried the meals, you should bring some friends down to play cards to visit and to eat. Where in town can you get a full meal for $6.50 per person and free coffee?

Here are the meals for the month of December:

Past Events:
1. We had forty-one people attend the dinner and ceremonies on Old Timers Night. It lasted for about and hour and a half. We had good food, a great time visiting and pins were given to those in attendance. State President Dick Sage gave a four to five minute presentation on defending our rights as American citizens or lose them. Please let me know if you could not attend and want your pin.

2. Thanks to Phil and Winnie Baker, Shirley Bergum, George Buchenau, Don Denure, Arvid Dills, Don Hind, Ralph Harvey, Spencer Hawley, Merwyn Hendricks, Harry Jones, Art Kranz, Chuck Kuechenmeister, Pat Leary, Glen Nachtigal, Ray Pottratz, John Ruffolo, Kosta Theodosopoulos, Ed Williamson and Bill Zink, who worked the Pancake Feed for Veterans and their families, everything went well. We served between 275-300 people. Forgive me if I forgot to list somebody that worked.

3. We also need to thank Phil and Winnie Baker, Merwyn Hendricks, Chuck Kuechenmeister, and Bill Zink for working the Charity Turkey Raffle. We had about thirty-five people playing bingo, which went well. However, we only hand about ten people in the club area for the paddle raffle. In spite of the low attendance, we cleared about $300 for the Technical Scholarships.

Future Events
1. The Elks Memorial Service will be on December 4th at 4:00 pm in what used to be the Joe Garity Ballroom. The Memorial List for 2005 is Robert Durland, Floyd Hellekson, Gerry Hoffelt, Donald Kratochvil, Lloyd Oseby, Rexford Parker, Duane Rude, Robert Sampson, Gilfred Schmid, Dave Shelden, Lorell Sorenson and Hendy Vetsch. Please attend if you can.

2. Tom and Jerry night will be at the Club on December 16th from 6-9 pm. There will be free snacks and chili to go along with the free Tom and Jerry’s.

3. The Elks Hoop Shoot will be on December 18th at the 5th Street Gym. We will open the gym at 12:30 to get things ready. Registration will be at 1:00 pm and competition will start at 1:30 pm. We need volunteers.

Home Page and e-mail Addresses:
Remember that the Lodge home page is www.brookingselks1490.org. The home page will always contain the most recent newsletter as well as other pertinent information concerning the Lodge and the Club. Our e-mail address is Elks1490@mchsi.com and this can be used to contact the Lodge Secretary or the Exalted Ruler. The Snowbirds need to remember to notify the Lodge when they head south. Remember that you can receive the newsletter by e-mail.

Parties in the club area:
If you are interested in having a party at the Club just give us a call and we will do everything we can to make sure the party is successful. We already have four parties scheduled for December. One of these is a graduation party and another is the Bobcat Backers. There is no rent to use the club if you are a member of the Lodge.

By-Law Change:
At the November 10th meeting, we discussed a motion to change Article IV, Section 1 of the local By-laws from “The regular sessions of this Lodge shall be held on the 2nd and 4th Thursday evenings in each month throughout the year, except that in the months of July and August, sessions of the Lodge shall be held on the 4th Thursday evening thereof.” to “The regular sessions of this Lodge shall be held on the 3rd Thursday evening of each month throughout the year.” A vote on this motion will take place at the regular meeting on December 8th. Attend the meeting and use your right to vote.

Delinquent Members
Early in November, a renewal notice was sent to 54 delinquent members asking them to renew their dues. Thirteen of them responded positively. Of the 41 remaining, 17 have been members for 25 or more years and 16 have been members for 10 to 24 years. It sure would be nice if these 33 people would let me know why they are leaving the Lodge.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night.
Jerry Bergum, ER