Yearly Memories
Just one year ago, late in December of 2003, a group of members attending a regular meeting approved a motion to sell the building to the City of Brookings for what is now called the Activity Center. As the ER, it is my responsibility to accept the blame for this action. An apology goes out to those whose feelings were hurt but in my opinion there was no other way out of the financial situation the Lodge and Club were in at the time. We owed a total of about $330,000 to the bank for the building, to the vendors for food, and to individuals for unpaid debentures and interest. The vendors would sell us no more food. We were not even taking in enough money to pay the interest on the bank loan and barely enough to pay salaries.

As of today, we only have three people that have not turned in their debentures and whose checks are written and sitting in the office waiting to be picked up. Other than this, we don’t have and for the last six months have not had an unpaid bill at the end of any month. In fact, for the first time in over 14 years, we have made interest instead of paying it and unlike the last 5 years, we made a profit, which may have been small, but at least it was a profit. The sad thing is that 191 individuals, many of who are people this ER has personally known and dealt or worked with during the past 30 years, that did not renew their dues. Hopefully, these people will remember their initiation when they heard what the Elks were all about, which is not an organization founded to have a bar and food. Maybe then they will renew their dues so that we can continue the benevolent (charitable) work, which the Elks was founded to do nearly 100 years ago.

Successful Events for the Year
Thursday night meals have gone from 10–15 per night, when we started, to 30–35 per night for the last two months. We can always order more meals so come down and try it out. For Old Timers Night, we had 52 people in attendance and we had a great night. Next year, it would be nice if more could attend like they use to do in the past. The Veterans pancake feed held at the American Legion, as was mentioned in the last newsletter, went extremely well. The Turkey raffle was not a smashing success but thanks to the people that worked, we made nearly $200.00, which is better than nothing. We had about 30 individuals attend the Memorial Service, which went well because of Pat Leary, Alyce Kontz and Bill Zink and 4 Officers in the chairs. On Tom and Jerry night, we had close to 50 individuals and a free will gift bowl that took in $220.00 for the Elks National Foundation. By the way, thanks to Dick Peterson, Brian Hildebrant, Mike Peterson and Mike Bartley the Tom and Jerry mix was fantastic. The Elks Hoop Shoot was well attended and our best shooter got 22 out of 25 shots. We are sending 6 boys and girls between the ages of 8 and 13, by April 1, 2005, to the State Competition in Pierre. We owe a great deal to the 22 individuals that volunteered their time to make this a successful event. Read about this event is the Brookings Register. Because of the lack of space, I apologize for not listing the names of all the volunteers. By the way, whenever we have enough people, we have permission to let the overflow use the dining area, which is a sign that we are getting along very well with the Senior Citizens because of some give and take on both sides.

Club Hours and Meetings:
We will be open every Wednesday, Thursday and Friday night from 4:00 – 9:00 pm throughout January. The Board of Trustees will meet at 5:30 p.m. on the 2nd and 4th Thursday while the Officers will meet on the same nights at 6:30. At this time, we would like to extend our deep appreciation to Chuck Kuechenmeister for helping us out during the past year. Chuck resigned from the trustees for personal reasons and he will be missed because he did a great deal to help us out during the past year. Please think about volunteering to be on the Board of Trustees or and Officer. Without people willing to give 1 or 2 hours a month to sit on the Trustees or in the Chairs, we don’t have a chance of making things work out in the future. Help me out as the ER by saying that you will help out the Club and Lodge.

Meals on Membership Nights:
Hy-Vee will continue to cater the meals on a first come first serve basis every Thursday night from 6:00 – 8:00 pm at a price of $6.50 per person. Here are the meals for the month of January.
January 6th – 3 pieces of golden fried chicken, AuGratin potatoes and green beans,
January 13th – Baked Ham, Bushes Baked Beans, Baked Potatoes.
January 20th – Stuffed boneless pork chops, AuGratin potatoes, and Cole slaw,
January 27th – Savory Swiss steak, Cheesy Hash Browns, and Hot Vegetables.

Home Page, Newsletter and e-mail addresses:
Our e-mail address is Elks1490@mchsi.com Send me a message saying that you want the newsletter by e-mail and help the Lodge save some money. Wendy has informed me that the home page will be ready early in January. Once the home page is in place, you will be informed and we will no longer need to send the newsletter by e-mail as the newsletter and other important information will be found on the home page. Only a message saying that the newsletter has been posted will then need to be sent. Snow birds please send me your winter address.

What’s New for the Lodge and Club
The Officers of the Lodge voted to spend $250.00 on families whose names appeared on the Angel tree. This has been done. They also voted to give an additional $780.00 to the Elks National Foundation. Hence, the ENF will receive a total of $1,000 as a sign of our gratitude for the money they have given to our students. As long as possible, the Lodge and the Club will continue to exist and perform the charitable work they have accepted as a part of the responsibility of the Lodge. Have a prosperous New Year!!

Jerry Bergum, ER