Club Hours and Meetings:
The bar will open at 4:00 pm and close at 8:00 pm on Wednesday and Friday nights unless there are customers in the club area. If there are customers in the club area, the club will remain open until the last customer leaves. We will continue to be open every Thursday night during the hours of 3:30 – 9:00 pm. The Board of Trustees will meet at 5:30 p.m. on the 21st of February, while the Lodge Officers will meet at 7:00 pm on the same evening. We are currently looking for 3 new members for the Board of Trustees. This job takes about 1 hour per month so please talk to Jerry about being a member of the Board of Trustees. We really need your help. We will also be examining the budget and having the nomination of officers at the February meeting so please attend the meeting and express your opinions on what needs to be done.

Meals on Membership Nights:
The meals on Thursday nights are doing well but we are down a little. These meals are still catered by Hy-Vee on a first come first serve basis every Thursday night from 6:00 – 8:00 p.m. There is always room for more people so if you have not tried the meals recently you should bring some friends down to play cards to visit and to eat. Once again, we need to thank all those that consistently use the Club on any night whether it is to eat, to visit or to play cards. Your loyalty in using the club on Wednesday to Friday nights is what keeps the Lodge and Club going. Without you, we would have turned in the Charter a long time ago.

The February meals are:

We are rapidly approaching spring so it won’t be long now before we can get back to grilled steaks.

THANK YOU FROM JERRY AND SHIRLEY
Shirley and Jerry want to thank all of those who sent a get well card, signed a card from a group of people that was sent, visited with him over the phone or personally visited with him at home while he was recuperating. Jerry is now doing well as he goes to cardiac rehabilitation 3 times a week. His required 6 week recovery at home by the surgeon will soon be over so he should be able to join us at the club after the 14th of February if the surgeon says it is okay. He will then be able to do light work after the 14th but no heavy lifting or bartending until after the end of March or April. In spite of what some people think, the Elks shall live on.

Past Events:
1. At the State Elks Hoop Shoot in Pierre on January 19th, 3 young men and 3 young ladies from our district participated in the activities. All of them ranked in the top 8 with Emily Johnson being the highest shooter by taking 3rd place with a tie of 20 out of 25 shots, a tie of 3 out of 5 on the first tiebreaker but losing 4 to 5 on the second tiebreaker. This is the sixth year that Emily has participated and she made one trip to the nationals. She will be missed.

2. The Scholarship Committee received and reviewed 10 Elks National Foundation Most Valuable Student Scholarship applications and 2 applications for Technical Grants. The most valuable student scholarship applications of the top three girls and the top three boys have been sent to the state committee for further evaluation as well as the two Technical Grant applications. The names of the Most Valuable Student Scholarship winners sent to the State Level are Benjamin Kantack, Melody Koch and Ellie Hendricks all of Brooking, Trevor Kjellsen of Arlington, Jeremy Janssen of Volga and Angela Schram of Bruce. The names of the technical winners are Paige Virchow of Lake reston and Thonwald Vorstad of Volga. Picking the winners is not an easy choice and we need to thank, Steve Krebsbach, Al Carter, Bob Schmidt and Lee Ann Pierce for doing such a fine job. Each of these 8 individuals will also receive financial assistance from the Lodge. This is what your dues help to support. More on this will follow.

Home Page and e-mail Addresses:
The home page address is www.brookingselks1490.org and the e-mail address is Elks1490@mchsi.com. Use the latter to contact the Lodge Secretary or the Exalted Ruler. Remember that the home page contains all of the latest information and inform the Lodge if you have an address change.

Parties at the club:
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 had four parties in January and we have five parties scheduled at the club for February. There is no rental charge to use the club if you are a member of the Lodge. Spread the word that the club is available for parties and that it is a great place to meet.

Dues Renewal
The dues renewal notices for the 2008-2009 year will be sent out in a couple of weeks. This year we had 19 more members fail to pay their dues. I wish I knew why. If we are to continue to exist and to carry on the charitable work that we do then, we cannot continue to lose members. People frequently thank me for keeping the Lodge and the Club open. I am not the one keeping the Lodge open. It is members like you that continue to pay your dues and use the facilities.

Get a delinquent member to return to the club or bring in a new member!!

Jerry Bergum, ER