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 April. The Board of Trustees will meet at 5:30 p.m. on the 19th of April, while the Lodge Officers will meet at 7:00 p.m. on the same night. The National Office has recommended that all lodges adopt a harassment policy. Hence, the new harassment policy for employees of our Lodge has been drafted and will be discussed at the April meeting.

Meals on Membership Nights:
The meals on Thursday nights have increased in number to about thirty-five. The 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 give the meals a try, come down to make new friends, to play cards, or to visit and enjoy the Club. Once again, we would like 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 through Friday is what keeps the Club going.

Here are the meals for the month of April:

St. Patrick’s Party in March
On St. Patrick’s Day, we had about 20 individuals that attended the second pot luck supper held at the Club. We had grilled hot dogs, potato salad, cole slaw, tater tot hot dish, roast beef, deviled eggs, several different salads and a variety of deserts, including cake, ice cream and coffee. Nobody went home hungry. In fact, it was suggested that we try this again in May so more on this will appear in the next newsletter.

Dues Renewal
So far, 267 members have paid their dues for the new year and there are 90 members that have not paid their dues. For those of you that have not paid your dues, your old card will no longer let you into the club. Hence, I hope you will sit down now and write a check for your dues to send in to the Lodge because it is your dues that help support the scholarship program. I check the post office every day and cards are mailed out the same day the dues arrive. Cards have already been mailed to spouses of deceased members and cards will be sent to spouses of active members if requested. If you want your spouse to have a card just let me know. This year, we lost another 13 members, which means we have lost approximately 450 members since 2003. As I mentioned several times in the past, to get a new Lodge, we need to retain membership and work at getting delinquent members to return. The fewer members we have, the longer it will take to obtain our own building. We could take out a loan and sell debentures as we did in the past but this, in my opinion as the ER, is not the way to go. However, I only have one vote at a meeting so I must do what the members want done.

Past Events:
1. The Regional Hoop Shoot took place in Rapid City on March 2-3. Tanner Odegaard took first place in the 12-13 year old boys category by shooting 24 out of 25 free throws. Tanner will be advancing to the National Hoop Shoot in Springfield, MA on April 19-22 for the second time in the last four years. If you know the Tanner Odegaard family just call and wish him good shooting or log on to www.elks.org/hooopshoot/greetings.cfm and send him a message while he is in Springfield. By the way, Emily Johnson in the 12-13 year old girl category took a 2nd place tie by shooting 20 out of 25, which was 2 shots away from first place.

2. We are still waiting for some news on the Most Valuable Student Scholarships and on the Technical Grants which have been forwarded to the State level for further review and the possibility of additional awards. There will be an awards banquet at the Club for all the scholarship winners on May 18th. Any one interested in attending the banquet should contact Jerry at 692-4640. This year we gave out 9 local scholarships for a total amount of $4, 500. By the way, we need to thank the members of the scholarship committee for doing such a great job.

3. The essays of the local winners of the essay contest, with the title being “WHY I AM PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN” have been forwarded to the next level of competition, which is the State. The final level is at the National Elks Convention where the national winners will be announced.

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. The home page is now up to date and I offer my apologies for this not being true for January and February. Remember that the home page will normally contain all of the latest information and you should inform the Lodge if you have an address change. Did you know that the cost of newsletter returned and forwarded by first class mail amounts to about $1.68 versus 15 cents? Help the Lodge save money by informing the office of winter and summer addresses.

Parties at the club:
Currently, we charge $100.00 to rent the Club for a party. As a member, you can have a party at the Club without a rental fee. If you have one party at the club you save more than what you pay for your yearly dues. The club held four parties in March scheduled by members and two by nonmembers. If you are interested in having a party at the Club just give us a call at 692-4640 and we will do everything we can to make sure the party is successful. The last party we had was a birthday party for a husband and wife. It was an extremely successful event. How many dropped members know that members get the club free? Call someone that used to be a member and tell them the benefits they now have or talk to someone that has never been a member and tell them the same thing. The more members we have the faster we get a new building and having parties also helps us save money.

Help out the Lodge by getting a new member or a delinquent member to return.

Jerry Bergum, ER