The meeting of the Hood Canal Improvement Club was called to order at 7:10 p.m. President McArthur led us in the Pledge of Allegiance. Richard opened the meeting with a reminder that the meeting was being held on the anniversary of the bombing of Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941. Various people spoke informally about their memories of that event 69 years ago and Gordon Personius shared a poem he wrote many years ago entitled “The Last Veteran”.
Richard thanked everyone for coming out tonight, on a dark and stormy night, and recognized our core group of members who come to meetings and participate. He then opened the round table discussion of the survey results with his opinion that the club doesn’t seem to be accomplishing its goals and is of a concern to the current HCIC Board of Officers. He reported that the majority of members polled said they want to continue having the potluck at the beginning of the meeting followed by a guest speaker on a topic of interest to the community. Richard expressed concern for the longevity of the club and asked what we can do to encourage more people to come and participate. Lola Pittard reported that she and Karen Burger had called everyone on the current member list, and most said they wanted to come but some said that they had a conflict with the meeting night, and others said they no longer go out at night. There were two suggestions on improving the meetings, and one was to pay speakers expenses to have some come to speak to us from farther distances. Another suggestion was to have a sort of debate, with two speakers representing opposing sides of an argument on a current topic of interest (such as the Adage question). We also discussed Candidates Night successes and failures. We discussed the idea of having a project each year to raise funds for a $500 scholarship to be given to a graduating senior from the Union area, as had been done in years past by the Ladies’ Auxiliary of the HCIC. We thought that if we couldn’t take on a full fund raiser at this time, we might partner with another organization to do so. One idea that was successful in past years was the Brown Bag Auction, which Ed Binder described for the group as being a lot of fun and a good way to raise funds. We also discussed publicizing our meetings in a wider area and thought it might be good to have an Advertising or Publicity Committee to take over such actions as poster placing, UTA , Alderbrook Golf Club and McReavy House email blasts as well as perhaps taking on a one-page newsletter that would have all the news of every group listed in it. The UTA did this for two issues but it was too expensive of a publication for it to continue. Ed Binder offered to contact the Journal and see if they would let him write a column on Union news, as he successfully did many years ago. We thought of inviting the fellow who writes the Harstine Island column to ask how he gets the news in time for his weekly column, a problem for all who write the news. Steve Levette said that when he first moved to Union the HCIC was a great way for him to get to know people in the community, but thought that with so many community service groups operating in the area now, it would be important for us to discover our particular niche, something that is currently going unfulfilled. Richard concluded the round table discussion with the thought that we can continue this valuable discussion in another couple of months.
Janelle Personius spoke to the group about the NCCU Backpack Ministry as requested from the November meeting. It is an effort to provide food for children of Hood Canal School who don’t have enough to eat over the weekends. The school provides hot breakfasts and lunches to all students, but weekends can be especially difficult for some of these kids, so NCCU has organized an effort to provide food items that are placed in backpacks on Fridays for weekend consumption. It was reported that the children really appreciate having this food and it makes a big difference for them. Janelle had a list of items that can be donated by either dropping off at the NCCU office, or by calling either Judy Board at 898-2640 or Janelle for pick up.
The minutes from the November meeting were approved as presented. The Treasurer’s report from November had a couple of typos, but was approved as corrected. Treasurer Johnson explained that the November Treasurer’s report has a different appearance, being the result of a request from the Board of Officers to once again break out the funds that were raised specifically for the Dalby Waterwheel relocation project.
Richard said that since the time was getting late that the other few items on the business agenda for the evening would be taken care of in January.
President McArthur thanked our evening’s host Bill Viger, who filled in for Judi and Troy Woodard at the last minute, as well as our stalwart host, Richard McArthur. Many thanks to them both!
We closed the meeting with the singing of Christmas carols with music loaned to us by Anna’s Bay Chorale.
As there was no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 8:30 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Valerie Johnson, Secretary
