DUES DUES DUES

The 2006 dues cards are now in.

Regular $54.00 Retired $25.00 Associates $64.00

Message From The President
By David Willis Jr.

Brothers and Sisters, a new year is upon us. This brings us to a tough time for all of us, remembering to send our dues in. Please if you have not done so send them in. This will save us a few hundred dollars sending out reminder notices.

The State FOP 2005 Super Raffle was changed; A Lodge must now sell one raffle ticket for each member to get the $10.00 dollars back per ticket sold. This would mean we have to sell at least 345 tickets and the Lodge would then back $3450.00 dollars. This is a great fundraiser for us. So, we need every Member to try to buy a ticket and for our Associate Members to step up and buy some also.

Right now we’re 78 tickets short in reaching the 345 mark. This right now is our only other fund raiser besides the golf outing.

The Grand Prize is a 2006 Harley-Davidson motorcycle or $15,000.00 in cash, this goes along with a 2nd prize of $2,500.00 and a 3rd of 1,500.00. Don’t forget there are 730 daily $25.00 prizes and 52 weekly $50.00 prizes and even if you win your ticket is thrown back into the barrel. You can get tickets from Dennis Tomlian, Keith Ray, Dan Willis, Phil Abdoo and Myself. For Members that can’t get to a meeting or see one of us, you can mail a check made out to the Lodge and send it to:

CENTRAL MACOMB LODGE 187
SUPER RAFFLE
P.O. BOX 36
MOUNT CLEMENS, MI 48046

Fraternally Yours

Committee Reports
By Matt Pecha

There are two active and continuing committees in the Lodge, and I have the “pleasure” of heading them both.
First, is the food committee which arranges to feed everyone who attends the meetings. On average, we collect enough money at the door to pay the food bill. That’s all good except there isn’t enough left over to pay for the beer and the hall rental. The E-board is ok with that as long as the members are. Let me know if you think we are spending too much money on food or if you have any other suggestions.

Second, is the Ways and Means Committee. Just to clarify, the purpose of the committee is to raise money for the lodge and its members. If, as a member, you want to request money for an event (training, seminars, donations for Honor Guard, etc) the request must be made through the Ways and Means Committee. Committee donations only cover member related events and not charitable donations which must still are requested through the lodge.

Secretary’s Report
By Matt Pecha

Happy New Year to everyone – hopefully, 2006 will be a positive and prosperous year for each of us and the Lodge.

In 2005 we continued to see our numbers grows as new members joined. The official count is now 300 regular/retired members and 53 associate members. We should all be proud of those numbers and continue to recruit our partners and friends to join the Lodge.

The Lodge’s new computer system is in the final stages of full implementation. The last part is building the membership lists that are used to update the State and National Lodges as well as being used for the mailings. While the transition should be smooth, there is a possibility of a few errors being generated in spelling of names or addresses. Please notify me as soon as possible if anything needs to be corrected.

Again, Happy New Year and remember to pay your dues. SEE YOU AT THE LODGE!

Treasurer’s Report
By Dennis Tomlian

Hope everyone had a nice Christmas. This New Year finds the lodge in good financial shape; we opened a twenty five month CD for $10,243 at 4.99% interest rate. Even after the expenditure for office equipment our savings are healthy, but if we ever expect to have our own meeting hall we need all the members to step up and pay their dues and purchase a $20 Super Raffle Ticket which the lodge gets a portion of which helps our bottom line.

Since our fiscal year started July 1st we have donated over $3000 to various charities and civic causes. We are a non-profit organization but we are not a bottomless pit, we have to be watchful on who and how much we donate, we still have expenses and future expectations for our lodge. I am looking forward to a meeting hall that we can call our own which members can use for their own functions; hopefully this can be realized in the near future.

A special congratulations needs to go out to our ways and means committee for all the hard work they and the members put into the Texas Hold’em tournament. We need participation in our upcoming tournaments either as a player or a dealer come on down and join the fun and refreshments and support your lodge.
Have a safe and healthy New Year.

SHUFFLE UP AND DEAL!!!!
TEXAS HOLD ‘EM TOURNAMENTS

The Lodge is holding four tournaments in 2006. The tournaments are put on by and support the Ways and Means Committee which raises funds for member-related activities as well as the Lodge itself.

The buy-ins will be $65, which includes a headhunter competition as well as all the food, pop and beer that you can stomach.

We are trying to maintain a $500 top prize and pay-outs for roughly 10% of the number of people playing. Pay-outs/prizes will be determined by the number of participants. This is open to every one, so bring a friend.

Mark the following dates on your calendar: Feb 17, May 5, Sept 15, and Nov 10

Come enjoy the fraternalism and support the Lodge.

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