Attendance: Barb Henry
Split Club: Michaelene Bernat
Invocation: Chuck Patterson
Fine Master: Gary Roberts
The Ken: Jeff Markarian
Mike began our meeting with the Pledge, Barb led us in “God Bless America” and Chuck Patterson gave our invocation. Guests today were George Allen. George applied for membership. Let this be the first of 2 required postings. Ted Purvis introduced his friend David Gross.
Paul announced the election for officers is December 19. Please forgive them for lacking the 90 days’ notice. Rick Graham will meet with the foundation board to go over 12 requests they have for grants. Tom Lang reminded us of the Christmas Party this Friday.
Gary Roberts was ambushed to be the fine master today. First confession was in the form of a bribe. Eddie gave Gary a check for Art in order to ask us to read and vote for his brother Bills wattpad story. Please go to www.wattpad.com. Search for Bills page “elaroadshow”. His story is “Eden”. Read it and click on the star to vote. To be voted on, the author has to be in the top 100 horror stories. This is a chance to win $20,000 and to have a TV series made from your story. Mike is worried about Audrey and Tom’s dispute over our illustrious quarterback. There seems to be a difference of opinion on his abilities to lead the Bills. Tom thanked Mike for a nice time at the Sabres game. Someone was fined for stealing Gary’s cookies. Jim Prichard acknowledged the Riviera Theater was a busy place this week end. I sat with Rick Graham and he said that he was there over the weekend and Jim really works the crowd for the events. Gary quizzed us on Buffalo history. Good job on no notice.
Jerry Gentile won the split club and John Coogan missed on the Ace.  Brian gave us added value to the price of our ticket. Brian pulled Mike Austin’s name for another wonderful loaf of his fine, warm, homemade sour dough bread with lots of goodies mixed in. I offered Mike $5 for the club to take it off his hands.
At this time, we were very fortunate to have one of our own members speak to us. Holly Nowak, MBA, SHRM-SCVP, gave a thought provoking program on her company HMN Resources, www.hmnresources.com. HR (Human Relations) – The business function of an organization that leads the strategy and operations related to the “people”. Holly started the company after serving WNY over 20 years in the human resource field. As I listened to her presentation, I was shocked by all the regulations that are in place for companies with more than 10 people. Holly and her team keep up with the implementations and allow you to run your company. Holly has advised hundreds of small business owners, executives and management teams in a range of industries and sectors spanning private, public and nonprofit on HR practices. I would be very comfortable employing Holly or recommending her after this program. Well done presentation.
Meeting adjourned