The Ken February 6

Attendance: Bill Brucker

Split Club: Rene Rebmann

Invocation: Larry Coon

Fine Master: Paul Chisolm

The Ken: Jeff Markarian

Mike began our meeting with the Pledge. Chuck Patterson led us in singing “God Bless America” and Larry Coon gave our invocation. To begin with, 2 weeks ago a very nice young man sat in on one of our meetings to see what we are all about. His name is Jeremiah Davis. He is a chiropractor and decided to join our club. Let this be Jeremiah’s first posting to the membership.

Mike confessed to be suffering from Super Bowl depression. Nevertheless he conducted our meeting. The board met this week. Tom Lang is finalizing our tour of the Niagara Wine Region. He has procured a limo to pick us up at Jovi’s 11:00, Sunday March 5^th. The cost is $50. Please confirm with Tom as soon as you can. The limo will bring us back to Jovi’s. Tom would like us to wrap up the day with dinner at Jovi’s. For those that are interested, let Tom know so he can have Mark prepare for us. The cost would be split by those dinning. Rick Graham announced that Bob Werner called him and said that this week he will have 60 years of perfect attendance. Bob, you received a round of applause. Great job. Rick also presented a check to Mike Austin for $5000. Mike will put this to good use refurbishing the Elmlawn Chapel. Next the Riviera team came up to receive their check for $4000. Jim Prichard, Gary Rouleau, Tom Lang and Rene Rebmann. Jim accepted the check and said they will use this money towards their large capital project. Larry introduced Fione from Amherst Rotary. Fione is putting a group together to climb Mount Kilimanjaro to raise money for Polio eradication. For more information, email her at africannalaikq@yahoo.com

Fine master Paul C took the floor. Jim P was fined for picking on Gary. Tom Lang was fined for retribution and John Coogan was fined for taking Paul’s drink. There was the ongoing inside pie joke that Gary was fined for. Bill Bruker was fined for being late to the attendance table. Bill asked if he could pay the fine with revenue from the table. No such luck. Jerry was fined for his phone going off. Gary’s rang at the same time. Probably someone shopping for cadaver management. I did not get who won the split club. Rene lost the chance for the Ace. Brian raffled off 2 loaves of bread and auctioned 1 loaf. It was sour dough with figs and anis. Rene drove a hard bargain but I eventually out bided her.

Paul introduced Brad Hahn. Brad is the Executive Director of Explore Buffalo. Explore Buffalo invites everyone to experience Buffalo’s great architecture, history, and neighborhoods. They offer walking tours, Museum tours and a winter speaker series. In 2016, 18,000 people took their tours. The tours are given by trained docents. There will be 90 docents by this summer. Great program

Meeting adjourned