After a very feeble attempt to ring the bell to start the meeting by our President Curt Moore, John Spring presented the prayer flawlessly. He was followed by the effervescent presentation of the word "I" to begin the pledge by Doug Greenwell.

Bruce Broemmel handled the tail-twisting duties with a joke along the way and got some assistance from Sonny Christner and Elvin Townsend.

The 50-50 Card Draw was conducted by Brian Koch. The pot held $235 for the winner. Alan Musholt had the winning ticket, but he drew a Jack of Spades. So up the pot goes.

Art Awerkamp enlightened the Club with information on our newest fund raising project called "Flags of Honor". We will begin this program when we meet at the Illinois Veteran's home on November 7^th for our regular weekly meeting. During that meeting we will then dispense and collectively place American Flags in an area on the Veteran's Home grounds called the "Field of Honor". Those flags will remain on site through Veteran's Day and then will be sold to the public with their names attached. On the four major holidays, the Boy Scouts or other organizations will place that flag in that person's yard early in the day and take it down late in the day. Then on Veteran's Day their flag, with their name attached, will be a part of the Field of Honor display. Eric Thomas of ETC Computerland and Dennis Koch of Dennis Koch, CPA have both donated $1,000 already to the cause. The Club will be soliciting other businesses to donate as well. If your business would like to donate you can do so now and get two years "membership" for the price of one. The next meeting on this fundraiser will be held at ETC Computerland at 6pm on August 13^th. Thanks Art and others for getting this worthwhile project off the ground.

Curt Moore reminded the Club of the board meeting coming up. The August board meeting will be held on Monday, August 11^th. All members are welcomed to attend any board meeting which is held on the 3^rd floor of the Pier Restaurant. The cost is $10 to cover your lunch if you will be eating.

Michael Brzank of Germany returned to visit as a guest of Rich Zeidler. Rich also is conducting a fund raising effort to offset the medical expenses for D.J. Venvertloh, son of former member Dale Venvertloh. Contact Rich if you would like to donate to the cause.

Good to see Jim Schlepphorst back with us as well.

A big thank you for the "Congratulations Cake" to Jimmy, Jennifer and his staff at J's Café. Thanks also for all the kind words on my reaching 40 years of not looking for other work. Glad everyone had a chance to share some cake.

For those who haven't done so, please remember to please pay your dues!

Thoughts and prayers go out to Dave Grimm and his family. Dave's father, Charles Grimm, passed away at the age of 100 at the Illinois Veteran's Home.

Thoughts also go out to Tony Nutt and his family. Tony and Jo Nutt received a double dose of bad news as Jo's mother (Nelda Allensworth) passed away last Friday and then Tony's father (Robert Nutt) passed away Sunday night.