Our special guest and speaker was Tom Van Ness of Quincy Newspapers, Inc. Tom has been spearheading the City of Quincy's 175th anniversary celebration. To celebrate the city's 175th birthday of being a chartered city, a year long list of events has been planned. The program began with a recorded video in which Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner saluted the city for its 175 years of existence. His message was followed by comments of several other politicians including Senator Dick Durbin, Senator Mark Kirk and Congressman Aaron Schock. Three former Quincy Mayors also made comments in the video including C. David Nuessen, Chuck Scholz and John Spring, along with current Mayor Moore. Several other local people shared their comments too regarding the City's 175th birthday. According to Van Ness, there will be monthly activities throughout the year ahead beginning with the opportunity to win two $500 drawings using the cellphone app called "Passport to Quincy" that involves a city-wide scavenger hunt. One of the main events will be held during Quincy's Dogwood Festival weekend. A major music festival will be held on the streets of Quincy on Saturday, May 2 following the big Dogwood Festival Parade. Then an all-faiths celebration will be at Clat Adams Park on Sunday, May 3 with a Community Faith Celebration Christian music concert by three bands in the park. To find out more, just log onto www.Quincy175.com, a web page diligently put together by Exchangite Eric Thomas. Special thanks to Kyle Awerkamp for his introduction.

Mike Lavery presented the opening prayer to begin our festivities.

Eric Barnes, having witnessed the Pledge of Allegiance openings for months, had no trouble beginning this week's version. His performance of saying "I" was remarkable.

Jeff Dorsey handled the duties as last week's Tail-Twister and managed to re-tell a story presented by the late El Tappe sliding into 2nd base at Wrigley Field when he played for the Cubs. It was a story that Elvin actually told the Club years ago. Miss the meeting? Ask me about the story. I love telling it.

The 50-50 card draw was conducted by Brian Koch. The pot of $882 was on the line last Friday. Mike Lavery had the winning ticket but drew the 2 of Spades so the pot grows next week. There will be only 22 cards left to draw from in our next drawing. Remember, you need the ace of spades to win.

President Curt Moore returned from his vacation and was at the helm of the meeting again.

Jeff Dorsey presented The News & Sports as he continues to audition for Brian William's anchor position at NBC. He's qualified. He's been shot down at Kelly's many times by women over the years.

It is soooo good to have Skip Rueter back with us Friday. His wit was evidenced by us all again (see the Line of the Week).

Only one guest and that was Matt Tanner of Champaign with John Johannes.