Category: Bulletin

  • Hexagon Brewing Company | August 2nd

    Our speaker, Hexagon Brewing Company, located at 1002 Dutch Valley Dr. was not only interesting he brought samples! Owned jointly by Steven Apking and Matt McMillian thus far they have won 5 gold medals. 3 silvers and 1 bronze. According to their website they have interesting names for their beers such as Smokin Goat.  Hours of operation are 4 – 9 Monday thru Thursday, 4 – 11 on Friday & Saturday and 2 – 8 on Sunday. Plenty of opportunities for you to go and check them out. He also agreed to participate in our Oktoberfest, one more reason to give them a try. Along with brewing beer, he is a bee keeper and has his own printing company. Don’t know how the three items work together but if he gets into making mead he’ll have his own honey and can print his own labels.

    Next Week:  Jacob Tippens is bringing us Kelsie Critenton and the name is familiar but I don’t know why.  Guess we’ll find out together.

    I arrived late for the meeting and missed the pledge and prayer so don’t have a clue who did either and I haven’t convinced President Kerr to write this information down for me.  I did notice we had a “rug rat” at one table but don’t know who laid claim to him. Cute kid and I’m sure a Sertoman in training.  I was thrilled I did come, even though I was late as I was presented with a certificate for perfect attendance, an emblem for charity work and a gorgeous plaque of appreciation.  Thanks, Guys.

  • Tre Hargett Secretary of State | July 26th

    Tre Hargett Secretary of State | July 26th

    We need to have political people speak more often; it brings out all kinds of visitors!  Tre Hargett was elected by the Tennessee General Assembly to serve as Tennessee’s 37th secretary of state in 2009 and re-elected in 2013 and 2017.  He served in the Tennessee House of Representatives for a decade representing District 97 (Bartlett and Memphis) and was twice elected Republican Leader by his colleagues.  The Department of State takes pride in setting a high standard for customer service. This is achieved by focusing on being accountable to one another, providing value to the taxpayers, and emphasizing accuracy in the discharge of our duties. He attended the University of Memphis, but nobody is perfect, he is married with 2 sons. He stated Tennessee has the highest credit rating and we have a balanced budget along with being the least indebted state.  Becky Massey was responsible for bringing him to speak and he was well received.  Maybe with her brother announcing his intention to retire we can get him to speak a little more often.

    Our guest and I hope I don’t leave anyone out: Representatives Rick Staples and Bill Dunn, Kyle Hickson, Cliff Rogers, Chris Davis, Heather Anderson, Lisa Hood Skinner, Nick McBride, and Sherry Witt.

    Record keeping: Caroline Grimm read the prayer and John Cogdill led the pledge; we had so many visitors we finally got to draw for the pot and Janet Bigelow won.

    Marianne passed out a speakers list, however, there isn’t one listed for tomorrow. I held out hope I would get an email with this info but alas that didn’t happen. Come on anyway and be surprised. Jacob Tippens has August 9th and has Kelsie Critenton and on August 16th Marianne is bringing Sandra Clark. I understand she has started a new paper so that should be informative.  The 23rd is open if you have a suggestion and Marianne has scheduled Justin Biggs for August 30th.

  • Maureen Willis – Choices of Healthcare | July 19th

    Maureen Willis – Choices of Healthcare | July 19th

    I do hope someone realized I was not at the meeting. I understand the speaker was Maureen Willis and she spoke on “Choices of Healthcare”. I was off doing my part for the healthcare industry by having a stress test which totally stressed me out, took five hours and cost me $250.00! With Obamacare up for grabs her talk may have come in real handy. My niece who lives in Virginia and is self-employed pays $1000.00 a month premium for a family policy and has a $6000.00 deductible! But only the first two family members must pay it. I do hop Ms. Willis had some timely suggestions.

    Report on the board meeting: I missed that also, it falls on the same day as another organization I’m involved in and they only meet once a month.  This one was held at the Titanic in Sevierville and if you have not gone to this you really must do so. They have done a fantastic job of recreating the interior of the ship and they have all kinds of information to pass along. This was my second trip and they have added information from my first visit. You receive a “boarding pass” as you enter with the name of an actual passenger and find out at the end if you survived.  They had many people that wanted to know what happened later so they investigated and now have a short history of them. I not only survived, I lived to be 96!

    Back to the board meeting, they discussed a whole bunch of things but from the information I received they didn’t vote on anything.  Maybe next time.

    On a sad note, William (Bill) Davis who joined the club in January of 1952 and later became an international president has passed away. He has not attended for some time due to illness however, he will be sadly missed.

    Our speaker next week is Trae Hargis who is the Tennessee Secretary of State. He is being brought to us by Becky Massey and this would be an excellent meeting to bring a perspective member or just a neighbor you want to impress.

  • Sertoma Club Meeting | July 12th

    I do hope everyone is fired up and trying to find a sponsor for our major fundraiser Oktoberfest. Brett did a great job of outlining what we had last year and what we need for this year. A major sponsor would do wonders for our bottom line and certainly relieve a lot of pressure. In the meantime, as he pointed out everyone purchased a ticket last year and hopefully will do so again this year.  We also brought one item for the brown bag items and hopefully donated one item for auction. It may seem like a lot of work but it’s only one time a year and we can rest for the remainder of the year. Of course, if anyone is game we can get a group together and attend Oktoberfest in Germany and see how they do it; we might get some pointers.

    All things considered we’re in pretty good shape this year, we have some things that we use each year that will not have to be purchased, some vendors have agreed to maintain their price from last year and we’re becoming “old hats” at doing a lot of the things we had to work harder at the first year.  We still need help setting up and volunteering on the big night which is going to be on Friday, the 13th.  Maybe we’ll throw in a black cat for luck.

    Announcements: There will be two Naturalization Ceremonies on Tuesday, July 18th at 9 am and 11 am. Anyone available to help would be welcome.

    According to my calendar and nobody told me different, the board meeting will be Tuesday, July 18th 6 pm.

  • New Sertoma Calendar Year!

    Happy New Year!

    Let’s all do our part to make this a banner year, our new president showed up looking very presidential and ready to get the ball rolling. It just takes time and determination.

     

    Next Week:  Our speaker will be our own Brett Grimm bringing us up to date on Oktoberfest which will be here before we’re ready. It is scheduled for Friday, October 13th and there is lots to do. Come prepared to volunteer

  • Elaine Streno | Second Harvest Food Bank

    Today we had Elaine Streno from Second Harvest Food Bank and I had no idea they did so much. Seems they are a national organization which has named itself “Feeding America”. They are in their 35th year and in five states. It got started because some people noticed food was being wasted and people were going hungry. They now have six difference feeding programs and serve 18 counties and 200,000 people. They now purchase 70% of the products they use, however, a great deal is donated by local grocery stores. They have 20 trucks, and a budget of $6,000 per year. Ninety cents of every dollar that is donated goes to the needy.  They have a large freezer which they allow other non-profit organizations to use. 1 in 6 people in East Tennessee live in poverty and Second Harvest is trying to eliminate that. One program sends home food for kids after school and weekends and they also have a program for seniors.

    Next week we vote. Come ready to cast your ballot or if you don’t like who ever is offered up, to volunteer to do it yourself. We’re easy, you can go either way.

    Chris Kerr, President; Jacob Tippens VP Outreach; Alan Stuckey, VP Member- ship; Brett Grimm, VP Special Events; Andy Schoerner, Treasurer; Carol Mohney, Secretary; Carolyn Grimm, SSgt-at-Arms; Jason Grahl, Speaker chair & grid pick; Matt Hall, Parliamentarian; Allie Harmon & Mike McKinney, Visitation; Bob Rentenbach, Greeter. Board of Directors: Jerry Faerber, Carl Asp, Marianne Greene, Kim Simpson, Linda Price, Mike Simpson.  Rusty Farrell, Chairman of the Board.

    The annual picnic at the Faerbers is coming up on June 25th. If you have not told Marianne if you will be attending, now would be a good time.  I think they decided on hamburgers and hot dogs so they surely made it easy for you. Grab a bag of potato chips, some pickles, maybe bake some beans and come join the fun.  I’ll give you directions when I get back from vacation next week. At this writing, no one has volunteered to do the bulletin for next week so you’ll have to muddle through without it.  I’ll see you on the 28th.

    Housekeeping:  Jacob Tippens read the prayer (he also was responsible for the speaker) and Bob Rentenbach led the pledge.  Rusty passed around a list of when each person joined Sertoma. William Davis was first place at 1952 with Al Gill coming in at 1964. 1999 and 2000 were two good years.  Don’t know what we did that inspired them but if we can find out we could do it again.

    Mark your calendars to make a special effort to attend on July 12th. Senator Becky Massey is bringing our Tennessee Secretary of State. Also, we will meet on July 5, don’t have info on the speaker.

  • Alex Gabbard

    We didn’t have the original speaker we were promised, however, Alex Gabbard did a fine job of “filling in”. He has written a book on the first battle of the American Revolution of which he received a book of the year award. The book, named Gaspee, tells the story of Lt. William Dudingston, captain of the ship Gaspee enforced maritime laws with a vengeance. Anything that was brought into port without the benefit of “paying the taxes to England” was sized and in some cases destroyed. Principal towns were Providence, Newport and Rhode Island. Joseph Bucklin was credited with firing the first shot that hit Lt. Dudingston and therefore started the war. King George offered a reward for his capture, you’ll have to read the book to find out the rest. Before out time, but quite interesting.

    Housekeeping: Jason Grahl read the prayer, Al Gill led the pledge. We had a couple of visitors: Shasta (hope I spelled that correctly) wife of new member Matt Hall, another friend of his and I didn’t get the name, Rand McKinney came with dad and sat with him this time.
    Called board meeting: It’s that time again when you get to “step up to the plate” and help run this organization. With that said, we have a tentative list for you to look at and hopefully approve. These people will take office the first of July so we don’t have a lot of time to pick and choose. If you would like to serve on the board and no one has contacted you, let someone know. We will sign you up!

    And the winners are:

    Chris Kerr, President; Jacob Tippens VP Outreach; Alan Stuckey, VP Member- ship; Brett Grimm, VP Special Events; Andy Schoerner, Treasurer; Carol Mohney, Secretary; Carolyn Grimm, Sgt-at-Arms; Jason Grahl, Speaker chair & grid pick; Matt Hall, Parliamentarian; Allie Harmon & Mike McKinney, Visitation; Bob Rentenbach, Greeter. Board of Directors: Jerry Faerber, Chris Hoosier, Carl Asp, Marianne Greene, Kim Simpson, Linda Price, Mike Simpson. Rusty Farrell, Chairman of the Board.

    In a nutshell: Matt Hall is replacing Tim Curbow, Carol Mohney is replacing Andy Libby, we are adding Mike McKinney to Visitation and Rusty Farrell replaces Mike Simpson as chairman.

  • Dr. Beth Humphrey | UTK Speech and Hearing

    Dr. Beth Humphrey gave our last talk on speech and hearing. She stated she was not a politician but is involved in the current healthcare legislation. She stated 2-3 out of 1,000 children are born with detectable hearing loss. Now almost 98% of infants are checked before leaving the hospital. In the works is a hearing aid assistance tax credit for people without insurance and for us old folks hearing aids are not covered by Medicare. The over the counter hearing aids are more affordable and accessible (these are not for children) but you need to get a hearing assessment before trying one out. By the time our children and grandchildren need hearing aids they will sell them at Wal-Mart.

    Next week is a not to be missed. We will have Scott West, owner of 3 local restaurants in Knoxville. He is going to tell us all about his stay with the federal government.
    Housekeeping: Mike McKinney led the pledge and I don’t have a clue who read the prayer. My pen died and my extra had run dry so I’m trying to write most of this from memory. What I do remember is Andy Libby is back and looks good. Rand McKinney came with Dad and was pumping Janet for information.

    Don’t forget election of officers is coming up and you just might be called on to fill a position. Also, we will have a called board meeting after June 7.

  • Speech and Hearing Month | Ellen Hamby & Katie Faulkner

    May 17:  Dr. Asp introduced Ellen Hamby who was the first female grad to come on board in 1977. The object was to improve life’s connections  for a forgotten population who had been locked up, locked away and locked in. Ridiculed, despised, feared, dehumanized and used for amusement. Aristole: let there be law that deformed child shall live. Serving people with intellectual disabilities; Knoxville has 12 group homes, 8 homes have 8 clients each. The day program serves 80 clients ranging in age from 8 to 84 with a severity of handicap from mild to profound.

    Report on the board meeting: It was determined to pass on the biscuit festival. We will look at it again next year.  We are greatly in need of sponsors for Oktoberfest, if you would like to attempt this all the paperwork is ready for you and you can be the “man of the hour”.

    May 24: Dr. Asp introduced Dr. Katie Faulkner who told us about the surgical procedure of the Cochlear Implant. This is a surgical prosthesis for both adults and children with profound hearing loss. It takes approximately a year from the time a person receives the implant until they are comfortable and able to hear normally and are released.  For a person that is unable to hear with regular hearing aids this is close to a miracle. Unfortunately, it cost about as much – around $80,000. Medicare for us old people will cover part of the cost.

    Housekeeping: 05/17 Jacob Tippens read the prayer, Jason Grahl led the pledge. We had one guest brought to us by Jacob Tippens; Matt Hall and he joined!  Carl Asp had an additional guest Dr. Nola Radford.

    07/24: Bob Rentenbach read the prayer, Jim Thompson led the pledge. We didn’t have a single visitor.

  • UT Speech and Hearing | Jennifer Wilson Futures Program

    We had the first in a series of May Better Hearing Month with our speaker, Jennifer Wilson. She started with UT in 2015 and prior to that had her own practice. Her job is to get students ready for the work place by teaching them social and life skills. This includes communicating with their employer and co-workers, managing a task from start to finish and problem solving. They also must learn to work independently without continue guidance. She helps students realize their strengths and weaknesses and how to increase one and eliminate the other. We sometimes fail to appreciate where these people are coming from the handicap they are starting out with; we’ve certainly come a long way from 1800 and 1900 hundreds when we just ignored them.

    Next Week:  Dr. Helen Hamby

    We have received a thank you letter from Lisa Hood Skinner for the check we presented to her on behalf of the Sertoma Center. She stated that the “support helps to make life much brighter for the individuals with intellectual disabilities we are privileged to serve.” Sertoma exists to provide hope, housing, community involvement and job skills to people whose disabilities often segregate them from society. Our role is to bring life and all its richness to those we serve.

    We also received a letter from Sertoma on the endowment fund with stated we are up a faction but the market was flat for March. The economy appears to be on track for a solid year and if that plays out then the market should benefit.

    Housekeeping:  Janet Bigelow read the prayer, Jerry Winton led the pledge and we didn’t have a single visitor.

    Next Tuesday, May 16 is the board meeting. Scheduled for 6 pm at Chesapeake’s.  Serious drinkers get there early, it’s Dutch treat (buy your own) and if you’ve never attended much more fun than the regular meetings. This is where all the important decisions are made and if you show up you get to weigh in on whether we participate.  If you’re not a board meeting you can’t vote but you can sure give your opinion.  Join us!