UW-Whitewater/Community Optimist Club

Optimists,

I hope you enjoyed this snowy Veterans Day.

Thank you to all club members and their families who have served our country through the armed services!

Please join me for our meeting tomorrow as Dave Halbach brings us a program titled “Online Optimists.”  Dave’s presentation is sure to be informative and eye opening.  Please feel free to bring electronic devices to take notes and to explore some of the resources Dave will share with us.

Thank you to all who helped to organize our storage room at Starin Hall this past Friday.  We had a total of 19 people from our club and the Student Optimist Club/Burkina Faso group who were able to come and go and contribute to a much more organized space!

Board Members, I will send a separate note to you tomorrow, but please mark your calendars for a board meeting from 5:30pm-6:45pm on Tuesday, Nov. 19 in the University Center.  We only have one member who can not join us that evening.

Next week, we will not have a Tuesday meeting–rather we will have an evening meeting on Wednesday, November 20 at Jessica’s (in the back room) from 5:30pm – 6:30pm.  Our program speaker will be announced soon!

See some of you tomorrow!

In Optimism,

Kim 🙂

Greetings Folks,

This is an additional note to our Week 6 email.

Thanks to those who were able to attend the Youth Appreciation Luncheon yesterday and to help with bowling and ice cream distribution this week.  It’s great to have those hands-on connections with students during Youth Appreciation Week.  A big thank you to Therese for coordinating the events and schedules!

NOW…on to our storage room clean up/organization scheduled for this Friday from 3:00pm – 5:30pm at Starin Hall.  Thank you to all you have signed up.  As I have said, many hands will make lighter work.  I have attached the sign up sheet.  We have a number of folks from our club, a few Student Optimists, and a few other Burkina Faso travelers who are able to help.

Frank Bartlett and I have chatted via phone and email (see attached notes), and he will ensure that we are equipped with some necessary supplies such as tables, broom and trash bins.

I plan to be over to Starin by 2:50pm to finishing prepping our work space.  We will be propping open the basement hallway door so that helpers can come and go. The Dickens will need some help loading some items out of their vehicle down to the storage room.  We will sort through our boxes and bins in the hallway on the tables Frank is providing and then carefully label and place bins back onto the shelves in the storage room.  I will be bringing supplies to label all bins.

If you can’t come for the whole time, that is certainly understandable.  Please feel free to come for part of the time.  If the hallway door shuts and you can’t get in, please call my cell at 608-201-2151.  I will be ordering pizza and soda for anyone who would like to stay for some Topper’s at the close of our work session.

Thanks again, and please email or call me if you have any questions, suggestions or concerns.

Kim 🙂

Optimists,

Happy Youth Appreciation Week1

Therese is doing a great job of keeping everyone updated on the youth activities for this week.  Thank you to all who are helping with the bowling event and to distribute ice cream.

We should have an excellent turn out for our luncheon tomorrow.  Please remember that this is our Youth Appreciation Lunch and because of the anticipated attendance of 75-80, we will be meeting in the Old Main Ballroom (UC 275) in the UC.  The menu looks to be delicious–and our school counsels will be our program!

Board Members, please mark your calendars for our November Board meeting on Monday, Nov. 11 from 5:30pm-6:30pm in the University Center (Room TBD).

Also, Nov. 12 will be a great program with Dave Halbach at the helm helping us to get connected through our Blog, the OI web site, Linked In and Facebook.  I am confident we will all learn a lot from Dave!

Please mark your calendars for Wednesday, Nov. 20. for our evening meeting.  Jeanine will confirm the time and location soon!  Thank you to Jeanine, Connie, Linda and Dave for creating a plan for membership recruitment.

That’s all for now.  It’s time for the Packer-Bear kick off!

See many of you tomorrow.

In Optimism,

Kim 🙂

Hello All,

This is just a reminder that we do not have our club meeting tomorrow at 12:00pm.  Also, we had scheduled a Halloween Fellowship meeting at Angie’s and my house for Wednesday, Oct. 30.  Since we only had two people that indicated they could attend, we have decided to cancel the meeting for this Wednesday and try for another time when it might fit more schedules.

Thanks–and Happy Homecoming!

Kim 🙂

Happy Friday Optimists,

Our Week 5 email is being sent a touch early in order to communicate some timely information.  Please review the list:

1)  We are not going to be cleaning/organizing the Optimist Storage Room in Starin Hall this afternoon.  We have rescheduled to Friday, Nov. 8 from 3:00pm – 5:30pm.  We will also have some help from the Student Optimists.

2)  I am sad to report that Marijuana has resigned from serving as co-president, and is leaving our club.  Her letter was read at our meeting this past Tuesday.  Marijuana will surely be missed.  I know that she is an optimist wherever she goes and whatever she does.  I hope that one day, she will be able to rejoin us.  Please contact me if you have any questions or concerns.

3)  We do not have a club meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 29.  We do, however have a Halloween Fellowship Meeting at Angie’s and my house on Wednesday, Oct. 30 from 5:00pm – 6:15pm.  Please see the attached flyer.  It will be helpful for planning the main entree if folks could RSVP by Monday at 12:00pm.

4)  Thank you to Jeanine for coordinating our membership recruitment and NOW meeting preparations.  Thanks, too, to those who have volunteered to help Jeanine and our club.  More info to come in the near future!

5)  Please see the news release (below) that Matt Amundson sent about the new playground equipment which was installed at the Optimist Turtle Mound Park this past week.  I have been in touch with Matt to thank him for sharing the information and for giving credit to our Optimist Club.  Matt has also informed me about the date for our next payment on the playground equipment.

Thanks for reading and I hope to hear back from some of you!

Always in Optimism,

Kim 🙂

From Matt Amundson, Whitewater Parks & Rec Director.

On Wednesday, October 23rd & Thursday, October 24th volunteers joined City staff in the installation of a new playground at Optimist Turtle Mound Park. The UW-Whitewater Community Optimist Club made a $15,000 donation towards the project that was matched by the City.  A photo gallery of progress can be viewed HERE.  Surfacing material will be placed on Friday, October 25th, however, the playground will remain closed until a damaged support railing can be replaced. This is likely to happen the week of October 28th and when the yellow caution tape is removed the playground will be open.

A special thanks to volunteers that assisted with the installation including Derrick Wood, Dean Zweifel, Liesl Schultz, Russell Saunders, William Schmitz, Brian Backe, Travis Hartmann, Austin Stoltenburg, Brienne Diebolt-Brown, Duane Dickens, and Jamie Satre.  The volunteers assisted Department of Public Works staff including Rick Babcock, Kelly Freeman, Kevin Heckert, Dave Himsel, Andy Beckman, and Mike Kaspar in the installation of the equipment.

The playground includes a new main play structure for children ages 2-12, a 4-bay swing set with accessible and infant swings, and two independent components – the Kid Force Spinner and Comet Spinner.

Optimist Turtle Mound Park Equipment

Good Afternoon Optimist Members,

Our Week 4 email is a little longer.  Please take 2-3 minutes to read through the info.  Thanks–and here we go:

Tomorrow is our IMPORTANT Business Meeting.  Our agenda will include (but not be limited to) discussing the following:

• Proposed Updated Club Bylaws and Policies
• A Quick Review of the 2013-14 Proposed Budget
• Membership Dues (possible need for an increase)
• Catering for weekly meetings (possible per person increase and suggested RSVP’s for lunch)
• Commitment to the Whitewater Unified Schools’ Emergency Fund and the Whitewater Food Pantry
• Student Club Support
• Potential New Youth/Community Projects and Fund RaisersRecruitment of New Members/Younger Professionals

Please see the Optimist Halloween Invite 2013 for our Halloween Fellowship gathering scheduled for Oct. 30.

Thank you to those who signed up to help clean/organize the Optimist storage room this Friday.  So far, I have a few people on the list, but again—more hands with help the task go more quickly.  Anyone else who is able to join (even for a short time), please let me know.

Therese will be sending out a note and sign up info for Youth Appreciation Week.  Our Youth Appreciation Luncheon will be held in the Old Main Ballroom (UC 275 A & B) on Nov. 5th.  We will need to ask for members to RSVP for this meal so that we can be adequately prepared to feed members and all of our guests.

If you can’t attend the business meeting, please feel free to send questions or ideas about the proposed budget or other agenda items.  We will potentially be sending a survey to collect feedback on a few topics in the near futures.

Finally, please note that Denise has sent dues letters to all members currently on our club roster.

In Optimism,

Kim 🙂

Happy Monday Optimists,

Here is our Week 3 Update:

Our guest Speaker tomorrow (Oct. 15) is Jess Walz on Baboons in Africa.

Oct. 18–Football ticket taking, UW-W vs. UW-EC; student appreciation night.

Oct. 22–IMPORTANT Business Meetings.  Please plan to be a part of the discussion, including the planning of financial resources.

Oct. 25–Cleaning of Storage Room.  Who is able to help from 3:00-5:30pm?  Please RSVP to Kim–even if you can help for a short time.  Many hands make light work.

Thanks and see some of you soon,

Kim 🙂