by Grand Knight: Ron Gay
Brothers,
We had an excellent meeting on February 1, with 40 members in attendance. Our program was the director of Scotty’s House, a sanctuary for abused children.
We welcomed four of our five new brother knights to the meeting, Carlos Guadarrama-Perez, Gus Roman, Matt Tennis, and Shane McAuliffe. We have ten new members recruited this year, while our Star Council goal is 17 new members and six new insurance members. Our Council’s next first degree will be Thursday, March 1 in Zurek Hall.
In the Grand Knight’s Report I spoke about current attack on religious liberties in this country. The Bishop’s letter to faithful was just the first step, we have to reach out to our elected representatives and ask for their help for an exemption from the HHS mandate. I was pleased that all forty members signed letters to Representative Bill Flores and Senators Cornyn and Hutchison. We also talked about the Komen Foundation’s decision to defund Planned Parenthood. It turns out that our enthusiasm was premature, so we have decided to wait before sending a thank you note and a check to the Komen Foundation.
Darrell Lovelette and I were elected to represent the Council at the Texas State Convention, April 27-29 in Houston. Brothers Paul Marvin and C. J. Romero will be our alternates.
Our treasurer reported that we have $10,938.20 in our operating account, and we have $5,420.56 in our charity account. So far, we have collected $949.35 in dues through our paypal account.
The Financial Secretary reported that we have collected $3,631.50 in dues for 2012. We billed out $10,240.00 in December. We have more than 130 members who owe us one or more years of dues totaling $13,238.00. Our total membership now stands at 286.
We have a lot of Council activities during the month of February.
February 5 is our Super Bowl of Chili. Our members made over 400 quarts of chili. Sales were brisk, and so was the weather. It looks like we will net close to $1,800 on this project.
February 10 we will partner with the Women’s Guild for the Marriage Liturgy in the PAC at St. Thomas Aquinas. Mass starts at 6:30 pm followed by a catered meal for $40 per couple.
Lenten meals will start Friday, February 24, in the PAC at St. Thomas Aquinas. Leonard Muesse has done a great job of putting the Lenten meals together again this year. We will not be serving fried fish every week this year, Leonard has changed the menu up some, and I think you’re going to like it.
Our January pancake breakfast netted $175.00 for the International Wheelchair Foundation. The proceeds from our February pancake breakfast will be donated to St. Thomas Aquinas for a AED machine.
Since our last meeting the Council has donated $500 to the Coalition For Life, $250 to NET Ministries, $250 to Paul Piega, a new seminarian we have adopted. We also bought a KofC retirement annuity for Fr. Uche.
We look forward to seeing you at our next Council meeting on Wednesday, March 7.
Ron Gay, FSD
Grand Knight
