Message From the President
The year keeps on trucking,
the first two months of
2019 are complete and they
have been very busy to say
the least. What is that old
saying, no rest for the wicked
and the righteous don’t
need it. I do not know where
I fall into that, but I know rest
will be coming. It seems like
I have not been home for a
complete weekend since the
New Year has started.
I want to extend my condolences
to our 3rd VP Sadie
and Past Trustee Aldo from
the Central for their losses.
Everyone will miss Sid and
Pam greatly. My thoughts
and Prayers are with you and
your families.
A special Thanks to our
Financial Secretary David
and our Budget and Finance
Chair for your time to go
thru the budget to be presented
at Grand Council and
at Convention. It was a long
process, so thank you both
for taking the time!!
As I am writing this I have
just returned from the National
Winter Plenary. It is
nice to report that all three
legs of National, Supreme,
Sons of Italy Foundation
and CSJ are all running in
the positive. Mostly due to
the Legacy donations that
they have received. Our
Membership numbers for
ending 4th quarter 2019 was
32,367. (this does not include
at large members). NELA is
once again planned for May
22nd 2020 where National
will honor the national
scholarship recipient’s s and
they have (4) honorees along
with a Medal of Honor Recipient
that they will honor
also. More info will be available
soon. National will once again be having a fundraiser
where they will sell calendars
for the month of October
where you can win cash. I
will have calendars available
at the Grand council meeting
in March. All officers will
receive them and we will be
getting more from national
shortly.
Speaking of Grand Council
is once again here. March
22nd 2020 we are meeting
in Torrance CA, at Centinella
Valley Lodge building. I
hope to see many members
there to see our Grand lodge
at work.
Our Social Media chair
Donna with the Help of Past
Queen Mary has our Facebook
and Instagram page
working overtime. If you
would like to post items on
either format send info to
Donna, her contact info is
in the Illeone. This is a great
way of communicating with
members. It is just another
avenue of communications.
They are available so let’s use
them!!
We are still selling tickets
for our 365 winners every
day raffle. It’s nice to see winners
from all over the state
and some repeat winners
also. This is a nice friendship,
birthday, even Easter gift.
You never know you might
be one the big winners coming.
I did take a bunch with
me to the National meeting
so we do not all of our winning
tickets sold to them do
we? So buy a ticket, have
your lodge buy a ticket also.
With spring in the air, that
means Baseball season is beginning
and all the North
Bay local teams are having
their Italian Heritage games.
I know the southern sports
teams also have heritage
games but I do not have the
dates. The only dates I have
so far are in the northern district,
San Francisco Giants
August 26th, Oakland A’s
August 1st Let’s try and support
all of our teams throughout
California as they promote
our heritage.
Planning for the 2020 Convention
is well underway it
will be at the Concord Crown
Plaza. More information will follow shortly.
To all the officers, again
thank you for taking this
leadership role.
“Always be generous with
your encouraging words,
you may find that they may
inspire others to be the best
they can be” Catherine Pulsifer
(Think about this).
Let’s work together to
grow together!!
Until next month…
Yours Fraternally
John