Kee-Notes

Weekly Newsletter of the Kiwanis Club of Bethesda, Maryland

Serving the Community Since 1945

Meeting Date: September 17, 2009

President Jeanne Smith led us in the Pledge and God Bless America and Shira Oler gave the prayer. 

Announcements:

·        September 17 – Thursday – Interclub for Olney Dinner

·        September 21 – Monday – Foundation Meeting and Miracle League Meeting - Hunter's Inn @ 6:30 pm

·        September 25 – Friday – Golf Tournament @ Bretton Woods

·        September 27 – Sunday – Kiwanis Potomac Redskin Tail-Gate Party

·        DUES ARE DUE SEPTEMBER 30!!!

·        October 1 – Thursday - No lunch Meeting -  Induction Dinner - 6:30 pm

Due to the resignation of Bernadeen Zivkovic,  Pat Tiede announced the updated slate of officers proposed by the Nominating Committee.

*Asterisks indicate change in the previous slate voted on by the members on April 30, 2009

Happy Dollars:

Pat Tiede HD for the four Presidents this year who stepped forward this year to lead the club, HD for our guest speaker Keith Stephenson. Bob Gradle HD glad to be here. Debbie Van Horn HD glad to be back. Jim Aylor HD for Golf Tournament. Shira Oler HD for Jim Aylor who has not been able to be with us for the past few months due to a job change. Jeanne Smith HD for Jewish Holiday beginning tonight, also HD for Jim Leder who saw her on an emergency basis for  a tooth problem.

Speaker: 

Keith Stephenson is Director of Operations of Sandy Spring Builders in Bethesda.  He is a Vice President of Kensington Masonic Lodge. They have about 200 members but only 15-20 regularly show up for lunch. The history of the Masons goes back to England in 1717.   They are not of one religion but members do believe in a higher power and have members of many religions.  Each meeting starts with a pledge and patriotic song. Women are  not members in the United States (the women's groups are included in the order of Eastern Star).  However in France women can be members.  In order to become a Shriner you have to be a Mason first and another branch of the Masons is the Scottish Rite. The membership in Masons peaked in 1950's when they had 4 million but it has declined to 1.5 million.  Mason's are organized in each state as there is no national group. He offered as reasons for membership decline, the longer commutes to work, more families with both parents working, and extensive after school activities for kids. One idea to recruit new members is to partner with other service organizations in a service project. One of their projects is called CHIP (Maryland Child Identification & Protection).  Since 2004, Freemasons from various jurisdictions have sponsored the Masonic Chip Events.  At the events the Freemasons set up the equipment and enlist the aid of local volunteers.  Parents have pictures and fingerprints of their children produced and they are given a printout and the original information is destroyed. The purpose is to raise public awareness concerning the risk of abduction or exploitation.  Questions and answers revealed that declining membership is a problem for all volunteer organizations.  We thank Keith for sharing insight into his organization.

The 50/50 was won by Bill Pennington.

George Patterson, Editor