SONS IN RETIREMENT

PLEASANT HILL BRANCH 146

BRANCH HISTORY – 2007

The following Officers and Directors served the Branch in 2007:

LUNCHEONS
Our Luncheon meetings were held the second Thursday of each month at Blake’s Restaurant at Boundary Oak Golf Course, 3800 Valley Vista Road, Walnut Creek. Total meeting attendance averaged 203 excluding the two Ladies Day’s. Member attendance at the ten luncheons averaged 195 or 79% of the total membership. A number of our members were on a Branch sponsored trip to Russia in September and that had a significant impact on the luncheon attendance. The price of the luncheon was increased from $18.00 to $21.00.

The April luncheon was our annual “Getting to Know You” day where there was assigned seating based on the table number each member picked-up when registering. In August we had “Wild Shirt Day” with prizes for the winners.

After a number of years at Boundary Oak, Jerry Blake is being replaced by Sunrise Caterer’s effective January 1, 2008. Sunrise handled our luncheons for a short period a number of years ago and currently caters our semi-annual dinner dances.

LUNCHEON PROGRAMS
January Master Chief J.R. Stafford USCG (ret.) presented a brief history of the Guantanamo Bay Naval Station and outlined current U.S. Coast Guard missions in Cuba.

February The speaker was Bob Tharratt who was shot down over Germany in WWII and spent time as a POW. He told of his experiences including a long march near the end of the war.

March Wolfgang Heinritz grew up in Hitler’s Germany and belonged to the Hitler Youth. He recounted some of his experiences as he tried to stay alive and his eventual fighting against the Russians. He later came to America and is now an internationally know artist.

April As a change of pace from our past several serious speakers, we were entertained by Rudy Adamek, a magician who performed silly magic tricks.

May The Ladies day entertainment was a special version of “Name That Tune” produced and played by our pianist, Dave Obera, and our drummer, Barney Mead. Pat Helmick was the Grand Prize winner, naming all 20 tunes correctly.

June A member of the Contra Costa County Grand Jury, Jerry Holcombe, talked about the workings of the Grand Jury in our County.

July Our speaker in July was Etta Maitland who is the Contra Costa Ombudsman for Nursing Home Advocacy. Her topic was “The Changing Face of Long Term Care”.

August Tappan Monroe, Director of LEGG, a worldwide consulting firm, talked about what we can expect in the future. His comments sparked many questions from our members.

September The topic for this luncheon was titled “My Life Playing Blackjack”. The speaker was Frank Schipani, AKA Frank Salerno, AKA Al Francesco, the Godfather of Blackjack and a member of the Blackjack Hall of Fame.

October Officer Bob Roberts with the Contra Costa Sheriff’s K9 Corps told us about the valuable work done by his unit. He brought along his partner, Freddy, who was well behaved, and our members maintained a respectful distance from the pair.

November This month our speaker was Gary Villalba, Contra Costa Veterans Service Officer. He spoke about the facilities and services available to assist veterans in our County.

December Back by popular demand, the Clayton Valley High School Women’s Ensemble provided the entertainment for our Christmas Ladies Day luncheon. Their singing was enjoyed by the 280 in attendance.

MEMBERSHIP
Membership was again the major issue before the Executive Committee. After much deliberation and input from the membership, a new plan was devised to deal with the problem of Branch aging. In an effort to bring in more younger members, the maximum Branch membership was increased from 240 to 270 plus HLMs and up to 3 new members will be inducted for ten months each year (30 total) until the maximum is reached. This should result in maintaining the average age at about 76.3, increasing the number of younger men and gradually increasing the branch membership if attrition is less than 30. During 2007 we increased from 245 to 254 (including HLMs). This was the result of 30 new members being inducted and 21 leaving for various reasons.

For many years, the Waiting List has been a contentious issue with a number of variations being tried. Now that the new policy is in place, prospective members are added to the list as their applications are received. Because 30 new members were added in 2007, there were only eight on the Waiting List at years end. Hopefully this problem is now solved for the immediate future.

ACTIVITIES
New activities started in 2007 were a Book Exchange Group chaired by Terry Marchione, an Explore and Dine Group chaired by John Pearl and a Guys Dine Out group with Mal Hendry as the group leader. Also, a nine-hole group was started by the Golf Committee under new chairman Dick Richmond. We now have over 30 activities available to our members. Dick DeVoe was appointed to the new position of Activities Coordinator. He will provide assistance to members wishing to start new activities as well as helping current chairman with any problems.

OTHER
Jim Stedman, outgoing Big Sir, was selected to move up to the post of Area 2 Governor on January 1, 2008. He will be the first from Branch 146 to serve as Area Governor. We wish him well in his new position.

During the year, four men were presented with the President’s Award as they reached their 90 th Birthday. They were Stan Pieratt, Milt Swenson, Charlie Unfried and Frank Mandic.

On a sad note, former Big Sir Joe Jansen passed away in January. He served on the Walnut Creek Golf Course Advisory Committee and was our Golf Chairmen for the past nine years. He will be missed, especially by those around the table after Tuesday golf. Joe was a lively conversationalist with opinions on every subject.

The Bank Balance on December 31, 2007 was $6,997.38.