December / January Bulletin 2018

As one year ends and another begins, here is a timely message from our Exchange Club President, Doug Rotondi.

01-15-18

President’s reflection –  2017

Greetings fellow Exchangites;

First and foremost, I want to wish everyone a joyous and happy 2018!!

We have had a good first half of my term as your President.

We have begun a new venture in our Fun Raising efforts thanks to Marie leading this new approach.  She has a fantastic committee and they are working diligently on having a BBQ competition, along with a beer fest, kids games, some high value auction/raffle (just a very limited amount of items is currently planned).  Marie and her Committee are making headway in having this Fun Raising event come to fruition.  We have already set a date and it will be held at the Original Festival grounds on June 22, 2018.  Look for more information on this new event in the weeks to come.

We will hold our first Field of Honor meeting on Wednesday, January 24, at noon in our regular meeting room.  We still would like to have more members take an active part in making this wonderful event come to pass.  I strongly encourage all members to participate in one form or another.  I would really like to have our newest members become a key part of the FOH and assume a leadership role.  While it does require a time commitment on everyone’s part, many hands make for an easier and less of a time commitment for all involved.  Please let me know if you are interested in becoming an important part of this Exchange Club’s signature event.

We have approved several requests for donations including:  No Greater Love, Butte Cares-Butte Family Drug Court, and The United Way’s Dress a kid for School.

Joann has once again gone over the top with the Spirit of Christmas program.  Many thanks to Joann and her committee along with the Excel Club’s participation. Also, a huge thanks to member, Jeff Francis for his generous donation of $1,000.00.  We also had a few club members donate to the Spirit of Christmas.  I personally thank each of you for your selfless giving so those less fortunate could have Christmas presents to open on Christmas morning.

We held a Club Social and new member orientation on November 14th at the Quarry Brewing Company. Our District President Leif Wellhaven drove from Billings to attend the social.  We had a pretty good turnout. We served cocktail pasties, Christina’s chips and salsa, as well as, pizza from the VuVilla.  I would like to thank Leo Priggi for taking care of getting all the food to the Quarry.  I would also like to thank John Chiousis for volunteering to pay for the pizzas out of his own pocket!!!

We will have another social in late February or early March as well as another membership drive at the social.

Jim Stilwell has taken the lead on getting a meeting with the Mayor and City Council in Dillon in an attempt to get another Exchange Club started in this great community.

Doug Cameron has agreed to help me look into starting a Collegiate Excel Club at Tech. I will be doing more on this endeavor in February.

We have such GREAT members in our Butte Exchange Club. I am in awe of the talent and wonderful friendships which have blessed my life in so many ways.

The work we do for our fantastic community is second to none, and each of you deserve and have my sincere thanks and gratitude.

As always, I seek feedback on the job I am doing and am very approachable.  Also, if I miss anything, please don’t hesitate to let me know as I can always do better.

One last thing;  I do have some memory issues and try to put reminders in my phone but, never hesitate to give me a gentle nudge (or sometimes a hard push) as I truly don’t want to let our Club or any one of our members down.

Thank you all for the privilege to serve our Club and each of you.

All the best,

Doug

UPCOMING EVENTS

The Butte Exchange Club meets every Tuesday at noon.

Speakers:

January 30th – Excel Club President

February 6^th – To be announced

National Convention:

This year, the National Convention will be held in Reno, Nevada at the Nugget Casino Resort on July 12 through the 14^th.  This is the 100^th National Convention.  It is not too early to make your reservations.

Committee Meetings

The Fundraiser Committee meets at Quarry Brewing. Contact Marie Kagie-Shutey (mshutey@cpklawmt.com) for dates and times.

The Field of Honor Committee will begin meeting. Contact Doug Rotondi (djrotondi44@gmail.com) with questions and for dates and times.

For those members who want to help with the Carousel Project, please meet every Thursday morning at Perkins at 8:30 a.m. and then head over to the Carousel.  For more information contact Jim Stilwell at (jimstil@msn.com or Pat Cooney at patrick0049@charter.net). 

PAST EVENTS

Student of the Month

January 16, 2018, marked the end of the Student of the Month speeches.  Juliann Crnich does an excellent job managing this program and working with school counselors and students.  Thank you Julie we appreciate all you do for this program and the Club.  The photo below was taken on January 16^th and the group is the last of this year’s speakers.  From left to right are Olivia Bolton; Kloie Thatcher; Isaiah Weldon and Cade O’Neill.

Christmas Turkey Shoot

Thank you Father Brian Miller for your beautiful Christmas Message.  Exchange Club members enjoyed a delicious lunch provided by the Uptown Cafe and had a great time distributing turkeys to lucky club members. Donations from this event went to support local charities.

Announcements:

• Exchange Club members were saddened by the death of past Exchange Club President Brooke Palmer-Buhl.  Brooke passed away suddenly at the age of 42 on January 3, 2018.
• All Club Members have access to all the past issues of the Club Bulletin.  Just go to the Club website butteexchangeclub.org.  Click the Member Resources Tab.  Enter Exchange59701 as the password.  You will see a listing of all the past issues of the Club Bulletin.
• Speakers Wanted – If you have an idea for an interesting luncheon speaker, please contact Noah Thatcher (nthatcher@marcomllc.net)or Corey Dennehy (Cdennehy@marcomllc.net). 
• TheButte Exchange Club will match contributions to the National Exchange Club Burke Fund of up to $500.00. Please consider a donation. 
• A new Club Roster is available. This Roster contains contact information for our current club members.   If any of your information is incorrect you will need to correct it by going to the National Exchange Club website.  See Brad Cederberg’s email from November 20, 2017.

Reminder to Club members that there are many opportunities to serve on Exchange Club Committees.  Please consider donating your time and talents to one of the committees listed below.

• The Spirit of Christmas Committee ensure that needy children in the community receive gifts wrapped with the love of Exchange Club members. 
• The Child Abuse Prevention Committee raises awareness of Child Abuse and encourages prevention through our Fun Run and Safe Touch classes.
• Our Civic Improvement Committees beautify Butte by planting and maintaining a flower garden in uptown Butte, picking up highway and road garbage, and identifying the Carousel project at Stodden Park not only for our day of service commitment but on an ongoing basis.  By lending a helping hand and providing sweat equity, the Friday morning garbage guys/gals are volunteering at the Carousel during the winter months. 
• Our Americanism Committee projects are brought to this community with great enthusiasm and passion.  GiveAKidAFlag, the Freedom Shrine, and the Field of Honor are testimonials to our commitment to our love of our country.
• The Social Committees organize fun fellowship activities for all to enjoy. The Steak Fry, the Philipsburg Theatre Trip, the Kippen Cup Golf Tournament, and the September Pool Party brought us together to get to know each other better and appreciate the richness of our membership. 
• Our Youth Leadership and Scholarship efforts – Student of the Year, the ACE Scholarship, and the Butte High School Excel Club”continue to make a difference.  By recognizing, guiding, and supporting our youth, we are investing in the future of our community and country.
• Members of the FunRaiser Committee spend an enormous amount of time planning and preparing for our annual gala to fund our community projects and provide a good time for all.

Last but not least,  there are many dedicated members who just do the many activities that make things happen at our Club, whether that is finding great speakers for our lunch meetings, facilitating the weekly lunch meetings, delivering left-over lunch to the Rescue Mission, sending out weekly messages about our speakers and upcoming events, producing our monthly newsletter, maintaining our web site, writing press releases, recruiting new members, and reporting our programs of service to National Exchange. (Provided by Linda Corr-Mahugh)

COMMUNICATIONS

Update and Reminder

The Communications Committee would like to remind you that we rely on committee chairmen and all club members to send us meeting announcements, stories and photos since we cannot be present at all Club events.  Please use your cell phones and capture some fun photos to send us.

Please send all details on upcoming events & speakers to: info@butteexchangeclub.org

If you have taken photos at Club events that you want to share, please send them to: info@butteexchangeclub.org (cell phone shots are OK)

Need help? Call: Elyse Lewis “Public Relations Chairman”  565-0801

Bulletin Editor: Penny McElroy

Mobile:  (406) 490-1946 Home:  (406) 494-2731

E-mail: pamcelroy7@gmail.com