None of the members of the Tack Committee stepped up to do the Tack in October (I have to thank Sabine for offering to still do it at the meeting) so you are stuck with me.  I will do my best to report the facts (no I have lied already).

 

Where:  The October 3 meeting was at the Biddeford Regional Center of Technology so for those members who went to the Run of the Mill I am assuming you eventually noticed that there were no banners, no bell, no President and no meeting there.  The COT is really nice and we had this meeting in a large classroom with incredibly comfortable chairs (now I know what a $35,000,000 bond can buy).

 

Greeters:  We were greeted by the York County Federal CU TV star, Moriah who does a fantastic job in their TV ads about putting you more in debt or something like that.  Oh, yeah, Lucie Kay was a greeter too.

 

Recess time? Since we were in a school, the bell rang and Joe Bassett immediately got up and went out for recess.

 

Formalities:  Brian Dallaire led us in the 4 way test and Joe attempted to violate the concept of the separation of church and state by having Joe lead us in a prayer but the kids’ constitution rights were protected and we were without a prayer.

 

Earl:  It was announced that Earl Goodwin continues to recover from fall earlier this year and he will not join us until after the holidays.  That means we all need to fill the Earl’s huge shoes and step up and sell a lot more raffle tickets to insure that we continue to sell 100% of the $100 raffle tickets when we start that effort later this fall.

 

Member Changes:  Rae Smith will be leaving our club and we wish her the best.  She promised that she would continue to volunteer for events whenever she can.  Fear not, however, because YCFCU employee Sherry Norton hopes to join the club so we will have at least one good member from the CU.

 

BEER:  No, not a reference to Justice Kavanaugh, but instead the beer festival is coming right up on October 20 from 7:00 to 10:00 at the Pepperell Mill Campus.  Tell your friends, sell tickets, volunteer the night of the event, drink beer.  I drank beer in high school. I drank beer in college,  I still like beer.  A quote from the Kavanaugh hearings?  Maybe, but I believe those are the same words that 95% of people who attended college would say if asked.

 

Tickets are now $30.00.  Please sell all that you can.  Incidentally, if you missed the meeting on the 3^rd you missed a very nice cat fight between Sue G. and President Joe over the signup sheet and Sue won!

 

Stuff the Bus:  We will be stuffing the bus, truck, car, plane, not sure on October 27 at Hannaford in Biddeford and probably Market Basket but there is nothing official from them yet.  More details to follow but we need to do our part to help to feed the hungry and this drive brings in a lot of food and money for the local pantries.

 

New Banner:  A new banner featuring our club and our very own Denis Elie and Jim Godbout has been ordered and will be displayed at various events.

 

Shocking:  The Board voted to fund two new defibrillators, one of which will be placed at McArthur Library and Biddeford and the other may  be placed at the Dyer Library in Saco.  People sometimes get overstimulated reading so it is a good idea to have the paddles ready.  Jeremy Ray indicated we may be able to purchase them through the schools at a discount.  This is a nice gift for our communities.

 

Presidential Appeals:  Joe indicated that while he said attendance requirements are relaxed we really should make more of an effort to attend meetings to see great programs like the one we saw on October 3.  He also announced that a number of members are in arrears on their dues for a few billing cycles and he was going to call them and see if they want to pay or if they wish to bow out of the club.  It would appear that some house cleaning may be appropriate.  Joe also thanked Matt Simmons for setting up and bringing everything over for the meeting.

 

50/50:  Brian Dallaire won, but lest you sigh too loudly take solace in the fact that it was for some reason a small pot.  Perhaps some members felt it was inappropriate to gamble in school or they are just cheap.

 

Sergeant at Arms:  Matt decided to turn things down a notch (after all we were in school) and go with happy dollars instead of fines.  Lots of people were happy and here are a few:

 

 

 

            Last year our club helped finance the BHS Odyssey of the Mind Team when it attended the World Championships at Iowa State University.  Our program featured the coach of the team, Vicki Salo and three of the team members, Jerod, Gabe and Lucas.  All three of the young men were very well spoken, incredibly well rounded and thrilled to be a part of the team.  It was clear that they work hard as members of the team while playing sports, participating in Interact, participating in plays and taking difficult course loads.  At least one of them described going to the World championship last year as the greatest experience of his life.

 

            The team is built to problem solve and they have selected a structural problem in which they have to hold up 100’s of pounds with a balsa wood structure.  Last year their balsa wood structure held up around 800 pounds which was 10^th best in the world.  They also must use their imaginations to come up with a skit for a particular theme and then they have to participate in a secret spontaneity part of the competition.  Last year they were 17^th in the world competition and they are hoping to crack the top 10 this year.

 

            They gave members of the club a pipe cleaner and a poker chip and asked each member to make something with them.  I was impressed with our club’s creativity in the two minutes though Mark Nahorney’s sperm model may have been a bit over the top, but funny.

 

            Biddeford High School will host the regional and state Odyssey of the Minds this year and the top 2 teams from the state go to the World Championships at Michigan State.  BHS has qualified for the world championships for the last 4 years and hopes to make it 5 in a row.  This is a great opportunity for these kids and we should be proud that we helped them in their endeavors.

 

 

 

Respectfully submitted by your lowly, and I hope temporary, scribe.

 

 

 

 

            Okay,  so the Peanut Gallery has been on hiatus for a while.  The Gallery has a few belated and a few current observations to share.

 

            It was heartwarming to walk into the Tin Tin Buffet with Matt Simmons like we were walking into Cheers.  Every employee there yelled “Matt” and I walked by a table with a brass plague on the back of a chair saying reserved for Matt Simmons.  I just love celebrities. 

 

            Speaking of the Tin Tin Buffet, I am betting you are wondering where the name came from.  I did some research.  Apparently, the original name was the Rin Tin Tin Buffet and it was co-owned by, you guessed it, Rin Tin Tin.  You have to invest those residuals somewhere. That name stuck for a while, but then they had a German sausage night and the co-owner mysteriously disappeared so they shortened the name to Tin Tin Buffet.  Now you know.

 

            Ken Farley has announced that he is trying to recruit a celebrity guest for the beer festival, Brett Kavanaugh.  I could only imagine that throughout the Senate hearings Justice Kavanaugh had one of those thought bubbles over his head with Homer Simpson in it sighing “BEER”.  I kept waiting for his Dr. Seuss beer rhyme to come out.

 

            One Beer, two Beers, three Beers, four

             I love my beer until I hit the floor

             Five Beers, six Beers, seven Beers, more

            That hoppy flavor I do adore.

 

Stay tuned to see whether he shows up on October 20.

 

            Now I realize that Matt Simmons’ marketing life blood is contained in the Journal Weekend addition, a newspaper hurled in our driveway, run over by 1,000’s and read by dozens.  I am wondering if the Journal really thinks that putting its paper in a baggy and then throwing it on the ground really protects it from getting wet.  Short of hermetically sealing those bags, it seems to me that all the baggies do is hold in the water long enough to completely blur Matt’s face and insure that we will be taking the wet sack directly from the driveway to the trash can.  Sorry Matt, that means I missed your article on the benefits in investing in Pokémon cards.

 

            Finally, I have a social experiment I would like to try.  At the next meeting at Run of the Mill, some members should get to the meeting early and sit at the cool kids’ table.  I want to see how they react if they can’t sit there.  I love social chaos.

 

            That’s all the peanuts to be hurled right now.  Enjoy the rest of the week.