Page 1
Executive Committee
Big Sir: John Noren Little Sir: Jim Waltz Secretary: John Zeiter Asst. Eckart Sellinger Treasurer: Ron Gurich Asst. Bill Risch Directors: Jack Friesen Les Church Joe Sauerland Ed Sabrack Ray Crawford Kent Dutrieux
CHINA CAMP/INDIAN VALLEY
SIR BRANCH 68 February 2016
Big Sir’s Message
John Noren
Pg.
Anniversaries 8
Activities 6
Area 6 Activities 9
Attendance Report 5
BEC Minutes 5
Birthdays 8
Luncheon News 2
Member News 3-4
Menu 2
Speaker 2
Speaker Review 5
Special Events 7
Sunshine & Clouds 8
Treasurer Report 5
What’s Inside
State level SIR officials are increasingly concerned that too many SIR branches are experiencing decreasing mem-bership. We at your BEC take these concerns seriously, knowing how important new members are to our fu-ture. Accordingly, we are reviewing our membership proce-dures to see where we can make improvements.
The membership process begins with a vigorous re-cruiting effort that brings in a guest, who then becomes a member, who then integrates into the branch, learning and accepting the responsibilities of membership while taking part in activities and leadership. That is the way it is sup-posed to work.
However the process can falter or fail at any step along the way. Herein lies the work ahead. There are branches that have successfully perfected the steps in the membership process and have the results to prove it. We will be consult-ing with these branches and incorporating into our branch the ideas and methods that have made others success-ful. We will also be making clear how you, the membership, can become willing partners in making all of this hap-pen. More on this later.
We are approaching the Valentines Party on February 13th. If you have not already signed up, please do so soon by contacting Jack Futoran by telephone or e-mail. Waiting until the next SIR luncheon on February 9th to sign up will be cutting it pretty close. Jason's Restaurant needs to have a head count days before the event. Jack, well known for his great jokes, is also developing a reputation for throwing ex-ceptional parties…you won't want to miss this one!
Big SIR John Noren
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Branch 68 February
2016 Newsletter
Luncheon
January Luncheon Photos
Lunch Menu for February:
Pork Chop
With mashed potatoes & Vegs
Low: Chicken Picatta
If you can’t make it to the February 9th Luncheon
Don’t forget to contact : Gene Gallagher (415) 472-7865 To report
your absence.
Luncheon Speakers
February 2016
Kent Dutrieux
Editor
For the February Luncheon we will have two
speakers from the Whistlestop Organization.
They will be Susan Stratman who is the Mo-
bility Services Program Manager at Whis-
tlestop. She enjoys promoting independence
and healthy aging for older adults. Before
working at Whistlestop, Susan worked 10
years for the Area 4 Agency on Aging in Grass
Valley. She’s here today to talk about Whis-
tlestop’s volunteer driver program
called CarePo. The other speaker will be
Meredith Ponder (Community Liaison) and
she will be speaking on the Mission Plaza Pro-
ject.
Jim Waltz
Little Sir
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Branch 68 February
2016 Newsletter
Member News
Gene Gallagher confirmed that Joe’s daughter had called and
told him her father had passed away two weeks ago, arrange-
ments were still being made for funeral services.
Joe had joined SIR in November 1999 and had been a very
loved member of the Bocce and Bowling Leagues. He always
liked to bring a small bag of chocolates to the Bocce Matches
thus earning him the nick name “The Candyman” from his
teammates.
As a young man he was a semi professional Baseball player and
spent most of his working life a San Francisco Police Officer. Joe
always enjoyed a trip to the casinos to play some slots. For
many years Gene and Joe worked to collect the lunch money
for our monthly meetings. Gene reports “I sat next to Joe many
years when he would collect the lunch money and I was always amazed by how he coped with keep-
ing the count, the different meal requests and collecting the tickets after, and with it all keeping his
sanity. He indeed was a good friend and SIR”
Joe Grasso told me that he and Joe were on the same Bocce Ball team and found out that they had
several common friends in San Francisco, hell he was even an Usher at Joe’s Wife’s Brother’s Wed-
ding. He also told me how he a had a small part in a movie called "Thieves' Highway" starring Rich-
ard Conte. Joe was the SF policeman in the final scene. Old time San Franciscan's will like the scenes
shot in 1949 in the Embarcadero.
Let’s not mourn his loss but celebrate in the knowledge that we were able to take a few steps along-
side him in that journey called life, I’m sure he’ll be missed by many.
A Trip Around The World
Joseph ‘Joe’ Cotla 1926—2016
Brian Johnson is going to be away from the branch for awhile.
You see he’ll be taking a year off to travel the world and we’re
going to get a chance to follow along. So far the trip is planned
up to July when he has to come back for a wedding and then
he’ll be off again. The first leg of the journey will be Costa Rica
where he’ll pick up a little Spanish to get him on his way
around South America . He has a Trans Atlantic Cruise sched-
uled prior to July and some other neat things along the way.
Brian will be posting in his travel log and giving me updates to
post in this newsletter. So let’s kick back wish him luck and
look forward to a very exciting journey . Many more updates
to follow, so keep an eye on this section.
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Branch 68 February
2016 Newsletter
Member News
Look who’s Partying!
Rich LeFrancois Bowling Birthday Party
On January 22nd at the Country Club Bowl Bill Bunderson thought that Rich should be put in the
lime light for his 94th Birthday. Bill brought in the cake and settings and Tina and Kathy from the
bowling alley provided the table, table cloth and balloons to make this a festive time for everyone.
Rich was pleasantly surprised when he came in and everyone was there to greet him with a song
and good cheer. Now try to imagine a bunch of old guys hyped up on a ton of sugar, man bowling
went fast that day. Have many more Rich, Happy Birthday!
Member Input
I would like to make member news the center piece of our newsletter, but I need your help. If your
traveling or doing something that you would like to share with the Branch, please contact me at
[email protected] or mail it in to 781 McLaughlin St, Richmond CA 94805. There’s even a place at
our new website where you can submit an article on the contact page, just chose website suggestion
and it will make it to my mailbox. I would love to hear from you soon.
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Branch 68 February
2016 Newsletter
Business
BEC Minutes Recap
December, 2015
Treasurers Report
December 2015
Beginning Balance $7,463.33
Deposits $0.00
Expenses $4,828.42
Outstanding Checks $483.42
Cleared Previous Out-
standing Checks
$0.00
Ending Balance $3,117.83
Total Members 123
Total Active Members 116
Total Non-Active Members 7
Gains Or Losses This Month 1
Luncheon Stats
Active Members Attending 0
Not Attending 0
Guests & Speakers 0
% Of Active Members Attending 0%
MEMBERSHIP ATTENDANCE REPORT
December 2015
Branch 68 Honorary
Don Gregory
Jim Phelan
Eckart Sellinger
Hans Sommer
Speaker Report
January 2016
John Zeiter
Secretary
Ron Gurich
Treasurer
Ray Crawford
Membership Chairman
Jim Waltz
Little Sir
Dot Spaet was a very enthusiastic speaker, right away
she had all of us riveted to our chairs and paying
attention. She spoke about back pain and how a few
very simple exercises could alleviate some of that
pain. What she pointed out to us was that the pain
we felt in our backs was sometimes not even con-
nected with the back muscles. It was funny that
when she had us sitting on the edge of our seats and
bending over we could feel the pull in our legs and
not in our backs. She had almost the whole room
participating in these discoveries. Several of our
members filled out her handout for follow-up talks
and free gifts. Overall she was a very entertaining
and informative guest. Her rating was a 7 on a scale
of 1 to 10.
There was no BEC meeting in the month of
December so there are no minutes.
Branch 68 now has a new
website. See it at
http://sirinc2.org/Branch68/
Remember this is your web-
site, if you think it needs
something contact me at
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Branch 68 February
2016 Newsletter
Activities
Bowling Update Bocce Ball Update
Roger Burstrem
Bowling Chairman
Jim Phelan
Bocce Chairman
Ray Kelleher
Golf Chairman
Russ Dreosch
Walking Chairman
Robert Chandler
Tennis Chairman
Golf Update
Poker Update
Tennis Update
Well, it's getting to be that time again after a long winter layoff. Bocce will begin again in March with an expanded schedule of 9 weeks instead of 7. Hopefully the rain will let up a bit so we can get some practice time on the courts. Our Weds. morning team, Al Dente, will continue if we can get 2 more players to round out a 6 man team. At pre-sent we have Ron Gurich, Bob Hiday, Frank Hemmert, and myself as the basic 4 but we need at least 2 more to make it work. Please let me know if you are interested since I have to make a team deposit on Feb.10th. On a sad note, I just learned that Sir Joe Cotla has passed on. Joe was a member of Br.68 for many years and will be remembered as the Sir who took your money at our lunch-eons. He was also a member of our 1st. Br.68 championship Bocce team and could roll with the best. He also was pretty good with the slots at the local casinos and would regale us each week with his gambling prow-ess. Rest in peace, Sir Joe
Sir Jim Phelan
Branch 68 Bowling Jackpot results
Jim Phelan led the three bowlers that earned recognition in week 16 with a nice 208 game, 513 three-game series, exceeding his average by 90 pins, to earn himself a $14 jackpot. Kent Dutrieux came in second with a 529 three-game set for a +58; Bob Hiday was next with a +32. Les Church had a 205 game for a 518 3-game set.
Jim Phelan returned to the podium in week 17 with +51 over his 3-game aver-age; Jim Sadasue was second +32; Bob Hiday hit the leader board for a 2nd week in a row with a +27; and Bob Sampson followed with a +23. Les Church had another good game of 202 for a 3-games set of 525. Charlie Salinas would have come in second with his +38, but he de-cided to save his dollar.
Our branch had a better week in #18, with 6 members breaking into the recog-nition lights and four of those get addi-tional accolades because they broke the 500 mark for the 3-game series. Bob Hiday wanted more than just be recog-nized for the previous two weeks and pushed himself to a nice +75 pins to walk with a $17 jackpot; John Noren was next with +67 while throwing a 200 game, 568 three game series; John Zeiter tossed a 203, 500 set for a + 44; Kent Dutrieux was +41 while rolling a 201, 515 3-game series; Don Gregory +39; and bringing up the rear, was my-self returning for the first time in four-teen weeks from my hernia operation to roll a 543 series for a +39.
Sir Roger Burstrem 234-6018
Golf will be starting up soon, so start cleaning off
your cleats and work on that swing.
Poker game in the Board Room located in the Pro
Shop after the luncheon.
9:00am every Wednesday at the McInnis Park
Walking
9:00am every Tuesday at the ponds behind the
McInnis Club House.
Jack Poland
Poker Chairman
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Branch 68 February
2016 Newsletter
Special Events
SIR Branch 68
Cordially invites you to Our annual
Sweetheart Luncheon & Dance Party
Tickets: $50 per person
February 13th 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.+
Jason’s Restaurant
300 Sir Francis Drake Blvd, Greenbrae Western Attire is optional, there will be a Country Western Band for your listening and dancing pleasure.
Please R.S.V.P. by February 9th to Jack Futoran at [email protected] or Call (415) 435-1713 Menu:
Appetizer; Tiger Prawns & Bruschetta
Green Salad Main Course; Salmon, Steak or Brandy Chicken (Vegetarian meal on request) Dessert; Tiramisu
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Branch 68 February
2016 Newsletter
Members News
Pat & Jack Futoran 02/03/1957 59
Virginia & Don Perazzo 02/07/1965 51
Patricia & Cal Zippen 02/09/1964 52
Martina & David Bedar 02/13/1977 39
Olga & William Scharninghausen
02/14/1952 64
Patty & Dick Somers 02/14/1964 52
Patty & Ralph Schaber 02/20/1966 50
Akiko & Tom Miller 02/22/1993 23
RODNEY LONG 02/02/1925 91
JOE GRASSO 02/12/1945 71
TED COHEN 02/19/1925 91
PAUL THOMPSON 02/21/1925 91
ROBERT GLEASON 02/22/1942 74
JOHN WOY 02/22/1942 74
RONALD MARINOFF 02/27/1934 82
All the Best and a
Happy Anniversary
From Your friends at
Happy Birthday
From Everyone at
China Camp/Indian Valley SIR’s
Have Many More
Branch 68 Sunshine and Clouds Roster Updates
Editor’s Notes
Kent Dutrieux
Editor
Joe Sauerland
Sunshine Chairman
A Sympathy Card was sent to the family of Paul
Walline who had passed away. A Card will also
be sent later to the family of Joe Cotla.
I would like to take this time to remind everyone,
that if hear about a death or illness please for-
ward what information you have to me so that I
can follow up.
As I sit here working on the newsletter, it accrues to me while putting together the article on Joe Cotla that he
was a policeman for most of his life. I could imagine that for most of that time his friends and most of the peo-
ple around him were cops and what they talked about most of the day was police related. But when he joined
SIR he was now surrounded by guys who had never been cops, now he heard stories, never knowing what the
ending would be. He would need new terms explained to him. What a joy it must have been to be exposed to
new experiences. When we join SIR we are no longer cops, lawyers, accountants, truck drivers, construction,
computer, medical, government workers we are all men looking to enjoy new things with the only other people
that relate to us. I would like to take a moment and say when you’re out about town and you see that retired
guy with nothing to do or is bored, talk to him about SIR and try to show him what Joe saw in this origination.
New Rosters will be handed out at the February
Luncheon. Make sure you pick yours up.
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BRANCH 68 MEETING: Monthly Luncheons & Executive Committee Meetings are held on the SECOND Tuesday of the month. Branch Executive Committee (BEC) meets @ 10:30 AM; Social Hour starts @ 11: AM Member Luncheon at Noon at The Club at McInnis Park in San Rafael
ATTENDANCE NOTIFICATION As soon as you know that you will NOT be attending a month-ly luncheon and no later than the Thursday before the lunch-eon, IT IS IMPORTANT THAT YOU CALL ATTENDANCE CHAIRMAN GENE GALLAGHER at 472-7865 So you will be excused and not AWOL, and we will know the
BRANCH 68 & AREA 6 ACTIVTIES
ATTENDANCE:
RULE 60; Members are obligated to attend all luncheon
Meetings unless prevented by illness or absence from the branch
locale.
RULE 100: A member may be notified in writing by his Branch
of the pending termination of his membership.
RULE 107 should he be responsible for any of the following:
(a) Miss "THREE" (3) consecutive regular luncheon meetings
without having been excused by contacting the designated
Branch Attendance person prior to the meeting date.
(b) Nonattendance at "SIX" (6) regular Luncheon meetings with-
in the previous "TWELVE" (12) consecutive months. "NOTE:"
Excused meetings may not be included to achieve the Six (6)
meeting minimum.
(c) Attendance at Ladies Day functions may be excluded by the
Branch Executive Committee.
NON RESPONSIBILITY DECLARATION: All activities arranged for or
by, or sponsored by, Sons in Retirement, Incorporated, and its
Branches, are for the convenience and pleasure of the members
and their guests who desire to participate. Sons In Retirement,
Incorporated, and its Branches do not assume any Responsibility
for the well-being or safety of the participants or their property,
In any matters pertaining to said activities. RULE 345
2016 Luncheon Schedules of SIR Branches in Area 6
Branch # 7 The Club Restaurant, McInnis Park, SR 1st Thursday
Branch # 22 The Club Restaurant, McInnis Park, SR 1st Tuesday
Branch # 47 The Club Restaurant, McInnis Park, SR 4th Tuesday
Branch # 68 The Club Restaurant, McInnis Park, SR 2nd Tuesday
Branch # 134 Embassy Suites, San Rafael 1st Tuesday
SIR, Inc. 2016 STATE OFFIERS
President:
Donald Dill (530) 885-6943
Vice President:
Jerry Strain (209) 551-8220
Secretary:
Derek Southern (925) 253-1646
Secretary Assistant:
Ron Flagel (209) 338-8109
Treasurer:
Karl Ryden
(916) 961-6137
Treasurer Assistant:
Jim Johnson (916) 961-8092
Region 10 Director:
Jim Filippo
(415) 892-2063
Area 6 Governor:
Frank
Sokolowski
(415) 892-5442
Get SIR Happeings
Sir Happenings is Published
Quarterly Every Winter,
Spring, Summer and Fall At
the Sir Website at http://
sirinc.org/sirhappenings and
download the latest issue.
Happy Reading!
Bicycling Bob Forsyth Br 134 883-6285 Bocce Ball Jim Phelan Br 68 472-2330 Bowling Roger Burstrem Br 68 234-6018 Computers Tom Egan Br 68 499-9079 Digital Cameras Art Costamagna Br 68 456-7031 Fly Fishing Larry Wade Br 134 883-7176 Genealogy Jeff Vailant Br 134 897-7808 Golf -18 Hole Ray Kellerher Br 68 479-8436 Golf - 9 Hole Jack Friesen Br 68 491-1086 Great Books Club Howard Bassett Br 134 892-0311 Investors Lunch Bunch Will Kaefer Br 47 927-1043 Men’s Bridge Bill Cline Br 134 892-0209 Poker Jack Poland Br 68 287-6645 Rolling Roamers (RV’s) Ray Canziani Br 22 453-4463 Tennis Robert Chandler Br 68 450-5237 Travel Henry Puccinelli Br 22 457-3990 Vintage Cars Joe Sauerland Br 68 479-8442 Walking/Hiking Russ Dreosch Br 68 892-5231 WWII Events/History Ted Cohen Br 68 479-7010
Branch 68 February
2016 Newsletter
Area 6