Someone once said, "Yesterday is not ours to recover, but tomorrow is ours to win or lose." And, I want our lodge to win and win big! So, I ask, is our lodge providing the activities and things you want to do? Do you want to see more members in our lodge on a daily basis? Do you want to help us?
I am here to ask for your support! We can use everyone's help. Maybe you can help check membership cards at big events at the lodge? Maybe help in volunteering to cook or clean during our once monthly lodge breakfasts or other food events? Do you have an idea for something you would be willing to volunteer for? The volunteering can be big, but small will do too! If you think you can help let us know! For your information, we will need members to help with the crab leg feast, balloon fight, Christmas party, and the campfire socials coming up!
Now, there is always turn over in lodge boards and committees! And, change doesn't always happen on a neat time table. You may have read that we have started a new Nominations Committee to staff the board position for Junior Governor. This is a very important position in the lodge. The Junior Governor supports the lodge by standing in should something happen to the Governor. It is also a voice to help move the lodge in the right direction during our meetings. So, we are looking for the best someone with a big MOOSE heart and excitement to help the lodge in moving forward in the right! If you think you might be the right person or are interested in helping the lodge in some other way, big or small, now is the time to let the board know. We are accepting nominations now!
The workaround the lodge never really ends. This last month, we made another donation to a great charitable organization that helps to heal and lift up those devastated by addiction and its effects on the addict. We also upgraded our lodge Wi-Fi and cable boxes. We have been working on the playground by painting and maintaining the horses and playset. We did maintenance on the kitchen lighting to make it brighter and more efficient by replacing old ballast styled lighting with LED lights. It is so much brighter! We even upgraded some of our Grover Gaming machines with new taller units. I could go on, but there are other things to talk about.
This last month your lodge attended the Virginia Moose Association's Convention in Roanoke, Virginia. We participated in the election of new Virginia Moose officers. Received our Moose International Premier Lodge award presented by Danny Williams from Moose International's Justice of the Supreme forum. We listened to the reports on the different topics presented. And, gained a new appreciation for all things Moose! I want to personally thank you for your continued support and membership to help the kids and seniors entrusted to our care at Mooseheart and Moosehaven and for helping our communities to be a better place to live and work! Congratulations to our newest State President Ken Kennedy! Over the last few years, I have gotten to know "MY BROTHER" Ken at the many functions and conventions. I have assured him that our lodge is willing to help in any way we can to make his tenure as the State President successful! At this year's convention, I was personally acknowledged as a member of the Moose International Communications Committee. I am still in awe of this honor. I am looking forward to the activities this entails over the coming year!
There are so many members to thank each month for the successes that we have. I want to start with what I consider is a many times overlooked and rarely thanked enough group our employees. I want to personally thank Carl Thomas, Sharon Chappell, Gwen Smith, Codi Smith, and Richard Pyle for the work they do day in and day out. You all help to make our members experiences in the lodge great. Thank you for all you continue to do! I also want to thank Mark Los, Bunky Clark, Chris Martin, and Garret Awkard for helping around the lodge with the many different events. You all helped to pull together a great Cajun Seafood Boil and Summer Island Luau party. If you missed the pictures from these events please check them out on Facebook. Now, as usual, I know there is going to be someone that I miss in thanking personally. I try to do this when you help. If I have missed you, please know that your help is not going unnoticed.
In conclusion, I have said to many that I have a lofty goal for our lodge, something that is near impossible, to gain two hundred new members in two years! As my last request for this message, I am asking for your help in attaining this for the lodge. Our lodge once had over 2000 members. With the non-smoking rule going into effect on January 1, 2020, please contact our former members and friends and see if they would consider checking us out again. We have so much going for us these days. I see good days ahead for our lodge!
Far and above, one of the most exciting and honored moments of my 20 years as a Moose member was being elected the Vienna Moose's Governor. I am truly honored to be surrounded by so many helpful volunteers, board of officers, and employees. The year started early with getting back to some basics around the lodge in regard to activities. We set up our basic schedule in early February and March for the next two years. The schedule is on our lodge website. Go check it out for yourself! We believe we have something for everyone from great themed food events, Karaoke Saturdays, to campfire socials, to cornhole tournaments! We are constantly looking to find even more events to keep you entertained and coming back to the lodge.
We have had some major upgrades around the lodge too! We have finished our renovations to the men's and women's bathrooms in the Main Hall. This was made possible by a Lodge Grant by Moose International. They look amazing with the new Marble floors and Granite sinks! Many thanks to Greg Kunstbeck, Bruce Chappel, and Carl Thomas for working through all the issues to make this happen. If you get a chance please check it out and thank them.
We are in the process of standing up a new (MLC) Moose Legion Committee at the lodge. Our first meeting is on Saturday, July 27, 2019, starting at 6:00 pm. The meeting is the same day as our first Cajun Seafood Boil party too! Come early for the food and stay for the meeting. We are also hard at work to re-start our Women of the Moose Chapter. I cannot say it enough; we are only half a lodge without a Chapter. I can only hope if you are asked to come to help us re-start our Lodge Chapter, your answer will be YES!
I personally want to thank a few members of our order. I want to thank Tom Rockett and Elizabeth Rockett, Gwen Smith, and Bunky for coming in to help with our first Sunday of the Month breakfasts. We have been putting out a huge spread with lots of bacon. I especially want to thank Mark Los for the great donations of the new cocktail tables and comfortable chairs in the pavilion. This is going to make going non-smoking easier! I am sure I am forgetting some great deeds that our members have contributed, but at this point, it is slipping my mind. Please know that all your efforts are appreciated!
Now on to the non-smoking vote! We are investigating ways to make the pavilion more comfortable for everyone and especially smokers. With the vote at this year's Moose International convention being 404 against and 1397 voting yes, the lodge will be going non-smoking as mandated by Moose International beginning January 1, 2020. This was approved by 77.6 percent of the voting members.
We are also considering a vote to have our lodge go non-smoking early. We are discussing this and will send out a message to members if we get enough interest in jumping early. There is a 2019 – 2020 Lodge Renovation Grant program that is earmarked to help lodges make a special area for smokers with a deadline of August 8th, 2019. Our lodge is applying to make updates around the lodge. If you have any ideas, please come to our next meeting to let us know what you think!
So, there was so much going on at Moose International Convention this year! Wow, where to start? Our lodge for the first time ever was awarded the Premier Lodge Award. This was quite an honor! It was because of all the hard work that our administrator, board of officers and members did this last year. We also won 3rd place in this year's Moose International Journalism Award process for the best website of the year. I want to thank everyone on our Communications Committee for helping us to attain this award. If it was not for your continued help, we would not be progressing like this within our fraternity.
Finally, sometimes in life, you cannot say "No" to a request. It was a few months ago where Scott Hart called me personally to request that I join Moose International's Communications Committee at Mooseheart. Well, you know the answer! I said Yes. I am greatly honored as a lodge member to help Moose International in this way! I cannot wait to see Mooseheart for the first time next year when the committee meets.
As I said, it was a busy convention, and I did not even talk about Jon Tapper of Bar Rescue address to the troops at the convention. Let's just say it was riveting and inspiring to hear! I know in the coming year there are going to be some hiccups and problems to deal with, and god willing we will make it through. In the words of Jon Tapper, we have a lot to be proud of as Moose members! Let's keep our Legacy going strong and protected!
During this season of giving and thanking, we wanted to express our appreciation to you for being part of the Moose community in 2018.
As this year comes to a close, I would like to reflect on the past year. We have endured many tough issues that have tested our lodge’s metal. We are glad to finally turn the page on our former lodge administrator that has been jailed and is repaying the lodge for past transgressions. While this first part of this message is partly negative, we have so much to be positive about at this year-end.
As we move forward, we are working hard around the lodge to improve our lodge’s infrastructure. This last month you may have noticed the first phase of media improvements to the main hall like the two new 70-inch TV’s. This is to help us in gaining and acquiring new business rentals. We even managed to rent the main hall three times since December 1st.
Continuing with the infrastructure improvements, we have also installed a new commercial dishwasher with the help of our generous benefactor Newmarket Gaming. They greatly helped in the cost of the project. It should be noted that Newmarket also helped in our hugely successful Birthday / Christmas party too. Thank you, Newmarket Gaming, for helping us with our projects!
We also want to mention that we are in the third phase of our acquiring a Wine License through the state of Virginia. The lodge has jumped through many hurdles to get this approved including weeks of announcements in the Washington Post, new employee training, and resending duplicate documents many times. There should be nothing more the lodge needs to do before we have our new license in the coming year!
Now onto our community donations and volunteering, to update everyone this holiday season, we have donated to the Shepherd's Center that supports and enriches the lives of older adults, enabling them to live independently, with lives of purpose and dignity. We also made a donation to the Optimist Club of Vienna that helps students who are attending James Madison High School, George Marshall High School, Oakton High School, as well as local scout troops, sports teams, and youth groups too! And finally, we will be holding our jacket and blanket drive through the end of January 2019. We have already dropped off three box loads of jackets and blankets to the non-profit “Committee for Helping Others” in Vienna.
As the Christmas holiday is upon us, I would like to personally thank all the members that have helped in so many ways. I want to thank my amazing board of officers Carl Thomas, Joe Glass, Dan Sullivan, John Sabo, Jaime Connelly, Greg Kunstbeck, Bruce Chappell, Gerry Piddington for their continued support. To Matt Steel for joining our team as our newest bartender, to Gwen Smith for her unending work to feed the troops and guests with her amazing culinary skills, to Sharron for helping us to keep our books straight, to Bunky Clark for filling in where needed, thanks! If I missed thanking someone, thanks to every one of our lodge. You make working here a pleasure.
As we continue our efforts in 2019, we are expanding with even more events. We have a great New Year’s Eve party for the 31st. If you want to come, we have tickets available in the Social Quarters and online. We are hosting a new Cornhole league on Tuesday nights here at the lodge in January. This will bring in a whole new group of new members to our lodge. We hope you will all join us and invite your friends for some fun games. These games will coincide with a new membership drive too. Stay tuned for the amazing details in January! Oh, and don’t forget about the NFL playoff games starting in January too! Gwen is planning on themed food for each playoff game!
In closing, while we have had some tough points in the past year, we are on a better footing as a lodge than we were a year ago. And, I equate it to the positive work and energy from so many members like you. As we celebrate our 60th birthday as a lodge, I invite you all to rededicate yourself as a Moose member and find your own way to help in any way you choose. If there is something you want to help out with, just say so. Please join a committee to make our lodge and community better. Here is to an even better 2019! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
With the convention for Moose International starting this week in New Orleans, we are excited to represent our lodge this year. This year is a year we are working hard to get back to basics. This means that we are following the rules set forth in the Bylaws and the leadership represented in the manuals created by Moose International.
If you have not been in the lodge for many weeks, changes are happening. We are happy to report that we have started a new Lodge Membership drive. We are waiving all application fees for all LOOM and WOTM members for the summer. Yes, we know we don't have a Lodge Chapter currently. We even received a question on Facebook about free application fees for WOTM members. This was our answer.
"Yes, even WOTM! While we don't have a chapter right now, we still want everyone to be welcomed here. So, if someone wants to frequent our lodge, we sign them up as "All Hearts" chapter with the hope of transferring them in when we are able to start a Chapter again. The Women of the Moose are such an integral part of the Moose fraternal system. To not have a Chapter, makes our lodge less welcoming! We want and need the support of a lodge Chapter to make our lodge whole again! While it may not be in the cards now, we are working towards this goal.”
We have signed up 5 new women in the last three weeks. We hope the removal of the application fees makes it easier for you to sign up new members.
As we continue to move forward, you may have also noticed that we have extended our operating hours on Friday's until 1:00 am. This was facilitated by one of hopefully many new activities starting at the lodge, Free Texas Hold'Em. We have been getting a good group to play each Friday including current and new members. Our Friday Night sales are increasing too! Just to let you in on a secret, if you want an extra $1000 in free poker chips (no real cash value), just buy dinner!
Some other noteworthy news, we have extended our hours on Sundays too (until 10:00 pm). And, we have started using our Point of Sale system here at the lodge. We know many of you will take advantage of this system. If you would like to use a credit or debit card for your purchases at the lodge now you can. We have even more great things happening in the near future too.
Our lodge has endured many hardships in the recent past. And, I am sure there will be more hardships in the coming days, but we as a lodge are moving forward. One can only hope that we move forward together! One of the ways we are trying to change things is through communication. While we work on everything, you will be hearing more from us during meetings and on our website.
Finally, we know we sound like a broken record sometimes, but we need volunteers to help with the new activities, new committees, and help in staying on top of what is already going on! We are only as strong as our membership! And, thanks to everyone already helping and to each of you that have signed up a new member this year.
In conclusion, I want to thank all the volunteers (Sandi, Gwen, and all the others) that are helping set up the Paul Behneman fundraiser. We are getting help for this from so many local businesses too! The response has been amazing. If you are free on Saturday, July 21, please come on down to the lodge and support Paul by participating in this event. There will be great food, amazing music by the "Rusty Highway Band”, and lots of supportive raffles for Paul. We have already started a raffle for a 55 inch HD television. You can see the TV and purchase your tickets in the Social Quarters! Good Luck and thanks for your support!
