Meeting Minutes
Torch Club of the Fox Valley
13 December 2018
Atlas Coffee Mill & Café
Notes taken by: Mary Flanagan
Attendees: Sue Bennett, Nancy Bodway, Brian Bushaw, Dave Debbink, Marcia Debbink, Mary Flanagan, Paul Freiberg, Jean Hedges, Walt Hedges, Barbara Kelly, Bill Kelly, Jude Kuenn, Cam Maurice, Mary Poulson, Richard Schoenbohm, Katie Shaw, Jan Smith, Kris Stahl, Bob Swain, Helen Thiel, Peter Thiel, Scott Valitchka, Donna Weis
Guest: Terri Daugherty
BUSINESS MEETING
Paul called the meeting called to order at 6:36 pm.
- Acceptance of meeting minutes from 11/8/18 was motioned, seconded, and approved.
- Treasurer’s report: The 12/8/2018 balance was $3,858.74.
- Since then an additional $195 has been received bringing the total to $4,053.74.
- Dues will be sent to IATC in January.
- GoDaddy’s 2-year renewal cost of $191.76 for hosting our website is also due. A motion to continue our website with them was seconded and approved.
- The acceptance of the treasurer’s report was motioned, seconded, and approved.
- Unfinished business:
- Paul announced that Erik Hanson, sponsored by Peter Theil, was unanimously voted into the club by an email vote since the last meeting.
- Paul noted that we received a notice from IATC on its upcoming elections. The current vice-president, Dorothy Driskell, will become president in 2020 so the Vice President office is up for election this year. Our district’s director position is currently vacant and will also be up for election this year.
- Donna Weis will give a presentation on leather craft at the January meeting. The May meeting is open since Cam stepped in for December. If you would like to give a presentation in May, see Walt.
- Announcements:
- Peter announced that Reed Taylor, a founding member of the Fox Valley Torch Club and past president of the International Association of Torch Clubs, had an award for academic excellence named after him. Reed is Helen’s brother.
- Bill asked that everyone take the books they wanted from those on the table for the book exchange. He will donate any leftover books to the Appleton Public Library.
- New Business:
- Barb sent around the enrollment list with contact information from IATC. It was agreed that she will email the list to the group this time, so we have contact information for each other. The contact information is not added to our website due to privacy concerns. It is also not available publicly on the IATC website.
- Table arrangements were discussed to make it easier to hear the speaker. It was also suggested that chairs near the front should be taken by those with a hearing impairment.
- Terri Dougherty, sponsored by Mary Flanagan, was asked to leave the room before she was unanimously voted into the club.
The business segment adjourned for a special dinner of hors d'oeuvres paired with wine tasting at 6:54 pm.
PRESENTATION
Cam Maurice began an interactive poetry presentation at 8:12 by reading:
The Oxen by Thomas Hardy
Christmas Eve, and twelve of the clock.
“Now they are all on their knees,”
An elder said as we sat in a flock
By the embers in hearthside ease.
We pictured the meek mild creatures where
They dwelt in their strawy pen,
Nor did it occur to one of us there
To doubt they were kneeling then.
So fair a fancy few would weave
In these years! Yet, I feel,
If someone said on Christmas Eve,
“Come; see the oxen kneel,
“In the lonely barton by yonder comb
Our childhood used to know,”
I should go with him in the gloom,
Hoping it might be so.
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Two poems by Ogden Nash:
I think that I shall never see a billboard lovely as a tree. Perhaps, unless the billboards fall, I'll never see a tree at all.
I find it very difficult to enthuse
Over the current news.
Just when you think that at least the outlook is so black that it can grow no blacker, it worsens,
And that is why I do not like the news, because there has never been an era when so many things were going so right for so many of the wrong persons.
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Poetry should be accessible. The reader should not have to struggle to divine the meaning of a poem.
You can sign up to receive a poem a day from the poetry foundation at https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/poem-of-the-day.
We each wrote and shared our own poems incorporating the same ten words from Cam. Even though we all included the identical set words, each poem was very different.
Everyone picked a sealed envelope with a poem inside to take home and enjoy.
The meeting adjourned at 8:45 pm.