Message from the State President

Going on six months now, I think it’s time to hurry and get to New Year’s Eve and welcome 2021 in. 2020 has been a very difficult year to say the least. The year started out well, then the pandemic, shelter in place, cancellations of many events, Conference call for March Grand Council (a first), things looking better, than a upswing on cases, no Convention and now we are fighting the heat and fires in the south, central, north and in Reno. Enough already. Maybe it’s a bad dream. This we will overcome and hopefully come out stronger on the other side. Let’s pray real hard for our firefighters, first responders and continued prayers for our hospital workers. Better days are ahead!

Many of you have heard that we have a new Office Manager, Rodelle Palce. She is a dynamic young lady, who has picked up the day to day items very quickly. I want to thank Head State Trustee Ray Bini and State Recording Secretary Lori Rossi for helping me go thru numerous resumes. Also an extra thank you to Lori for helping out keeping the office going until Rodelle came on board. Welcome Rodelle!!!

Our caterers who have rented our kitchen from us for over 17 years have decided to retire, unfortunately a casualty of the pandemic. Barbara & Gabriel hope to eventually retire to Venice, once the travel restrictions are lifted. Barbara still plans to continue renting our hall, (when we can again) and has almost rented the complete parking lot for us. We wish them well in their retirement.

One thing every member can do to help the office out is to make sure your Beneficiary is correct. It makes it so much easier for the Office to work with the Insurance Company regarding the Death Benefit Program. Also please verify your address, if you have moved or changed PO Box number please let us know so we will not continue to receive “return to sender” notices from the Post Office for the Illeone. (We are charged return postage for these)

So until our State Officials give us an ok to meet, let’s continue to wear a mask, and follow the guidelines set up by our elected officials. Let’s continue the open communication with our members. We still need to error on the side of caution, due to the age of our organization. I know a lot of lodges are using Zoom for their virtual meetings. This may be the normal for a while.

Information will be coming out soon regarding our September Grand Council meeting soon.

So continue those phone calls to our members, feel free to contact me also with any questions or comments.

We will beat this Together!!!

Stay safe!

Yours Fraternally