Chico Elks Lodge #423

It’s crazy, the holidays are over and it’s almost February! The one thing I’ve learned over my 40 years is that change is constant. No matter what or where you are in life, change is constant. I dunno, maybe I’m getting philosophical in my old age! Our Lodge is no exception. I’ve seen a lot of change in my short time as a member and officer. The amazing thing about change at our Lodge is that the generosity of our membership is what drives the change.

During this time, I have seen our Flag Committee make sure our Nation’s Flag is displayed with honor around our Lodge. The generosity of our RV Club, Bowling Club, and Elks’ Ladies improves our building and grounds, and makes sizable donations to our charities. All of our committee chairs see that our events are done to the best of their ability. The Building and Maintenance Committee does their work each and every week to ensure our Lodge looks its best. I would like to thank The RV Club and Claudia Jenkins for putting up and taking down all our Christmas decorations. This is something Claudia has spearheaded for 8+ years now. The RVer’s also replaced the interior lights with LCD lights at their own expense. If you look around that is a great deal of lights and cost. THANK YOU again! The Officers and Trustees are making sizable donations of time to see that our bar is renovated, giving money to our charities from their own pockets, and helping our Lodge meet the State and Grand Lodge goals. The items like our Elk out front and the wood for our bar that improve the look of our facility come from our members. I know I’ve only brushed over a few areas but my point is this: without our membership’s willingness to volunteer, these changes would never happen. The Lodge we see today is a symbol of great history, pride and vision that our Brothers and Sisters before us created.

We are entrusted by our Brothers and Sisters before us to ensure this Lodge’s success. I’ve learned that there is no one person, committee or club within our organization that does this alone. We all share a role as members for the greater good and success of our order. This is one of the many reasons I’m proud to say that I’m an Elk! In showing our respect and gratitude to our tenured members, please make a point to attend Wednesday, February 8th, for our Old Timer’s/PER’s night. There will be a presentation of pins to our members with significant years of membership. The fun part is watching our PER’S get roasted, ugh…I mean run a meeting.

It is my pleasure to formally introduce our new Lodge Manager, Dan Valdez. He has been with us for several years and has demonstrated his proficiency in running Manzanita Place and our Lodge. Dan knows our facility, our town and what is needed to make sure our facility runs effectively . Our Lodge is fortunate to have Dan at its helm! I wish everybody a safe, happy, healthy and prosperous New Year. Propose a member, or if you have proposed a member and don’t see them around much, call them, get them involved again so they see the changes we are consistently making. Hope to see you around the Lodge soon!

Hello again, this is my first letter of 2012.

The term has sure gone fast! It doesn’t seem that long ago when we were practicing for rit- ual. We had some challenges this year, as we have made great strides in our Lodge and the community.

I would like to thank a few people for their contributions to our Lodge and the com- munity: Rhys Severe is our Youth Activities Chairman. We had a vey successful soccer shoot and just recently our Hoop Shoot! This was held at PV High School on Sunday, De- cember 18. The winners will get to compete in the District Competition. Thank you again to Rhys, Norm & Betty Stump, Rick & Kim Schmid, Terry Horne, Gus & Mary Borchers, Joe Lusher, Matt Goddard and many others.

I would also like to thank Kim Thorpe for another amazing Children’s Christmas Party. Kim organized, set-up, purchased and wrapped over 190 gifts, and held the best Children’s Christmas party so far! We were able to pro- vide over 70 children from the community with activities, gifts and lunch. To top it all off, Santa Claus was able to attend. The children got to tell him what they wanted and got a pic- ture with Santa Claus. There were many people who helped set up the day. Thank you to Matt & Jen Goddard, Norm & Betty Stump, Brian & Jenny Artzen, the Patterson family, my lovely wife, Victoria. I think I even saw our District Deputy Wade Thorpe there! It’s a great charity event our members and their kids get to share with our community.

Well, I hope to see you all at the New Year’s Eve party and remember to invite friends and family who are not Elks to come and see what we are about, because it’s amazing!

Hello, again! Well, Chico Lodge is in full swing with the holiday season. Manzanita Place is very busy with outside events as usual this time of year, as well as our Lodge events. This is great for our Lodge’s success and future. With that, any members who have suggestions regarding the op- erations of our facility need to bring those ideas to the House Committee or Trustees, not directly to our management.

We had a DD Clinic on November 20th, a lot of great information was shared. Just a reminder to all members these are not exclusive to officers of our Lodge. All members are encouraged to attend, especially if you are considering running for an officer position.

Just a recap, we had several breakout sessions to discuss business of the Lodge: Norman Stump, PDDGER, current officers on what to expect; Sim Nathan, PDDGER, protocol; Wade Thorpe, DDGER, on life after being an Exalted Ruler. Russ Fortier, PER, and John Knitter, PDDGER, did an in -depth overview of ritual. Kim Thorp had a clinic for the spouses of officers to help them with any questions, etc. There were a lot of topics discussed and Wade Thorpe, DDGER, will be doing another clinic in the Red Bluff Lodge, January 22nd at 9 AM.

Well, I hope everybody has a wonderful holi- day season and we’ll see you around the Lodge!