ECHO

Alabama District North Civitan

Inside this issue

Past Governor’s Notes .................2

Called District Convention ...........2

Boston Butts ................................3

Honor Club ..................................3

Cherokee & Cullman Clubs ..........4

Vina & Holly Pond Clubs ..............5

Special points of interest

Called Convention is soon

Boston Butt Sales Continue

Clubs Serve and Celebrate

Governor’s Corner The first quarter of our Civitan Centennial year is over, the holidays are behind us, and it is now time to turn our thoughts to recruitment. At this time, our district is down in membership from the end of the last Civitan year. Let’s share the joy of service and the fun of Civitans by asking our friends, co-workers, neighbors, or anyone that we know to join our clubs. The more of us there are, the more we can do. As I write this, we are actively preparing for the district meeting in Gun-tersville on January 28th. We will be entertained by a Centennial skit, hear reports from our committee chairs, have a called convention to vote on our Policies and Procedures, the essay contest, and our new Governor Elect, and we will hold our blanket drive for the homeless and other peo-ple in need. The deadline for “100 things” competition is March 16th! We will draw the winner on Civitan’s birthday on the 17th. Thus far we have 27 projects from 11 clubs. Please send in a picture and a short explanation to the webmaster. I know that you all are doing many wonderful things in your community, so please let us know. Look at the pictures on the website. There have been some interesting projects submitted. http://alabamanorthdistrict.com/100-things We have a list of members that have requested the ECHO via USPS. This is another reminder that if anyone in your club is not receiving the ECHO, please let our webmaster know ( alnorthwebmaster@gmail.com )so that we can get it to them via email or the USPS. Our next District meeting will be in April. It will be held in Huntsville at Mayfair Church of Christ located at 1095 Carl T. Jones Drive SE. Please make plans to attend. If I can help you or your club in any way, please do not hesitate to get in touch. donnahg@otelco.net Home Phone: 256-586-0389 4736 Mat Morrow Road Arab, AL 35016 Yours in service, Donna Hill Grice

January 18, 2017 Volume 1, Issue 2

Big Dog AWARD

Scrappy Puppy AWARD

Lots of clubs are bringing groups to

the District Meeting. Here’s a re-

minder of the (unofficial) Big Dog and

Scrappy Puppy Criteria we will use to

determine the winner. The Big Dog

Award is awarded to the club with

the largest number of club members

in attendance. The Scrappy Puppy

Award is awarded to the club with

the largest percentage of their club

members in attendance. To qualify,

1. Members must be registered

by 10:00 a.m. (start of meeting)

2. Only Club members count (no

Juniors or visitors)

3. Must have registration fee paid

if not a first-time attendee

4. Treasurer makes the determi-

nation on which club wins the

award.

January 28, 2017

Guntersville Parks and Recreation Center

Guntersville, AL

MEMBERSHIP MEETING (10:00 AM – 11:50 AM)

Welcome and Call to Order Donna Hill Grice, Governor Invocation James Fields, Chaplain Pledge of Allegiance James Swords, Guntersville Civitan Creed David Dodd, Boaz Civitan Song Led by John Dean and Decatur Civitans Welcome Hon. Leigh Dollar, Guntersville Mayor District Recognitions Paul Emerson, Governor Elect Organizers Recognitions Janice Moebes, Guntersville Ladies Secretary’s Report Joann Walls, Secretary Treasurer’s Report Barbara Burhans, Treasurer Growth and Retention Paul Emerson

Vidalia Onions Michael Rea Revenue (Fruitcakes, Coin & Candy Boxes) Michelle Smith International Funds Walt Floyd District Fund Raiser Ed Higdon Essay Contest Beverly Blakely Junior Civitans Nancy Horton Presentation of Jr. Club Building Award Donna Grice

Seating of Voting Delegates Certification Chair Randy Grice

Call to Order of the Alabama District North Called Convention Governor Elect Nominations Policy and Procedures District support of Essay Contest Adjournment of the District Convention Big Dog/ Scrappy Puppy Awards Paul Emerson Door Prizes Bob Bright

Announcements Donna Hill Grice

Centennial Skit

Notes from the Immediate Past Governor

Alabama District North Called Convention

As Immediate Past President of Alabama

District North, my primary responsibility

is to serve as your Civitan International

Foundation District Liaison. That is a big

title but once you pull back the layers, it

boils down to keeping the District updat-

ed on the various Civitan International

fund raising projects. These include:

Civitan-at-the-Helm, The President’s

Council, Legacy Society and the Fellows

Programs. International Fund raising

Projectors also include Candy and Coin Boxes and Fruitcakes. Michelle

Smith is our District Revenue Chair and the Coin and Candy Boxes and

Fruitcakes are under her committee.

I would like to focus this message on the Civitan-at-the-Helm Program.

Civitan-at-the-Helm is a recognition program to acknowledge club and

district support of Civitan International and Its commitment to re-

search. All Clubs and Districts are asked to support this great commit-

ment by budgeting an annual gift designated to this: Our Flagship

Project. Every dollar we provide for this grant is leveraged with other

outside funding sources. Your continued support is critical to the or-

ganization’s success.

Banner Patches are presented to all clubs and districts that qualify.

Annual Supporting levels are based on the October 1st membership

records and are as follows:

Helmsman $10 per member average

Navigator $25 per member average

Captain $50 per member average

Commodore $75 per member average

Admiral $100 per member average

Admiral of the Fleet $200 per member average

Qualifying Contributions:

Any donation explicitly directed to support this project

The Annual Golf Benefit (held during the Civitan Inter-

national Convention)

Coin Box Proceeds

Personal Gifts (may also be provided in the name of a

special designee)

I encourage all members and Clubs in the District to support this pro-

gram. Contributions should be made by checks to Civitan International,

P. O. Box 130744, Birmingham, AL 35213-0744.

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??What is HONOR CLUB??

Your club may be one that regularly

achieves HONOR CLUB or you may

not even know what the term HON-

OR CLUB means. Civitan Interna-

tional has developed this program

to recognize and reward club who

are doing the things that make a

club successful.

The Honor Club Application is avail-

able on the Civitan International

web page and can be downloaded.

Many clubs use the application as a

blueprint to plan their club’s activi-

ties during the year. It lists four

Categories of Club progress:

1. Club Recruitment and Reten-

tion

2. Service and Fund Raising Pro-

jects

3. Knowledge, Fellowship and

Club Administration

4. Civitan International Charita-

ble Support Activities

There is still time to ensure that

your club is on the track to success

by using the Honor Club Application

as a checklist. If you fill it out as you

go along during the year, it can

mean Honor Club award for your

club and your club President will be

recognized as an Honor President at

our Annual Convention next Fall.

You can make your club better!!

The Alabama District North Civitan Board voted to

hold a Boston Butt Sale, with clubs selling 10 lbs.

butts for $35.00 each. The club would keep $5.00 per

item for their club treasurer or expenses on picking

up to butts in Somerville. The profit from the sales

will go toward the restoration of the International

headquarters and the Welcome party that will occur

for Civitans attending The International Convention

in Birmingham.

We have picked Super Bowl week for the smoking and

delivery.

Each butt will be smoked to perfection by The Somer-

ville Civitan Club members. They will do 150 per day,

starting on Thursday and 150 on Friday. The clubs

designated pick up person will come with coolers to

keep the aluminum foil wrapped butts warm. The club

will be responsible for the distribution in their ar-

ea.

With all the activities of Christmas and the New Year

everyone has been way to busy the think in terms of

selling Boston Butts. Sales have been slow but now

is the time concentrate on either purchasing one for

you and your family or selling to the public. To

help the sales we have extended the closing date for

sales to Jan. 18, 2017.

Remember, collect the $35.00 with checks made out to

the club, have your treasurer submit the check to the

district for the total number, less the $5.00 sales

fee. The butts will be smoked at Somerville and

picked up there on either the 2nd or 3rd of February

by the area director or designated person. Original-

ly, we had set the 4th as pick up but that might not

give time to distribute to the customers.

Please check with your area club presidents for their

sales so far. Let's make our district proud and help

International in their efforts make our convention a

success.

Ed Higdon

C # 256-565-5207 3

Boston Butts Sale

Cherokee Civitan Club Swings

Cherokee County Civitan Club Provide Funds for Handicapped Swings in City Parks

The Cherokee County Civitan Club, working in conjunction with the Cedar Bluff Town Council recently installed handicapped swings in Cedar Bluff’s downtown park. Civitans provided the funding to acquire the swings, while the Cedar Bluff staff installed the equipment and the hand-icap access ways. Because the swings in Cedar Bluff’s park have been so actively utilized by our county’s special needs children, Cherokee Civitans have com-mitted to also provide funds for the same type swings to be installed in Centre’s City Park. The Centre City Council will support the installa-tion of that equipment, which will be done in 2017. The Cherokee County Civitan Club has several annual fund raising activities to general the funds which are almost exclusively dedicated to Cherokee County. Those activities include a Chili Supper, sale of Vidalia Onions, installation of U.S. flags on all major holidays and Christ-mas fruitcake sales.

Written by John Hyatt, President

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Cherokee County Civitans John Hyatt, President;

Frankie Trammell, Secretary; Tom Joiner, Member;

Jack Crane, Treasurer present swings to Cedar Bluff’s

downtown park.

CULLMAN CIVITANS

Cullman Civitan members shared 100 Thanksgiving cards at Woodland Village

Health Care. The residents welcomed our visits and loved seeing our future

Jr. Civitans.

Vina Civitans Christmas parade float the city Christmas Parade on Decem-ber 6, 2016. The theme was "A Candy Cane Christmas". We won 1st place and a check for $100.00. Shown in the photo are some of our members. From left to right, Carole DeLong, Sanni Kirk, Danni Leigh Osbirn and our Area 4 Director, Bryan Moomaw, who is also a member of our club.

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Vina Civitans prepared fruit baskets for elderly Shut in patients and nursing home patients on Thanksgiving.

Vina Christmas Parade

Holly Pond Christmas Parade

Holly Pond Civitans Julia Floyd, Sharon Oliver, Lyndall House, Tammy

Baker, Patricia McGriff, Janice Murphree, Lynn Jetton and Walt Floyd

celebrate 100 years of Civitan with Christmas float.