"August Picnic"

The Annual August Picnic was held, Monday, August 26th, at the Country Gentleman in Kennewick.  Sixty-three members attended and many reported the hamburgers were excellent in taste and preparation.  The  most popular item however, was the brownies! 

President Jim welcomed everyone back, introduced his mother, and the Executive Board members; and made a few announcements. The remainder of the event was filled with social interactions carried out against the soothing and very melodic sounds of Terry Simmilink's music.

Announcements:

1.  The Country Gentleman has asked us to park behind the building.  The reason is folks driving by looking for a quick lunch won't see a full parking lot and will be encouraged to come on in.  We will have the tables for pay and PAC contributions near the back door entrance beginning in September.

2.  A Craft Table will be set up at each meeting for anyone who has crafts of some sort they want to offer to membership for sale.  A minimum of 50% of any proceeds will go to the scholarship/teacher grant funds.  We have no one to head that up, so if anyone is interested, let us know! 

3.  A correction in program from the most recent newsletter:  Bruce Hawkins, Supt. of ESD 123, will speak briefly at the September luncheon.  The main event in September of course will be the legislators seeking another, or a new, term in office. 

4.  The board has decided the $1400/year we spend on newsletter mail-outs could be better utilized for scholarships and/or teacher grant monies.  To that end, anyone wanting to receive the standard 4 mail-out newsletter/year will be charged a whopping $2 subscription fee.  This will begin in January of 2014 and will run during the regular Jan-Dec year. 

That's it for now. 

"Welcome to Another Year at BFSRA"

Greetings to All,

We hope you can join us at the annual "August Picnic" Aug. 26th at the Country Gentleman at 11:30am.  We will enjoy a buffet of hamburgers, hot dogs, potato salad, and all the fixin's, while listening once again to the smooth and tender vocals of Terry Simmelink.  (Oh, and by the way, we meet indoors because we can predict neither the weather or the voraciousness of the insect populations these days.)

For those of you who are usual in your attendance, we hope you will maintain your visits with us this year; and for those of you who, for whatever reasons, have found it difficult to attend, we want to extend a special invitation to you.  Tom Callahan has put together an outstanding group of presenters and entertainers for us, as well as a mouth-watering menu for each luncheon. And of course, we wish we could do this for 5 bucks a lunch, but prices simply won't allow that anymore.

We can all be proud of our association.  Last year we provided three $1,000 scholarships to local graduates who plan to teach, a thousand dollars in teacher grants, and we collected a truck-load of toys for the little ones during the holiday season.  We provide sharp focus on the legislators, especially since many of them believe the state budget can be balanced out of our pocketbooks and bank accounts.  Then there is the mere social aspect of the association; for some this is one of the few opportunities available for person-to-person contact and for that we can all be grateful.

I hope to see all of you this year.  It is going to be an even better one than last year, because as Elaine said, I've got one more year to "get it right."  Let's hope, with your help and encouragement, that happens.

Be sure to watch for updates, schedules, menus, and other important information right here on our web page. 

Hope to see you at the picnic!   

Jim Bumgarner, president. 
   

"State Convention"

Speaking as the chair of the local organizing committee for the WSSRA State Convention this past June in Pasco, I want to express my deep gratification and commendations to a group of people who put it all together, the are the entire E8 region:

Asotin/Pomeroy and Walla Walla for their support, encouragement, and outstanding table arrangements, and . . .

The local committee members here in the Tri-Cities, members of which were:

            Leona Hassing                      Planning Commitee, Goodie Bags for Monday

            Don Parks                             Planning Committee, Entertainment

            Marlys Mayer                       Treasurer

            Marion Hughes                     Memorial Services

            Helen Bruggeman                 Hospitality, Walk Guide

            Gracie Cooper/Julie Hyde     Table Decorations

            Gracie Cooper                        Ticket Takers/Pages/ and Registration Workers

And,  Lynn Leaverton of Pomeroy, our Official Photographer. 

We decided early on we wanted to put together a "lean and mean" convention; or to put another way, one that could be described as "elegantly simple."  Congratulations to all these folks who were a part of making it happen. We achieved our goal; and we still came in just over 25%, under-budget, without a hitch!! 

The newly installed president of WSSRA, Nick Schultz, commented from the podium that the "local group certainly raised the bar to new heights" in terms of putting on a smoothly run convention.  Thanks, Nick!  

To view the photos of the convention, go to this link. 

Great job, Everyone.

Jim Bumgarner, Chair