Greetings, and Happy New Year to everyone, we hope this letter finds you well. The new key-card reader was installed on January first so use your green cards now. If you have yet to pay your 2008 dues please get it in to us. As small as it may be your dues helps pay a few bills and we thank everyone for getting it in promptly. We especially thank everyone who included a few extra dollars with their payment. It is with this little extra that we can constantly make improvements around the Club. 2007 was a great year at the Club and we only hope to improve on that during 2008. Bingo while off to a slow start finished up the year stronger and we are still holding our own. The Canteen had another strong year but we would still like to see some different faces, so come on in if you haven’t been in awhile. We had many successful events throughout the year, from our themed potluck functions to the newly added member appreciation steak nights last summer, as well as the annual Lobster Feed, Thanksgiving Dinner, and Adult Christmas Party. In our on-going effort to constantly improve the level of service at our Club the Board of Directors has hired Maidee Chang as the new Canteen Manager. For those of you unfamiliar with Maidee she was the chef owner of Maidee’s Restaurant in Ellsworth for 19 years and now brings her skills and experiences to us. We are looking forward to her creative input at all functions and our Friday night snack lineup. We also have great hope that she can develop a thriving rental business for our large hall. Coupled with our facility and her ability to cater any event we feel that the FVC now offers one of the best function hall venues in Downeast Maine, and at an extremely competitive price. Don’t forget to let your friends know this the next time they need a hall for any event. In addition to a new Canteen Manager we also have some new blood (as well as some old) in leadership roles here at the Club. Jim Haskell will remain as President but Mike Heyden leaves us as Vice President. Eric Giles will take over in that role. Bruce Carter continues as Teasurer, and we finally have a Clerk again. New member Rob Hudson, currently serving as the detachment commander at the Bangor Naval Reserve Center, will put his Chief Yeoman skills to work for us. Re-elected to the remaining Board of Director seats were Peter Cole, Paul Giles, and Steve Walton. Newly elected for this year we have John Kalkow, Phil Kearns, and Pelham Howe. Stepping down were Bernie Ryan and Ray Mosely. I would like thank Mike, Bernie, and Ray for their years of hard work and dedicated service to the Club, thank-you. Committee seats were also appointed but are too numerous to list here. If you are interested in working on or with a committee please speak with one of the Club Officers or Board Members. Now on to the news of upcoming events here at the Club. This newsletter contains calendars for February and March, they are printed back to back so don’t throw it away when February is over. January calendars are available at the club but here is a quick rundown of what is left for the rest of the month. The Continuing Education Grants committee will meet on the 23rd at 1400. On Friday the 25th during social hours we will once again have Polish Night Potluck. It turned out to be a big hit last year, and again member Ed Jaworski will bring us the finest kielbasa from Chicoppe, MA. We look forward to many great Polish style dishes from our wonderful cooks out there. Board of Directors will meet on the 31st at 1400. Remember the Super Bowl is February 3rd following bingo. We will have pizza, wings, and other tailgate snacks. Check your calendars for all the other great activities coming up. And finally if someone asks you what we do besides have great food, enjoy a few reasonably priced adult beverages, play pool, shuffleboard, darts, watch the big games, and generally enjoy each other's camaraderie you can let them know the following. Last year the Franklin Veterans Club returned more than $9600 to our local communities in Downeast Maine through such things as: the Continuing Education Grants Program, fruit baskets to our local senior citizens, at large donations to veteran’s families, Boy Scouts, Cub Scouts, Little League, and local girls’ softball just to name a few. We look forward to seeing you at the Club soon. If you have any ideas as to how we can continue to improve your club, please give us a call at (207) 565-2977 or send us an E-mail at ops@franklinvetsclub.org