FROM YOUR FRIENDLY VICE-PRESIDENT AND WAGON MASTER

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1 April 2015 A Note From Your President Volume 27, Issue 2 By Don Del Rosario I would like to take this opportunity to sincerely thank Stu Dutcher, Vice President, Betty Dawson, Secretary, and Ann Meilicke,Treasurer, for their commitment to another year as officers for Chapter 21. With their capable management, our Chapter should flourish for the coming year. Thanks again to Stu and Sandy Dutcher for a great spring rally in Tucson. Those of us who attended had a fun time with some neat activities. Stu is still looking for someone to host a fall rally in Deming. Sharon and I were fortunate to win the grand door prize from Adventure Caravans at the Escapade this year, and we intend to use it for a MegaRally in Goshen, Indiana this fall. I hope all of your summer travels are safe and enjoyable and we will see many of you next winter in Quartzsite., FROM YOUR FRIENDLY VICE-PRESIDENT AND WAGON MASTER By Stuart Dutcher With all of the activities we participated in this past March, Sandy and I are somewhat happy that March has come to an end. We are glad we did it, but don t want to do an encore performance real quick like. We can now get to the business of prepping our house to sell it so we can become homeless persons and begin living in Dog House III full-time. With regards to the SKP Saguaro Hot List, we now figure we can be somewhat competitive in our desire to become lease holders. I will now try to summarize our March activities without being to verbose. 55th Escapade, 8-13 March, Pima County Fairgrounds We actually arrived at the Pima County Fairgrounds a couple of days before the Escapade commenced, 6 March. Before the Escapade we accomplished a few things in Tucson that we had planned on doing. During the Escapade, Sandy and I served as the Row Representatives for Chapter 21, spending a few days making new friends and reacquainting ourselves with older ones. From gallivanting around the Row we familiarized ourselves with other Escapee Chapters, BoF s, etc.. We learned that being a Row Representative is one of the best kept secrets of the Escapees RV Club, and I recommend the experience to every Escapee. (Con't on page 5)

2 Chapter Information Sources VOICE MAIL WEB PAGE Dial 1 (888) Type in: Follow instructions saguaroskp21.weebly.com Ch. 21 extension 8021 Followed by # sign You'll be linked to our chapter information website. Here you will find past & current newsletters, information regarding upcoming rallies & other chapter events, a listing of all chapter officers and their contact information, our club rally rules, and a photo gallery. OFFICER CONTACT INFORMATION President: Don Del Rosario (Sharon) (817) Don80444@gmail.com 1601 Mt. Rushmore Rd #3-105 Rapid City, SD (also has RV Lot at Cochise Terrace, Benson Vice-President: Stu Dutcher (Sandy) (520) dutch1062@msn.com E. Waters Road Hereford, AZ Secretary: Betty Dawson (Don DeMent) (520) bjdaws1108@gmail.com 253 Rainbow Drive #15395 Livingston, TX (Lot #156 SKP Park, Benson) Treasurer: Ann Meilicke (Mick) (956) ann@meilicke.org 111 Rainbow Drive #1166 Livingston, TX (Lot #89 SKP Park, Benson) Newsletter: Marti Moehlau (Drew) (301) saguaro.signs@gmail.com 600 E. Saguaro Dr #203 Benson, AZ Web Master: Sharon Del Rosario (Don) (503) sdr1105@gmail.com 1601 Mt. Rushmore Rd #3-105 Rapid City, SD (also has RV Lot at Cochise Terrace, Benson Voice Mail: Marilyn Wix (507) wixmj@yahoo.com 3700 S. Westport Ave. #1827 Sioux Falls, SD (Lot #278 SKP Park, Benson) Sunshine: Bunny Ratcliff (Bruce) (520) bbnomads@att.net 242 Rainbow Drive #14235 Livingston, TX (Lot #170 SKP Park, Benson) Historian: Althea Matthews (Paul) (520) arthurmat@peoplepc.com 600 E. Saguaro Dr #226 Benson, AZ Page 2

3 MINUTES SKP Saguaro Chapter 21 March 27, 2015 LazyDays/KOA, Tucson Arizona CALL TO ORDER: 10:02 am PLEDGE OF ALLIGENCE: Don Del Rosario led The Pledge. ROLL CALL OF OFFICERS: Don introduced the officers present: President: Don Del Rosario, Vice President: Stu Dutcher, Secretary: Betty Dawson, Treasurer: Ann Meilicke INTRODUCTION OF NEW MEMBERS AND GUESTS: None INTRODUCTION OF VCRs PRESENT: Chick and Debby Thompson, Cynthia Lee and Nathan Colter MINUTES OF LAST MEETING: Don reminded those present that the Minutes of the previous meeting had been Approved By Committee at that time as a future Business Meeting was uncertain. The reading of the minutes from that meeting was dispensed with. TREASURER S REPORT: Ann Meilicke reported that as of October 1, 2014 the chapter had a balance of $3, Income associated with dues, CARE donations, Fall rally registrations, and sale of items from the Chapter trailer totaled $ Expenses associated with the Fall rally, the polar bear party and miscellaneous items totaled $ As of February 28, 2015 the Chapter has a balance of $3, Sharon Del Rosario made a motion to accept the Treasurer s Report as read; Stu Dutcher seconded that motion. WAGONMASTER REPORT: Stu reported that the Spring Rally drew 9 rigs and 16 people. He is actively recruiting hosts for the Fall Rally which will probably be held in Deming, New Mexico the second week of October. Don Damkaer mentioned that the rally is usually right after the conclusion of the Albuquerque Balloon Festival. Sharon Del Rosario reported that the dates of the Balloon Festival are October 3 11, It was agreed that the rally would take place after that time. COMMITTEE REPORTS: None VCR REPORT: Nathan Colter reported attendance figures for the recent Escapade Rally in Tucson. There were 851 rigs, 91 more off-site, 1, 232 registered attendees, 720 walk-ins for a total of 1, Chapters and 21 BOFs were represented on The Row. Total monies collected for CARE from various functions such as the donuts sale, chili cook-off, and donations totaled nearly $12,000. Nate also reported that the latest membership number for the Escapees is 122,964. OLD BUSINESS: Don talked about the Chapter trailer that is in storage at the Saguaro Co-Op. In the Fall the items in the trailer were gone through. Those no longer needed but still in good condition were sold during the Co-Op s annual Garage Sale. $ was made from those items. Bruce Ratcliff has given Stu a complete list of remaining inventory. Bruce also said he will repair the roof and fix the doors on the trailer to protect against leakage. (con't on page 4) Volume 27, Issue 2 Page 3

4 Betty Dawson Secretary, Chapter 21 Greetings from your Sunshine Lady In February... Happy Spring Everyone. Get well cards were sent to the following... In February... John Rose, Mary Ann Zaleski and Dale Bunselmeier. In March... Paul Matthews. In April... Ron Chojnacki. Please keep me informed and Have a Healthy and Safe Summer. Hugs from your Sunshine Lady, Bunny MINUTES (con't from page 3) NEW BUSINESS: Election of Officers: All four current officers agreed to continue their position for another year. Don Damkaer made a motion to accept the slate and retain all four officers; Don DeMent seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously. VCR Nathan Colter swore in the officers. Don reported on the establishment of the Escapees Social Network, Inc. which was formed to provide a network umbrella for all SKP Chapters and BOFs. This umbrella will cover all Chapters for the IRS and for liability insurance purposes. Each Chapter will, however, retain its own individual EIN at their own bank. He is currently in contact with directors in Livingston to get the exact wording for a new Chapter name. In order for the Chapter By-laws to be correct Don proposed an amendment to the current By-laws to change the name so that the Chapter will be compliant with the Escapees Social Network, Inc. Don DeMent moved that the By-laws be amended to make the name change, Sharon Del Rosario seconded. The motion passed. Don Del Rosario also mentioned that many of our Chapter by-laws are out-of-date and there are some discrepancies in them. He proposed establishing a committee to revise the By-laws to bring them up-todate. Don DeMent moved to establish such a committee, Gene Struble seconded. The motion passed. Don Del Rosario asked if there were any volunteers to be on such a committee. Don Damkaer, Don DeMent, Betty Dawson, and Don Del Rosario all volunteered to take on this task. SUNSHINE REPORT: None Sandy Dutcher reported that $122 had been collected from raffle ticket sales. That amount will be sent to CARE from Chapter 21. MOTION TO ADJOURN: Made by Ron Shulz, seconded by Don DeMent. The meeting adjourned at 10:30 am. Respectfully Submitted Happy NOTE: spring Minutes everyone. Get Approved well cards by were committee sent to the following... of Don Del Rosario, President and Stu Dutcher Vice President. Page 4

5 While we were there we were assisted in our duties by Stella Bennett and Frank Downey. Their very capable assistance and presence allowed Sandy and I to partake of some of the other activities which we desired to do. Thank-you, Stella and Frank. While not real large numbers we managed to sign-up six new members for Chapter 21 and renew the memberships of four others. The guest register which we maintained at our booth showed that we had 155 Escapees visit our booth. However, that does not tell the whole truth, as there were many other visitors to the booth that did not sign the register for one reason or another. It was actually all over too soon, and from there we went to SKP Saguaro Coop for another function. SKP Saguaro Co-Op 25th Anniversary Silver Selebration Sandy and I spent March at the Co-Op enjoying ourselves and putting Chapter 21's Ice Cream Social on 20 March. Actually, the Dutchers contribution to the Silver Selebration started back in November when we became members of the Silver Selebration Organization Committee. We attended all of the Committee meetings. From the outset, Chuck Divine and I were the ramrods in obtaining the tee shirts that were made for the Selebration. 200 black tee shirts with the Silver Selebration logo were obtained from Print and Stitch in Bisbee, Arizona. The tee shirts were sold at the Co-Op. On Friday, 20 March, Chapter 21 sponsored an ice cream and cake social in the Club House for everyone who attended the Silver Selebration. Obviously, not everyone at the Co-Op attended the social, but I estimate that we served ice cream and cake to approximately 230 persons. Even more obvious is the fact that Sandy and I could not have done it by ourselves, we had lots of the best help-volunteers. My sincerest thanx go out to the following Escapees for volunteering their time and efforts for the social: Don & Sharon Del Rosario, Marilyn & Dick Wix, Alice & Ron Schulz, Jean Holloway- Burkhart, Ann Meilicke, Pat Spaulding, Betty Dawson, Pat Wade, Rita Kingma, Maria & Gene Wakefield, Connie Carno, Art Sauerstrom and G.L. Boland. If I forgot to mention anyone, my thanks still go out to you. Most of all I want to thank my best half, Sandy Dutcher, without whose advice, consent and hard work the event would never have taken place. Due to the fact that we had purchased enough cake and ice cream to serve approximately 400 persons there were a lot of leftovers. The left over cake and ice cream was donated to the Club House Kitchen, and I have it on good information that the remains almost lasted to the end of March, being served at various Co-op functions. Sunday, 22 March, saw Sandy and me moving our base of operations to Tucson where we would host Chapter 21's Spring Exodus Rally. (Con't on page 6) Volume 27, Issue 2 Page 5

6 VICE-PRESIDENT (Con't from page 5) Spring Exodus Rally, Tucson/Lazydays KOA, 22 March - 1 April Well, finally Sandy and I arrived at the last of scheduled activities for March, hooray! Actually, Sandy was the ramrod for the Rally, I was just the Gofur. She did a magnificent job. The Rally was held March. As has become the case, in recent years, the Rally was quite small, there were nine rigs and 16 Escapees in attendance. There had been 11 rigs and 19 members scheduled to attend, but two rigs with three persons canceled. Something out of the ordinary which happened was that we had four Volunteer Club Representatives present; Cynthia and Nathan Colter, and Debby and Chick Thompson. All of these VCR s were members of Chapter 57 out of Florida. Cynthia and Nathan were our primary assigned VCR s. Additionally, we had four Escapees who had no Chapter affiliation visit us during Happy Hours. Scheduled activities which took place during the Rally were visits to the ASARCO Mineral Discovery Center and Mine Tour, the Reid Park Zoo, and the Gaslight Theatre. On Friday 27 March we held the Annual Meeting for the Arizona Saguaros Chapter 21. All of the scheduled events came off without a hitch. A very special thanks to Marilyn Wix who made all of the arrangements for our visit to the Gaslight Theatre. In addition to the tickets for the Rally attendees, she had enough tickets available for some SKP Saguaro Co-Op members to attend the performance. A great big SKP HUG to you Marilyn for your hard work. Prior to the performance most of us enjoyed a meal at Little Anthony s restaurant. During the Annual Business Meeting we held the annual election of officers for the coming year, heard reports from the various officers and committees, as well as a report from the Escapee Volunteer Club Representative Nathan Colter. By acclimation all of the current officers were reelected to their current posts and sworn in, once more. The Escapee Social Network, Inc. was discussed and we are in the process of applying for membership. The business meeting was attended by a few Chapter members that were not registered for the Rally. Immediately following the business meeting we had a luncheon which was catered by the Tucson/Lazydays KOA. {So much for me not becoming overly verbose.} You will hear from me again, in the next newsletter, whenever that may be. SKP HUGS to all, STU DUTCHER Vice-President Wagon Master Gofur Page 6

7 Just a note to all Chapter 21 members from Stu Dutcher, Vice-President At this time, we do not have a rally scheduled for the fall and the reason for that is no one has volunteered to be the host/hostess. If you would like to host the fall Chapter 21 rally, please contact me by , telephonically, in-person, or by snail mail. In the event that no one comes forth to host a fall rally, Sandy and I are planning on spending the first two full weeks of October 2015 at the Dream Catcher RV Park in Deming, New Mexico. We will be there approximately 3-18 October. The Albuquerque Hot Air Balloon Festival 2015 is scheduled for 3-11 October. Any of you folks who attend the Festival en route to the Co-Op are welcome to join us at Dream Catcher. For that matter, any Chapter 21 member or other Escapee is welcome to join us. Who knows, we might even have an impromptu rally sometime the week of October. In addition to the Polar Bear Party, I would like to have Chapter 21 sponsor and conduct at least one other activity at the Co-Op, a bar-b-que or other function. If you have any ideas, please relay them to me. Volume 27, Issue 2 Page 7

8 Previews of Coming Chapter Events Chapter Luncheons: Will resume in October 2015 Fall Rally: If there is going to be one, YOU must volunteer to host or co-host. If you haven't hosted before, we will be sure you have plenty of help and guidance! Yes, hosting a rally is work, BUT it is also a lot of fun! How about giving it a try?