Darien Men's Association

The election of officers and directors for the June 2013 to June 2014 period was be held at the May 1 meeting.

Here is the new slate of leaders for this period:

OFFICERS AND DIRECTORS

 PRESIDENT William Ball

FIRST VICE PRESIDENT Robert Smith

SECOND VICE PRESIDENT  Alexander Garnett

SECRETARY Scott Hutchason

TREASURER Cecil Wade

 DIRECTORS

FIRST TERM                          SECOND TERM

Robert Baker                              Thomas Lom

Thomas Brayton                        Anthony Murray

Chris Filmer

David Mordy

 PAST PRESIDENT DIRECTORS (2)

 Kirk Jewett

John Podkowsky

OTHER OFFICERS

 ASSISTANT SECRETARY John Fitzgibbons

ASSISTANT TREASURER Robert Ready

 As noted during the April 17 meeting, Bob Ready will automatically become a director.

Bill Winship will be taking over as chair of the Social Committee, and Chick Scribner will continue to lead the Membership Committee.

At our meetings in late March and early April, our members completed a survey designed to help in our efforts to revitalize our Association. If you missed those meetings, we will be sending the survey to you by email soon, please take the time to fill it out and submit it so that your voice can be heard in our planning.

As we discuss alternatives to make our club more attractive to recent retirees or “younger seniors” and to stimulate greater participation by current members, we are considering expanding our list of activities. The survey results to date indicate the highest interest in:

• Hiking,
• Local walking tours,
• Current event discussions, and
• Investing.

Also, among other changes that we are considering is the removal of “Senior” from our name, becoming, for example, the Darien Men’s Association. These and other changes are being thoroughly studied by Tom Lom and his committee, and by the Board of Directors. Any changes in our name or charter will be submitted formally to the Board, and if approved, then submitted to the membership for a vote in time to be a part of our communications for the next program year. Tom and his group welcome any suggestions you may have to help us in this revitalization effort.

Our Nominating Committee has finished its work, presenting the new slate and receiving the approval of the membership in recent meetings. Since this is my last newsletter message, I wanted to express my thanks to all of you who brought guests to our meetings. As a result of your help, we have added 25 new members thus far this year, a considerable increase over prior years.  Thanks to the officers, committee chairs, and volunteers for their help in making this another very successful year for our Association. It has been a pleasure and privilege to serve as your President.

Bob Ready, President

The Membership Committee and the Board of Directors have been collecting dues since the first meeting in September.  Normally all dues are in by the end of December.  E-mails, Post Cards and Phone calls have been used as reminders to all delinquent members.  We are now in April and, after more phone calls, we still have delinquent members.  This means a lot of unnecessary work for a few dedicated members.  We have constantly been checking our own and the DCA records to keep mistakes down to a minimum.

Attendance has have been good with the exception of Wednesday, April 17 when 78 members and two guests attended.

There were 7 new members admitted since I reported 8 in the last newsletter.  Six members have either resigned or passed away.

The current membership is 266

 C. Scribner, Chair

Membership Committee