Sorry to be a bit tardy with this month’s E-News. I could claim the weather was too nice to work indoors and I played croquet or pickleball all week but that would not be true. The weather was great but my various ASURA hats kept me indoors, hopping all week. I did have time to attend the Board’s second in-person Board meeting which had good attendance and good discussions.

Since there will not be a December Board meeting this will be the last E-News for the year. So, Gobble Gobble and Ho Ho Ho – have a nice Thanksgiving and Holiday season (don’t forget to register for the Holiday Potluck and Bake Sale).

Board meeting notes

• Jan Shore, Scholarship Chair, reported that several members had contacted her about helping with the selection next spring.
• Barry McNeill, Video History Project Chair, reported the project is coming back to life. The editing of the Bob Francis interview has been completed and the interview is waiting to be posted on the library digital repository. For you new members, Bob was the second chairman of the Video History Project. The interview selection committee is planning on meeting either at the end of this month or the beginning of next month.
• The Travel Committee has been quite active of late. John Brock, Committee Chair, reported on the September trip to Iceland. He said it was a wonderful trip, lots of great scenery. The food was wonderful particularly if you like fish. It was cloudy the entire trip so there was no aurora borealis – he did think he might have seen it through a crack in the clouds but it turned out to just be the moon.
  
  
  
  Tara Roesler, Travel Committee member, reported on the trip taken in early November to the NE corner of Arizona. She could not say enough good things about the trip; every day of the three-day trip was perfect. She sent me pictures and Jeff Bush sent me a story both of which you can see on the Past Event Story for the trip.
  
  
  
  Tara also mentioned that the fall trip to Tovrea Castle was another successful event. Eleven members took the tour of the castle and its grounds. Efforts will be made next March to get tickets for next fall. These tickets are scarcer than hen’s teeth; only one group of twelve is allowed each season.
  
  
  
  Finally Tara reported that the committee has organized two trips to the Silver Star Theater, one in March and one in April (see the calendar at the end of this E-mail).
• Linda Van Scoy, Office Co-coordinator, reported that all the books we have collected for sale have been picked up and our “storage room” is now empty. So, there is room for all those books you no longer need or want. If you have books to offer, visit our Book donation page for instructions on how and where to bring the books. We earned over $5,000 last year which was split between the Scholarship and Video History Project, so this is not chump change.
• Will Stasi, ASURA President, reported that we had a table at the HR Vendor Fair held in the MU. Will, I, and Terrie Ekin attended. The crowds were underwhelming but we did talk to several people and Terrie was able to help one person with moving their degree aspirations along.

Annual Meeting

To overcome the difficulties we encountered last year, Will created a small ad hoc committee to plan the Annual Meeting. Kay Faris, ASURA Vice President, a member of this ad hoc committee, led the discussion. The ad hoc committee had considered a number of topics but economics rose to the top of the list with two possible speakers, Lee McPheters and Dennis Hoffman, mentioned. Several of the Board members said they had heard McPheters talk and he was wonderful.

Will Stasi said he wanted an in-person only meeting so there will be no Zoom component.

There was much discussion of possible venues and why they would and would not work. There was a question supplying transportation to the meeting and in the end the committee left with much to think about and one hard decision which is better than no decisions.