Category: Grand Knight Report

Another Lengthy Message
(from new Grand Knight) 

Yeah, I know, there’s a pattern starting to form here, but there’s also a lot going on.

I had a meeting with Fr. Jonathan about the upcoming year. He shed some light on the whole transition process and shared a few thoughts as well as appreciation for our presence. In particular, he most appreciates the work we do on Wednesday nights for the Religious Ed. dinner bell. The Fall Festival is coming fast and I’ll highlight our expected roll in the middle of this letter. We need all hands on deck. Also, Tom Silver and I met and I’ll finish with the direction we want to take these next two years.

 

There is an official hand-out from the Arch Diocese on how parishes handle a transition for new priests. Fr. Jonathan gave me a copy and I intend to have Jim Martin put it on our web site. Where ever it says “PASTOR”, Fr. Jonathan wants “Pastoral committee” inserted. Soon, he will open the door for HNOJ parishioners to join this new Pastoral committee that involves meeting with a panel of people appointed by the Arch Diocese to begin the selection process. He would like to see a broad representation of HNOJ’s finest. Many of us serve many different ministries and I urge as many as possible to sign up-the more the merrier. I specifically would like Ed Ayd, Jim Grube, Tom Silver and Mike Wagoner to be on that committee. The healthiest KC Councils in the state, have priests who are actively involved with their members and if we have choices in who becomes our next priest, it would be great if we could pick one that fits well with the KC’s. We’re at a critical stage in our growth and I don’t want to lose momentum with someone not familiar or at arms length with KC precepts.

 

Regardless of who becomes the next priest at HNOJ, we will support him and be what ever he needs us to be, even if it’s less than what we want. We must get behind him 100% and we must quell any kind of negative discussion or resentment within the parish or council if he is not as smart as Fr. Jonathan, as personable as Fr. Joe or as good a homilist as Fr. Arnold, and even if he doest have that much to do with the KC’s. He gave his entire being to God and His will and we will embrace him for that. Parishioners are naturally going to compare and it’s all counter productive. Many will ask us what we think of the new priest and I urge all to take the high road. Let’s not forget we have a solid school year left with Fr. Jonathan. He’s one of the most brilliant Canon Law Professors in the Arch Diocese and we should try to give him the best year he’s ever had as a priest. If any of you are having issues with church doctrine or precepts or prophecy, Fr. Jonathan can clear a lot of cob webs in a hurry. Need a spiritual tune-up? See Fr. Jon. He’s a home grown Minnesota boy and one of the most in-touch, “happening” priests around.

 

I asked Fr. Jonathan how we can serve him best, this year and he replied, “just keep doing what you’re doing”. He loves our breakfasts, he loves our involvement with the Fall Festival and most of all, he loves what we do on Wednesday nights. He credits the success of the program to us. In fairness to the six guys who put on the Wednesday night dinners, we could do even better if more of you would get involved. As many as 800 people get served, on the big nights. In my lengthy message #1, I referenced the need to do more, together, as families. I also mentioned the Women’s Auxiliary is struggling. Here’s an opportunity to involve your whole family with other KC families. If our wives knew each other better, they may be open to be more involved with those in the Women’s Auxiliary, later. Tom Silver is looking into some of the issues of the Women’s Auxiliary, more so, our lack of support and I’ll cover them in lengthy message #3, after we analyze the data.

 

Fr. Jonathan also suggested we socialized more often, and offered the HNOJ kitchen for our next dinner meeting. So here’s the official announcement:

 

WILD GAME/STEAK DINNER MEETING

THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 28^TH AT HNOJ

 

 If you don’t like venison, Bring your own steak, chicken, pork, or sea food to cook (Howie G’s style- yourself) on the official KC grill. The council will provide milk, beer, wine, baked potatoes, green beans, salad and desert.

RSVP!!!!-RSVP!!!!-RSVP!!!!-Marty Dehen

A 10$ or good will offering will be accepted at the meeting.

We will need a small staff of kitchen volunteers.

If you have “wild game”(elk, moose, caribou, etc.) to donate, contact Marty Dehen

 

I expect to hear from most of you on, during or before the Fall Festival and would love someone to step forward and handle the sign-up sheets for the meeting so we know how many baked potatoes, beans, beer etc. we need.

 

I had my first District Meeting with Eric Lloyd and the other 5 Grand Knights. The biggest concern from Supreme is memberships. More KC’s die each year than what get recruited. The attrition is alarming. October and April will both be official membership recruiting months. I don’t like loading up for one month. I like to see a constant effort to bring in new people. Everyone needs to dig deep and think of someone who would be a good KC. Next, you need to tell that person he would make a good KC and invite him to chat, informally, with me. Assure him there will be no high pressure to join and no high expectations to volunteer umpteen hours for stuff he’s not interested in. I will give him some interesting facts on the KC’s history and a few success stories and ask him to join.

(I will release his esophagus long enough to hear the words, “I will”) If you’re tired of being asked to volunteer too often, adding 30 new members would keep your volunteer hours in check. EVERYBODY! Think of one new guy.

 

’06 FALL FESTIVAL, GOLF, DINNER, DANCE -SEPTEMBER 16^TH AND 17TH

 

We’ve been asked to increase our efforts this, coming September, to expand the Fall Festival into a limited 2 day event. Brother Knight – Mike Wagoner and his wife Mary are the co-Chairs. Brothers Hegi, and Zylla will be running the kitchen and Brother Tim Cavenaugh and wife Cindy (Forester’s Meat’s) are in charge of all the food-both days. Hopefully all the usual suspects will be operating the turbo-charged KC tractor grill that Chuck Grubowski welded up for us. There are three big additions to the festival. On Saturday morning, perspective KC candidate-Jim Terry-(golf pro) will be kicking off the first annual HNOJ golf outing. It’s not a tournament. It’s a social nine at Baker National followed by a luncheon for participants. As it “gets legs,” it may turn into a future tournament next year. Later that afternoon, following 5:00 p.m. Mass, the KC’s will be cooking pork chops for the parish dinner. Besides the normal kitchen volunteers, brother Mike Kelly and I will be looking for volunteers to set-up, cook and clean-up so the grill can be used the following day. Following dinner, Don Prisby and his musical band will be throwing a dance for the parish. The main Fall Festival will still be right after 10:30 Mass on Sunday the 17^th. If you volunteer for any part of the festival, please wear your KC shirts and hats. If you need one, contact Don Carsten , he has several sizes available.

 

I know how difficult it is for everyone to add things to an already full calendar, so I keep alluding to the concept of “an event within an event”. I also stress the need for our wives to get the opportunity to meet each other and hopefully form bonds or comfort zones. Let’s make an effort to participate in the golf outing (if you golf) and to sit together as KC families at the various activities surrounding the Fall Festival and let’s remember to make proper introductions when we do. This is really important! As Membership Director I observe a lot of other councils. The one’s who socialize together, thrive and the one’s who don’t, struggle. In an effort to identify the various commonalities we have with one another, we are preparing and sending a survey out to everyone to fill out that identify activities we each participate in; hunting, fishing, golfing, bowling, card playing, etc. We will publish a list on the web site of common interests and make it easier to find a fourth for that foursome, next time you golf, or someone to fill the shoes of a late drop out on a Canadian fishing trip, maybe a sub for a card club or bowling league. You get the picture. If anything it’s a good reference for topics of discussion at coffee after church.

 

Deputy Grand Knight – Tom Silver and I have a few simple goals, this year; to have more fun, to be more organized, to be a large part of the parish transition and to grow. We also hope to identify future leaders and officers for our KC Council. Hopefully you will find yourself critical of what kind of jobs we’re all doing. In the book of Kings, God’s whisper is louder than the roar of fire, quake or wind. The whisper, in this case, comes to you so you can ask yourself what you would do different if you were Grand Knight or other officer. It forces you to determine what you think should be important. It slowly creates a subconscious visual of what you would be like in that office. We have a policy in my deer hunting camp that the person who complains about breakfast, cooks it the next day. That’s not what I’m suggesting for our council, but there isn’t any formal training on these offices, only guidelines. District Deputy, Eric Lloyd is very helpful and very available to guide and train as needed. In a busy, busy world, everyone can only do what they can or what their calendar allows. Next April, we will be nominating new officers. It’s time for some of you with solid leadership skills to step forward and work your way into the chain of command. It’s not that time consuming and usually starts with a guard or advocate or chancellor role. Many of you have wonderful gifts to share, so I ask that you “awake from your slumber” as the song goes and tell me you want a small roll in the future.

 

As I mentioned earlier, Tom will be doing some research on how we can be better partners with the Women’s Auxiliary. A full report will be coming soon. I’ve also asked Tom to add one small aspect to our meetings. Tom has spent many years serving on various Serra Club activities and has accumulated a vast number of moving stories of how men get called to the priesthood. Being one of our best joke tellers from a life time of marketing experience, I’m going to have Tom share one entertaining or moving story at each future meeting. A parish the size of HNOJ should have more vocations and we all need to pray about that and open our hearts to possibilities and needs. We’re supposed to be doing something like that at meetings through our lecturer, but we’ve never fully understood the importance of all the different offices in the council.

 

THE CHARTER MEMBERS OF THE GOOD SAMARITAN COUNCIL OFFER A SPECIAL THANKS AND RECOGNITION TO JERRY SISK FOR ALL HIS HARD WORK AS FINANCIAL SECRETARY. GOOD LUCK – GOD BLESS!

 

Jerry has been an integral part of the success of this council ever since the first day he joined. He served us well and will continue to be involved in council meetings, breakfasts and projects. Jerry Sisk has done a terrific job for the past few years and needs to take a sabbatical. He’s going through a late season career change and we’re all praying for his success. We’re currently talking to several candidates to take over as the new Financial Secretary. Please call me with input, suggestions or nominations. It’s the most important roll in the council. A good computer and skills to use it would be nice as several forms need to be filled out and sent to various KC State and Supreme departments each year. Form 100’s for new candidates and transferees all get processed by the F.S. A nominal salary and reimbursed expenses can be applied, based on our bank balance. See me for more details. We all wish Jerry all the best.

 

Let’s all look forward to a great year by having a strong showing at the September BBQ meeting as well as the Fall Festival.

 

 

God Bless and good luck,