We are already at the start of the second quarter of our Optimist year. If I give ourselves a little review I think we have done very well in some areas and only mediocre in some others. Our fund raising has been super thanks to the efforts of Anne and a whole host of helpers she has corralled. The program committee has provide great speakers and that has resulted in good attendance at Thurs. meetings. We have to show our club to potential members. To grow is to stay strong and that’s why our Optimist club has been around for 50 years.

As good as attendance on Thursday has been we still only average 40% of our membership. I would like to challenge the other 60% to come at least once a month and be involved in the meetings first hand.

All Optimists thrive on helping our youth in some way. What have you done this week to interact with youth outside of your own family? Interacting with each other will reinforce our commitment to serve the youth in this community. Our MOBI tournaments and Special Olympics are where we need everyone’s help in the near future.

Jan 22 – Emergency preparedness program, attack by biochemical agents, hospital did a simulation at the college recently

NEW MEMBERS!!

We have 6 new members to date. Floyd Harthun and Larry Park are tied with 2 new members each. Maureen Devine and Anne Fiscus each have one new member. Remember this is a great opportunity to help our youths. Ask a friend, co-worker, etc to be your guest. We Need New Members!!

BOARD MEETING NEWS

The board members met at Dib’s, Wednesday, noon, January 7^th. We meet the first Wednesday at noon, each month. Members are welcomed at our meetings. Anne Fiscus has scheduled the take down of the lights for January 10^th and 17^th. The new Optimist club in Grinnell has 13 members. They need 25 members to Charter a new club. If you know someone in Grinnell you think would be a great Optimist, please let Ken Walton know. The DeLIGHTful party will be at Ken and Theresa Walton’s, January 31^st. With the new club in Grinnell, we are on track for being a ‘Distinguished’ club this year. But we still need new members. Next board meeting will be Wednesday, February 4^th, at Dib’s. Please come and find out more about our club.

Science Olympiad is an organization that has been set up to get middle school and high school students interested in various aspects of science. Teams consist of 15 students who compete in up to 23 events. For the past 5 years I have had the privilege of working with both Anson Middle School and Marshalltown High School as a coach for engineering events. The faculty representatives, Jody Meakins and Susan Fritzell, have done a great job in starting and growing the program. In the past couple of years we have been able to place second or third at state competition and we have our sites set on dethroning the reigning champions – Ames.

Many of the competition areas require us to build projects for the competition. For example, this year we are building water powered rockets, balsa wood bridges/towers, a Rube Goldberg type machine, robots to move billiard balls and pick up golf balls on top of film containers, rubber band powered airplanes, and a trebuchet to ‘storm the castle’ and other items. While we are able to re-cycle many of the machines and projects from the previous year, we always find ourselves looking for small DC motors, hinges, gears and pulleys. I am asking you to see if you might have an old electric screwdriver that no longer works (or other old battery powered hand tool) that has a motor and gears we can disassemble. Or – if you have an old erector set or powered Lego set, radio controlled cars, etc. that are collecting dust that you would be willing to donate to the students, they would gladly save you the hassle of selling them at the summer garage sale.

The Noon Optimist club will host the 11^th Annual Girls” Marshalltown Optimist Basketball Invitational on Saturday, Feb. 7 and Sunday, February 8.

A total of 37 teams have entered to date according to MOBI director Larry Park. The breakdown is as follows:
5^th – 4 teams, 6^th – 12 teams, 7^th – 9 teams, 8^th –12 teams

Larry Park said he hopes to add two more teams in the 5^th grade division but the other divisions are closed to additional entries.

“We really need every noon Optimist member to work at least two four-hour shifts,” Larry Park stated.

Brian Danielson is in charge of scheduling workers for MOBI. The workers schedule will be circulated at each week’s Thursday noon Optimist meeting and will be updated weekly on the Noon Optimist web site www.noonoptimist.org. Please contact Brian to volunteer to help at MOBI.

The boys MOBI will be March 6-7 and 15 teams have entered that tournament to date, according to Larry Park.

Thank you to club members who have given of their time to check the lights and our first day of take down. It appears that we will need some help from the trucks to finish up the take down. How did one day of take down get us so far along with the project?? At one time on Saturday the 10^th, we had 22 club members working on the project. Such great support!!!!! The plan is to finish up this Saturday the 17^th, if the trucks are available and there is not a blizzard. I'll be in touch with the membership looking for volunteers.

The new club in Grinnell has a strong core group. Though not formally chartered yet, they have 13 members signed up and are meeting weekly. The meeting place varies while they decide on a more permanent location. This week they are meeting at Pagliai's Pizza. They are planning a Valentine's Dance as a fundraiser and for publicity. We need to help this group reach 25 members so they can officially charter. Please contact Pete Peterson (petep@mtnia.com) or Ken Walton (ken.walton@emersonprocess.com) with any prospects you may know. Thanks! – Ken Walton