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LeTip Business Mixer 3/31

Today we had 5 absences – 4 excused, 1 absent.  Although we were a little light on attendance we voted in our newest member….  Congratulations German Flores of CREATIVE FLOORS & INTERIORS and Welcome!  We look forward to getting to know you and are very happy that you joined our group.

Keith did a great job showboating today…  thank you for the great “freedom” posters, I hope everyone was able to take one, they’re awesome!  And Jacqueline did a great job speaking today and educating us on the reverse mortgage process which has changed a lot over the years …  thank you for being so thorough and informative.

There are 4 members still in the running for free quarterly dues for next quarter, John Cranston, Jim Dimitriou, Evan Alicakos, and Joe Belbol …  if all 4 members are in attendance next week (our last meeting of the year) then they will each receive a $25.00 reduction on their quarterly dues, making their payment $75.00 each.

Please try to remember to bring in your quarterly dues to next week’s meeting, for the remaining members it is $100.00 made payable to LeTip of Rochelle Park.  You can also include any fines and any money due for the social if you wish in one check.

I passed out Novembers Minimum Tip Invoices at today’s meeting, if you were not in attendance I am putting it in the mail to you today, please bring payment to next week’s meeting…  one or two still owe from October, please see that they are paid immediately.

We are forgoing visitations for the month of January, The “target tippee” for December is still Evan Alicakos from Advanced Payroll and the Bounty is still on the Medical Profession….  NEXT month the bounty will be on a travel agent and/or a massage therapist  and Doc Ed will be the target tippee.

January 15th will be our social, 7 PM at the Bacarri Grill …  remember it is $10.00 for members and $35.00 for guests …  Please try your best to attend, it is going to be a fun evening, you must let us know, either way at least one week before… the event will take place in lieu of our morning meeting…

Next week Doc Ed is Speaking, Keith is Greeting and David Friedman is Show Boating …  please remember to get their early and help set up.

The website is looking amazing…  thanks again John…  please note that starting next week, the weekly ramblings will be posted on the site and it will be your responsibility to go there and check them out if you are interested…

That’s all for today…  have a great weekend everyone and I look forward to seeing all of you next week!

Attendance was okay today with four absences ..  Please note, if you are going to be out, do not e-mail a board member the evening before, they will not get it in time, simply call their cell or a text message will be fine.  Cindy Bergen is on a leave of absence till next month, please keep Cindy and her family in your thoughts and prayers.

And some of the best news we’ve heard in awhile, we are officially being linked to LeTip Internationals website, with the only compromise being that we had to remove the start time from our chapter site.  AWESOME JOB MICHELLE, I for one know how hard you worked and fought for this on our  behalf and I’m sure I speak for all of us when I say thank you for always going so far above and beyond !!

Dominick received his top tipper badge from October…  better late than never, sorry Dominick !

Fun stuff…  our holiday party.  Jim is doing an outstanding job for us and it looks like we will be enjoying a nice night at the Baccari Grill …  for those of you who have not had the opportunity to dine there yet, you are in for  a treat.    We will enjoy an assortment of appetizers and have a choice of either a sushi or shrimp bar …  The cost is $10.00 for members and $35.00 for guests and there will be a cash bar.  Jim will get back to us with a selection of dates at our next meeting.  Our mixer is slotted for February, more details to follow !

Remember we have no meeting next week because of Thanksgiving so the next time we meet will be December 4, 2008.  On the 4th Doc Ed will be show boating, Jacqueline will be greeting & Robb will be speaking ..

We spent a good deal of time talking about recruitment for our chapter, more specifically using the Print Purl.  Mark, we cannot thank you enough for making this sophisticated resource available to us, I know we are all looking forward to receiving the sample and seeing it in action ….

Just a reminder, we are collecting $5.00 from each member for charity.  As a group we decided to adopt a child in DYFS for the holidays and  it seems that our generous group has decided that the giving should go all year round so there are some other special fundraisers to be planned for in the future…  I think it’s a great opportunity for us to give back to the community.  Also, we are collecting money for the flowers for Cindy Bergen’s dad, so if you haven’t done so already, please see me at our next meeting on the 4th .

Visitations I think went really well today …  I very happy that majority of the people were able to get them done and did such a thorough job with it…  keep up the good work and remember they are to help us, so let’s keep up the momentum.

Decembers Board meeting will be immediately following our regular meeting on the 4th, all board members please plan to attend and if any member wishes to address the board, please notify either Michelle or myself in writing so you can be put on the agenda.

And that’s all I have for today.  I wish everyone and their families a Happy Thanksgiving and I look forward to seeing you on the fourth …  Hopefully with two weeks to work on it, all of us can try to bring a guest with us when we return !?!?!?!?!?!?!

On a positive note our chapter welcomed back two of its members today.  John Carlson and Jacqueline Konen.  John is back from leave of absence and I’m sure I speak for everyone when I say we’re glad to hear that you’re mother-in-law is doing better and that the website…  well, IT ROCKS!!  Jacqueline Konen, our newest member just came back after her wedding & honeymoon…  Congratulations Jacqueline, we wish you and your husband all the best!

Robert Cassens was our show boater today and brought us in a lot of goodies, I know we all love the “show dough” plus there we pads ticket lanyards and a lot of other great items…  thanks Robb!!!

Michelle was speaker today and she did an excellent job on telling us about herself and Columbia Bank, which is known as the business bank of NJ and has been serving NJ for over 80 years, with it’s personal way of doing business.

Next Week Jackie Konen will be show boating, Robb Cassens will be greeting and we will not have speaker, but since we will be doing our visitation commercials it shouldn’t leave us with a large gap in our program for the day.  Speaking of visitations, lets step it up a bit from the last few months and really give them the attention they deserve.  Remember phone visitations are no longer allowed, only if it is an extreme case in which it would have to be run past Michelle first.

We had 4 absences today with 3 being excused, totaling 16 members in attendance out of 20.  We also had two guests join us today.  Ed Gaelick from PSI Consultants, LLC.  Thank you Evan for inviting him.  Although his business conflicts with David Friedman, our Prudential L/H/D Insurance agent, we will try to find an opening for him in another chapter.  German Flores, from Creative Floors & Interiors was our 2nd guest today, he specializes in the installation of wood floors, carpet, tiling, etc and could  be a great power partner for Tony Dolegowski & other members in our group.  Thank you David for inviting him to our meeting, we hope he revisits us again next week.

Mr. Mixer, a.k.a. Jim Dimitriou reported back on the Holiday Social which we are planning for sometime in January.  The overwhelming majority voted to increase member cost in order to expand our budget for the event.  Previously the board allocated $25.00 pp, with the only expense to  members being the $25.00 for  a spouse, significant other or guest.  The  new payment structure for the party will be $10.00 for members & $35.00 for guests.  This gives Jim a budget of $35.00 pp which will give us a lot more in return that evening.  Thank you Jim for all your efforts on this.  Also, we would like to extend our gratitude to you for volunteering the Raymond James office for our 1st Business Mixer,  Michelle will be visiting the office to make sure it is appropriate for the function and will report back to us next week.

Thank you Dominick for suggesting a charity that our Chapter can support for the holidays.  Those who wish can donate $10.00 (I have the envelope) and the money will go to buying holiday presents for a child in DYFS  who normally would not have any.  Depending on the funds raised we will be picking either one or two children.  If you are interested in contributing please see me next week.  I believe Columbia Bank has a holiday program which allows individuals and/or organizations to pick a child in the DYFS  system to support for the holidays, we will follow up with Michelle Next week.

Please remember, the target tippee this month is Evan from Advanced Payroll and the $25.00 bounty is on any medical profession.   Also, the calendar quarter is ½ way over…  and so far only  6 members are still in the running for the perfect attendance incentive … John Cranston, Bill Gahwyler, James Dimitriou, Evan Alicakos, Joseph Belbol & Karen Melon.  Keep up the good work!!

ALSO, because of outside influences this month, we did not hold FIVER DAY. Please note, we are going on record and saying that from now on FIVER DAY will be EVERY 2nd Thursday of EVERY month, if it is not announced at the meeting prior it will not be an excuse.  So the next FIVER DAY will be Thursday December 11th.   For those of you do not remember FIVER DAY – if you do not bring a guest, you put $5.00 in the basket, if you do bring a guest, you get to take $5.00 from the basket!   A quick way to remember:
1st Thursday we pick for visitations
2nd Thursday is FIVER DAY
3rd Thursday we report on our visitations

And that is all I have for today.  I hope everyone has an enjoyable weekend & I look forward to seeing all of you next week

Tips were on the light side with only 5….  Let’s work on improving those numbers for next week.

Remember, Thanksgiving Thursday – November 27, 2008 there will be no meeting.

Rochelleparkletip.com IS UP AND RUNNING.  I have attached a bio sheet.  Please fill out a blurb about yourself and send it to john Carlson, along with a picture to jcarlson@alchemylabsdigital.com.  The website looks awesome and everyone appreciates all your hard work John!  Thank you Mark for working with John, I think it is great that every member will be able to update and change our own personal bios!!!

Please note, there was some confusion regarding international’s website.  Rochelle Park is listed under Bergen County chapters, you can click on it for further details.  The time is TBD and a contact given is Mike Boyle.  The difference is there is no operable link to our website … as everyone knows we are working on this together.

Michelle McGivney was greeter today and Karen Melon from Bank of America was our speaker….  Thank you Karen, you did a great job!