Knights of Columbus From the Grand Knight

21-July-08
Brother Knights,

Despite the summer season, there is still plenty of activity going on. I have achieved one of my original goals: we will be posting announcements at St. Andrew’s on a regular basis. Look for the announcements on the bulletin boards inside each church entrance, and on the bulletin board in the church hall as well. You can also count on the website being kept up-to-date, as more people provide content to our webmaster. I plan to approach Fr. Cyril about posting notices at St. Mary’s as well.

I would like to personally welcome our newest member, Br. Bill Pilotte. Bill is a just-retired chemistry teacher. He and his wife Mary Ann are active in the St. Andrew Principal Choir. Welcome aboard!

The Council will be organizing coffee and donut receptions after each mass on Sunday, July 26th in honor of Deacon Buzz, who will be leaving St. Andrew’s this summer. Please contact Vin Marceno to volunteer to help setup or cleanup.

Our Installation of Officers ceremony will take place on Saturday, September 6th, at St. Mary’s after the 5:00pm mass. Fr. Cyril has invited us to have a reception in the St. Mary’s church hall after the ceremony. Clif Cooley has volunteered to organize the reception. The ceremony and reception will be open to friends and family. He and Sharon have requested the following:

Last names beginning with Please Bring

A to D Meat dish
E to K Appetizer
L to Q Dessert
R to Z Salad

Please contact Clif if you can volunteer to help at this event.

If anyone is interested in hosting a summer picnic, please contact me at (860) 537-5206, or by email at grand_knight@koccolchester.org (yes, our very own mailbox!).

We are in the process of securing dates for the tootsie roll drive. Right now, it looks like we’ll be selling on one of the first two weekends in October. Watch the announcements for more details as they are released.

Our next business meeting is scheduled for Thursday, Sept. 18th at the St. Andrew’s church hall meeting room. As the new Grand Knight, I’d love to see you there. Please plan to attend.

Your Brother in Christ,
Jeff Fiducia
Grand Knight
Francis Cardinal Spellman Council #6107
Knights of Columbus

Brother Knights,

My name is Jeff Fiducia, and I have been elected Grand Knight of Spellman Council 6107 for the 2008-2009 fraternal year. It is my hope to build on the fine tradition of my predecessors. I was asked to accept the Council’s nomination as Grand Knight after only a year and a half of membership in the Order, and only a month after attaining my second and third degrees. It seemed like a monumental challenge, but I looked out and saw the many officers and former officers standing in my support, and I knew that together we could shoulder the load.

However, we as your officers cannot do this alone. I call on the long-time members of the Council to offer their vast experience in the practices and procedures of running a good and proper organization. I call on the newer members to learn from, and build on, the lessons which have already been learned. And I call on all brothers to reach across the personal divisions which may have developed, and to understand that we are all working for the better of the Council, the Order, and society as a whole.

I wish to begin by extending a hand to all of the brothers who seem to have dropped out of regular participation in the activities of the Council. Toward that end, I plan to review the full membership list and ask the regularly-attending members to volunteer to call on these brothers, just to let them know that they are still important to us; and that their opinions and ideas matter to us whether or not they can attend monthly meetings. I will ask for someone to step up and act as an internal communications coordinator, actively exploring ways to ensure all members are informed of long term plans and of short term matters of urgent nature, whether or not those members have internet access. This role will include finding and maintaining prominent locations at St. Andrew’s and St. Mary’s where all can depend on finding the latest information about Council activities.

I will also ask for an external communications coordinator, whose role it will be to identify and document procedures for releasing Council news for publication in local newspapers, the Four County Catholic, and Columbia magazine. Both of these coordinators would be responsible for supplying information in electronic format to our webmaster so that our website becomes once again a source of current information for members and visitors alike.

Brothers, we have a group of men who have done some marvelous things of which Fr. McGivney would be proud, but oh how much more we could do if all of us knew what was going on in time to lend a hand!

Vivat Jesus !
Jeff Fiducia
Grand Knight
Francis Cardinal Spellman Council #6107
Knights of Columbus
Email: grand_knight@koccolchester.org

Brothers of Council 6107, Well…..., this is my last GK report. It has been great to be your Grand Knight for the last three years. During this time, our council has donated numerous service hours, has donated money to worthy charities, and has supported St Andrew and St Mary’s Parishes. Please support our new officers for 2007-2008 and remain active in our council.

During the month of May, our council will put on our Mother’s day breakfast and on May 20th, will serve a LifeTeen cookout for the Mothers of LifeTeen as well as the teens.

In June, the officers will meet plan for our end of year donations and we will have our annual cookout prior to the meeting on June 21.

During the summer, our council will be going to a ball game on August 3rd at Dodd Stadium. Please contact me if you would like tickets. The tickets are $10.00 and our council receives $5.00 per ticket sold. Please mark your calendar for this Friday night fireworks night vs. Erie Seawolves. Ask your family and friends to join us!

We will try to pack in some horseshoe games, card games, softball games, and a fishing trip into this summer. Let me know if you are interested in any of these activities.

Vivat Jesus !
Lou
Lou Musinski, Grand Knight
267-1233

Happy New Year! Hope you put some gas stabilizer in your snow blower back in November! Where is the snow? Some say Global Warming is causing this weather...I think some of the warming may be caused by the hard work and action taken by Council 6107 during the past few months! We just completed our Council free throw contest, thanks Peter McCarty for organizing this event! We have 5 winners moving on to the District Championship in East Hampton on Feb 10. After the free throw contest, we kept the floor burning with a little full court basketball game. Brothers McCarty, Bear, Delvalle, Marcino, Ryan & son Joe, Musinski & family picked up teams and had a great time! On January 27th, our council attended mass at Saint Mary’s. After mass, our District Deputy - Jim Ciaglo installed the officers for the 2006-2007 Fraternal year. After the installation, our council had a pot luck family dinner. If anyone is interested in placing an order for council Jackets, shirts, or hats, let me know. 3 members in the 1st degree will be moving to take their 2nd and 3rd degree on Feb 11 in Coventry. See you at the February Breakfast!

Vivat Jesus !
Lou
Lou Musinski, Grand Knight
267-1233

The Red Sox and Yankees had a few guys out on the DL for a time this year…sounds like council 6107! Those ball clubs think they had it tough…hey, they are only required to throw a ball around and try to win a game or two…our council had a greater obstacle trying to get some worthy donation checks signed and sent out! Our council had the Treasurer and Financial Secretary sidelined for a time on the DL this Fraternal year but we were still able to come in “first place” by sending out donations to: Cragin Memorial Library, Haitian Health Foundation, St Andrew’s Church, St. Mary’s Church, St. Andrew’s Youth Group, Holy Family Retreat House, Imaculata Retreat House, Connecticut Prison Ministry, Colchester Special Olympics, Windham Special Olympics, Colchester Unified Sports Team, and a Boy Scout Eagle Scout Project. As Grand Knight of this council, I am very proud of the entire council efforts in raising the contributions and supporting these worthy community causes! Great job everyone!!

This summer we had a great time on Thursday’s stopping by Mr. Jim Dowd’s for a game or two of Horseshoes & Set-Back! Thanks Jim for your hospitality! Our summer baseball game was scheduled for July 28th and 15 brothers and their families and friends were ready to sit down and watch a CT Defenders ballgame…well, we had some trouble getting in since the severe thunderstorm damaged the field and caused the game to be cancelled. But hey, the upside is that we were able swap out our tickets for another ballgame…and our council banked $428.00 in this fundraising effort!

The 2006-2007 Fraternal year will start out with a cookout on September 21 followed by a business meeting…hope to see you all there! Brothers, if you have not been to a meeting in a while, give me a call at 267-1233 and let me know if you would like a hamburg or a hot dog at the cookout on the 21st…all council 6107 brothers and those interested in joining our council are welcome to the cookout!

Vivat Jesus !
Lou
Lou Musinski, Grand Knight
267-1233

Brothers, May God's Easter blessing be with each of you and your families. Over the past few months we welcomed two new members into our council - Eric Cavar and Bob Soper - please introduce yourself to them at our next meeting. Eric and Bob both made their 2nd and 3rd degrees on April 23rd in Norwich. Several Brother Knights were there to cheer them on. Our council and the State KofC have many activities in April, May, and June...please contact me if you would like additional information on the activities offered at the local or State.

Our council will be selling tickets again this summer for a CT Defenders baseball game. Last year our council was able to raise $500.00 from this fundraiser. We all had a great time last year, let's do it again! We will discuss the dates of the games at the next meeting.

The council purchased 6 copies of Parish Priest - Biography of Fr. McGivney and will donate 1 copy to the Craigan Library and 5 copies to the St. Andrew Library. All 6 copies are currently "checked out" with brothers. Let me know if you are interested in reserving the book once the books are returned. We recently installed two new bookcases in the parish library. Please stop by the library and feel free to borrow a book! I hope to see you all at the next meeting...our council is as good as you are to our council!

Lou

Lou Musinski, Grand Knight

Happy New Year! 2005 was a year of challenges and rewards...In 2005, I am proud of how our council supported brothers and brothers families in times of need - that is what the Knights of Columbus is all about. Take a look at some of the activities our Council was involved in during 2005! St Mary's Parish fundraisers and assistance, support for the Klessick Family, assisting and supporting Brothers in times of sicknesses & need, youth programs, spiritual programs in prisons, St. Andrew Parish support, Boy Scouts, everyone! In 2006, we begin the year with Brothers battling sicknesses, Families struggling with the high cost of heating their homes, and other Brothers and Families who may need our support, please keep all Brothers and their families in your prayers.

This is a new year to be active in some of our activities! January 27th, 6:00 St. Andrew Church, all brothers and families are invited to a Ukrainian Catholic Mass. After mass our council's officers will be installed and then we will move to the hall for a pot luck dinner.

January 29th, our council will host our annual free throw contest in the Federated Church gym at 2:00. All 10-14 year old girls and boys are welcome to compete. Feb 19th & Mother's Day our council will host a breakfast in the hall. Please support our programs and bring your new ideas to the next meeting! In early December, I awarded two Eagle Scouts... Greg Dobek (son of Brother Gerry Dobek) and Vincent Lanzo certificates from the Knights of Columbus congratulating them on their achievement to the highest rank in Scouting.

Thanks for all you did in 2005, and may God bless You and Your Families in 2006!

Lou

Lou Musinski, Grand Knight

BYLAW Changes proposed

The Council has put into motion a plan to review the entire bylaws of Spellman Council 6107 and to make any changes necessary that have evolved over the last 20 years since the last major update to the bylaws were made. Headed up by Dan Leone, Deputy Grand Knight as the committee chairman, each committee member will have the opportunity to make changes that will be open for discussion and then published in the Hinge for the general membership to review prior to voting on these changes at a regularly held business meeting.

Some of the changes that we are looking into involve the starting time of our meetings as well as the frequency of the meetings. There will also be changes proposed involving the stewardship of the funds of the council and the deposition of monies into our general account. Much of the existing Bylaws will remain unchanged and will be incorporated into the new version. Our major concern as a committee is not how the bylaws affect us right now but how we can address the issues well into the future of our council. History tells us that in every organization there is change and we need to address these changes that have taken place over the 38 years since our council was chartered. As we prepare for our 40th anniversary, the bylaws committee is hard at work to present to you a new version that we hope will be ready during 2006. We want our council to be the very best it can be for another 40 years! If you have any specific concerns or would like to discuss making any changes, please don’t hesitate to contact the GK, Lou Musinski or DGK, Dan Leone. Remember, this is your council too. We need your support.