FROM THE PRESIDENT:
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
I am so proud and honored to be chosen to be your President, at least on an interim basis. This position was created when our now Immediate Past President was elected as our State Trustee for District VIII, a position that we know he will do a great job at. I'd like to take this opportunity to use this means of communication to let those of you who were unable to be at our August 14th General Assembly know what was said. At that meeting I talked about some of my visions and goals for our great lodge.
When I accepted this position, I did so with the assured feeling that I would have the support of Joe Berta and the rest of the Board but most importantly the general membership. I feel very strongly that our Lodge belongs to you, not the President and your support comes in different ways. Times have changed, people have many things to do with work, with their families, and friends. Yes we want all who can to attend as many of our meetings and functions as possible - but on the realistic side we need to assure you that our meetings are interesting and worthwhile as are our social and fundraising functions. I have a great deal of respect for time, and while encouraging all to participate in organizing events, I also feel strongly that by paying your annual dues you are giving us the financial support for our activities, just as those who are more actively participating. Come when you can, bring along family and friends. It all adds up to keeping our Upstate Lodge a strong and exemplary one, and of course financially sound.
This all brings me to MEMBERSHIP. I hope that I've set an example for all on how important membership is to an organization you really care about. Mary Ricci reminds me (often) about how she recruited me several years ago (and I'm sure several others of you). Quite honestly I had not heard about our SOI until that day even though I came to Rochester in 1971. Once I joined and went to several meetings I realized I wanted to be an active part of it. I've seen many members come and go - not always aware of the reasoning. With family being such an important part of our heritage, I asked Nancy, Jennifer and Marisa to join, knowing all along each would participate to whatever extent their lives would allow I think they've proven there value to our Lodge. I don't expect everyone to bring in their whole family, but I do hope you all will understand that the future of the Lodge will be dependent on their generation and how they perceive their own heritage.
One thing that came out of our participation in the State Conventions was that the emphasis is on our membership recruitment. I'm not one to push people to bring in new members by having a function for that purpose only. I believe that if we have a strong positive feeling about our own Lodge, we will promote it any chance we get. To that end Mary has brought us a few new members -we welcome you - and we will have about 8-10 eligible inductees for the October meeting and yes I'm proud to be their sponsor.
I hope to re-establish our relationship with the other Italian American organizations in the Community. I know there's much history there, but when I see how many of our current members are also members of other clubs, and how we all have similar problems as well as positives, we need to put some of this history behind and find ways to re-unify our Italian American Community and hopefully get our younger folks more interested in their heritage and participation.
In regards to our HERITAGE and CULTURE, I know we have several members in our Lodge who have talents that we haven't yet fully encouraged them to use. As many of you know Sister Nancy is deeply involved in genealogy and is willing to share her knowledge and show you how to develop your family tree. She volunteers at the Family History Center on Westfall Rd in Brighton and is willing to help you on an individual basis. Brothers Ed and Frank have done quite a bit of writing on Italian history and other literary books and I know that they are willing to talk to any group that is willing to listen. One of our new members has an interest in genealogy and has some interesting things he can share with us. As an aside, we can have others come in to share their knowledge and expertise on various subjects of interest.
I believe that our main goal for fund raising (other than to keep us solvent) is our SCHOLARSHIP program. Brother Joe Berta has agreed to continue to Chair this very important Committee. The money that has been donated by our 2 benefactors is "drying up" and we're not anticipating renewal of their support. I believe this is our most important function and our efforts at fund raising should be directed at assuring we have a minimum of 3 scholarships to give out each year. Some of our fund raising also goes to our annual donations that are directed to those CHARITIES chosen by the State and National OSIA. This is done at State Convention and our Board decides how much and to whom to give it.
I hope that we can separate our FUND RAISING EVENTS from our SOCIAL EVENTS. For the later we do not expect to make money nor lose too much. If we budget well we'll be able to enjoy ourselves and hopefully attract new members. Our FUNDRAISING efforts are currently the AD BOOK and our sales at the ITALIAN FESTA. We have made good money with these but can and will do better and I'm sure we'll find some other projects.
We will continue to support our BEREAVEMENT FUND Our Financial reports have indicated how successful that is and we will continue to be sure it is managed as well as it has been under Sister Susan's watchful and caring eye.
There are many other things I haven't mentioned that none the less as important as each one I have. As President I do not plan to Chair any committee but will be an active member of all that can use my help. I hope that a board member will co-chair each committee and find a general member he or she can work with as co chair. Family member or not, each committee will eventually have it's own budget to work with.
Again - my many thanks to all our members for honoring me with this position. I will serve you to the best of my ability. Although my theme song is “MY WAY” - it will be my way of being sure the interests and well being of our members and this Lodge are always a priority.
Fraternally,
Brother Joe Rubé
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