Sharing Reports - Jan/Feb - 2017
in Nov---
Our Program was "Sharing our Hobbies", It was interesting to learn more about each other since we have many new members and our hobbies are very diverse.
Our social was spent in Germany and we did a tour of it and started our Christmas shopping.
Our service project was "Remembering our Military" and shared many ideas to do so and one of the best was thru the USO. We were also advised to be wary of some projects that are presented as military but are people trying to get our personal info or getting funding for their personal use or those that have high overhead with very little actually getting to military
Our VP has been very active with 3 visitors. It was reported 2 of our members were presented the Master ritual by their land chapter
Our Bio chair was also very busy updating our BIOS for our approximately 70 members chapter
Our Historian shared how we became the "Bubble Blowing, Confetti Tossing Sisters". Our chapter has a gathering every few years that is planned by one of our members that volunteers to do it. At one of our first gatherings they took small bottles of bubbles & blew bubbles for the sisters that could not attend and it has become a tradition. The confetti tossing came from a sister always filled her cards with confetti and many would open cards over a container & resend the confetti in their next card unless they forgot & it ended up all over the floor, LOL On a sadder note, one of our members Gail lost her daughter Bridget unexpectedly
in Dec---
Our Program was sharing a favorite Christmas picture and the memories of the picture
Our social was "Christmas Lights" and we drove around looking at all the beautiful Christmas lights
Our service project was a Medical Mission Group going to Haiti that is chaired by the sister of one of our members. The group as the name implies is made up of medical professions sharingtheir knowledge & supplies to children in Haiti.
VP again has been kept busy with new members, pledge rituals and will start pledge training soon.
Sandy, OLB
President Report We are very sorry to hear of the recent passing of Theral's husband. We are very pleased that Theral has returned from her leave of absence and welcome her back with plenty of OLD hugs. It has come to my attention that some members feel that our Standing Rules need to be looked at and see if there are any revisions that need to be made. There has only been 1 submission re our Standing Rules:
"Special sisters which we stopped doing a number of years ago, and they make no mention of Cyber council which we were not a part of at the time of the last review." Are there any other comments from the members? We will discuss this during old business at our next meeting.
Programs
Dec.
1. What do you usually have planned for Christmas Day? 2. Do you have a Christmas dinner at home, a friend's home, go out to dinner, or....? 3. What does your meal usually consist of? Service Elder Orphans Resources There's a couple of resources that I hope you will share on your website that offer support to these "elder orphans". First are these senior guides that you can find here http://www.seniorcare.com/ directory/tx/ These are guides for almost every city in the country that offer helpful elder resources and a breakdown of healthcare Second is the Elder Orphan Facebook page. from Karen.
Membership
We will continue to monitor the way in which our poll votes to mark our attendance are recorded on the Yahoo site. Please do take the time to record an apology if you are unable to attend a meeting. If you have a problem with recording your attendance on the poll please let Clare know. Socials
None Book Club
Dec./Jan book is 'Interference" by Amelie Antoine is a mystery thriller about the mysterious death of a wife and the interfering characters and circumstances that prevent an easy solution. Koffee Klatch
November KK - "Bounce forward - not back" With our theme for this BSP Year perhaps it could be useful to look at some motivational “slogans” that may help us to stay positive and move forward with a mindset that will allow us to “put our hearts into it”
What options do we have to move forward in the best possible way? Learn from the past and move on to the future Know who you are Know where you are going. (The answers to this set of questions will help to define what your goals are). Write a few sentences to describe where you want to be in 3 days, a week, a month, 6 months, a year from now. It is your decision, not your condition. Get frustrated, get angry and force yourself to make that change but you will need to define first some useful positive changes that may be helpful and actions required to make those changes:
1. Give yourself goals
2..Eat & drink right
3. Be there in the moment. Learn to optimize the very moment whether at play or at work.
4. Find your strengths not the negatives.
5. Stay relevant
6. Prioritize
7. List things and get them done.
8. Different problem, different thinking
9. Focus on causes not symptoms
10. Be consistent and persistent
11. Find the joy in your life and enjoy the journey in your life.
12. Reward yourself and others.
13. Love yourself. You are special and important in the lives of others.
14. Love what you do.
Would you like to share with us a story where the light bulbs flashed on bright and clear and helped you to be uplifted and have the courage to Bounce Forward or perhaps another motivational comment that you have found useful over the years. December KK- For the coming year what is the one positive from this year you would like to expand on?
OLD Website http://www.onlinedelta.weebly.com
Your Sister In OLD, Submitted by,Evelyn—Cyber Council Representative
Online Kappa had a great November social: we enjoyed a day at Houghton Lake in Michigan we also had some wonderful coney dogs it was a fantastic day! Our sister Brenda who lives in lower Michigan hosted our day. I am originally from Michigan so it brought back terrific memories for me. Our program was by our sister Coco who wrote about Monument Valley and the Navajo people; she has spent a great deal of time there talking with a special family who lives there. Coco has written a book about her trips, the pictures and story were fantastic! December we enjoyed learning about different cultures celebrating the holidays written by Peggy, again so interesting. We decorated some yummy cookies too. We heard about one another's celebrations and some health concerns. Sharing good and not so good times always happens within our group.
We will be having our January meeting this weekend and I look forward to our next adventure. Here's hoping January and 2017 is great for all our sisters.
Mary Online Kappa cyber council rep
Happy New Year to all from your sisters in Online Theta! We just finished our monthly meeting, and we were delighted to have our president, Cherie, back with us. We missed her gentle hand on the helm even though our vice-president Sharon did a wonderful job while Cherie was away. Sisters had a good discussion during the meeting about the visiting period for prospective members and we were delighted to hear the insights of one of our newest members, Skyler.
The chapter continues our Bubble Day every week on Wednesday. This is the day we set aside when all of our sisters go outside to blow bubbles. The bubbles represent our prayers for the needs of all our chapter sisters and their families. It’s quite lovely to see the bubbles raising upwards and carrying our prayers Heavenward. Recently, we especially prayed for Greg (the son of our sister Kat) and our sister Geri. Both are battling cancer. We also prayed for comfort for our sisters Jean (who lost her son) and Cherie (who lost her husband). We asked for safe travels for our sisters who were traveling for the holiday or who had family traveling to visit them, and we’ll be thinking this week of Cherie and asking for safe travels and good weather as she picks up her sister and niece to bring them to Bear’s memorial service that will be later in the month.
December is always a hectic month, but our Service Chair, Gay, reported sisters still managed 2,160 daily clicks to the various online charities we support. Our sister Arlene probably has the record as our Most Faithful Clicker as she managed to click on the charities every day even during her long stays in the hospital and nursing home. I suspect our Envoy Dan may have helped her with that much appreciated task. Over the almost 20 years that OLT has been clicking for charity, we’ve probably done hundreds of thousands of clicks which represents hundreds of meals for the hungry, cases of medicine and books for children, funding for mammograms for women who otherwise could not afford them and help for our veterans. All it takes is a couple clicks a day and they really add up.
On a fun note, some sisters participate in our year-long special sister exchange (much like the secret sister exchange in a land chapter), but at Christmas time, OLT also does a special 1-time, themed exchange. Over the years, we’ve exchanged ornaments, aprons, books, tea cups, candles, and many other items. This year, sisters participated in an exchange of Christmas Socks. It was a lot of fun to read descriptions of what sisters received, and everyone who participated also enjoyed the warm and whimsical socks to get them through those chilly December nights.
Our December book selection also had a Christmas theme. “The Carols of Christmas” was suggested by our sister Billie. It is a fascinating history of some favorite Christmas songs. OLT sisters enjoyed reading and discussing it. This month’s book selection, chosen by Sharon, will be "My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry" by Fredrik Backman. I haven’t gotten it yet, but it is supposed to be quite good.
Now that Arlene is back at home from the nursing home – hurrah!! -- and able to post more often, she tempted all our palates in December by posting daily cookie recipes for an unofficial monthly program. Oh my, I swear I gained 5 pounds just reading some of the delicious offerings. This month’s program is a fun one about New Year’s resolutions and everyone is enjoying it.
Sincerely, Marti O Online Theta