General meeting – June 6, 2019
Guest speakers for the Show-Me Cosmo general meeting on June 6 were from Special Olympics Missouri.
Carol Griffin, health-partnership manager, began her presentation to 42 Show-Me Club members and seven guests with a brief history of the organization, which provides a variety of services to anyone with an intellectual disability.
“Our mission is as follows,” Carol said. “We provide year-round sports training and athletic competition in a variety of Olympic-type sports for children and adults with intellectual disabilities, giving them continuing opportunities to develop physical fitness, demonstrate courage, experience joy, and participate in a sharing of gifts, skills and friendship with their families, other Special Olympics athletes, and the community.”
Carol said that in addition to its more familiar role as host of athletic events locally as well as regionally and nationally, Special Olympics also provides such health care services to its athletes as wellness screenings, eye and hearing exams and full dental services.
Special Olympics offers training in communications and computer skills. Classes help athletes gain more confidence and independence.
Carol then introduced athlete Shirlene of Columbia, who said that she had been a member of Special Olympics for 30 years, having joined at age 8.
“I’ve gotten to play bocce, soccer, golf, bowling, baseball and basketball,” Shirlene said. “And I’m learning how to take and edit videos. It’s really cool.”
Brian Neuner, chief development and marketing officer, has spent much of his career in communications, and he said he is excited to be a part of Special Olympics Missouri as recognition grows for its quality services to athletes.
“This is just my third week on the job,” Brian said. “In that time, we regained national funding from President Trump, and then we experienced a tornado that damaged our 1-year-old building and athletic facilities.”
Brian said that contributions to help repair the building and grounds are needed, and that Special Olympics Missouri is currently working out of other offices and will be back at the Jefferson City location in six months to a year.
Brian also shared some of his experience with Cosmopolitan International. “When I was a kid in Jefferson City, I played baseball on a team sponsored by Cosmo,” he said. “I know how community-minded and generous your members are.”
Club business:
Ready for Spaghetti
Dean Barry reported for event co-chairs Jan Barry of the Show-Me Cosmo club and Gary Lenzini of the Cosmo Breakfast Club that the annual Ready for Spaghetti dinner raised $4,236.00, and approximately $2,200 will go to each club.
Ronald McDonald House
John Kadlec said that he is working on a schedule for the next six months. For July, the meal will feature barbeque chicken. A date has not yet been set.
General meeting location
Julie McNeill and John Hubert reported that after researching several locations in which to hold the club’s monthly general meetings, they decided that the best place in terms of the size of room, available parking and price would be to remain at the Columbia Country Club. The price per meal will remain at $16.
Julie added that the agreement with the country club has been and will continue to be that Show-Me Cosmo will be charged a minimum of 30 meals each meeting. She said that there have been several months in which the number of member-paid meals was below the minimum, and the club had to pay the difference. She encouraged members to purchase meals if possible so that club funds that are used to purchase meals are instead used for the club’s charitable contributions.
2019-2020 budget
Bill Tetro presented the board-approved budget for 2019-2020.
For total revenue, the budget for 2018-2019 was $35,566.00 and the actual amount as of June 5, 2019, was $34,593.83. The budget for 2019-2020 will be slightly lower at $35,110.50 because of lower expected revenue from bingo concessions and fundraisers.
For total expenses, the budget for 2018-2019 was $34,995.00 and the actual amount as of June 5, 2019, was $35,094.21. The budget for 2019-2020 will be slightly lower at $34,900.00 because of lower expected expenses.
For total charitable contributions, the budget for 2018-2019 was $13,565.00 and the actual amount as of June 5, 2019, was 16,842.65. The budget for 2019-2020 will be $16,000 because of lower expected expenses offsetting the lower expected revenue.
“Essentially, the budget for next year will be close to the budget and actual amounts for this year,” Bill said.
Inaugural
Julie McNeill reminded club members that the inauguration of new club officers and board members will be held at the next general meeting, which is scheduled for
Thursday, July 11 instead of July 4 due to the holiday. This meeting will kick off another new year for the club, and Julie encouraged every member to plan on attending.
50/50 drawing
Membership Vice President Jeane Tetro collected $72 for the 50/50 drawing. The winner was Kim Shelmadine, who received $36. The club kept $36.
Adjournment
Julie McNeill adjourned the meeting at 9:09 p.m.