LAST MEETING

The last Council Business Meeting was held in person and remotely on ZOOM June 10th after a dinner from Marco's Pizza. In July the Council met for a family BBQ at the home of Jay and Alice Benson in Shelburne, VT. The evening began with grace led by our Chaplain, Fr. Tim Naples. There was a presentation of the Council Knight of the Year (Ray Michaud) and Family of the Year (Ted and Kathy Barrett). The event was well attended and fellowship was shared in the breaking of the bread. We intend to make this a perpetual celebration each year.

TREASURER'S REPORT

At the Officer Meeting on August 5th it was reported that the checking account balance was $24,571.33. 

FINANCIAL SECRETARY REPORT

The WFS reported the Morgan Stanley investment account balance as of July 31st was $502,657.05. The semi-annual Audit is complete and our accounts are reconciled. We are still on track to fund our last two pre-investment budget years. The Budget Committee will meet soon to work out the details.  

BY-LAWS UPDATE

The By-laws are ready for council vote at the August Business Meeting. See Warnings. 

KEEP CHRIST IN CHRISTMAS

Worthy Warden, Jay Benson, has started mounting the posters, and has looked at both of the display sites at St Jude and OLMC.

SUPER BINGO COMMITTEE

Our next Super Bingo is scheduled for April 24th, 2022. Safe the date! We will need a lot of volunteers to make this fundraiser a success post-COVID. Help will be needed to plan this event, too. Stay tuned for the date/time when the Super Bingo Committee will begin meeting again.  

NEXT BUSINESS MEETING

Our next meeting is 12 August at 7 PM. This is an important meeting and we will need a quorum to conduct business. I urge you to attend in person, or on Zoom, to lend your voice and vote. Our guests will include the Worthy State Deputy and the State Membership Director. We will break bread at 6 PM.   

Meeting ID: 846 4758 2239

Passcode: 297697

https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kes6iw9kbo

ANCHOR AWARD

The Anchor Award is September 3rd, 2021 at 6 PM at the Delta Hotel in South Burlington, VT. Please join us to celebrate Life and the courageous efforts of our honoree, Fr. Timothy Naples, to provide ultrasounds to Mothers; a window through which they can see the precious human life they carry. The RSVP Form is available for you to fill out and submit with your check no later than 25 August. We need you meal choice! See attached.

 Knight of the Month

State Officer Installation

The annual State Officer Installation is on August 15. You can volunteer on our website, kofcvt.org. We need help with set-up, serving and clean-up. Colchester Lions will be helping us with cooking again. 

Age Well

Age Well, a non-profit service agency is in dire need of drivers to deliver Meals On Wheels. If you have the means, please volunteer to assist them with this vital corporeal work of mercy. Call them at (802) 865-0360 today.

Council 7525 LOGO Stone

Fr. Tim has designated a final resting place for our Council LOGO Stone. The site located in front of SJV needs to be cleared by DigSafe before we will need volunteers to dig the hole for the base. Then its' time for gravel, rebar and concrete. Finally we will need help setting the stone in place. This stone will provide a public sign of our permanent relationship with SJV as our home base. Stay tuned for a call to action.  

Saint John Vianney Signage Repairs

SJV will soon be contracting to have their lighted signage repaired in front of the Church. Our Council has already pledged monies towards the costs of these improvements in our Council Budget. 

CCD Program Support

The CCD Program at St. Jude and OLMC have asked the Knights to consider cooking breakfast and Pot-luck Dinners for the CCD program. Stay tuned for a call to action.  

Holy Hour

One of our Faith Programs is a quarterly Holy Hour. We have traditionally conducted a prayer service for our Priests in November and that should continue. To meet the requirements for the Holy Hour as specified by Supreme, we need to conduct the Holy Hour at least quarterly. The program would consist of exposition of the Blessed Sacrament with a Scriptural Rosary. (Scripture versus that inform each Hail Mary) One proposal is to do this monthly, rotating through the four Parishes that make up our Council. That gives everyone a home team advantage. This would be labor intensive as we as Knights would be responsible to lead the Rosary and recite the scriptures. Do you have a desire to volunteer for this ministry?

Once we gauge the level of support you will have an opportunity to respond to a call for action to cover a Holy Hour. 

PGK, PSD Don Sutton's Porch

Repairs last fall to worthy alumnus OSD, PGK Don Sutton's porch were left safe, but not aesthetically pleasing. More work was needed and Worthy Warden, Jay Benson, stepped "Into the Breach". Repairs are now complete and the final work is ready for inspection. Thank you Worthy Warden!

Collection for People with Intellectual Disabilities (AKA the Tootsie Roll Drive)

This important effort is making a Post-COVID comeback. This year we plan to focus on our four parishes so stay tuned for a call to action to volunteer to stay after a Mass to encourage parishioners to be generous.  Worthy Program Director Ted Barrett is leading on this program.

GI Party

Our new Officer Manager (WDGK and WFN) Dave Martin is planning to clean-up our office and get our displays up to date and in order. Fr. Tim is willing to give us more options about our displays for greater visibility to the public, too. Stand by for a call to action to volunteer to get down and get dirty. 

Knights for Life Rosary Campaign

Fr. Tim is challenging all of us to commit to saying 50 Rosaries between now and Christmas for the cause of life. You can also request some of the 250 rosaries donated to this cause. "we pray for a respect for all life from conception to natural death, we pray for the restoration of human dignity in the laws of the state of Vermont, and for the rebuilding of a culture of life all around us." Sign-up on our Website, or on Fr. Tim's blog, https://ubipetrusvt.com/knights4life/knights-for-life-rosary-campaign/

Saint John Vianney Parish Breakfasts

Our Chaplain, and Pastor of SJV, would like to have the Council offer breakfast regularly at SJV. This would entail set-up, cooking, serving and clean-up. This may involve our post-confirmation youth as well. Do you have a desire to serve in this capacity? Stand by for a call to action for a chance to volunteer. 

August Birthdays to Celebrate

Walden Rooney, Gerard Groleau, Ronald Morin, Vincent Frigo, Nicolas Jaramillo, David Bullock, Hyun Tae Kim, Sean Sullivan, James Bergan, Michael Williams, Joseph Myers, Ray Newman. 

Anniversaries

Joe and Jean Groleau celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary Saturday with family and friends. They both had birthdays to celebrate as well. Congratulations!

FOR THE GOOD OF THE ORDER

Please pray for the following members and friends who are ill or in distress and their families;

Norm Groleau (chemotherapy), George Stevens, James Reed, Richard Waite, Robert Morris, Richard Gravelin (recently suffered a bad fall), Gene Tofferi, Mike and Pam Audette, Joe Myers and Family, Jeffrey Claude Danis and family, Tom Westropp, Andrew Bolognani, PSD/PGK Don Sutton, Ray & Bev Newman, Ray Miller, Stuart Fath, David Bullock (chemotherapy), Tom Gravelin, Ben & Yvonne Gravelin, Harold Ponto, Wally Rooney, PGK Bob Audette, Bob Wilkens, Gerry Malavenda, Ed and Theresa Curtiss, all clergy and religious, victims and families of COVID-19, First Responders, and for new Members to join the Order.

Last Rites

We note the passing of our sister in Christ, Mrs. Yvonne Shover. Her funeral Mass was well attended and she was remembered by family and friends with warmth and humor.  

KNIGHT OF THE MONTH

Our Knight of the Month for July is PGK Jay Benson.

FAMILY OF THE MONTH

Our Family of the Month for July is the Alice and Jay Benson Family.  

WORTHY LECTURER

Our Worthy Lecturer, Bernie is planning to tell us about Saint Barnabas. He will sing for us Let there Be Peace On Earth. Many thanks to Bernie for all he has done. 

INTO THE BREACH

Please continue to experience this video series on your own. Find all 12 videos at  https://www.kofc.org/en/campaigns/into-the-breach.html

Knightcast

Sign up for the Supreme Monthly Series of webinars found at kofc.org/knightcast

Projects/My Tasks

New functionality has been added to our website to help manage council and assembly projects. I have been using this feature to set the five main KofC projects of Faith, Family, Community, Life and Other as described on the Annual Survey.  Members can add their own activities, time, and treasure to these to help keep track of good deeds through the year and improve your annual survey numbers.

I added two projects to help with website design and Service quest issues.

We are now using Project Manager to help with the Anchor Award for 2021 and it appears this is proving to be stress reliever for Mike Bullock and others.  Other projects can be added as needed.

If you add a new project, it is important that you add tasks in order log your activities.  Members are also required to share the load and responsibilities.

Social Media Features

In the last few weeks, I have been working on the social networking features for the website and connecting to Facebook.  We now have a Facebook page and presence, but we are not doing any advertising yet.  This needs to be addressed.   I’m not happy with the front page. It’s a WIP. You can view it at https://www.facebook.com/sbknights7525.

Along with this linking I found a plugin that will take our Events and send them over to our Facebook page’s timeline.  It’s not automated, and you must select the event and intend to send it.  Cost is extra to automate.

If you wish to expand your profiles to include which social media platforms you support, you can now update your profiles to add the social links in the appropriate fields.  Ultimate Member only supports the basics like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Google+ and LinkedIn.  These links get added to your profile when members view you from the Members page and Profile Page.  Messenger is not one of the options yet.

And the best is saved for last.  There is now an on-line chat feature that shows up in the lower right-hand corner of your screen.  This is like the “who is online” feature in the upper left corner of the Members page  but you can now chat with who is online.  Data is not stored, and chat is private only to our site and members.

All these advances have been free.

Login and enjoy, don’t be afraid.  It’s a tool for us.

God Bless,

rick