Newsletters

It's Fantasy Baseball Camp month for Des Moines Sertoma!  This is the tenth year of our partnership with the Iowa Cubs to provide a baseball experience for hearing-impaired youth.  We still have a few spots open, so if you know of a child - boy or girl - who is hearing-impaired and would like to work with real pro ballplayers, send an email to Paulette Taylor at taylord53@aol.com or call her at 515-224-6408.

Drake Athletic Director Sandy Hatfield Clubb makes a return visit to the club July 1.  It's been a very quiet year for Drake athletics, so we have no idea what she'll want to discuss.

On July 8 we host Kent Zimmerman, president and CEO of the Wallace House Foundation.  It's a great opportunity to get to know more about an important national historical family with deep Iowa roots.

July 15 will feature a pet cause of the Des Moines Sertoma club.  Dagny Fidler, Vice-Principal of the Ruby Van Meter school, will talk about the latest news at this special and important institution.

Our annual Golf outing is slated for July 22 at the Lake Panorama National Golf Course.  If you don't want to golf, come for the fun and the food at the Noyce house!

Mark your calendar for our booth at the Iowa State Fair!  We will post the sign-up times for manning our club's state fair booth at dmsertoma.org.  Contact Bob Simons to learn more.

Club Reorganization

Joe Kristan and Craig Randall attended the Iowa District Regional Leadership Conference in Fort Dodge June 22.  International Director Tim Hazel explained why the national merger of the Sertoma International and Sertoma Foundation and the consequences for the clubs.  Key Points:

-Our local foundation and club must prepare and operate under a unified annual budget and prepare unified financial statements.

-We will have to file quarterly activity statements with the district, on pain of being dropped from the national group tax exemption.

-We will be able to continue our Fantasy Baseball skybox raffle, as long as we do it on a limited basis.

The district also needs leadership!  If you have served as a local leader, consider stepping up to district leadership.  Why let Ft. Dodge have all the fun?

What we've been up to

The Des Moines Sertoma Club installed its new officers at our annual dinner June 21.  Jeri Le Henry and Diana Van Vleet stepped up to be our new presidents at the Hyperion Field Club event.  Iowa District Governor Steve Brown discussed what's going on in Iowa Sertoma.  The food was great, and the Max Wellman Trio provided excellent entertainment.  Make your plans for next year!

We had some outstanding programs last month.  Don Wauters had a fascinating presentation on a world new to a lot of us - amateur auto racing - on June 3.   Our own Kip Peters and his son, Sebastian, had a great program about Sebastian's own passion for racing go-carts (75 miles per hour, 3 inches off the ground?  Amazing young man, that Sebastian!). 

Randyl Taber, a senior vice-president at A.G. Edwards, gave an outstanding explanation of the whys and wherefores of the recent increases in energy prices.  The answer is in the Far East.

Membership news

We had no member additions or losses in June.   That means you need to BRING A GUEST IN JULY!