(Comments From Chapter President Hardison- 7/07)

 
President Claude Hardison and Past President Brian Webb went to the Elks Lodge to investigate the facilities and serving accommodations. They talked with Chip Caylor, who manages the food and room services. After asking a lot of questions and getting a positive response to most of our inquiries, they decided we should hold our next meeting at the Elks Lodge on the 2nd Thursday of July - (July 12, 2007).

 

Location: Elks Lodge BPOE

              235 2nd Street

              Downtown Cleveland

 

Directions: Ocoee Street south to 2nd Street and turn left. Where 2nd and 1st Street merge, turn left and the Elks Lodge  is immediately to the left. (By July 12th the City should have Ocoee St. repaved.)

 

Parking: There is ample parking on the side and back of the facility.

 

Meeting Room: There is no cost or rental fee for the meeting room. The meeting room is large with 3/4 carpeted and 1/3 hardwood (for dancing?) and it is finished extremely well.  It should accommodate approximately 80 persons at tables, more room is available if needed, as we would only use the carpeted section of the room for our needs now and close off the section with a hard wood floor - for now anyway.

 

     All the lighting is variable in case we want to have slide shows, overheads, movies, etc. In addition the room is private, as all (wood doors) can be shut for the meeting and on our meeting time (2nd Thursday, 6:30pm to 9:00pm +) there are no other meetings going on at that time, except the bar, which is down the hall a ways, and is open to Elk members when the facility is open, and as guest, open to those who would like to imbibe after the meeting. No smoking or alcohol drinks are allowed in our meeting room, except if we would request the bar facilities to be setup in the meeting room.

 

     Rooms will be set up for our meetings, including a podium for the speaker and a head table, also a microphone is available if needed.  Air conditioning seemed very adequate and can be controlled in the room. We get linen table cloths and napkins, silverware and china dishes - first class. All tables will be arranged so that no one has to turn around to see the speaker - just to the left or right or maybe just straight ahead - depending on the arrangement based on the number attending.

 

     We can not put up any permanent pictures on the walls - no nailing, pins, tape can be put on the wall papered walls, but items can be attached to the divider over head track - banner, etc. (can't hang pictures there for safety reasons).  Pictures should be put on an easel - but if we want to take down one of the pictures in the room and temporally hang one of ours, we can, but their picture must be re-hung after the meeting. Great news for our Sgt. at Arms - they have a storage closet available to store our banner, flags, stands, etc.

 

Meals: Meals will cost a flat rate of $10.00 per person (includes salad, meal, drink, desert, tax and tip). Buffet style - self serve and seconds if you want. For those who choose not to eat, a flat rate of $2.00 per person will be charged for drinks (coffee, tea and soda). According to Chip, there will be two entrees and 4 to 6 vegetables, a salad, at least one to two type of deserts and coffee, tea or soda for drinks.
 

     Our Treasurer will be responsible for collecting food service money at the door. (Here I suggest we have a sign in sheet so we can develop a number of those eating and not eating, for future meetings, and it would also give us an indication of members who might not be attending, so we can invite them to attend. We will pay for the food services after the meeting. There are two requirement for meals: (1) We (a designated Chapter Officer) to notify Chip Caylor at least one day before the meeting with an estimate of those eating and (2) we should have a minimum of 25 persons eating. (If less, we need to notify him several days in advance so food for a larger group isn't purchased. If less than 25, most likely we would have to pay for 25 persons minimum.

 

     Both Brian and I think this will be a good improvement over Ryan's Steakhouse, but just in case, for now, I booked us only for the July meeting as a trial. If it meets our expectations and members think this is a better facility, I will cancel out our booking with Ryan's Restaurant and book the remainder of the year with the Elks Lodge. There is one draw back in December - all Saturdays are already booked, but most likely there are Friday evenings still open if we choose to use the Lodge for our special December meeting.

 

 For July our Speaker, according to Roy Queen, will be our own Sgt. at Arms, Ron Raburn who will give a presentation on his Revolutionary War Ancestors.

 

     I welcome your feed back on this situation, but for now we are committed to holding our meeting at the Elks Lodge on July 12, 2007 at 6:30pm. Talk it up, make the contacts, invite a prospective member, and lets have another great meeting!