FRIDAY, March 5, 2010 MEETING NOTES Volume 44, Issue 23

We had 23 Optimists & guests today. Mike Schmidt, a UW-P student from Illinois is our return guest. His father is the Il District Governor-elect. The Mystery Greeter was Maxine Lane who greeted Bob Stephens. John Dutcher, John Urness, Tom Nall, Hap Daus, Gary & Eileen Engelke, Steve & Maxine Lane and Charlie Clark wore their Optimist shirts today.

Today’s Speakers – Ron Weier & Charlie Clark – Census 2010

Our own Ron Weier and Charlie Clark spoke to us today about the 2010 Census and their roles.

Charlie gave us a Quiz. Question 1 was how much annual Federal Aid comes to communities for each person counted? Answer - $1500. Question 2 asked about access to Census data. The answer is that NO Federal or State agency may access an individual’s information for 72 years. Question 3 asked which year was the first Census. Answer – 1790. Question 4 was how many questions are on the normal form. Answer 10. Question 5 was - give an example of people who do not get the normal census form. Answer – anyone in a group living facility or the homeless.

Ron spoke about his experience. When he signed up, he was working out of the Chicago office. As the Census got closer, they split out into a Milwaukee and now a Madison office. He tries to get local people to be census workers, but there are some places where it is difficult.

Charlie signed up thinking he would just be a counter. Wrong! He helps recruit and train people. He will do some counting of group living facilities like fraternities, dorms, and elderly group homes. They have forms in all languages to explain who they are and ask for cooperation.

They spoke about the importance of filling out the card & mailing it back. It gives the US an accurate count for apportioning members of Congress and allocating funds. There are some con men who ask for banking information. The Census does not ask for that. Also, Census workers have ID badges.

The official Census day is April 1. Students should count Platteville as their residence if they sleep here that night – NOT where their parents live. We believe the students are under counted and we should make an effort to ask them to be counted.

Thanks for the wonderful speech!

 

This Friday - Oratorical Contest

UPCOMING EVENTS

March 13 - Tri-Star Basketball - Armory

UPCOMING SPEAKERS

March 19 – Karl Sandry – Fire Safety Program at SW Tech

March 26 – Cindy Callahan – State Forensics Competition


SWIS AWARD

Angela received a SWIS District award for sponsoring a new member.

FIRST FRIDAY DRAWING

Winners of the First Friday free breakfast from those present were Maxine Lane and Doug Martin. Winners from those NOT present were Joe Witmer and Tom Jonas.

MISCELLANEOUS

Oratorical Contest will be held during the March 12 meeting.

Milt Rewey has the Scholarship Committee ready to review the 44 applications. We select 4 candidates and the school selects the final 2 who will get the $500 scholarships.

There was a newspaper article that was passed around about Engineers Without Borders doing work in Ghana. Our own Dr. Sam Owusu-Ababio was pictured on a footbridge the student engineers did.

Angela spoke about a Scholastic Arts Program sponsored by TV channel 47. She asked us to nominate students. Winners will have performances on as TV commercials during American Idol.

JOKER DRAW

Steve Lane was the lucky one selected again. He drew the 5 of Diamonds and won $2. Good Luck to next week’s winner.

THANK YOU

We received a Thank You from the Senior Center for our $100 donation for the minibus.

TRI-STAR BASKETBALL

The District Tri-Star Basketball contest will be on March 20. Our Tri-Star Basketball competition will be on Saturday March 13, at the Armory, the week before the SWIS District competition.

BOARD MEETING

The next Board Meeting will be on Thursday, March 11th at 7 AM at Badger Brothers.





















Optimist International | SWIS District | Platteville, Wisconsin--Information



Please send comments, questions and suggestions about the web page to Howard Crofoot at crofooth@platteville.org

Last Modified: March 14, 2010