Both of the older boys are playing winter basketball, and the middle son Ross age 6 is also partaking of tennis where he has a very nice stroke and holds promise. In basketball they have an insatiable appetite for shooting and after the last game when Jack (age 9) threw up a fusillade of airballs I asked him his philosophy about passing. “Well, Dad” he sighed, “the way I look at it is if I pass it I may not get it back.”

And little 6-month Henry is full of smiles and laughs a lot. He has the cutest little hands.

On to the club… We had a solid, although not spectacular return of membership renewals this year. We had 119 members renew out of a mailing of 175 for a renewal rate of 68%. Last year our renewal rate set a record of 86% re-upping. From what I can glean much of the decline is due to new members “trying” the club out for a year and not being Indian cent enthusiasts moving on in their interests. In addition we also find a few members who accidentally let their membership lapse and re-sign when they find out. Finally the economy is weak and disposable incomes are being looked at with added emphasis on trimming budgets.

Which means we must strive to make the quality of the Ledger even better. As a result I decided to benchmark ideas from members I have talked to or who responded on their renewal forms for fresh ideas to enhance the Ledger. While most comments were strongly positive of the Ledger other comments include regular features of human interest such as the feature on Don “Water” Haley… Articles such as Don’s make for enjoyable reading and if you know of anyone with an intriguing story, please feel free to write it up. If you need photography for an article you are working on, please contact Ken Hill. He has volunteered to do photography as long as they will be used for an article in the Ledger. He may be reached at: