Potentate’s Notes Summer 2023

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Greetings Nobles,

Are you ready for summer like I am?? As you are reading this, we are probably having the Pote’s Party and if you are not here you have missed a great event. I want to thank those who showed up and made the event a great time. Lady Melissa and I personally want to give a HUGE THANK YOU to the committee for all their hard work. We have the Pote’s Parade coming up on Saturday, June 10, in Whitehouse at the Cherry Festival. We hope you will all come out and watch or participate in the parade, and then join us after the parade at the Progressive Fishing Association on Schadel Road in Whitehouse. I promise you it will be a time full of fun and fellowship with your fellow Shriners. We also will be kicking that weekend off with the Tabloid sales. Please pick them up at the Shrine for your clubs/units to disperse. While there, also pick up your plaques and stickers.

On Saturday, June 17, the Zenobia Clown golf outing will be at Birch Run Golf Club in North Baltimore. Please see the enclosed flyer to register with Steve Horton. On Saturday, June 24, we can enjoy golfing again with Dendarah Court at Hidden Hills Golf Course in Woodville. Please come out to support them as they sup­port our organization. June 30 to July 7, your Divan will be in Char­lotte for Imperial Session. At this session, we will be voting on per capita increase of dues that has failed the last two years, but I expect in the next year or so it will pass, so be aware that dues MAY be in­creasing. On the same note, I cannot express enough the need for membership, as we are bordering on the line of 1,000 members. If our member count is below 1,000 at the beginning of the year, we will lose a voting delegate at Imperial Session. The Divan is working very hard to prevent this, but we also need your help to get new members into our great organization.

In the Calendar Book on July 22 we had a scheduled Family Pic­nic Day, but are replacing it with the Mud Hens game event on Fri­day, July 21. Get your kids, grandkids and come enjoy a baseball game with the Shrine. Please see the enclosed flyer and register at our website for your tickets. Saturday, July 29, is the Potentate’s Youth Picnic, in which all are invited to learn more about the Rain­bow Girls and DeMolay.

In August, we will be having our annual fund-raiser for Shriners Children’s Hospital with the John Hoffman Memorial Golf Outing; please register your team with Robin Hoffman. Let’s make this a great event in memory of John to a great philanthropy. Patrol will also be having their Old Timers Steak Roast at Zenobia; please con­tact Bernie Welniak for more information. The National Tractor Pulls are in August, if you are interested in helping out with this event, please contact Illustrious Sir Tom Binder or Illustrious Sir Ty Stout for details. At the end of the month, we will visit the VFW in Port Clinton and collect pop tabs. We attend this event as they collect two, 55 gallon barrels of tabs to help support our hospitals. If you are interested in coming to this event, please contact Randy Sikorski.

We have plenty of events scheduled over the summer for you to enjoy and will be glad to see all of in our stated meeting in Sep­tember on the first Thursday of the month vs the second Thursday, as GLSA is the second Thursday. In regards to the kiosk sign at 795, we are in the process of getting quotes so we can present more de­tailed information to the Nobility. We have the Divan and some Past Potentates currently working on this project. On a last note, if there is anything that you think needs attention or needs to be done around Zenobia, please bring it to the attention of the trustees or Divan, as this is your Temple, not ours. Hope you and your family have a great summer and enjoy some or our activities that are planned.

Potentate’s Notes May 2023

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Greetings Nobles,

Hope you had a wonderful Easter! We FINALLY have our Sports­men’s Extravaganza tickets. Please stop by the office to get yours and/or to sell additional tickets. They are also available for purchase online at shrinesportsmen.com or by calling the office. Please re­member when selling tickets, to not sell to another brother, but to sell to your friends, family, neighbors, co-workers and colleagues. Unfortunately, we will be doing a virtual event this year and if you have any further questions, please reach out to me. This is still a HECK OF A DEAL for 101 prizes costing the individual only $20/ticket.

Our annual John Hoffman Memorial Golf Outing is scheduled for Saturday, August 5. Please get your teams together and registered with Robin Hoffman. Remember, this is a 2 p.m. shotgun start at Hidden Hills Golf Course in Woodville. This is a fund-raiser for our hospitals and we would like to show our support to them.

Mark your calendar for Saturday, June 3, as this will be the Po­tentate’s Party “Disco Ball at Studio 54” and the following weekend on June 10, we will have the Potentate’s Parade. The Potentate’s Parade will be in Whitehouse at the Cherry Festival, with an after­glow party following the parade. More details will be coming out soon regarding this, so keep your ears on alert. Bring your friends and family to these events as both will be a great time. In July, we will be having our Zenobia Mud Hens family event. Look for those details in the Hadji.

Nobles we are still looking for a bookkeeper to manage our fi­nancial books; this person does NOT need to be a Noble. If you know of someone, please contact me ASAP. If this person is a non-Noble, I will then need a Noble member to wear the fez and report the financials given by the bookkeeper at each stated meeting. Again, please contact me if you are interested in this.

I understand there may be some clubs/units looking to disband and not know what to do with their money. Our current sign at 795 is non-repairable and still operates off the very dated DOS system. Due to its outdated features, the only option is to replace it. Illus­trious Sir Tom Binder attempted to address this issue in 2018, but we were unable to do anything at that time. A new sign will cost over $10,000, for which we currently do not have the funds. The sign would be a great opportunity for advertising, membership building and fund-raising. It would be a great spot to use your club and units’ money wisely for the betterment of Zenobia.

Last, but not least, do not forget we have Ceremonial on Saturday, May 20. If you know of anyone interested, bring them to our events and let them get a feel for our great organization. Without member­ship, we will not exist and I believe Shriners is one of the greatest philanthropies.

Thank you for all that you do for Zenobia and until next month.

Potentate’s Notes April 2023

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Greetings Nobles,

It is that time of year again, when our annual dues must be col­lected from members who have not yet paid. Did you know that you can make installment payments to spread out the total cost over the year? You can make as many or as few payments over the year with­out any extra cost. All you need to do is call the office and make ar­rangements for this. As one gets older, you may question what you are getting out of your membership; remember, you only get what you put in to it. As an organization, we are looking to keep our members, as we are declining rapidly with the Black Camel. We are, of course, ALWAYS looking for new members to join and become more involved with our great organization. If you know of someone interested, talk to them and let them know what you enjoy about Ze­nobia!! While we are talking about membership, you do not have to wait until the Ceremonial to become a member. If you know of someone who is ready to join, please contact Steve Hessler, our membership chair, or any member of the Divan.
To all the Nobles and ladies who helped to make the 71st Zenobia Shrine Circus a success, a huge THANK YOU!! It was great to see all those involved helping from ushering, to selling ride tickets, cot­ton candy, novelties, scanning admittance tickets, distributing circus books and to the clowns for making the show a success. I also want to extend a personal Thank You to Illustrious Sir Dennis Gable, for his dedicated years as the circus chairman and for a job well done!

In other news, we had another successful and exciting meat fez­tival. If you were not able to make it, you missed a great event. Much fun was had racing to the tables for meat and enjoying camaraderie amongst each other. The following day was spent with family, as all gathered eggs that had been left behind by the Easter Bunny, as well as the teens participating in a Scavenger Hunt. Thank you to Kevin and Renee Ridgeway, for your hard work in organizing this event for our families. The Hillbillies also provided another great event to allow those cooks who wanted to showcase their favorite soup, with unstuffed pepper soup being the favorite choice this year; this is al­ways a great time of fellowship.

Please spread the word about upcoming events: Saturday, June 3, will be the Pote’s Party; Saturday, June 10, the Pote’s Parade in Whitehouse at the Cherry Festival, with hospitality afterwards; Sat­urday, June 17, the Clown’s Golf Outing; Saturday, June 24, Den­darah’s Golf Outing, and Saturday, August 5, John Hoffman Memorial Golf Outing. (I would love everyone to start forming your teams and send them to Robin as soon as possible.)
We are still looking for someone with a financial background who is interested in holding the position of treasurer for Zenobia.

As we continue to move forward with our monthly Wednesday luncheons, due to the great response of participation, we have some great speakers lined up in the upcoming months allowing us to get to know other Nobles and Masons. We also will be sponsoring cof­fees and donuts at the Maumee Chamber of Commerce on Monday, April 24, from 8 to 9 a.m.