November 21, 2012 Wednesday Morning Meeting News

We grew from  342 to 400 residents 

in the park this week.  Welcome home 

Winter Ranch residents!

 Wednesday Morning Meeting Crowd

• The Winter Ranch Wrangler is out in e-mail and hard copies are available in the Small Hall.  Thanks much to Donna Husley, the Wrangler Editor. 

•  Cathy presented H B Husley, our Veterans' Advocate, was presented with a small token of her and Larry's appreciation for his efforts on behalf of our veterans.   

• Vicki Miller presented Macel Groth with a certificate for making a hole in one on Hole 9.  Lynn then thanked Vicki, Betty, Rose and Jodi who volunteer at the golf course and keep everything running smoothly.

 Important Info From Park Management:

•  The office has been getting lots of requests for website and blog addresses.  There is a green card in your Welcome packets that has this information on it.  Also, directions for using the Activities Blog are available in the Small Hall.

• Please start parking on your own sites as the park is starting to fill up and someone coming in should not have to wait for anyone to move a vehicle.  

•  It is time for those that have golf carts to start using the designated golf cart parking to make more room for cars as our parking space is limited.

•  If you are planning on selling your mobile home, you need to list it first in the office.  The sale needs to be approved.  Management needs to be in the loop.  

•  If you are planning on doing any enhancements to your site including:  cement work, installing rock, planting trees or bushes, you need to check with Larry first.  Don't put yourself in the position where you need to remove what you just put in because you did not check! 

• We are finding cigarette butts on the golf course.  If you smoke, please take the cigarette butts with you and dispose of them properly.

•  The Video Room will be open starting this Friday.  Hours are  Wednesday right after the meeting until-11 and Monday and Friday from 10 to 11:30.

• The Picture Directories are in and if you purchased one last year, you can pick them up in the Activity Office.  There are also some pictures that were ordered last year in the Activity Office.

Event News: 

• Happy Thanksgiving tomorrow!  For all of you that will be celebrating in the Big Hall tomorrow, remember to  put the place back the way it is supposed to be and  appoint two people from your table to take out the trash from your tables.

• Park Garage Sales:  (Note that this is a change since the last meeting!)
•  In park Garage Sale on December 4th from 8 to Noon at your site.
• In-park Garage Sale on January (date pending) from 8 to Noon at your site,
• Garage Sale - Open to the Public on February 15 from 8 to Noon.  

• The Veterans Meeting normally meets the third Wednesday of the month after the park meeting, however, HB was called to duty today.  He did want to report that veterans need to apply for a new volunteer card before the end of the year.  They now have a bar code on them so the old ones need to be replaced.  He also thanked people for their support of the Veterans Brunch which was a great success.

• The Ladies Luncheon group is having a fund-raiser that will go through February.  They will be selling raffle tickets for a Garmin GPS.  Tickets are $1 and are available for sale after the Wednesday morning meetings. 

• Church Choir practice starts this Friday at 10:30 in Friendshp Hall.  New voices are welcome!

•  Symphonic Band Tickets for December 18th at 7 PM are available in the Business Office.  Cost of tickets is $5.  The bus will be available for the event.  There were five seats left at the time of the meeting.  To reserve a seat on the bus visit the Activity Office.

• You can sign up for tables for the New Year's Party now in the Activities Office and buy your tickets.  Admission to the New Year's Party will be $10 each.

• Barb DeGarmo is doing the Christmas Stockings Drive again this year.  For information see the postings that are in several locations in the office and Friendship Hall.  The items for the stockings are needed by Posada which is ahead of Christmas.  Barb will need the stocking stuffers by December 11th.

• The donations for the victims of Hurricane Sandy will be picked up on December 3rd.

Calendar Updates: 

• Breakfast will be French Toast this Saturday. Please sign up if you are planning on breakfast because we need at least 15 to sign up to start the grill.

• The first dance is November 23rd and Jealous Heart is playing.

• Round Dancing started on Tuesday, November 13th from 10 to Noon and will continue this coming Tuesday.  The cost is $9 per couple.  We will be dancing with Skip and Kay who lead Round Dancing at other Wilder Parks.

•  The Ice Cream Socials have started.  They are on Sunday at 5 PM.  The first Sunday of the month is Sundae Sunday.

•  The Monday night Park Potlucks begin on December 3rd.  5:00 PM in the Big Hall.  Just bring your own place settings and a dish to share.

•  Don DeKeyrel will be offering  AARP Safe Driving Classes on January 10th, February 7th and March 7th.  All classes are from 8 to Noon in the Big Hall. Cost is $12 for AARP members and $14 for non-members.  

• Bingo has started on Wednesday evenings and will be starting soon on Saturday.

• Dairy Queen Bingo starts up this Monday at the Dairy Queen on Business Hwy 83.  Time is from 6 to 7 PM.

Volunteers Needed:

•  See Lynn in the Activities Office is you would like to be the Chair for Winter Ranch at the Golden Age Olympics.  There are events for everything from tennis to bakeoffs.  Lynn would really like to see our park participate.   

•  Lynn would also like a Chair for the Christmas Eve Party that is held on December 24th in the afternoon.  This is a finger-food potluck.

• The Salvation Army has requested some bell ringers from the Ranch.  See Lynn if you would like to be a Coordinator of this event.  They need at least four people to pick a day and ring bells for two hours.  Lynn has all the information.  

•  JD said he noticed that several people had signed up to help with setting up tables and chairs.  He'll be calling on your shortly as the first craft sale is coming up.  He would like a group that would set up the craft sale four times a year.

• JD is still looking for a few people to be leads for the Friday night dances.   See Mary Benfield at Lot 501 if you are interested.  If you can count money, turn on the lights and aren't afraid of a microphone, then you are an ideal candidate!

• Lynn would like a Coordinator to lead a new Garden Club group that would assist in beautifying the public areas of the park.  They would also coordinate the adoption of park trees and find people to water them.  With the drought it is important to water the trees and if you are near a site that is not occupied, you could volunteer to keep that tree watered so we don't lose trees.  Merle Hinze gave us the idea as he has adopted 10 trees that he is watering.  Thank you, Merle!

Bus Trips & Tours:

• Bus Trips signup for a shopping trip to Mercedes, the Hidalgo Festival of Lights and a Mystery Trip will be after the Wednesday morning meeting next week.  The Mystery Trip has a cost of $3.50 and lunch is on your own.

• Our Tour Director, Gail Field,  has several Bus Trips listed on her Bulletin Board in Friendship Hall along with her business cards.  Let her know if you are interested in any of them.  Since there are many trips available, she has posted a booklet of the tours on her bulletin board.

 The 50/50 for today was $41 and was for the Billiards Group.  

Note from the Blog Administrator:  If you have pictures from any of the events or bus trips trips that you would like to share on the blog, you can send them to me and I'll post them on the blog.  Just send them to my e-mail at :  blogwinterranch@yahoo.com