The Knight's Shield - July 2018 - New Grand Knight Mike Hartel

Brother Knights, thank you for your confidence in selecting me to be your Grand Knight. It will be an honor to serve and help lead our great council that has been shaped over the past 20 years by our officers, directors, chairmen and all Brother Knights who have and continue to support the spirit and principals of our order.

I would like to thank all outgoing officers and directors for their time, hard work and dedication they have given to this council. A special thanks to our outgoing Grand Knight, Art Krygowski and Membership Director, George Loewen. Do not be concerned that Art and George are retiring completely from our council officer and director ranks. Art was elected to Trustee and will also stay on as our Council Youth Director. George will remain as our Council Community Director.

Congratulations to all of our incoming officers and directors. I look forward to working with all of you in the coming fraternal year. I would especially like to welcome the following officers and directors to their new positions: Tom Gray, Deputy Grand Knight (Tom has been our Chancellor for the past two years); Steve Kargenian, Chancellor (Steve has been a trustee for 3 years and has recently volunteered to chair our pancake breakfast), Phil Mularski, Membership Director (Phil has been active with recent membership recruiting efforts by creating the pamphlets and articles such as ‘Why become a Knight?’ and the ‘24 Hour Knight’ while also leading the rosary for many of our fallen brothers); Frank Burda, Lecturer (Frank has been filling in for Jim Hubbard). Please support these brothers in their new roles and continue to support all our officers and directors! We are a very active and dynamic council. Thank you all for your time and effort you have given to this council!

Please welcome three new Brothers Knights to our Council: James Perreault, Anthony Radman and Steve Szypa. They completed their admission degree joining our council on June 25th.

You will find that proper communication is very high on my priority list for a well-organized council. Effectively communicating with our brother knights, parish staff, fellow parishioners and the general public is a key element to successful events, fundraisers and a smoothly well run council. To try and help improve communication and help streamline our monthly General Meeting, the monthly Officer Meeting is being renamed to Council Planning Meeting. All council members are welcome to this meeting. They are typically held on the fourth Thursday of the month. This is a good place to bring ideas for consideration to the council and to initially request support for a charity you are supporting. It is especially important for all Officers, Directors and Chairmen to try and attend these meetings.

I encourage the council, which is all of you, to get more active with the newsletter. Maybe you just read a good joke that would be appropriate for the Lighter Side of the newsletter. This newsletter is OUR council newsletter and not just an exercise or busy work for the Grand Knight and our editor. We have received many compliments on the quality of our newsletter. This is one of our main opportunities to communicate with not only our council members but with our families, fellow parishioners, other councils and the general public. All event chairmen, please take the time to send an article to our editor (Chris Gapczynski) for our monthly newsletter a month or two before your event. Be sure to check the latest newsletter for article deadlines.

I would like to thank Ted Czarny for spearheading the hard copy mailing of our newsletter the last few years. Also, Hank Leflere, Phil Kwasny, George Sakorafos and Ralph Pullis who help with the final prep work to mail the newsletters each month. FYI, through our effort to email the newsletter to as many council members as possible, instead of mail-ing a hard copy, we are saving the council over $1000 a year in postage and printing expenses! Thank you!

Now that summer is here, try to take some time and enjoy some of that beautiful God-given sunshine while we have a slightly slower pace in our council and plan to come back physically, mentally and spir-itually refreshed by the time September arrives when we know the pace will quicken.

Please remember our fallen brother Ken Dom-browski. Please keep Ken and his family in your prayers.

Vivat Jesus
Mike Hartel