On behalf of the Commanders of District 12, 14 and 16 I invite members of District 14 to participate in The Bridge Meeting at the IHOP restaurant in Bourne, MA at 0900 on the 3rd of October, and the Council Meeting at White's of Westport at 1900 on the 4th of October, to plan for the next year, and to prepare ourselves for the fun of the Three District Conference on the first weekend in November 2, 3 and 4. The Conference will be held at the Waypoint Conference Center/Fairfield Inn and Suites in New Bedford, Massachusetts. A copy of the Conference Notice is included in this Mariner. New Bedford is a major destination as you well know. We will have cocktails on Friday evening, followed by dinner with the National Commander John Alter and his wife Judy.
On Saturday you will have the opportunity to experience putting on a survival suit and climbing into an emergency raft. This could prevent you from suffering the fate of Captain Ahab. You may hear from Jack Mason of Massachusetts and learn how unsafe it is to obsessively pursue some object on the water without keeping a look out for what is going on around you, e.g. putting your foot in a bight of anchor line as you drop anchor. On Saturday evening we will have an award ceremony for Herb Shulman for 50 Merit Marks.
At dinner we will hear from Fred Dodge with "Bert and I'. Last time I participated in reading aloud P/D/LtC Harvey Knight Peet’s writing about Millinocket we had to stop because three Masonic Lodge brothers split themselves laughing. Having three men split themselves laughing we then had three extra mouths to feed at Squantum. Harvey has passed on since, and I am still laughing. It took a long time for me to catch on to the jokes. One was about the American Native Indian Chief Many Hands. He was an early innovative electrician who put electric lights in an outhouse. He was called Many Hands because many hands make light work. The Chief won an award for being the first man to wire a head for a reservation.
Come to the meetings and conference so we can have a good time, learn something and celebrate the good that we have done for boating. Think about what we can do as we prepare for the Second Century of the United States Power Squadron which begins February 2013. We will be working to continue to promote and teach safety, enhance the public perception of the United States Power Squadrons, and enhance revenue by means to be presented during the conference. I look forward to seeing you.
D/C Denis E. Moonan,Jr., AP
Commander, District 14 |