Monday, August 1, 2011

Fun with Grandchildren


On the spur of the moment two of my grandchildren wanted to spend the night at Grandpa's and Grandma's house. We take these moments and act on them positively because the grandchildren are usually so busy. So, we said yes and dove right in!

We knew in the evening what would be fun - watching a movie. But what to do in the morning? And we had a deadline - Lexie needed to be home by 1:15 so that she could get to her play rehearsal.

Over breakfast, we prepared "a list of ideas of things to do today between now and 1:00 so Lexie can get to her acting on time because that is important"! We came up with a list of six activities, none of which worked out because it was Monday morning and the favorite activities were not open until noon.

What to do?

We live in a gated community close to a walking path which is close to the San Francisco Bay and the Richmond Boat Harbor. I thought of a "photo scavenger hunt". I saw this idea on Facebook when doing research on the other activities.

Sophia came up with our Scavenger Hunt List:
-3 seagulls
-a person walking their dog
-2 kids playing outside
-an old man
-a boat
-the colors of the rainbow
-something floating in the water
-4 different types of flowers
-a bike
-someone running

What do you think? See the pictures I took here.

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Obituary - Democracy

In 1887 Alexander Tyler, a Scottish history professor at the University of Edinborough, had this to say about the fall of the Athenian Republic some 2,000 years prior:

"A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse over loose fiscal policy, (which is) always followed by a dictatorship."

"The average age of the world's greatest civilizations from the beginning of history, has been about 200 years. During those 200 years, these nations always progressed through the following sequence:

From bondage to spiritual faith;
From spiritual faith to great courage;
From courage to liberty;
From liberty to abundance;
From abundance to complacency;
From complacency to apathy;
From apathy to dependence;
From dependence back into bondage."

The Obituary follows:

Born 1776, Died 2012
It doesn't hurt to read this several times.

Professor Joseph Olson of Hamline University School of Law in St. Paul , Minnesota , points out some interesting facts concerning the last Presidential election:

Number of States won by: Obama: 19 McCain: 29
Square miles of land won by: Obama: 580,000 McCain: 2,427,000
Population of counties won by: Obama: 127 million McCain: 143 million
Murder rate per 100,000 residents in counties won by: Obama: 13.2
McCain: 2.1

Professor Olson adds: "In aggregate, the map of the territory McCain won was
mostly the land owned by the taxpaying citizens of the country.

Obama territory mostly encompassed those citizens living in low income
tenements and living off various forms of government welfare..."

Olson believes the United States is now somewhere between the
"complacency and apathy" phase of Professor Tyler's definition of democracy,
with some forty percent of the nation's population already having reached
the "governmental dependency" phase.

If Congress grants amnesty and citizenship to twenty million criminal
invaders called illegal's - and they vote - then we can say goodbye to the
USA in fewer than five years.

If you are in favor of this, then by all means, delete this message.

If you are not, then pass this along to help everyone realize just how much is at stake, knowing that apathy is the greatest danger to our freedom..

This is truly scary! Of course we are not a democracy, we are a Constitutional Republic . Someone should point this out to Obama. Of course we know he and too many others pay little attention to The Constitution.
There couldn't be more at stake than on Nov 2012.

Saturday, July 2, 2011

2011 Continental Congress - Saturday

As the 120th Continental Congress comes to a close, my feet are tired, my brain is fried and I'm ready to return home. Among many bright spots this week has been the incredible Washington D.C. weather. Usually this time of year will bring high temperatures and high humidity. We have been spared the latter while enjoying the former - almost feels like home (California).

No more stats! By this time DAR members have learned the value of belonging to a service organization. We are proud of our heritage and we seek to identify and recognize significant contributions in patriotism, conservation, the bright youth of America, veterans, volunteers and the list goes on.

This post will round out the week in Washington and the Continental Congress with just a few quotes:

Crossnore School is "a place for miracles...a Christian sanctuary helping kids rise above their circumstances".

Tamassee School recognizes DAR as "the head cheerleaders".

DAR is a "small tight knit group of people on a mission".

"it is generally believed that we build on those who go before us".

I have learned a great deal this week, spent way too much money and am now energized to begin the work of the chapter (Anne Loucks) for the coming year. Time to get ready for the trip home.

2011 Continental Congress - Friday

The NSDAR Master Questionnaire is filled in by every chapter; it is the mechanism that provides reporting information for all the National Chairman at Continental Congress.

My DAR chapter, Anne Loucks submitted the master questionnaire and won several recognitions at the state (of California) level. The statistics reported here are from reports of the National Chairman - stats that I thought would be of interest to readers of the Bits n' Bytes.

(cont'd from Thursday)
15. There were 1,306 American Indian minutes read at chapter meetings.
16. Bacone College received 23,268 soup labels.
17. Chemawa Indian School received $32,091 from NSDAR for Christmas gifts.
18. Twenty DAR Medals of Honor were awarded (list will be in the proceedings from Continental Congress).
19. Ninety eight percent of chapters prepared Chapter Achievement Reports. Fifty eight percent were Level 1, thirty three percent were Level 2 and four percent were Level 3. Thirty seven chapters reported over 1,000 points.
20. Three hundred forty four Community Service certificates were presented.
21. A relamping project at DAR headquarters cost $63,000 with a 16 month payback. The project was recommended by the Conservation Committee.
22. An announcement at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway of Constitution Day on September 17, 2010 was heard by over 1,000,000 people.
23. The 225th anniversary of signing the Constitution is September 17, 2012.
24. The American Spirit magazine (an award winning publication) has a circulation of 43, 271.
25. Scholarships awarded by chapters & states totaled $716,000.
26. DAR daughters traveled 955,703 miles in service to Veterans. $1,444,389 (cash and in kind) donations from DAR daughters to Veterans.
27. Over 29,000 flag certificates were presented for proper display of the American flag.
28. NSDAR has a net gain of 1,068 members - we're growing!
29. Wikipedia entry for NSDAR will be revised to reflect "Today's DAR" instead of our past history.
30. Out of 169,800 members 97,000 have email addresses.
31. More than 620 DAR members chose to volunteer at Continental Congress.
32. DAR Project Patriot Committee celebrated their 10th anniversary.
33. DAR members on the Speakers Staff traveled 160,000 miles to present DAR programs.
34. New "years of service (10, 20, 30)" pins will be available for sale; one can be worn on the ribbon.
35. There is an "internet monitoring" committee always on the lookout for DAR insignia (pins).

Whew!! DAR members are busy contributing and serving in many, many ways. The list will continue in Saturday's post.

Thursday, June 30, 2011

2011 Continental Congress - Thursday



Have you ever seen what happens when the President General enters DAR Constitution Hall?

Tonight's post is all about statistics! Most of the business session today was reporting from the Executive Officers, Administrative and Standing Committees and reports from State Regents.

In all the reports, here are the stats that I noted:

1. Membership is now 169,800 - goal is 170,000 by the end of the year.
2. Membership dues only covers 30% of NSDAR expenses.
3. There are now 2,763 chapters - newest Overseas Unit is in Moscow.
4. 11,200 applications were processed - 10,827 were approved.
5. 5,430 supplementals were approved - now takes about five months to process.
6. 99% of record copies are done online.
7. New Roberts Rules of Order (11th edition) will be available in Sept. 2011.
8. Forty-four special project grants were approved for a total of $209,600.
9. President General's project has raised $462,320.
10. Donations through Heritage Club, Annual Giving Circle, Founders club account for 26% of revenue.
11. Oldest DAR member was 112 in September 2010 (she'll turn 113 this year).
12. California has 9,043 members.
13. New DAR Handbook will be available in October 2011.
14. Founders Club has 473 members - 74 new since last year.

NSDAR Outstanding Junior was announced: Susan Margaret H. Wood from Michigan; runner-up was Julie Ann Bird Tiska from New York.

2011 Continental Congress - Wednesday

What a jam-packed day at DAR headquarters! First, no complaints about the bus ride in-arrived on time and stopped for me. Catching the early bus allowed me to arrive in plenty of time for the 8:00 a.m. Chapter Achievement forum.

Ladies, the form has been changed for 2012 reporting! One of the best changes is to allow electronic entry-what a pain it was this year to gather all the signatures needed. Sorry if I'm so eager to do things electronically-must be because of working with computers for nearly 50 years.

Next on the agenda was the Heritage Club breakfast. As a member of the club, members can attend a breakfast or a lunch depending on level of donation. The food is good and there is an opportunity to make new friends from all over the country.

Following the breakfast, I wanted to view the Commemorative events posters to see the winning entry and the State winners. This year the posters commemorated 9/11. We have some talented ladies in the DAR! Next year the poster contest will commemorate the War of 1812.


Networking was next - the vendors had been open for a while and needed my attention. I was blown away by the Miss Virginia Mary Cabell Junior Doll. She comes with thirty outfits with twenty-nine of them made by one DAR member (she won in the American Heritage Fiber Arts division nationally for this effort). I bought some tickets-the doll would be great fun for me and my grand daughters!

The afternoon session was hearing from the Registrar General about applications and Is That Service Right? I'll share the handout with my Lineage Research and Supplemental team upon my return.

I took time out from the busy day to have a relaxing dinner with Marston before Opening Night festivities. We went to the Jockey Club in the Fairfax Hotel. Food and service were top-notch.

Opening night was fantastic! Did you watch Congress Online? If not, you missed an awesome tribute to 9/11. It "kicked off" a year-long commemoration of the events at each location on September 11, 2001. We were convinced to visit the Pentagon Memorial on Sunday morning before we head home.

Well - it's off to the first Business session!

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

2011 Continental Congress - Tuesday

This day did not start at all well! The plan was to take the N3 bus but the driver did not stop! After chasing the bus and catching up to him, he would not open the door! Suffice it to say that I filed a formal complaint with the Metro.

The mishap with the bus meant a trip by the subway and then on to another bus to get to DAR headquarters. I was 40 minutes late for the Library orientation session slated for 9:00. I wanted to be in the session with other members of my chapter-we had exchanged schedules in advance so I knew that they would be there. Had I been able to get there, my readers would have the latest information about the DAR Library and what is available online - however that information will have to come from Sue, Sally or Judy!

There was more time today in the Library and then lunch over at the Department of Interior cafeteria - a new place for me. Food was good, reasonably priced, and the cafeteria is huge affording space for a number of DAR members to have lunch.

Two other events were scheduled for today: the VIS (Volunteer Information Specialists) Committee meeting and the California Tea. The VIS meeting consisted of questions to the chairman - a bit different format than in prior years.

Anne Loucks chapter 1st Vice Regent Sue Busenius, 2nd Vice Regent Judy Onopchenko and I went through the receiving line at the same time-just like it was planned so that we could get a picture with California State Regent Karon Jarrard. As the "kick-off" event, it was wonderful. There was good food including a chocolate fountain and an opportunity to network with other California daughters.