January

January
Newsletter 2025

Outgoing Big Sir John Roberts

Thanks to all who made the Christmas party such a great event!! And thank you to all my fellow officers for your support and dedication these past two years. I’m looking forward to a great year with Gary leading the charge. I know you will give him your full support.

Gary Kohler Big Sir

From your 2024 VP/Little Sir and soon to be 2025 President/Big SIR, Gary Kohler:
Happy Holidays my brothers! Hope you are all enjoying the holiday season filled with Warmth, Joy, Love and FUN!

2024 was a great year thanks to all of you, and especially our fantastic Big Sir John Roberts! Thank you for your SIR-vice Sir!

Thanks also to the Board of Directors and Activity Chairman and many others who stepped up to help lead the chapter, including organizing special events like the Summer BBQ and the Holiday Party.
Thanks to all of you who routinely participate and help coordinate our events such as the Wine Group events, our popular and dynamic Golf Group, Beer, Poker, Bocce, Breakfast Club and Coffee Klatch as well as many others. The Chapter/Branch is only as strong as you, the members, as YOU make it all come to life!

January's luncheon will be dedicated to our Activity Chairs and Co-Chairs who will expand upon their activities and provide contact info and answer questions for new members looking to participate in existing events, existing members who want to re-energize their membership participation levels and anyone seeking to create new activities like Pickleball, hiking, biking, fishing, bowling or a second group (like a 2nd Poker group or golf for beginners, or duplicating activities on different days and/or different times than the existing group). We will let you know about how some other chapters handle these options and activities where we can join another chapter's existing activity until we have enough participants and leaders willing to create our own new activity.

Starting in January we will have a paper survey card (eventually an on-line option too) at our lunch meetings to get your take on the speaker, the lunch etc.
Additionally, we will be asking for your suggestions as to what you would like to see us do in 2025 to make our club an even more dynamic, enthusiastic, participative, energetic, re-invigorated and active organization.

Along these lines, we are looking for a Few Good Men to help us in a few areas.
Please step up and help us in these key areas to help us grow as a Chapter and have more fun doing it.

Some of the areas we will be looking for assistance are:

*Co-Chairs for all activities in order to facilitate vacations and/or illness of the activity Chair in any given month.
*We need an Assistant or Co-Chair for Membership liaison on the Board.
*We also want new members just joining us to help serve as greeters at our monthly lunch meetings, as this will help the process while simultaneously helping everyone meet the new member and give the new member a chance to put a name to a face of our membership. New members should plan on doing this at least once in their 3 months as a member or until we have too many new members trying to assist.

*We need a Asst. Treasurer/co-chair for the Treasurer function. Accounting or finance experience would be a plus to help us launch some new initiatives this year like being able to register for events on-line and on a Square-type device to be available at lunches and other events so that we do not have to always have cash and/or checks to pay for functions/events. This person would also assist our Audit Committee.

*When you joined SIR you filled out areas of expertise or special interests in various topics. If you have expertise or special interest in Technology, we would like to convert our Computer Club into a Technology Committee. We would like to have this group re-vamp our Chapter website and keep it updated monthly as other chapters do.
We would like to create electronic brochures and produce paper versions, as well as update our monthly newsletter, Facebook page, social media posts and putting QR codes on everything we do. This group will work with our Publicity Marketing Group and our Membership committee on developing an aggressive membership recruitment program utilizing traditional publicity sources and new media opportunities, including BLOG style posts in between our internal newsletter publications, for use targeting prospective new members. If you worked for a company that worked in these tech savvy arenas, we need your help. If you have a tech related hobby and you can step up to help us, we need you.

*SPEAKERS - If you feel your area of expertise is in an area that would be good for a monthly speaker, we would love to have to step up to be a speaker for one of our monthly programs. Alternatively, if you know of anyone who you think would be a good speaker for us, please let our new VP/Little SIR Bevin Hong know. If you do not know him yet, please let ANY Board Member or Activity Chair know, and they will get you connected to Bevin. We need speakers for February, March April, May, June and then, also for August, September, October and November.
Please help us make our 2025 Luncheon programs the most interesting and entertaining years of speakers ever!

We need your input and assistance. Thank you in advance for your enthusiastic cooperation and creative energy.

Please feel free to reach out to me directly at [email protected] or (925) 596-0402

Happy New Year !!!
Gary Kohler
Grapevine Hospitality
my.BoissetCollection.com/Gary.Kohler
(925) 596-0402

Little Sir Bevin Hong

Dear Fellow SIR Members,

As your new Little Sir, I’m excited to embark on this journey with all of you and work together to make our branch stronger and more vibrant. I believe that one of the most rewarding aspects of our organization is the opportunity to connect with each other, share experiences, and contribute to our community. But to continue thriving, we need to engage more of our members and get them involved in all the great activities and events we have planned.

My main goal for the coming months is to help encourage greater participation from each and every one of you. Whether it’s attending our monthly meetings, joining a committee, or simply engaging with fellow members during our social events, your involvement is crucial to the success of our branch. The more we work together, the more fun and fulfilling our experiences will be.

I’m eager to hear your ideas and suggestions for how we can increase participation. Let’s make this year one of our best yet, filled with camaraderie, learning, and, of course, plenty of laughter. Together, we can continue to grow and build an even stronger Sons In Retirement community.

Thank you for your support, and I look forward to seeing all of you at our next gathering!

Warm regards,
Bevin Hong
Little Sir

Link to our Facebook page, click below:
Sir 34 Facebook page

Activities

Breakfast Group Contact Jim Benham at 925-484-3836 or [email protected] for questions

Next Breakfast To be the last Wednesday of the month at Vic's at 8:30, we have secured the back room. It is now reserved for us. The last Wednesday in January is the 29th.

Wine Group

December's event courtesy of Dennis Alcalde

Treasurer
Pat Fowler

I will be accepting 2025 dues payments, checks preferred, payable to Sir Branch 34. Dues are $25 if received before January 31, $30 thereafter. Checks may also be mailed to:
Patrick Fowler
518 Mulqueeney St.
Livermore, CA 94550