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Brothers All, Lenten Season is Here!! It’s not as important to give up something for Lent, as it is to GIVE something as a sacrifice. Brothers All, Please read the phishing issues we have been experiencing on our website at the end of my article. Here is an update to our “Battle of the jersey” between Oregon and Washington starting January 13th. Our percentage of goal for COH is at 71.89% as of this writing. We are right on track to make 100% of our goal by June 30th for Circle of Honor; however the greatest goal is to beat Oregon in percent goal. January 13th both Oregon and Washington were tied at 51.09%. Ray Prom, Oregon State Deputy, and I issued a challenge. Whoever was behind in percent goal by April 21st would have to wear the winner’s jersey from a PAC-12 team at the Oregon State Convention. Each State gets to pick which university they want the loser (I do not like that word) to wear. Right now, Oregon is at 75.00% while we are at 71.89%. Both of our States have had a tremendous four month run. Oregon being smaller that Washington needs to bring in 10 new members to Oregon’s 6 just to stay even. That means we have a lot of ground to make up. We need 17 new members to catch up. Washington won the Western Round Up challenge that involved 19 States for the months of November, December and January. Oregon started coming on in December and matched us by January 13th. Since then they have been on fire, but so have we. Every council that brings in and exemplifies a new member after January gets one vote as to what jersey the State of Washington wants Oregon to wear at their Convention April 21st. The council places a vote for either the Cougars or Huskies. Turn in that vote to Mike Rutland, Membership Director by April 21st, provided we are ahead of Oregon, will draw the winning team. Oregon will pick from the Ducks or Beavers. State Deputy Ray Prom and I are good friends, so we will have fun with this competition, BUT I DO NOT WANT TO WEAR A DUCKS OR BEAVERS JERSEY. BOTH NEED TO BE IN THE WATER AND NOT ON MY BACK, SO PLEASE DON’T LET ME DOWN… Church drives are driving membership intake in both Washington and Oregon. We had 8 District Deputies win the first Church Drive competition from December 3rd to February 15th. They are: Darren Johnson-DD4 Diome Alcomendas-DD11 Patrick DiJulio-DD14 Greg Loberg-EE20 Kevin Fraley-DD21 Jim Chambers-DD23 Dennis Thueringer-DD27 Dana Smith-DD30 The next DD Church Drive contest is underway and ends April 15th. Then a third will start April 16th and end June 15th. We will continue into the next fraternal year from June 16th to August 15th. As you know, there have been some phishing issues with mass email messaging through our website. After explaining the situation many times to members in person, phone calls, and emails, we still have some that do not recognize a phishing message. Multiple times I have instructed members to just delete the message, but I still get 30+ messages telling me I have been hacked. I haven’t been hacked, but the email was compromised. The messages are easy to detect by the first few words. It is obvious in the message that no one writes like this. Misuse of words, spelling, and grammar should be clues, but I still get questions. All the recipient needs to do is DELETE the message. If you don’t answer, or reply, the phisher will go away and bother someone else. Since I’ve had no luck controlling the issue, I will not be communicating with the membership over our website mass mail system. It is very unfortunate because I feel it is important to communicate to the membership. If we do not communicate, we will lose in the long run. It is very unfortunate, but I do not have the time to answer 30+ inquiries every time I send a message. I am working on another method to send email messages to select groups. If it works, the message will go to GK’s, FS’s, DD’s, State Chairmen and State Officers, but through my person address, avoiding the website. I will need to rely on your GK’s, FS’s and/or DD’s to pass the message along to the members. I have an extensive filter system that I hope will work. Be looking for a c170… email address. That will be from me. I want to make it clear; there is nothing wrong with our State website, just the email portion. Moving on to Lent, to me it isn’t the giving up of things as a sacrifice, but giving as a sacrifice. I never give up something for Lent, but chose instead to give. Just food for thought. God Bless you All, and let’s beat Oregon…Please!! Vivat Jesus! Fraternally, Kim Washburn Your State Deputy
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