A few of us attended the Spring Convention in New Bern the first weekend of May. It was a beautiful weekend with several hundred elks and guests attending.Featured here is Exalted Ruler Kevin Frey, Secretary Vanessa Eanes, Past Exalted Ruler Bob Sce and newsletter editor Gail Sce.
Bob and Gail's golf team won the tournament thanks to a lucky draw that found them pared with a scratch golfer. Yours truly's team had to scratch and sniff to eke out a tie for 3rd place. No ringer's for us to lean on!
All and all, it was a good meeting. There is a new Elks Lodge in Shallotte NC that will be instituted on May 18th. That's a good thing and it is expected for this lodge to grow rapidly. However, NC overall lost 300+ Elks this past year which is troubling. Salisbury did it's part though adding 23 to our rolls making this the 13th consecutive increase which brings us up to 433 Elks.
The New Bern Elks lodge hosted the event and they have a unique lodge in that it is open 24/7. Each of there 300 members get a key and essentially work on the honor system. It's beer and wine only though. Volunteers work for special events and they have a group called the Committee of 100 that apparently provides or encourages participation. New Bern was instituted in 1902 and a number of pictures of it's early history can be found at www.elkshistory.org
