mrbear812@sbcglobal.net
To all Voyageurs in Grand d’ Illinois,
We have been having storm after storm here in Illinois and we have passed the severe drought problem and now have a surplus of rainfall in most places. That’s good for the most of us however in some places it has created a flash flood problem and possible property damage. I hope things are ok in your neck of the woods!
My Grand Daughter, 12 yrs. old, was here the past couple of days and I told her that G-ma and I would be attending my 60 yr. class reunion Friday night. Her comment was G-pa, you are 78 yrs. old! I guess when you look at through a 12 yr. old eyes we are OLD. I ask her if I acted like an old man and she said no you act like a kid! My response was if you think young it might make us feel young. Try anything to keep our minds off the aches and pains.
Last week, June 18th, we had 1 renewal by V-1170 and that put them at 100%+, 104%, good job! This week I predicted a few more memberships and we had 7 renewals. V-594 +2 and 108.93%, WOOHOO and V-812 +5 and joined the 100% Locales. That makes the Grand just 29 renewals short of being 100%. We have a month, 30 days, to collect just 29 delinquent member dues. We can make one more effort to contact those who haven’t yet paid their dues for 2026. If they have forgot to send it in it is a reminder. If they have had a medical problem, maybe your Locale can pick up their dues this year. The worst-case scenario would be they are deceased and if they are you can update your records and report them as such and they will come off your roster. The most important thing is to check on our members welfare and in turn we can get our rosters current. Let us all try extra hard the last 30 days of our 2026 membership year!
I am attaching several things to this e-mail. As usual some encouraging words from our Nationale Membership team. They have several Grands to follow up on and you can see how Illinois compares to the other Grands in our area. We stand pretty tall considering how many members we have. Illinois is still the 3rd largest Grand in all of the 40/8. We are behind Indiana and Ohio in 3rd largest. Let’s all give an extra effort and help our Grand Chef De Train Rob Dettmann and Grand Chef De Gare Gerald “JT” Terando have a successful year and reach the coveted 100%. there are many Locales that need 1,2 or 3 renewals and they could also be 100%. We can do it, just try one more time.
I am also attaching the Official Call for the Grand Promenade to be held in Morris, IL. this year. I know there is a requirement of 30 days prior to the Grand Promenade, I screwed up and now its 291/2 days prior, sorry. Time slipped up on me this time. I will be posting the Grand Promenade Agenda in a couple of weeks but some of the important info is on the Call. I will also attach the Grand Promenade flyer so you can have the Hotel info to make your reservations if you haven’t already. V-1195 will be our host so let’s have a good turn out and support them and our Grand!
I have received a couple of notices from Nationale to watch out for scams. I will also attach those for your information. It seems more and more people are trying to figure out ways to scam us out of our hard earned money because they prey on people and try and convince them to give out information or money. Please be cautious!
That’s about all for now, keep working on rounding up those last few members and get your reservations in for the Grand Promenade.
Stay safe and healthy!
Yours in service,
Wally Hammond (HA#1)
Grand CorrespondantGrand d’ Illinois