General Meeting July 21, 2009

The monthly meeting of the B.A.A. was held at the Barrister Gardens. The meeting was called to order at 7:30pm by President Arsene VanVooren. The roll call of officers showed all present except Frank Baecke, Bill Meldrum, and Al VanDenBergh, Jr.

Our Treasurer, Roland Deprez, read the June 2009 Financial report. Financial Secretary Bob Grant reported membership at 303.

President Arsene VanVooren reported that our picnic was a huge success with over 200 in attendance. The weather was perfect and everyone had a good time. He went on to thank Dale Verhaeghe and his son DJ, Scott Schumacher, Mel and Carol Ferdinande, Chuck Horan, Henry Verlinden, and Auxillary President Ceil Janes for their help along with Larry Mahieu, who arranged for the B.A.A. band to play. At this time, the Hazel Park outing is still not confirmed due to the state’s financial condition; the state supplies the race track with personnel that are on the list to be laid off. If anyone is interested in golfing at the September outing, contact Arsene for tee times. Our softball team starts their season on July 27th at Total Sports in Mount Clemens.

Vice-President Dale Verhaeghe introduced Keith Sorgeloos, son of member Connie Sorgeloos who was visiting from Atlanta, Georgia. Dale also introduced membership applicant George Haezebrouck who was then sworn in by President VanVooren.

The leaders in games are:

Sick & Visiting Chairman Norm Kay reported that Frank Mahieu had surgery on his arteries and was doing well.

If anyone wants to see what they missed at the picnic, go to our website, www.thebaa.us, to view a video that our Webmaster, Chuck Myny posted.

Kitchen boss, Mel Ferdinande, thanked everyone who helped out at the picnic as he is still hobbling around yet still very active.

Scott Schumacher reported that there were 19 prizes for the evening.

With Bill Meldrum on vacation and Jeff Horan running late from his baseball game, Gary Huyghe was gracious enough to fill in as Marshall and reported 87 in attendance.

Maury VanCoillie asked to report on the upcoming Gazette dinner-dance on August 1st. He gave a detailed account of the planned event.

The Memorial Mass is set for October 4th at Our Lade of Hope Parish(St. Gertrude campus) at the 12:30pm mass. It is a special mass for the Belgian community. This is due to the merger of St. Germaine and St. Gertrude. There would not be enough room to fit everyone from both parishes plus the Belgian clubs to fit at the 10:30am mass so Father Jim Bjourn has agreed to say a mass at 12:30pm.

The drawing winners were: George Lesperance, Don Putrycus, Bob Janes, Mark Deckers, Roger Mestdagh, John Bopp, Etienne Elskens, Bernie Allemon, Rick Dauw, Larry Mahieu, Gabe DeKimpe, Marshall DeSmet, Ted Westfall, Lou Danckaert, Dick Braeckevelt and Rick Tanghe.

The meeting was adjourned at 8:15pm

Respectfully Submitted,

Bob Putrycus
Recording Secretary