Men’s Club News
Sadly I open this month’s column by saying good bye to our friend Art Williams. He was an integral part of the Men's Club… Art, we'll miss you.
Well, as usual, there are a lot of things that the Men's Club is involved in. This time of year usually starts a load of sports themed events. As I write this, a group of ten will be attending the Florida Tarpons Arena Football game on Saturday night, May 12th. For those of you who've never had the chance to watch Arena Football, the best way to describe it is a version of "caffeinated" football, played on a hockey rink sized field. Later this month, on Thursday, May 24th, we're off to Hammond Stadium. There we'll be watching the Fort Myers Miracle take on the Clearwater Threshers. This will be the first of several trips to watch the Miracle play this season.
Thursday, June 7th is the next edition of our "Bogeys, Bunkers and Bad Shots" Golf Outing. It'll be held once again at River Hall Golf Course. For $38 there'll be good friends, good food and… we'll play golf too!
Also coming up in June our first Card Night. On Tuesday night June 19th, immediately following our regular monthly meeting, we'll be playing "Yiddish Hold 'Em". It'll be a fun night. We hope to see everyone there.
Finally, we're looking forward to our second Classic Comedy Night. Once again there will be clips from movies, television and stand up, featuring some of the greatest comedians of all time. These clips will showcase comedy from the 1940's through the 2000's. If you missed the first Comedy Night you DO NOT want to miss this one. If you came to the first one you DO NOT want to miss this one. Be prepared to laugh until you cry. Tickets are only $10 per person. Come to see how much laughter is contagious.
Why not join us?
Mitch Kittenplan, President
HAPPY NEW YEAR! The Men's Club is looking forward to another year of great programs, great camaraderie and great fun. With nearly 70 members, and growing, the Men’s Club has become an active, diverse, close-knit social group. As we welcome in 2012, it's amazing to look back on all that we accomplished in 2011:
JANUARY
• The Men's Club seemed to find ways to turn the simplest things into a party. Even our nomination and election of officers was a celebration of sorts. On Thursday night, January 27th, we met to formally elect the officers for 2011 - 2013. As soon as we wrapped up the voting, we set out for food and drink at the International Buffet.
• We came up with a new version of the Men’s Club Logo in January with the theme: "WE HAVE FUN"
FEBRUARY
• Super Bowl Sunday, February 6th, was a great day for the Green Bay Packers, and a great day for the Men's Club of Temple Beth El. Our 2nd Annual Super Bowl Tailgate Party was a tremendous success. The crowd grew from last year's event with nearly thirty people in attendance to eat, socialize, watch the big game and… eat some more.
• Just two weeks after the Super Bowl, on Sunday, February 20th, we were on to our next big event, the Corvette, Custom and Classic Car Show. The weather was perfect, the crowd was enthusiastic, and the cars on display were awesome. You could walk around the Temple Beth El parking lot and see custom cars, a variety of Corvettes spanning more than 30 years, and your choice of classic cars, including Thunderbirds, Mustangs, Super Sport Chevys, Pontiacs and Oldsmobiles. Besides the sight of cars, there were the smells of the barbecue cranking out burgers and franks all day.
MARCH
• Friday night, March 4th, Temple Beth El celebrated Men's Club Shabbat. It was nice to see many of the Men's Club members honored during services. The highlight was watching all seven torahs being carried around the sanctuary by our members.
• At the Temple's annual March membership meeting the Men's Club debuted a 12 minute video chronicling the amazing number of activities we’d held over the past two years. It was one of the highlights of the meeting.
• Truthfully, we didn't have much scheduled in the month of March, other than Mitzvah Day, so… at the last minute we decided to have some fun surrounding "March Madness". We offered a bracket challenge looking to find the best prognosticator of the NCAA tournament's sweet sixteen.
APRIL
• The culmination of the NCAA tournament was the championship game held on Monday, April 4th. That night the "guys" got together for pizza and to watch the game on the big screen in the Dubin Center.
• The Men's Club of Temple Beth El, working with Jewish War Veterans Post 400, adopted a "Helping Our Homeless Vets" Project. The project kicked off on Mitzvah Day, and on Wednesday, April 27th, a large group of Men's Club members, and many of their wives, volunteered to feed the homeless vets. It was a heartwarming day.
• The NFL draft took place on April 28th. We took a road trip to Miller's Ale House at Gulf Coast Center to eat, drink and watch our favorite football teams draft for their futures.
JUNE
• The month of June saw the 1st Men's Club "Bogeys, Bunkers & Bad Shots Golf Outing". Held on June 2nd at River Hall Country Club, we had four groups hit the links (and in some cases the links hit us back). It was all for fun and fun for all. No trophies or prizes, just a beautiful day under perfect SW Florida skies trying to smack that pesky little round ball, and make it behave. After a few hours of golf we all got together in the River Hall restaurant to have lunch, exchange stories and laugh a lot. The outing was so successful that we made plans for the next one, and the one after that.
• Not to be outdone, our "crack fishing committee" set up a fishing trip with Captain Tony. Our intrepid group always has a great time, and even won a few shekels in the onboard pool.
• June 28th was Men's Club night at Hammond Stadium. Nearly two dozen members and spouses attended the Fort Myers Miracle game against the Charlotte Stone Crabs. Minor league baseball is always a good time. It's even better when we have our own private seating section in the first few rows. Oh, and did I forget to mention that there was half price beer, soda and franks all game? Add in the camaraderie and everyone had a great time.
JULY
• On July 12th, immediately following our regularly scheduled Men's Club meeting, we headed to the Dubin Center where we watched the Major League Baseball All Star Game. It was a lot of fun cheering on the stars of the game along with chowing down on pizza and snacks.
• Golf played a prominent role throughout our summer activities, with our second "Bogeys, Bunkers and Bad Shots" Golf Outing held on July 21st.
• Sunday morning, July 24th we held our first Men's Club Breakfast in a number of years. With baseball as the theme, nearly forty people turned out for bagels, herring, whitefish salad and to see Steve Gliden, the General Manager of the Miracle. The crowd enjoyed listening to Steve talk about his background in baseball and all the things that he oversees at Hammond Stadium. He opened the floor for loads of questions and gave everyone in attendance Miracle hats and other goodies. After breakfast and our speaker we watched the classic baseball comedy "Major League."
SEPTEMBER
• Our September "Bogeys, Bunkers and Bad Shots" Golf Outing was the biggest success of all. The foursomes chipped in to raise funds for the Rabbi's Discretionary Fund. The Men's Club donated a second $500 check to aid members of TBE.
OCTOBER
• On Sunday, October 16th we held the fifth annual Yiddish Cup Golf Tournament at the beautiful Olde Cypress Golf Club. The Men's Club of Temple Beth El took on The Men's Club of Temple Shalom of Naples in a best ball format. For the second consecutive year (and third time in five years) Temple Beth El's Men's Club walked away victorious.
• On Sunday, October 30th we held our Paid Up Membership Luncheon at the International Buffet Chinese Restaurant on College Parkway. The turnout was more than double that of previous years. It was great to see a mix of new members and long time members mingling.
NOVEMBER
• November 5th was our first Men's Club Road Rally. The men in each car answered tricky questions along the route that led us on a fun trip up to Punta Gorda. There we met up at the Muscle Car Museum, where we toured the treasure trove of classic cars, muscle cars and Corvettes. We ended the trip going out for a great lunch at Laishley's Crab House.
• Saturday evening, November 12th we held our second annual Candlelight Dinner Party honoring our Veterans. Once again a great crowd enjoyed good music, videos, food, friends and fun. The food was catered by Il Pomodoro. The Dubin Center was bedecked in red, white and blue, and it was a wonderful night.
• Sunday, November 20th was our fourth "Bogeys, Bunkers & Bad Shots" Golf Outing. This one shifted to a Sunday morning in order to accommodate all those who hadn't been able to join us during the week. Another big turnout and a great time for all… men, women, good golfers, not-so-good golfers.
DECEMBER
• December 22nd at 7:00 pm was another road trip. This time it was to Germain Arena to watch the Florida Everblades take on the Trenton Titans.
2012
So what's ahead in 2012? Wow… another jam packed agenda.
January 26th we'll be going as a group to the Federation's Film Festival showing of the movie "Jews and Baseball: An American Love Story" at the Bell Tower Cinemas, followed by dinner. Also in January we'll be holding our inaugural Card Night. February 5th is Super Bowl Sunday, which means that it's time for our 3rd annual Super Bowl Tailgate Party. March 23rd will be our Men's Club Shabbat. Mix in a Movie Night, the NCAA basketball championship, and our inaugural Comedy Night. We'll be holding our next Car Show over the summer, as well as tentatively scheduling July 29th for our next Men's Club Yard Sale. There'll be something for everyone. Why not join us?
Temple Beth El groups, as well as non-affiliated groups (those that periodically rent the Dubin Center and/or the Sanctuary for events) are now utilizing the Temple’s audio/video technology more and more frequently. Due to this ever increasing number of requests that require audio/video equipment, as well as an operator, to be used for presentations and/or video recording of events, a new Audio/Video Department has been created by the Men’s Club of Temple Beth El.
Among other things, the Men's Club Audio/Video Department will be offering B'nai Mitzvah families a DVD of their services. For a small fee, it is an opportunity to preserve the memories of that day forever.
There will also be a scale of charges for any other events requiring the use of the Audio/Video equipment, and its operator, including rental events. All audio/video monies will go to the TBE Men’s Club to be used for Temple related projects.
BACKGROUND
Several years ago, a homemade audio/video system was installed in the Temple Beth El sanctuary. It worked briefly before being rendered inoperable. Eventually, any attempts to fix it were abandoned by the Temple, as no one with any technical knowledge was able to come up with an idea of how to get the system working again.
The Men’s Club decided to make the restoration of the audio/video system their primary project, and devoted their money and resources to fix the system. Because of the inadequacy of the wiring, and improper installation procedures used by the original installer, all the wiring had to be ripped out. The correct coded co-axial cable, and all new wiring, had to be installed throughout the entire sanctuary by a crew of technicians over a period of more than a year. It was then decided by the Men’s Club to additionally expand the audio/video system to the Dubin Center, in order to give the flexibility to stage different events in the Dubin Center. The system is now up and running. The sanctuary audio and video not only have become operable, but it is now regularly enjoyed by the staff and congregation of TBE.
CAPABILITIES
We are now able to:
• Show any service or event in the Sanctuary and at the same time show it live on the big screen in the Dubin Center.
• Show any program live on the big screen in the Dubin Center that is being televised on DirecTV, which was also installed by the Men’s Club.
• Show any DVD live on the big screen in the Dubin Center, independent of anything that is going on in the Sanctuary, and vice versa.
• Show anything that is computer generated from the internet, either in the Sanctuary or in the Dubin Center, independently from each other.
• Present any teaching programs, lectures, Power Point, or any other computer generated programs on the big screens in the Sanctuary or in the Dubin Center, independent from each other.
• Videotape anything that takes place in the Sanctuary.
In the future, a third camera will be added to the Dubin Center system for videotaping events in that room as well. The Dubin Center has already been prewired for the camera. All that remains is the purchase and installation.
Mitch Kittenplan, President
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Men’s Club Flag Replacements
The TBE Men's Club recently donated two new flags to replace those decimated by weather. Bob Kummins initiated the flag project.
This picture shows all flags flying proudly and a big todah rabah for the Men's Club.
