Today’s Meeting: An Amtryke presentation to 4 year old Cohen Allen of Altoona and our guest speaker, Neil Rudel of the Altoona Mirror.
Future Speakers:
June 12th – TBD
June 19th – TBD
June 26th – TBD
Whacha’ May Have Missed Last Week: Our speaker was Tom Duvall of Express Employment Professionals – discussing today’s workforce. 
Tom took a moment and thanked the club for what we do to assist the needs of disabled individuals in the community, an effort he appreciates since he is the father of a special needs child. Tom then began his talk by saying that even though the economy is generally good, it has been a rather slow pace to recovery. That and the cautious approach to risks and expansions by businesses has left many companies doing more work with less employees. He went on to say that a mass exodus of baby-boomer workers, estimated at 50,000 per day, has left the labor force shrinking rapidly. While a 5.2% unemployment rate is considered “full employment”, the local rates of 4.4% (Blair) and 3.2% (Centre) remain below “full” and 5.3% (Bedford) and 6.5% (Huntingdon) are slightly over. Tom stated that it is an employee’s market with fierce competition for skilled workers presenting companies with the challenge of wage pressure…..stating that “$12/hour is the new $10/hour”. Due to this shift to an employee’s market, many employees are looking to shift jobs/careers for a number of reasons including: advancement opportunities, improved work environment, better compensation/benefits, reward/recognition, and leadership possibilities. Tom stated that businesses, to keep pace, must consider reviewing wages, providing rewarding benefits, and reducing barriers to hiring workers. He stated that some companies that are having difficulties in finding “drug-free” applicants, are re-evaluating as to whether or not their open positions require the need for the employee to be drug-free! Tom finished by saying that the formula to find the top talent should be: Right Pay -> Right Skills -> Right Person.
Guests of the Day:
…..There were none.
News of the Week:
…..Acting President, Kristan, read and passed around three thank you letters from Dreams Go On, the Arc, and the Miracle League for our recent donations.
…..Grant Writer, Dave Aikens, reported that the Morrison’s Cove Herald ran two stories about the AMBUCS two Thursday’s ago. One covered the check presentation by the Nason Foundation and the other was of our Amtryke presentations of several weeks ago.
…..Mark your calendar….the AMBUCS will face WeCare in the WeCare Softball Marathon on Friday, August 10th, at Seitz field in Eldorado. Tony Miller needs players. Details to follow soon.
…..Program Chairman, Ken Decker, noted that he is down to just two months to fill for programs…..July and September! Why not take one of these months (or share one with a fellow Ambuc) to provide interesting programs for our meetings.
…..We had two Ambucs trying to pick that Joker out of the deck last week and we still didn’t have a winner! Since the card deck went missing the week before; that week’s ticket winner, Bill Hoyne, chose his losing card at the beginning of the meeting and then Dean McKnight tried his luck at the end of the meeting. Since there were no winners, this week’s lucky ticket holder should be trying their luck of finding that Joker out of the remaining 15 cards with the pot for the day being over $800!
…..Today we’re about to meet new Ambuc Rudy Turco. Rudy has joined the club as an associate member and is a good friend of Dave Aikens. The reason he joined as an associate member is that Rudy will not be able to attend our meetings due to his long time battle with Huntington’s disease. Rudy spent 27 years in the Air Force and retired as a Colonel. He lives in Duncansville and has two grown sons who live out of the area. Rudy joined AMBUCS because of his passion for veterans and his interest in the AMBUCS veteran’s initiative to provide Amtrykes for vets. As a matter of fact, Rudy recently donated $1500 to our club to cover the cost for the first Amtryke for a local disabled veteran; in anticipation of us getting that program established! Other causes that Rudy supports are the Gary Sinese Foundation and Funds for Freedom. Welcome aboard Rudy and thanks for your service and your AMBUCS donation!
…..The AMBUCS board met last Thursday. The board invited Jim Foreman of WeCare to the meeting to describe the means in which ProCare provides services to those disabled individuals who are unable to pay. This was done to determine our future funding of WeCare. After listening to Jim’s remarks, the board felt comfortable in providing future funding. The board also agreed to establish a corporate membership which will allow businesses to have up to three members join the club at a quarterly cost of $249. A $1,666 donation to National AMBUCS for the scholarship fund was approved. The club regretfully dropped Amanda Marin from the membership. Due to the length of the agenda, it was decided to resume the board meeting after the club meeting this week.
…..June birthdays and club anniversaries include:
Birthday: Jim Berkhimer – June 13th
Club Anniversaries: Karen Lemme & Derek Martin – 2016
Michele Lloyd & Dean McKnight – 2017
In Closing:
“So….I’m getting circumcised tomorrow!” My good friend told me that he’d had that done when he was a few days old. So I asked him, “Does it hurt?” He said, “Well, I couldn’t walk for about a year!”