MINUTES OF COUNCIL GENERAL MEETING
Dining Room
12/03/2024
MEETING CALLED TO ORDER at 7:30 P.M.
OPENING PRAYER: by MIKE FITZGERALD
PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE: by PAUL RYAN
OPENING ODE: by MIKE FITZGERALD
ROLL CALL OF OFFICERS: P=PRESENT, A=ABSENT, EX=EXCUSED
CHAPLAIN: VACANT
GRAND KNIGHT: MIKE FITZGERALD: P WARDEN: ADAN LUNA: P
DEP GRAND KNIGHT: MARC EVANS: EX INSIDE GUARD: GAMALIEL HERNANDEZ: P
CHANCELLOR: PAUL RYAN: P OUTSIDE GUARD: RUSSELL LEROY: P
FINANCIAL SECRETARY: PETER PERTA: P ADVOCATE: RUSSELL GULLEY: P
LECTURER: JAMES RUSSELL: P 1ST YR TRUSTEE: DAN MURPHY: P
TREASURER: JAMES SMITH: P 2ND YR TRUSTEE: DAVID DYBALA: EX
RECORDER: ROBERT NIETO: P 3RD YR TRUSTEE: TOM GRECO: P
DISTRICT DEPUTY: KEBRAN ALEXANDER -EX
ARE ALL PRESENT IN POSSESSION OF A CURRENT MEMBERSHIP CARD: per Outside Guard: Yes
Approve Minutes of the Prior Meeting – The minutes of our November 4th General Membership Meeting have been posted on the Council’s website. A motion to accept the minutes was made, seconded and approved.
GRAND KNIGHT’S REPORT: by Mike Fitzgerald
New Knights who are attending their first General Membership Meeting:
Morris Curley -He has been a parishioner for years and is happy to now be a member of the Knights.
Safe Environment
Jorge Ruiz gave the Council an update on the Dallas Diocese Chapter (DDC) Safe Environment (SE) rollout/implementation. The SE requirements include each Knight undergoing annual SE continuing education training and biannual voluntary criminal background checks.
- There are four (4) Districts (consisting of sixteen (16) Councils) who are participating in the initial rollout. The rollout has been slow. Getting a complete and accurate list from each Council of its current roster of Knights with their pertinent information has been a challenge.
- Due to the slow initial rollout, it may be sometime in February before our Council will participate in the rollout process.
- Have we identified those Knights who participate in Holy Spirit church ministries where the parish is already taking care of doing the necessary background checks and follow ups on annual SE continuing education training.
DDC Clergy Appreciation Dinner
The Council has purchased a table for the DDDC Clergy Appreciation Dinner which will be held on Friday, January 24, 2025, at Council 799 in North Dallas. The table will seat eight (8) and we have extended an invitation to our two (2) priests to have them attend.
Fellowship Breakfast
Many knights were able to attend the Food and Fellowship Breakfast at Kim and Jenny’s on Saturday, November 9th. Jorge Ruiz was one of the attendees and said it was a great event. and the food was excellent as well. He thanked Paul Ryan for putting this event together.
Financial Secretary’s Report – Peter Perta:
Membership: 242
Fr. Christian transferred into our Council
Morris Curley joined our Council
Dues Collected: 74%
Star Council quota is 14 members for the Fraternal Year; we stand at 6 members to date
Current on all form submissions
Knight in Need Fund $6,150
We were reimbursed by Supreme for our donation to the Food Pantry
Treasurer’s Report S/K James Smith, advised the Council of last month’s ending balance, the overall deposits made this month, the overall expenditures for this month and the resulting ending balance.
4th Degree – S/K James Smith – The Clergy Appreciation Dinner was well attended; including five (5) nuns from St. Joseph’s and five (5) priests from the Assembly’s Councils.
Knight Hands – S/K Allen Reitmeier -Over the past month, the Council has completed. nine (9) projects. We now stand at five hundred twelve (512) projects completed since the start of Knight Hands in May 2010. Writer and Knight, Jeff Miller, has written an article that will appear in the 12/13/2024 issue of the Texas Catholic. Allen reports several projects have been completed recently. Peter Perta and John Espree helped with a repair project; José Montoya was able to inspect an air conditioner, but it was beyond repair. Hector Rubio helped repair a ruptured radiator reservoir. John Espree helped with installation of smoke detectors. We were able to provide a wheelchair to a family member of Moises Martinez. Mario Luna was able replace some rotted window trim. A large tree trimming project was completed thanks to Moises Martinez, Joe Eubanks, Arthur Rodriguez, and Manuel Urias. Another tree trimming project was completed with the help of Mike Fitzgerald, Jesse Aguirre, and Juan Torres. We have three available wheelchairs in the storage space upstairs should the need arise.
Baseball Concessions – S/K Allen Reitmeier
Another tournament took place on 11/16/24 and 11/17/24. There was a total of 11 games and over $1,000 was collected in concessions.
Church Activities – SK David Ybarra -Our final Parish Breakfast for the year took place on Sunday, December 1st. The following Knights made the breakfast possible: Joe Eubanks, Lou Lemmons, Billy and John Owen, Allen Reitmeier, Efrain Ochoa, Frank Salazar, Jim Kowalski, Jim Ouimet, and Jack Ramsden. We did not make a profit, but the donations covered most of the expenses.
Program & Committee Reports
Programs
Faith – Marc Evans – absent;
Paul Ryan gave the report on Bible Study on the Eucharistic Revival. There were about 7 people in attendance for the bible study that took place on Saturday, November 11/23/2024. The next Bible study will take place on Saturday, 12/14/2024 at 6 a.m. Please join us.
Family – José Montoya – no report
Community – Dan Murphy -no Report
Life – Sir Knight Mike Moloughney is there anything you wish to report? If not, will you please lead us in praying 3 Hail Marys to end abortions.
- At each of our monthly meetings we will pray 3 Hail Marys:
- First Hail Mary – for the Unborn
- Second Hail Mary – for the moms of those unborn babies – that they allow their babies to be born.
- Third Hail Mary – for those in the abortion industry that they turn away from evil and seek the face of God.
Admissions Committee – S/K Jim Russell
The Admissions Committee met with one prospective Knight, Nelson Gomez; he is from El Salvador; he does tile work. He lives in Duncanville, and Adan Luna is his sponsor, and the committee recommended we extend an invitation for membership. A motion was made, seconded, and the motion passed. The exemplification ceremony will take place in Spanish on 12/08/2024 at 2:30 p.m. in the church.
Awareness Committee – Vacant
Council Activities – Vacant
Health Director – Dr. Robert Nieto – Our next blood drive take place on Sunday, December 8th from 8 a.m. -2 p.m. The Carter Blood Care bus will be parked in our parking lot. You are invited to sign up but walk ins are accepted. Also, Casino Night will take place on Saturday, February 2025. Save the Date. More information to come.
Recruitment – SK Jim Kowalski -no report
Retention – SK Paul Ryan -no report
Safe Environment – SK Russell Leroy -no report
New Website for Our Council by Jorge Ruiz
Jorge Ruiz joined the Council in 2012. Since that time, he has been in charge of maintaining our current website. In addition, he has worked on and developed the website for the Dallas Diocese Chapter (DDC) of the Knights of Columbus. He has observed there is a need to connect these websites. Jorge has created a new platform with his own company that will connect every Council that joins the platform. It will be easy to share an event or a story with a click of a button. It will show up on the DDC website. Many items will be preloaded. The platform is enhanced as it will show upcoming events, a calendar, and highlight the Knight of the Year, etc. You can click a button and include a description of Supreme Council programs that you would like to include in our Council website. There will be a login page where you can use your member number to log in. We would have the ability to have several site administrators. The site administrates can add photos or content to the website. They can also do an e-mail campaign from the website. You can register for SE training. Jorge requested that we change from our current website to the new website. There are two (2) other programmers and Jorge that will work together on the ongoing project. A motion was made that we adopt this new platform for our Council. The motion was seconded, and passed. We are the first Council in the USA to adopt this new Knight Platform. Congratulations, Jorge!
Unfinished Business – none
New Business – Jorge Ruiz reported there will be a Father McGivney relic that will be coming to the DFW area. It will take place at Council 6065 in Plano, Texas. Bishop Burns and Bishop Kelly will be present along with the Knights of Columbus State Officers. There will be two (2) masses (one (1) in English and one (1) in Spanish) and two (2) Exemplification Ceremonies (one (1) in English and one (1) in Spanish).
District Deputy – SK Kebran Alexander -absent
Field Agent – Eben Fernandez -absent
Good of the Order:
Knight of the Month: Moises Martinez (November)
Jesús Medina (December)
Family of the Month: Joe and Angela Eubank
Prayer Requests – We offered prayers for Ted Winkler, Raymond Ortiz, Jason Cuellar, Adan Luna, and others
Closing Prayer
Closing Ode
50/50 Meeting Drawing -Ticket # 6740 Dan Murphy $42