Mr. Marshall 
Mr. Metsker
Rev. Jim Robinson
Guests: None
Fines:25cent fine to Mason for not reading the newsletter.
Announcements: Board meeting next Tuesday May 15, 2007 at 6:00 PM at the Elks Club. For those who can not attend, could you please provide any reports or information for the board to me at this Thursday’s regular meeting.
Blackbeard! Thursday, May 17th at the Heritage Square Opera House. $30.50 for tickets, $28.50 (62+). Make your checks to Arapahoe Sertoma and get them in as soon as possible.
Regional Convention: Revisiting the Russia issue passed unanimously. The other resolution asking to seek Mr. Murphy's removal from Executive Director position failed. Mr. Murphy has had some questions about his leadership ability.
Our scrapbook came in first place and our convention exhibit came in second place. Congrats to Gus and Bob.
Two of our fallen memories were honored at a candlelight vigil.
Dave Miley: after listening to the recording that Gus made of the song he would like to move for the resignation of our "choir director".
Pat McKim: good natured harassment for Bob Gallagher for his very imperfect attendance award.
Handshake: some chocolates for Gus for his work on the scrapbook.
Bob Hogge: Still need some help with the Soapbox derby, email went out to everyone. Please contact ??
Park Hill Sertoma is looking for support for their soapbox derby person.
Tim Pollak: Final report on charity raffle: We had $24,600 deposited. Found another $375 under his pillow that needs to be deposited and has $325 that needs to be collected. Club netted $9075. Rainbow Bridge raised $3600 from the silent auction.
Perkins: SOD List: Gallagher up next week. Geers, Grimm... etc.
Elected slate of officers for next year, passed unanimously.
Marshall: Mexican brunch will be on 2nd week of June starting at 11:30 on Sunday. 6098 S. Lakeview Street. Bring bathing suits.
Bingo:Deposited $4544 with C team. 85 in attendance. Made about $10 to $12K this last year. D team is up next week with Buckland.
Bill expressed his pleasure to be in the club and to help with our service to mankind.
Born in 1930 in Denver. Went to Doramore school at 8th and Downing. Used to trick-or-treat at the governor’s mansion when it used to be on Downing. Went to South High School. Went to DU for college and left with a degree in accounting. Was in Kappa Sigma fraternity. Was a former president of DU's alumni association. Started a furniture business with his dad.
Bill introduced Carl Duncan to his sister. Carl is now his brother in law.
Bill was a member of the Englewood Optimists club for 30 years (with perfect attendance).
Bill the furniture business. Was on the board of First Federal. Is disappointed now that banks have become so commercial and so less focused on helping the average person.
Program: Mr. Doug Harder introduced Natalie Hanlon-Leh, founder of Central Visitation that we heard about last week. She is an attorney and will be giving us a presentation on the legal issues that arise in the program. She got into this back when she was a legal aid attorney. Currently she practices intellectual property law for a downtown firm.
Central Visitation opened in 1992. It came out of work from young attorneys at the legal aid society of metropolitan Denver. They were filling a need for people that were running into the court system at their most vulnerable. They handled the people at the very worst end of the system with cases that no one in private practice would touch. What they noticed was that there was a great need for people in these domestic violence situations to get supervised visits. At the time, 1991, Children’s Hospital was doing it for $60 an hour and had a huge waiting list. Relatives that could do it either were too involved in one side or the other or did not want to get involved at all. So the legal aid society decided to find a church that could host a low cost option for these families.
They were able to convince Central Presbyterian at 17th and Sherman to host the program in their unused Sunday school rooms. It was an excellent location because it was located on both the major north/south and east/west bus lines. Of course with an organization founded by attorneys it was a miracle that it formed at all considering how focused they are on liability. In the 15 years since, none of those fears have been realized.
The most important part to remember in this program is that it is about the child's right to see their parents. Even if the parent is not a good one, it is still important to form that bond because they are forming life long relationships.
One of the better ideas of the program was that they implemented a "lag start" for the visitations so that there was a 15 minute gap between the dropping off and picking up parent. This allows the child to transition from one parent to another without having to see them in conflict.
The volunteer aspect is very important. There is a lot of focus placed on making sure the volunteers are completely neutral to the process. Because you are dealing with conflict and lawyers this have proven very effective at keeping the volunteers out of the courts.
They also spent a lot of time making sure that all their volunteers are safe for the children and that they can all pass exhaustive background checks.
Q: What if a child doesn't want the visitation? Does he still have to participate? No, they don't. But they attempt to make the situation so wholesome that the child really does want to establish a relationship with the parent.
Q: What is the oldest age that you support? They support children up to age 15.
Note: The cases they handle are not in the abuse and neglect category. The children are usually not abused themselves, but have witnessed abuse between the parents.
Q: What is the male/female split for the visiting parents? Not sure. It is predominately male, but not to the extent that you would think.
For more information or to volunteer, contact: Betsy Sweetland 303 839-8701 cvpdenver@aol.com
Don Smith 
Gus Szala 
John Pifer 
Tommy Fry ($10... uh oh)
