3D DECEMBER 2011 Third District Today The mission of Sons of Norway is to promote and to preserve the heritage and culture of Norway, to celebrate our relationship with other Nordic countries, and to provide quality insurance and financial products to its members. FRA PRESIDENTEN RALPH PETERSON Today I'm writing you from Virginia Beach and that is good. Having said that, I just got back from a wedding in ND and last night we were on the HMoMS Statraad Lehmkuhl enjoying some fine Norwegian “mat og øl” with students from the Royal Norwegian Naval Academy. This is the same ship that AnneGrete and I were on during the past Syttende Mai celebration in Bergen earlier this year and it brought back some great memories. It sounds like LOV hosted a great event last weekend with a combined group studying Genealogy and Norwegian cooking. The food was great and the genealogy fun and educational. They are looking into a rerun for next year. I have been warning people for years that Genealogy is very addictive and Maine Nordmenn’s Charlie Abrahamson found that to be true. Before you start on serious Genealogy I would recommend that you download the SON information on earning a Genealogy Cultural medal as they contain a lot of good information that is extremely useful even if you do not plan on working for a Cultural Medal. Another good piece of news about the LOV weekend was that a week before the event a District email was sent to our email list alerting all those on our list about the event. As a result, we had additional participation in the events. If you haven't been receiving our District emails and would like to do so, you need to update your personal information at SON headquarters. You can call them, email them, send them a letter or let me know and we will add you to the list or correct the information that they currently have. District 3 and District 8 are the “preferred” locations for the 2014 International Convention. If a Lodge(s) or Zone is interested you will need to make a bid at the 2012 convention. Remember SON now has a consulting firm available to assist you in locating hotels, negotiating ROOM rates and preparing for the convention. This is at no cost to you. If you are interested please let me know. One recent and frequent appearance on our web site has been the posting of local lodge newsletters. This has been a great help to program planners around the District as well as promoting other ideas. Today I found November newsletters from Blåfjell, Gulf Coast Vikings, Noreg, Hampton Roads, Henrik Ibsen, Oslo, Suncoast and Sun Viking posted on line. Normally we also find Faerder there as well. http://www.3dsofn.org/blog Tusen Takk to the editors for taking the time to help us all out. I am very pleased to see our 999 and 000 members taking a more active part in our District activities. Recently we processed a sports medal for a 000 member, a 999 member attended our class at LOV, they have been big supporters of our recent raffles and most important, their retention rate is very high compared to most local lodges, so hats off to that group. Lets each sign up a new member this month!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AnneGrete and I would like to wish you and your families a very Merry Christmas and a great holiday season. Fraternally, Ralph Peterson, President District Three, Sons of Norway Third District Today 1 2011 3D VICE PRESIDENT, GAIL EKLOFF The hustle and bustle of the holiday is upon us all and we are enjoying the spirit of this time of the year! The election of officers has taken place and the start of a new adventure for your lodge begins! Next years event calendars should be an important part of the lodges itinerary. Be sure to forward your calendars to your Zone Directors and the District Secretary, this way we can all see what other lodges are doing throughout the District.. It would be a shame for 2 lodges to hold their anniversary on the same day. This information will help the LOV board when they are trying to book cultural events. (The baking/genealogy weekend was great: those who attended were able to learn more about their roots and get a good taste of Norwegian pastries and cakes). We are all looking forward to more weekends like this, learning about culture, and enjoying the splendor of LOV. Hope the New Year sees you adding the Esaison Foundation to your new calendar of events. Drammen Lodge in New Bern, North Carolina had their event already and the event was sold out!! Fantastic!!! This is a wonderful opportunity to show your community what Sons of Norway is all about.Helping others is a core foundation of our organization! May your holidays be spent with family and friends, but take time to reflect on those less fortunate. (This year many families have survived the wrath of mother nature). Remember to count your blessings. You have many! May the year ahead bring you happiness, good health, and adventure! Rolf and I wish you all a Gød Jul and Gødt Nytår Alt for denne gangen, Gail Remember the 2 A’s; Ask & Advertise Remember the 2 M's; Mentor and Mingle KATHY DOLLYMORE, 3D PUBLIC RELATIONS check out the blog on the 3D web site for ideas and notes from your board There may be no snow, no elves, no reindeer, and no candle-lit church up on the mountain. But this month, members of the SON Lodges from the very young to the more senior members will gather to celebrate Christmas just like in the old country with the annual Juletrefests to sing, dance and celebrate their heritage. With bunads and nisses, trolls and krumkake lutefisk and julebukk, the month is alive with festivities. December is the month when it seems we’re closest to our heritage. All the cookie baking, lefse making, carol singing and those family traditions we cherish. Are you on your way to “Seven Kinds of Cookies”? Seeing the candelabras in the windows and Norwegian flags on the tree pull at heartstrings. Do you have Norwegian traditions that you’ve passed on to your family? These precious memories are what we hope our children will remember. Get them started with the music and singing around the tree at a Juletrefest. Pull out your bunader and Norwegian sweaters. This is also the time of year that we like to remember our members who aren’t able to get to our meetings anymore. If you are baking cookies, would you make some for our brothers and sisters we don’t see as much anymore? A moment of your time is the greatest gift you could give someone. Så ønsker jeg dere alle en riktig God Jul og et Godt Nyttår! Third District Today 2 2011 3D FROM THE SECRETARY, MARCI LARSON Happy Holidays and the best in 2012. Here are a couple bullet point reminders as you finish your lodge year and possibly transition lodge leadership. • Make sure I have received your lodge installation information by Dec. 1. Thanks to the 28 lodges who have communicated this information. I would really appreciate hearing from the rest of you which is about half the lodges. • Starting in mid-December, I will begin work on the 2012 Membership Directory, which will be available in late February/early March. Please send me your Officer Change forms, even if you are not changing officers. I will e-mail the directory order form to 2011 lodge presidents and secretaries in December and it will be posted on the website for easy access. Often times this order form is lost in the transition of officers. • The District Convention and Centennial Celebration is June 20 – 23 in Virginia Beach, so start planning your delegate participation in early 2012. Lodge Membership numbers for 2011 determine how many delegates your lodge can seat at the Convention. New lodges, please plan to send delegates because it is a great learning, networking and fellowship experience. I will outreach to lodges in early 2012 requesting delegate information. • I am working on the Fall District Board meeting minutes and have completed the Third District Limited minutes and will e-mail/mail both sets to lodges hopefully by Dec. 1, sooner if possible. • If I can assist you, please let me know. I appreciate the opportunity to be involved with District 3 Sons of Norway. COUNSELOR’S CORNER, MARY B. ANDERSEN "All for one and one for all" …………. from The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas First and foremost, tusen takk to all who responded to our fund drive letter! We have had a 3% response to our Spring fund drive (147 responses to 4900 letters). The Trustees would also like to thank the lodges that make memorial donations as well as annual lodge donations. If you think about it, the Charitable Trust embodies the phrase from The Three Musketeers. All Third District members support each individual Charitable Trust beneficiary and thus "all for one". I would like to put a twist on the phrase by changing the word "one" to $1 resulting in "all for $1 and $1 for all". If we each contribute $1 ("all for $1") at our monthly lodge meetings, we will impact the lives of all of our beneficiaries ("$1 for all"). Times are tough for many of us and especially for our beneficiaries. Your $1 per month will mean a lot to our Third District Charitable Trust beneficiaries.