Fellow OPTIMISTS,

I hope everyone is surviving the wonderful weather! I woke up at 4 am Sunday morning to find the electricity was off and according to my clock it went off around midnight; but fortunately, it came back on around 9 am Sunday morning. That was a minor bother. Late last night the water company that provides water to the City of Hopewell and some communities in Prince George County notified its customers that it only had enough water in the main tower to last 2 hours and that it was offline while waiting to Dominion Energy to replace a transformer and as of the writing of this email we are still without water.
But let’s get to the important information. The March 6th Quarterly meeting is moving to a Zoom format with Tom Shearer and Jeff Taylor heading up the duties of running the Zoom operations. There will also be a meeting of the Executive Board on Wednesday the 3rd of March starting at 7:00pm. More information and agendas for both meetings will be out this week (check the CAPVA website).

Earlier, I sent out information concerning the Oratorical Contest and information about where to find OI’s guidance on doing a Virtual Oratorical Contest in your Clubs. It has been decided that the District Oratorical Contest will also be virtual. This will take place on Saturday, April 17th. Those Clubs that will be having participants for the District Contest need to contact the “small committee” that will be assisting Angie Wharton (Chair, Oratorical Contest) so that they can explain how the contest will run. All participants will present via Zoom on the 17th, Jeff Taylor will edit nonparticipant items (name, video review of the room/time of day) he in turn will had a “letter” for each participant as has been done in the past and add a small 30 to 60 second break between each participant. The judges will view the edited recording at a later date and there will be the normal time of each judge to complete their evaluations. Upon completing the evaluations of all the participants, the judges will then go into a “separate Zoom room” to discuss their evaluations with only Optimists in the room will be the timekeeper and Angie.

Upon agreeing on the first, second and third place winners they will rejoin the other Optimist present and all the participants will be invited to join in that Zoom meeting where the top three participants will be announced. The top three participants will be invited to present in Fredericksburg at our 3rd Quarterly meeting to receive their plaques. This dedicated group of Optimist volunteers are Jeff Taylor and Tom Shearer, Angie Wharton and with me hanging around. If you have questions about the logistics of the contest, please contact Tom or Jeff and if you have general questions about the registration please contact Angie.

Finally, the Essay contest. All Essays must be in Pat Steininger’s hands not LATER THAN 2-28-2021. Please keep in mind that the 28th is a Sunday and the mail service in Hopewell is beyond horrible. Pat’s address is:
Pat Steininger
3905 Yorkshire Place
Hopewell, VA 23860

Don’t forget Atlanta, International Convention registration is open and the hotel is accepting reservations. It is easy to get to and is going to be a lot of FUN!

Remember… YOU MAKE A DIFFERENCE BECAUSE YOU ARE AN OPTIMIST

Thomas Dance Wagstaff
Optimist Clubs of Greater Richmond, Colonial Heights, Hopewell & Amman Jordan
Governor Capital Virginia District 20-21

UPDATED!!! Capital-Virginia 2nd Quarter District Conference on Zoom
SATURDAY, MARCH 6, 2021 AT 9 AM EST – 4 PM EST

NOTE DATE CHANGE a & VENUE CHANGE!!! The Capital-Virginia 2nd Quarter District Conference is NOW scheduled for March 6th ONLINE through ZOOM from 9:00am to 4:00pm.

Based on the current status of COVID-19 I have discussed the second quarter meeting should be ONLINE through ZOOM. Information will be sent out closer to the meeting.

The Executive Committee will meeting either Wednesday or Thursday evening by Zoom. Agenda will be out by mid-January and date for Zoom meeting.