Author: Mary Pucel

It’s exciting to announce that we are collecting for Hats and Mittens for the 5^th year in a row! Hats & Mittens raises money, collects hundreds of hats and mittens for homeless children, and increases awareness of smaller and emerging non-profits serving children.

You can help by bringing a hat and mitten set (preferred to gloves) to the October and November Nokomis meetings, and to the 35^th Anniversary Party. Karen and Mark will kindly make our donation for us. If you don't have time to shop, or know the right place, never fear! We have elves that will do your shopping for you - simply donate money instead!

Thanks in advance for helping this worthy organization to help kids stay warm this winter

Greetings,

I hope you've all had a fantastic summer! There will be much catching up in September, I'm sure. In my family, we've had lots of travel for work, fun at the cabin, a trip to Buffalo for the Vikings game and to Niagara Falls, and all kinds of other fun. Plus, we made it to the Fair SIX TIMES!! Just like always, it's like a switch is flipped on Labor Day, and it's fall again and time for our new USS Nokomis year.

First things first: don't forget that all dues are due in September. Send yours by PayPal or bring them in person to the membership meeting. As promised, we'll also have some cool USS Nokomis umbrellas at the meeting for those who didn't get them at the 35th anniversary picnic. Heads up - there are FOUR UMBRELLAS! Speak up, or forever get wet. And don't forget that it's bowling time! See below for the details and join us. Everybody's welcome to this one - friends, family, kids, aliens from other clubs and worlds, etc.

New this year: please send me a note if you want to nominate someone for an award. Each October we have a fun review of our year at the membership meeting. We also have awards. These aren't your typical awards - we've had everything from the Miles O'Brien Award, the Dabo Girl Award, the Quatloo Queen Award, and more. You can make up your own, if you want, to recognize someone for something they've done that's kind, labor-intensive, or just pretty neat. No logical submission will be turned down!

It's time to start our planning for the big 35th Anniversary Bash on December 7th. Everyone is welcome to be on the committee to do the planning, and as you know the work is not hard and not long. We'll likely have dinner, dancing and fun, just like we had at Trek 50. This will be open to everyone, so tell your friends and plan to have a nice time at our (can you believe it?) 35th anniversary event.

Finally, welcome aboard to our new members! We hope to see you at the meeting in September and the bowling afterwards, so we can get to know you better!

See you around the galaxy!

Mary

Once again the USS Nokomis general meeting for September will be followed by bowling(as much as you want! it's covered!) at St. Francis Bowling Center, 426 Osceola Ave S, St. Paul MN. 55102.

First we have our meeting and make sure we've paid our membership dues for September 2019 to August 2020. Second we take a break and do yoga. Third we bowl.  Fourth we eat, at a restaurant, because that is a thing we do after meetings! Just kidding, we don't do yoga!  The September meeting is for going over the recommended activities for the next year, getting more ideas and reviewing the fun things we've done in the past year.

The bowling is for fun and our first 2019-2020 activity.  After our meeting is over the lanes are turned on and you can bowl until 4 pm or your arms give out!  Whichever comes first!  You may bring your own ball and kit or use the bowling centers supplies.  All members are welcome and we always welcome members of other science fiction groups.  If you are not a Nokomis member (or + 1) please email the to give us an estimate on numbers to expect.

So see you on Saturday September 14 at noon.

Roxanne Hill

We had lots of fun under the stars at the movie night on August 17th. The theme this year was Food, Glorious Food, and our episodes included By Any Other Name (TOS), Body and Soul (VOY) and Yesterday's Enterprise (TNG). Can you figure out how each one of those is related to food? Truthfully, we would have gone on to another one, but the big storm was approaching. We cleaned up just in time!

Our food was great. We had Denebian Porcupine Balls, Hasperat, Smashed Leola Root, Berry Nut Greens, Horta Eggs (Mocha and Peanut Butter) and Orange Cheesecake of the Prophets. Of course, no movie night is complete without fresh-popped corn!

Thanks to everyone that came, and special thanks to Lynne and Dawn for helping with the food, and Phill for his audio/visual expertise!

Mary & Jack

Special thanks to Denise and Mike for hosting us at their lovely cabin in Wisconsin on August 10th. We had a great time on the water, great food and a nice fire, and wonderful company. A small group trekked up to Duluth to watch the magnificent ships on Sunday, too. Don't we do fun stuff?

Greetings and felicitations!

I hope everyone is enjoying the nice(r) weather. Hurry up, because it's already August! We've had some good fun this summer, starting with our anniversary picnic in June. It was so fun to have a beautiful day, good food and fun friends, and what a wonderful thing to experience a Peep Toss after a years-long hiatus. It was especially fun to see the 20-somethings, who grew up on the Peep Toss, having a good time and remembering the glories of past Tosses. Thanks to Lori for the fun!

As you know, we have been working feverishly for months on the plans for CONvergence 2019. I'm happy to report that the room worked out well in the new hotel, and you can find details in this newsletter.

We have not been idle in our community service efforts this summer. We hosted our 36th blood drive at CONvergence, collecting 46 pints of blood. The better news is that we had 89 people who were willing to donate, so next year we'll be increasing the capacity of the drive. The best news of all is that we hit our 1,000 donor! The happy (and unsuspecting) winner received applause from the crowd and a prize pack of American Red Cross and USS Nokomis goodies from us. Thanks to Jane, Roxanne, Jenna and Joann, who all helped on Saturday at the bloodmobile. A special round of applause to Jane, who spent many hours calling donors in the weeks preceding the con.

Another community service event this month was our visit to Feed My Starving Children. A group of us packed food in the Eagan location, and our final total was 62 boxes and 13,392 meals packed. That's enough to feed 37 children for a year - great work!!

Don't forget our upcoming events (especially those that need advance registration). As I do every August, I am putting out a call for ideas for the upcoming calendar. At the September Governing Board meeting, we'll entertain all submitted ideas for social, community service and science fiction events. Send you ideas to me or another board member by the end of August, with all relevant details. Remember that no idea is too big or too small, and it always helps if you are willing to chair your activity. We know that there are lots of fun things to do out there, so let us know!

See you around the Galaxy!

Mary

Join us on the shores of Lake Superior for Festival of Sail Duluth 2019. The festival runs from Sunday, August 11 to Tuesday, August 13. We will be going on Sunday. The hours are 11am to 7pm. Tickets are sold on the website (www.festofsailduluth.com), and you should order them ASAP. We'll also be having a sleepover on Saturday night, thanks to Denise and Mike. They have a cabin half-way to Duluth and are welcoming us to come up on Saturday. We'll have breakfast in the morning and then caravan up to Duluth to meet those who aren't sleeping over. Please sign up by August 1st if you want to be included.