Hello to all & welcome to Spring! Our skies are blue on occasion. We still have some warm days between the rainfall for this year & overall the combination of cold to warm, wet to dry reminds us we are alive, should be doing something that we all enjoy & cherish. It’s a great time of year to be with family & friends; Life as we know it is too short. We need to maximize the great times we have in life, some of that always involves the Fratellanza Club events & activities. We are still planning many exciting events for this year. If you have an event you would like us to “include” please reach out to any Officer or Board Member with your suggestion.

We are entering our Holy Month & the memories of Easter when we were a tad younger. It always was a family time of year. The Fratellanza Family wants you to re-engage in making & attending family functions with the Club.

Next month we are planning a super Mothers Day Brunch chaired by Art Parziale. Art has carefully planned this sit down event where you can begin with Gin Fizzes & eat to your heart’s delight. Please look for the flyer for the date, time, & menu items. If you are interested in helping we appreciate your involvement. Please make reservations for this event.

Moving forward we should expect to see progress on our roof leak as weather permits. We have many smaller projects that need to be completed. Roland will be updating us with a maintenance weekend date where we can join together, put our skills together, make the Club more effective & cleaner to the eye.

We always want to thank all of you who are always there to do so many things. A thank you does not give the respect you deserve, however, for me it has always been gratifying to receive a thank you. I hope that the many of you who continuously help in so many ways will continue that path to make our Club better.

May God Bless everyone of you, your families & have a wonderful Easter.

Let’s go out & do the right thing, it’s the right thing to do.

Thank you,
Ron Blair

Auguri Amici,
I wish you a cheerful Spring season. I see blossoms & new leaves & our indoor bocce courts are dry.

The Spring bocce league is starting with a full line up of teams again. Other seasonal news is about Art Parziale bringing back breakfast service for the Mother’s Day Brunch on May 7. Find the flyer for the details.

I can tell you that you will place your order with a waiter & get back a plate of freshly prepared hot food delivered to your seat.

There are some changes surrounding the club. We have a new janitorial service this year & they are pretty good. We are also talking to a new security service company & I expect them to be hired for night events starting now.

For those following our reroofing project I will tell you that we have done nothing during the past rainy month. Maybe April will bring some dry weeks & the roofer can plan to complete the project.

There are other improvements in the works. The Men’s Club has been having discussions with the Ladies Club the past two months & I think we will see some projects this year. I hope to see new code compliant curtains at the stage & maybe we will upgrade the front Women’s bathroom.

One thing that is really important, yet to be accomplished, is to have a long term plan for repairs, maintenance & improvements. In recent years there has been no reason to plan on how to prioritize spending on projects if we did not have much money to spend. But I am optimistic that we can come up with a master plan this year. One of the reasons for my optimism is due to the seasonal nature of the club’s finances. We earn more money early in the year from members paying their dues & from Crab Feeds. Later in the year we are trying to break even with income from dinners that cover our overhead. I don’t want to spend club funds on a master plan which we can accomplish ourselves. If you have ideas please forward them to me. After a round of meetings with the ladies, by the end of the year, we should be able to present a plan which prioritizes our needs. It may be a sobering review to see how much money we will need to get it all done. That is why it may take years to make big progress. Stay tuned for updates.

Sempre Avanti,
Roland Lazzarotto

For those of you who missed it, our Anniversary dinner was one of the best dinners I have ever had (thank you Rich Vila for doing a superb job of procuring the food, absolutely incredible!). Also, Thank you Tim Tomei for stepping in as our Master of Ceremonies for the evening & to Gianfranco Sciacero who is always there to perfectly place our tables, to the many volunteers from our ladies social club & each & everyone of you who helped make this evening a huge success. The dining hall looked wonderful & it was simply great cutting into a 1-1/2 inch stuffed, bone-in pork chop for dinner. Our cooks were outstanding & a huge thank you to Sherri Nichelman who prepared home made dessert for all of our dinner guests. Again a huge thank you to all.

I have heard from many of you that there is interest in experiencing the Napa Valley Wine Train. I will be finalizing a date & hopefully it will be convenient for all of those interested in attending. It is a great afternoon with gourmet food & wine; tours of wineries & of course camaraderie for all. The best time to attend this event is between March & May so look for more information to follow as well as other planned events for 2023.

Our Crab feeds are right around the corner & reservations are pouring in. Please remember that seating is limited; First to reserve is guaranteed so please do not delay in sending in the number of guests in your dinner party. We have two dates to support this event, Saturday February 25th & Sunday, March 5th, so get involved & stay involved.

We are continuing to monitor our roof issue & those who attended our membership meeting this week approved a preliminary budget to begin this repair as soon as it can be scheduled after the issuance of a permit. Please remain confident that everything possible is being done to limit & control the damage. We will be upgrading our back bar with in conjunction to the needed repairs of our roof & ceiling.

Lastly, a great way to stay involved with the Club, particularly the new members who have joined within the past few years is to chair a dinner, help serve an event or to bring your friends & family to one of our functions. I will be contacting many of you to step up & be a part of the workings of our Club, you can help make it better for all of us.

We have some exciting opportunities that will occur in 2023 ranging from a car show & a professional gaming tournament at the Club during summer. It’s a good time to get involved & stay involved, so let’s do it together!

It is the right thing to do, so let’s do the right thing.

Thank you,
Ron Blair

From the Chairman

Auguri Amici,
La parola per oggi e ottimismo. Al Fratellanza Club si dice “sempre avanti” e penso che adesso abbiamo ragione.

There are many reasons to be optimistic about the future.
1. More people are coming to club events.
2. We are wrapping up a fun Bocce season after being off for the pandemic years.
3. We are looking forward to a great Ladies Polenta dinner.
4. In the next few weeks there will be two big Crab Feeds that I think will reach full attendance.
5. I am already looking forward to a Day at the Races with the Ladies Club.

We have had a good wet winter to fill up our reservoirs & it has tested our building’s roof. We have found that one section of roof, that has had small leaks for years, now has a big leak over the back bar. I made a lot of calls to roofers & ended up climbing up the ladder with five different estimators. We received five submittals & our board reviewed them as follows: We threw out the high & low bids & then focused on the three in the middle. Rich Vila is doing some due diligence on one of the bidders & within a few days we will have a roofer selected. The Board & the membership approved a budget of $22,500 to include the roofing work, potential dry rot repair & repair to the interior ceiling area at the back bar. As soon as we sign a contract, the work will be scheduled & it will depend on weather & workload, but I expect it will be completed within a couple of months.

Our new president Ron Blair is working through some health issues & has a strong program of events he wants to plan this year. Let’s join him in keeping the Fratellanza Club the great club that it is & participating in more activities.

Sempre Avanti,
Roland Lazzarotto