This is just a reminder that the time is now to be making your reservation for the LAUGHLIN CEREMONIAL being held on from November the 6th to the 8th in Laughlin Nevada. If you are planning on attending please make sure that you have sent in your forms for Bus, Rooms, Lunch, Show, Table Top Lodge, etc and any of the other events that we will be having that weekend.
If you need the forms to be filled out refer to your October El Bekalan the page numbers are 7 & 8. We still have a few spaces on the bus but they are filling up at this time. If you have any questions please contact the Shrine office or you may contact me direct.
Also if you have a petition for a new candidate for this ceremonial please get it to the office so we can get it in the system and ready for the ceremonial.
We are looking forward to seeing you all at the Ceremonial to welcome all the new Nobles and their Ladies to El Bekal and the Shrine.
Yours in the Faith
Coy Love Potentate El Bekal Shriners
Screening Clinic
Nobles and Ladies,
On September 26 from 9A.M. - 1 P.M. at Angel stadium Shriners Hospital is having a free screening clinic for children as part of a "Fiesta Day" celebration. We have the potential to see a lot of kids. The Angels are giving two tickets to a game to each child screened. We will need a lot of help in screening these children. If you can help let me know. We will be in the parking lot at Angels Stadium in the Shriners Hospital tents. If you know any other clowns or greeters and other nobles or ladies who would like to help let them know.
Thanks,
Orland Weiss
New domain URL (web site address)
As of August 2009 our web address has changed from " www.elbekal.com " to " www.elbekalshrine.com ". This change has also been reflected in all our publications. Please make a note of this and notify everyone that you know accesses the web site for the Shrine ElBekalan or any of the Club or Unit bulletins. We want to thank all of you for making the new web site a success. The new web site is now getting an average of 500-600 hits per month minimum! This is a major improvement over the 320 hits the old web site was getting in an entire year :) The message is loud and clear. You all like the new site better and find it useful. Our web team will work very hard to make the web site even more user-friendly and filled with lots of fun content, photos and videos to view.
Shriners Hospital for Children in Springfield to set new course in tough economy
by The Republican Newsroom
Friday July 10, 2009, 6:48 PM
Photos by Mark M. Murray / The RepublicanPhilip E. Thomas, chairman of the board for the Shriners Hospital for Children, Springfield, said Friday morning that the local hospital already cut its $20 million 2009 budget by 6 percent and will make more cuts.
SPRINGFIELD - Friday was celebration day at Shriners Hospital for Children, but now comes the hard work of changing the way the hospital does business to deal with a new, tough economy.
"But what won't change is the level of care. We'll continue to take care of each of these children as if they were our own family," Dr. David M. Dvaric, chief of staff at Shriners, said following a news conference.
Trustees for all 22 Shriners Hospitals for Children in the United States and Mexico City voted Thursday to start accepting third-party payments from insurance companies and government agencies in order to help the hospitals make ends meet. The trustees had already voted Monday to keep all of the hospitals open.
A sign in front of the Shriners hospital on Carew Street in Springfield announces that the facility will not close.
Shriners Springfield hospital, along with hospitals in Greenville, S.C., Spokane, Wash., Shreveport, La., and Erie, Pa., had been targeted to close because their facilities were underutilized. A declining stock market reduced the endowment used to fund the hospitals from $8 billion to $5 billion.
Shriners officials said Friday they are still working out details of the restructuring, including added cooperation with neighboring Baystate Children's Hospital.
As it is written now, the new business plan doesn't call for reducing Shriners' staff of 210, said Shriner Allen G. Zippin, a trustee and former chairman of the Board of Governors at the hospital.
"People will have to go into new roles," Zippin said.
It might take a year for Shriners to start accepting insurance. But Zippin said Shriners will still pay for the care of children whose families cannot afford it and Shriners will not accept co-payments.
Springfield Shriners already cut its $20 million 2009 budget by 6 percent and will make more cuts, said Philip E. Thomas, chairman of the Board of Governors.
Part of the ongoing restructuring plan for all Shriners hospitals will include taking inpatient surgical centers and making them into same-day surgical centers.
"It's about cooperation and utilization," Thomas said.
Shriners has just 10 or 12 children getting inpatient care at any given time, Thomas said. But the hospital serves 20,000 outpatients a year from all over New England and Upstate New York.
Dvaric used the example of a child born with a clubfoot. Treating that deformity used to require one six-hour surgery followed by another hour-long surgery eight months later. In the past 10 years, doctors have learned how to repair clubfeet using casts.
Thomas said public support and ongoing fund-raising will be crucial to Shriners future. "It's public support that made the difference," he said.
THE TIME IS NOW ........to make your RESERVATIONS
