Kathrine Alderman
ECB Publishing, Inc.
The Altrusa Club here in Monticello held their second meeting of the month on Thursday, Feb. 25. Every month, the Altrusa club holds a business meeting on the second Thursday and a program meeting on the fourth Thursday, which features a speaker.
This month, the speaker for their meeting was Kitty McElhaney, the Governor of District 3 of Altrusa. They had planned to have two speakers, McElhaney and the other being a speaker from Jefferson Somerset. He sadly wasn't able to come due to complications.
The meeting began with Altrusa first going over a few business items. They discussed a few things, such as care updates and then an update from the finance committee. When the finance update was given, they were happy to announce that they had made more with their Souper Tuesday fundraiser than they had initially thought. They announced their current total was brought up to $4,265!
After just a few more announcements and confirmations, Kitty McElhaney was introduced as their speaker for the day.
McElhaney didn't seem to need a massive introduction. A lot of Altrusa members already seemed to be familiar with her. She has done quite a bit in the Altrusa world, initially joining the club in 2001. She then served two years as the Lake City Altrusa Club president and has also served in every level of the Altrusa Club: local, district, and international.
McElhaney conversed with the members of Altrusa more than giving an outright presentation. She was extremely 
friendly and talked to them mostly about what would happen at the Altrusa District Conference and some of what may be happening for their International Conference. Part of what McElhaney discussed was whether International would be in person or virtual. She, personally, is hoping that it will be in person. Hopefully, with the COVID-19 vaccine becoming more available and people starting to get vaccinated, they might be able to do international as face to face instead of virtual. In the same vein, McElhaney then discussed some of the safety protocols they had in place for the Altrusa District Conference, which will be in person. The hotel they'll be using, she mentioned, was extraordinarily safety-oriented. She assured all the members present that they're doing everything they can to make sure everyone who comes feels comfortable there.
McElhaney continued to talk about various things having to do with district and international levels of Altrusa. She talked about the conferences—what to expect, what kind of workshops will be at the district conference, what to watch out for at international, etc.
Once her presentation was over, McElhaney was given a gift basket by the members of the Monticello Altrusa, as well as a big round of applause. The members at the February program meeting were happy to have the District 3 governor there. Those who could, continued to converse a little more with her even after the meeting was over.
The Altrusa club meets twice a month, on the second and fourth Thursdays, in the Youth Room of the First United Methodist Church, located at 325 Walnut St., at 12 p.m. If you would like information on becoming a member of the local Altrusa Club, you can contact Kathy Joyner, the chair of the Altrusa Membership Committee, at (850) 528-5580 or email her at kathyjoyner@embarqmail.com.
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