Hey guys--

I thought I was going to wipe the cobwebs off of this thing, but unfortunately, Ali beat me to it. Anyways... first off, yes, it's been incredibly busy (as I'm sure you've guessed), both on the CKI front and in personal news. I'll spare you the details, but first, let me tell you all about my communication problem this week (if you haven't already figured it out). Apparently, sometime at the start of last week, someone with mighty powers decided that I should be kept in a black hole, and should not communicate with anyone. I'm saying this, because at the same time, my cell-phone broke, and my e-mail account ceased to work. By "broke" and "ceased to work" -- what I mean is that my cell phone does NOT ring, and gives me messages about 5-6 days after they were left. By Sunday I had 27 new messages-- and I had no idea they were there. So-if you left me one, I'm working on the pile. My e-mail.. doesn't let me check it. After 3 days of telling me my password was "incorrect" - I finally let Yahoo change it for me (to some weird unrememberable thing, I might add)-- and THAT password is apparently incorrect too. I think it's FINALLY fixed today (after some hounding on my part)... so we'll have to see.
The moral of the story is this: Don't call my cellphone, call my home #, at least for the time being. That's (504) 887-7786. Please not after midnight. If you call my cellphone & leave a message... and you don't hear back from me in 2-3 days, you can safely assume that I DID NOT get the message. E-mail me! For right now, still use my lmt_Governor@yahoo.com account, because I think it's okay.. but I will not hate you if you forward everything (for now)... to my rlfox@loyno.edu address.

With THAT said (sorry, but I had to let you all know what the problem was)-- I started working a new job... I work 11-7 Monday through Saturday, unfortunately. So... if you need to call, please do before or after that time, or all day Sunday. I can ask off- just need to do it in advance, so if you want me to come visit (and I WANT to come visit)... try to let me know 2-3 weeks in advance! :)

International Convention - You guys are giving Tommy a terribly hard time. (Kinda cool, because it's fun to watch :) But kinda not cool, because being a past-travel chair, I know how hard it all can be). Unbelievably enough, at least 10 people have completely altered their I-con plans in the past 2 weeks. By this I mean they have either decided to go, or not decided to go. Hopefully we've gotten wind of all of them-- but if you have someone in your club who has either decided to go last minute, or decided not to go, PLEASE let us know! (tommy3276@yahoo.com). You will not be penalized, you will not be yelled at, just understand that we NEED to call The Meeting Connection EVERY TIME we have a rooming change, or cancelled/added registration... this isn't something that can be done once we get there. Please don't make everyone else in your room have a screwed up situation, because we didn't know ahead of time that you were/weren't planning on going. I couldn't even tell you the final count anymore-- except for that it's somewhere between 32 and 38. I don't have the District totals, but when I find out, I'll let you know where we stand! I'm pretty confident that we still have one of the biggest district groups and that we'll be seen & heard at Convention.
Also, Goody Packets HAVE been ordered. If you didn't order one-- I think we ordered about 6 extra ones in various sizes. You NEED to claim one of those ASAP, or you may not get one at all. Also, you need to send your money in (by check to Tommy) no later than THIS Friday. The packet is $20 (or more if you have a larger t-shirt size), and includes the shirt, 10 pins, & 20 stickers. If you want to bring extra money, you can purchase extra stickers there ($1.00 for 20) or extra pins (30 cents each).
Kudos to Travel Chair Tommy Stephenson for his hard work with all of that!

Alison covered just about everything else... so here are my other daily (weekly?) parts of the blog:

International Corner - Although the new website is still in a re-building phase, Michael has been great and put up all of the candidate for International Trustee letters up there. (http://www.lamisstenn.org/circle-k). All International Candidates are allowed to send letters to the Governor, District Board, International Board-- and that's it. From there, it is the job of the people who get the letters to pass them on to everyone else. I've done so, and encourage you all to read them. Even if you're not going to convention-- you can read them, and give feedback on which candidates you like/don't like to your club delegates. This is your chance to make your voice heard!
I will have these letters (as well as copies that I've received via snail-mail) on hand for you to look at at Convention, but the election process has changed dramatically this year-- so it's best to look at everything beforehand. For example, candidates have all sent in their literature beforehand. That packet is available on the CKI website, at: They will NOT be allowed to hand out any literature in the caucus rooms. Therefore, what you see is what you get-- you can write down questions now to ask... and candidates who run "off the floor" won't have an opportunity to give you any literature. Please check out the stuff now so that you'll be prepared when we all get there! :)

Governor's Shoutout - The shoutout for today goes to Becki Simonis, and Mississippi State University for their hard and outstanding work in planning our Summer Rally. This is an event not to be missed, and that is greatly because of their creativity and dedication. I can't wait to see you all in Starkville on August 15-17th. Thanks MSU again for hosting!