2017 MCJ Reunion Cruise Funtastic!

Hello family, hope everyone had a great Labor Day and you're safe from the bad weather approaching Florida as we speak. The 2017 MCJ Family Reunion Cruise is in the books and has received rave reviews as we had an incredible fun time! Kudos, shout outs, and congratulations are in order for Will & Dee Simon for hosting an exciting and unique experience for the family. Approximately 102 attendees and roughly 37 cabins booked on the Carnival Victory for our 3 day cruise to the Bahamas. Glad it was last week and not this week, yikes, did you see what happened in the Bahamas and that area of the Caribbean? Count our blessings! Anyway, on to 2018 in New Orleans. But before we talk about next year, here's a brief recap of the family business we handled aboard the cruise.

We were able to have a meet and greet on Friday evening 9/1 as Will welcomed everyone and spoke about what we could expect for the weekend. The Scholarship Committee gave a brief overview of how they would handle the scholarship awards for the youth while on the cruise. Will & Ernest both acknowledged that our process and communication regarding the scholarship program aboard the cruise this year was imperfect and we apologize for that. But, under the circumstances we tried to do the best we could and the committee worked hard to get it done. Going forward, everyone is strongly encouraged to avail themselves to all channels of MCJ Family communication including the website, (www.mcjfamilies.com), facebook, (mcj family reunion 2016), and the email list. That way you'll be sure to have the latest information on whats going on with the family.

At the MCJ Business meeting on Saturday 9/2 we took a vote to reallocate the seed money given to Will last year (600.00 which he added 100.00 to make it 700.00) so that the 700.00 became the basis of the scholarship fund. Lee added 300.00 from tee shirt sales so we now had the 1,000.00 that the scholarship committee needed to fully fund their award recommendations for the youth. The scholarship spreadsheet report will be emailed to the family list and shared on FB so that you can track the awards given the last two years. Kay, our vice president spoke briefly about the need for the family to consider additional fundraising activities so that we might begin to build investment funds that would grow with the family and help us to acquire revenue generating assets. She'll speak more about that next year in New Orleans. Ernest encouraged everyone to pay their family reunion dues early so we could have working capital for planning the 2018 Reunion in New Orleans. We also collected 200.00 for the web hosting and maintenance of the website. We have a great website on Wix and we've just begun to scratch the surface of the many features we will add so between the web hosting and maintenance its about 22.00 per month.

So get ready for an absolutely epic experience in New Orleans in 2018 and also be reminded that in 2019 we are slated to go to Virginia Beach , Virginia hosted by our cousin Debra Croskey and family. Since we have a bit of experience this year dodging hurricanes, keep those track shoes handy in case we need them in New Orleans because you know that Labor Day is the height of hurricane season for the entire Gulf Coast and Atlantic seaboard. Don't forget to pay those dues early, we will get the first family reunion newsletter out by Thanksgiving this year. Checks, money orders, paypal, quick pay, just direct the funds to Ernest Collins, email ecollinsemg@gmail.com., (504) 717-9824. Be safe and give hugs and love to the family. Peace!