Hello friends!

With our annual barbecue just two weeks (!) away we still need some help. As usual we need volunteers to work the event. For the barbecue this year, we have broken up volunteer positions into 1.5 hour shifts, so instead of being obligated to work the entire day you can volunteer and still have some time to fellowship and eat your barbecue. If you can, please volunteer to serve, work in the kitchen or volunteer to be a floater.

If you have a child or grandchild who is available to help please let me know and I can add them to the list. I started serving at the barbecue when I was a kid. We appreciate volunteers of any age!

We are also in need of desserts. To avoid the dessert oversupply that we had last year I have made a list of desserts that should supply our needs nicely.

To keep our desserts and volunteers organized, I am using a website called Volunteer Sign-Up. It’s free for us to use and will make volunteering easy. The sign up sheets for both volunteer positions and desserts are below. Click on the appropriate link below and look for a position that is open. Click on the arrow to the right and fill out the form.

Volunteer Sign-Up

Dessert Sign-Up

Table Cloth Donations

As discussed at the annual meeting we will be starting a new tradition. We will be using table cloths collected from the membership to cover the dining tables at the barbecue. Table cloths will be embroidered with the name of the family who donated it and the year it was donated. After every barbecue they will be washed and stored for use the following year.

Table cloths do not have to be new or any specific size (we can fold them to fit the round tables in the fellowship hall) but please make sure they are in good condition. If you have a table cloth you’d like to donate please contact Joni (macedonia_cemetery@hotmail.com).

Flyer

Below you’ll find a link to our flyer. Please print out as many as you like and distribute to all the places you frequent (doctor’s office, dentist, grocery store, gym, etc)!

Barbecue Flyer

I am excited about seeing everyone in a couple of weeks! I hope everyone is staying dry!

-Joni

Merry Christmas, friends!

The holiday season is mid-year for us so it’s a great chance to update you on what’s happened at the cemetery so far this year.

The Barbecue

Thank you to everyone who came out to the barbecue and an extra special thanks to everyone who volunteered! We raised $3543.50. Though everyone enjoyed the food and the overabundance of desserts, it fell short of what we anticipated. This leaves me determined to make sure 2016 is better! The barbecue is our primary source of revenue and we need the event to succeed. I am forming a committee to help plan the 2016 event and have already heard from several people who are interested in volunteering. If you are interested in serving on the committee or you have kids and/or grandkids who you’d like to see involved please let me know.

Fall Work Day

The work day was held on October 10. A small group of us met at the cemetery around 10 AM and spent about four hours working hard and eating some delicious brownies, thanks to Kaye Ferdon. We trimmed numerous trees and bushes on the property, dug up the yaupons and other saplings on the west side of the Dinkin’s plots and began cleaning some of the dirtier tombstones with the biological cleaner, as we discussed at the annual meeting. It was a beautiful day to work outside! We will continue to work on cleaning the tombstones at our next work day on April 30. That’s right! We will have a spring work day! Please mark your calendars.

Financials

This year the cemetery association has received $5,882.94 and has dispersed $3.882.31. Click here for our most recent financial summary. This is a condensed version of our treasurer’s report. If you’d like to see the complete report please email me (macedonia_cemetery@hotmail.com).

Our 2016 Annual Meeting will be held on May 21 at 2 p.m. I encourage you to attend; I know your time on the weekends is at a premium but the annual meeting is when all the business decisions regarding the cemetery get made and it’s imperative that we have your input. We will vote on a maintenance contract, set a budget for next fiscal year and elect officers. Please mark your calendars and plan on attending. If you don’t live nearby or cannot attend please feel free to send your comments and suggestions to the board via email or US mail prior to the meeting.

Important Dates:
April 30 – Spring Work Day
May 21 – Annual Business Meeting
June 25 – Barbecue

If you didn’t get a chance to make it to the barbecue this year and you’d like to make a donation, please do! Checks can be made out to Macedonia Cemetery Association and can be mailed to P.O. Box 22, Hockley, TX, 77447. We can also accept donations via PayPal and all major credit cards on our website. Go to www.macedoniacemetery.com  and click Donate, from there click on the Paypal logo and PayPal will walk you through the rest.

Thank you all for your continued support of our beautiful cemetery. I hope your family is doing well and I wish you all a merry Christmas and a prosperous new year!

Sincerely,

Joni Buck
President, Macedonia Cemetery Association

Happy Thursday, Friends!

This week my husband and I dug the last of our delicious smoked chicken out of the freezer…which means it’s time to start planning another barbecue!

I think we’re all well aware that the barbecue is barely holding us together. Financially, we’re treading water. The funds we raised last year (from the barbecue and other donations throughout the year) covered our operating expenses by less than $100. $100!

That’s a little too close for comfort.

With the seemingly endless increasing cost of maintenance – this trajectory that doesn’t bode well for us long term. We all have a stake in the cemetery being cared for well into the future and as it stands now the future is limited.

The first, and easiest, thing to do is to improve our existing fundraiser, the annual barbecue, to maximizing it’s fundraising potential.

I am looking for volunteers interested in serving on a committee to help plan the 2016 barbecue.

We will be covering the following topics:
-volunteer recruitment/management
-day of protein preparation/timing
-preparation and management of sides/desserts
-marketing to the surrounding community
-secondary income streams

I would expect at least two meetings of the committee. One in January/February and another one in April. If needed, we will have a third one in May (after the annual meeting).

I will be heading the committee; meeting times and dates will be determined after the committee is in place to best suit everyone’s schedules. Ideally, we’d have 5-7 people not including myself.

If you are interested in serving on the committee please send me an email me at macedonia_cemetery@hotmail.com

If you cannot serve on the committee but have observations/feedback from the barbecue you’d like the committee to consider, please let me know. I will bring all feedback to the attention of the committee and we will work to improve the barbecue in every way we can!

2016 will be a great year!

Joni

Our annual barbecue is approaching! Please mark your calendars for Saturday, June 29 from 1-4 PM!

Prices are below:

1 meat: $8
2 meat: $10
3 meat: $12
Brisket : $10/pound
Chicken: $10/each

We still need volunteers to serve plates, set up the day before and clean up afterwards. We also still need donations for the silent auction. Please email the board (macedonia_cemetery@hotmail.com) if you can help out.

We have some great activities planned for the kids and adults alike! No more bored kids looking for something to do – be on the lookout for a bean bag toss, balloon darts, ring toss, hula hoops, carnival style fishing and the always enjoyable knocking down of cans. For the older kids and adults we’ve got a mini basketball tournament planned and door prizes to give away.

So come get some delicious barbecue, have a great afternoon of fellowship with friends and family and help support the cemetery association!

The annual meeting of the Macedonia Cemetery Association will be held Saturday, May 18, 2013 at 2:00 PM and will last approximately 2 hours. Come, visit with old friends, elect officers and help us plan the annual barbecue.

The meeting will be held at Macedonia United Methodist Church located at:

23391 Macedonia Road
Hockley, TX 77447

If you’d like more information about the meeting please email the MCA board at macedonia_cemetery @hotmail.com.