On 18th April, once again the Desert Steiners met in Mesa, Arizona in the commodious Pueblo Room of the Recreation Center at Spencer and Peggy Wessling’s retirement community. Twenty-three people were in attendance to witness a PowerPoint presentation on occupational steins professionally delivered by S.C.I. President Phil Masenheimer, who joined us from Tacoma, WA. Nice job Phil! We really appreciate your coming down to the “Valley of the Sun” to join our group on a beautiful spring day in the desert. (And by the way, many thanks for your leadership of S.C.I. over the last couple years. We really appreciate your efforts on behalf of all S.C .I. members.)

The Steiners began arriving around 11:00AM bringing steins, stories and many questions about their proud possessions. Shortly after noon, we all enjoyed a “pot luck buffet” of honey baked ham with numerous side dishes provided by the members – all coordinated again by Peggy Wessling. What a great gal!

After lunch, president “for life” Spencer Wessling presided over our brief business meeting, talking up the Las Vegas Convention, the on-going S.C.I. membership issues, sites for future meetings, and so on ….. Sec.-Treasurer “for life” Don Scheer told us we’re still able to pay our bills. New member Eric Pabst, son of recent new member Al Pabst was then introduced.

Next, Ron Heiligenstein presented his regular Prosit Quiz, which was won this time by S.C.I.’s new webmaster and a fellow Desert Steiner John Piet, who correctly answered all ten fairly difficult questions. Then, as mentioned above, S.C.I. Prexy Phil Masenheimer gave his excellent occupational stein presentation. Verrrrrrry interesting!

By 3:00P, members dispersed to all the corners of Arizona, from which they came, Prescott, Tucson, Surprise, Goodyear, Sedona, etc. The next meeting of this amiable group will be in Tucson on October 17th, 2009 - at a place to be announced later. Members will receive a meeting notice in plenty of time to make plans to bring a new stein collector friend and potential member and everyone should remember to check the S.C.I. web site - click on Calendar - for more information as we get closer to October.