Unfortunately, the Slovak American Citizens Club of Phoenixville, PA (located at 310 Gold Street, right near Morgan Street, the unmarked entrance with the large decorative 'S' on the outer door) decided to take action and sent me a letter via Certified Mail™ and they even paid for Return Receipt!

My neighbor is a member of this club, as are several other people I know. Although there are no previous comments on this posting, I thought that you might like to know that your announcement has been read and Phoenixville is "buzzing" with people talking about it, as I believe you may have been the first at any social club to propose any such amendments.
Personally, I am 100% behind your efforts and I congratulate you for taking a firm stand. Unfortunately, my elderly neighbor and a few others do not feel the same as I. When I told them I intended to post a comment, I was quite literally warned not to. It seems that ruffling feathers is not allowed.
Change is slow to come to a small town but stay the course. There is an army of people in the shadows that are behind you!

Some folks object to exclusive African American clubs and organizations, like the MONTCO Black Police club, but they still flourish. I agree with Ike. Blacks and Slovaks should be allowed to have their clubs, which reflect their culture, music, customs, and which would be changed forever if forced to give up 'private' for 'public.'

Sound like you have a personal problem with the Slovak Club. GET OVER IT!
There are more important issues in this town.

Threatening someones membership for offering suggestions to combat a dying membership is one of the most ludicrous comments I have ever heard. If The Slovac Club did this, I would think you may have some legal rights you might want to pursue against the club.

Was at the Y earlier tonight and your announcement and all these comments are on everyones lips, but from what I am to understand, the club is not what it once was, so I question why you would want to even be a member. From what I have heard, they call people nasty names and spread a lot of rumors about people at that club. I was, also, told that a number of people, including some of the current people serving, have or have had drug issues. Personally, just not a place I would be proud to be a member of.

Nemo -

Thanks for sharing your link to previous comments. The thing that is concerning me is that so many of us have worked for YEARS to cleanup Phoenixville. So, I can't understand why the police aren't doing more to help with this problem. I have teenagers that walk through the Slovacs parking lot on a regular basis. I don't want my kids influenced by the parking lot drug use. My neighbor told me that the lot is owned by the condo lofts, not the Slovac club, so I suppose this is how they are getting away with it, without blame. Maybe someone should organize a volunteer "Town Watch" and with the loft owner's permission, stake people out around The Slovac Club, reporting any suspicious activity to the police.

So what you are saying? if I hear your right, you are saying that because the Slovac is a private club, they should be allowed to do whatever they want, including drugs. If that is so, I would like to hear what the LCB might have to say about that. Ike you should be happy folks came and paid more for houses in Phoenixville. Otherwise this town really would be hurting! Clearly, you are clueless and you are certainly clueless on how many efforts have been made to cleanup the high school.

Just in case anyone does not know the location of the Slovak Club, I have uploaded two new files of the entrance at 310 Gold Street. Patch is reviewing them now and they will go live when approved.

Douglas I believe you were a supplier for pot yourself!

[PART I]

I just uploaded another file. It's a photograph of everything that had accumulated behind the bar at the Sloval Club for me -- three envelopes of goodies. The three envelopes were handed to me by Carol Louise Friel, who is employed as a bartender at the Slovak Club. One envelope contained $100 in gambling winnings from the Slovak Club High-Low Football Pool run by Trustee Robert J. Hogga. The buy in was $80 for the season, and there were 32 spots in the pool. There was another fringe benefit, a free food spread and all the free beer you could drink from the Slovak Club during the Superbowl. Anyway, the other envelope contained $20 in gambling winnings from the same pool. I put the $120 into a 529 account for my toddler daughter's college fund. The third envelope contained a letter dated October 24, 2010 -- the letter from the Board of the Slovak Club in response to my complaint letter of September 19, 2010 (an unsigned, redacted version the complaint has already been uploaded here as a PDF file). I redacted the body of text of the response letter as well as the signatures of the Board members. The letter ended with the signatures of the following four Board members --

Robert Hogga (Robert J. Hogga)
John Pufko (John E. Pufko)
Carol Taney
Beach Reichert (aka James Scott Reichert, aka "Beach")

[PART II]

I definitively learned he difference between legal games of chance and illegal games of chance from a television program segment that featured a Pennsylvania State Police Officer explaining the concepts. He explained that it was not illegal to participate in such a pool, but it was illegal for an establishment to conduct such a pool. The Slovak Club did have a certificate from Ann Duke, Treasurer of the County of Chester to conduct "LOCAL OPTION - SMALL GAMES OF CHANCE", however, I learned that the certificate did not cover the Slovak Club High-Low Football Pool, because of a number of features. One feature was that the positions in the pool were not picked by skill, but by chance. Although I paid $80 all at once, in advance, others preferred to pay the bartender on duty periodically. The bartender would put the payments in an envelope and leave them for Trustee Hogga to pickup. Trustee Hogga maintained a Slovak Club High-Low Football Pool on the cork board, so you could know in advance who to root for during game day. He explained that the roster contained no names, just an assigned number for each participant, so that if the LCB came in they could use the roster as evidence.

[PART III]

Robert J. Hogga, was a very, very interesting person and he gave me many gifts in the form of conversations before his loss to cancer. He had a way about him and a charm that is hard to describe. If you knew him, you probably know what I'm talking about. It turns out that he and my family went back about 40 years, from his return from service from the Vietnam War. We discovered the amazing coincidence one day while chatting at a BBQ in Phoenixville. My grandparents ran a local motel in Massachusetts outside the gates of US Army Base For Devens called Motel Linda, named after my Aunt Linda. While he told me great stories about Motel Linda, he became very enthusiastic and happy remembering the place. He also became interested in my nephew Eli, because he won the VFW's Patriot's Pen essay contest both at his local VFW and for the entire state of Illinois, and he won a trip to Washington, D.C. to compete in the finals. He really liked my nephews essay and let me know why he liked it. I know he would've really liked to have heard that Eli just won the Voice of Democracy audio-essay contest at his local VFW and is going to the Illinois finals soon.

Aren't all of us suppose to be discussing the proposed changes to this club's By-Laws? Seems to me that the By-Laws could be changed, but who is accepted for membership may be another issue.

I am following the teachings of Muhammad Ali lately, and it is day 6 of Black History Month.

http://www.latimes.com/includes/projects/hollywood/portraits/muhammad_ali.jpg

Lisa, sorry if my Part I, II, III were not about that, but you're right about the others. The peanut gallery is clearly attempting an "ad hominem" attack. Class, follow the link at the bottom if you want to learn about the ad hominem fallacy. One point is that some people think that they have figured out a way for the proposed By-laws changes to not even come up for a vote by somehow ending my membership before the meeting time when I bring them up again, as required by the By-laws. The meeting was rescheduled from the 24th to the 17th of February -- the 17th day of Black History Month.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ad_hominem

Don't let them stop you from voicing your opinions. You have every right as a member. If they try to discontinue your membership prior to the meeting, short and simple - sue them and really give Phoenixville something to talk about. You are right, they are very wrong!!!

Our ethnic clubs in America enjoy the intimacy of a private club, to share common
interests and want to keep the traditions of their parents and grandparents. Every member shares in the support of the community and enjoy social functions a club may host throughout the year.
The clubs in this town are no different. They function at their own levels in despite of the financial difficulties affecting all of them. It is their right to remove hostile members who disrespect their tradition and create a series of attacks agaist their members. It is obvious you want your vengence. There is no club that would keep
you as a member and was a safety decision for this club to revoke your membership.
If you are actually so involved and respectful of Black History Month, that is honorable. But,some advise to you would be not to pursue this campaign of yours or you will find yourself being sued.You and Lisa should use your energy more usefully.

Eakins, how do you know that the Slovak Club has revoked my membership? I don't even know that! I assume that since you claim to have this knowledge that you are on the Board of Trustees or are some other officer or ex officio. "Hostile", "vengence", "was a safety decision for this club to revoke your membership" -- you have no idea what you are talking about, but I'm glad you brought this new information to my attention, if you are to be believed.

Eakins, are you Al Eakins or Amy Eakins? Would you like to get together and chat?

Doug I don't believe you know what you are talking about. Your attempt to change the by laws of this club are completely unnecessary! The Slovak club, as well as all private clubs that I know of, already allow anyone to apply for membership. The by laws usually read: Any legal resident or citizen, without regard to race, creed, religious affilation, sexual orientation...etc., may apply for membership. I believe your posts are inaccurate, false and misleading in this regard. You should not be permitted to use Patch as your personal soap box. You obviously have some personal axe to grind.

Eakins and Ike,

To refer to The Slovac Club, in Phoenixville, as an ethnic club would be like me calling a dog a pig. I doubt very much that they have many members, if any, that are actually Slovacian. In regards to Doug being threatened with losing his membership, he has done nothing wrong except to make amendments to change their By-Laws. From my understanding, he was a member in good standing. To assume anything else is just plain ludicrous. People should stop jumping to conclusions.

I am reminded by someone in my office of "The First Amendment" - the right to the freedom of speech.

Lisa, there is no need to change their By-laws. They do not exclude anyone from applying for membership!

The amendment concerning not allowing felons to serve drinks or handle money. I don't know what club would want a felon handling their club money. If the By-Laws already speak to the other stuff, maybe this is the only issue that needs to be addressed. Does the liquor control board allow felons as bartenders or to handle club mioney. Maybe membership should be aware of this issue, prior to hiring someone.

Lisa, the harm is why bother? Why would someone want to have a law redefined when it is already perfectly defined? I would question the motives behind the request because the request is rediculous. It would be different is the request was being made by someone who did not know what the by laws said. I don't understand why an intelligent person would be bothered to request something be added when it already exists. He must have an ulterior motive, other than wasting everyones' time and I'm sure it's personal. He should not be bad mouthing the Slovak Club. When he does, he is basically bad mouthing all private clubs. All the by laws are similar if not exactly the same. His comments make no sense. They are inaccurate, false and misleading and should not be permitted to continue to appear on this site. The more he complains, the more it would appear that he is just trying to cause trouble.

[Part A]

Everybody should know that I received a certified letter yesterday with return receipt claiming to be from the "Slovak American Club". I opened the letter this evening after our family Chinese lunar new year festival dinner.

I don't know if the Slovak American Club is affiliated with the Slovak American Citizens Club of Phoenixville, PA -- but they list their address as P.O. Box 165, Phoenixville, PA 19460-0165. That is the same address that the Slovak American Citizens Club of Phoenixville, PA uses with certain government agencies. The interesting thing is that the Avery-type label on the letter was printed as "Slovac American Club", but someone wrote 'k' over the 'c' in "Slovac" by hand with a pen.

Inside the main envelope was a tri-fold computer-printed letter and an envelope folded twice with a sticky note on the envelope.

The letterhead on the letter was as follows:

Slovak American Club
P O Box 165
310 Gold Street
Phoenixville, PA 19460
610-935-1470

[Part B]

The letter from the Slovak American Club is dated January 25, 2013. The letter was written five days after I attended the monthly meeting of the Slovak American Citizens Club of Phoenixville, PA and officially proposed integrating the establishment, and five days after I created this blog on the Phoenixville Patch as a citizen journalist under the category of "Announcement", and five days after uploaded the four PDF files detailing the proposed additions to the By-laws (with the caveat that I had one spelling error, in one amendment and I noted that there was a typo in the title of the PDF file for that amendment).

The letter starts off "Dear Douglas J. Trainor" and goes on to state that "loyal members of the Slovak American Citizens Club" requested that the officers hold a meeting and the meeting of officers was held on January 25, 2013 (the same day the letter was dated).

The letter states that the officers reviewed "the announcement you submitted to Phoenixville Patch". The letter goes on to state that "the officers felt this is unbecoming proper conduct for a member of the club" and that it was "Due to the fact that you publicly put forth club business in such a forum". The letter goes on to state that the "Board of Directors has decided to bring disciplinary action toward you. Your membership is now revoked, and your presence is no longer permitted on club property".

[PART C]

The letter is not signed by anyone, but attributed at the bottom to "Club Officers".

The sticky note says, "Doug, Please return your 2013 membership card in enclosed postage paid envelope." The self-addressed, stamped envelope had two Avery-type labels affixed, for both the destination and return address, and were duplicates of the Avery-type label on the outer envelope, again with "Slovak" spelled incorrectly as "Slovac" but with 'k' written over the 'c' in "Slovac" by hand with a pen.

Sorry to hear this happened to you, Douglas. I think you should appeal their decision, especially with no signature. Doesn't seem quite legal. On that note, a friend on Washington Avenue whose back porch abuts the lot and who hates the parking lot drug activity as much as myself told me that she can identify "all" the offenders. Not sure I can convince her to go public with this information, but I will keep working on her.

Change comes slowly to a small town??? NO it dont!!!! Not when it aint nobodys BUZZINNESS..... Dougiee iam not being a smart azz , but like i said its a orivate lub , who were nice enough to let you join.. I think your kinda of new to our town .But IT WELL KNOW THAT THATS THAT.. ...Fire houes private clubs . They have whom ever hey want to join . And not just whites..Sorry , but you should had just let it be. SOUR GRAPES , ! You should had taking another way of getting back at whom ever you were MAD AT. Take care.................