Beth Chato - Joy of having Brian Barnhart as our speaker today. Tom Gordon - Joy of having wife Shirley as my guest and joy of our 59th wedding anniversary. Judy

Mission StatementExchange, America’s Service Club, is a group of men and women working together to make our communities better places to live through programs of service and Americanism, Community Service, Youth Activities and its national project, the Prevention of Child Abuse.

Meeting Leader: Beth ChatoPledge of Allegiance

Invocation: By David Wilson

Song: “God Bless America.” Led by Don Hunt, with JoAnn Smith at the piano. Also "Happy Anniversary" sung for Tom and Shirley Gordon.

G uest - Shirley Gordon and Chuck Huegy (guest of Dick Underwood).

Joys and Sorrows: Read by Tom Gordon.

Weekly Meeting –Aug 25, 2016Reporter - Fred Schlipf

EchoesOur 91th Year

Exchange Clubs Nation Wide: Focusing on Families and ChildrenSo Proudly We Hail

The Exchange Club of Urbana, IL, meets each Thursday at Clark Lindsey in Urbana at noon. Lunch served 11:20 a.m to 1 p.m. President: Beth Chato, Urbana, Illinois.

Address inquiries to: Secretary Van Bowersox, 1811 Clover Lane, Champaign, Il 61821https://urbanaexchangeclub.wordpress.com/

Board Meeting Tues. Sept. 20.

Upcoming Programs : Sept. 1 - Barb Garvey, Museum of Grand Prairie.

Sept. 8 - Kristy Stoker, Guide, Green House Homes

Sept. 15 - Julian Sanchez, John Deer Technology Center

Sept. 22 - Scott Swartz, UI Sousa Archives.

before the games. The notes include details on all the players, including their histories, records, and statistics.

While broadcasting, Bryan pulls information out of the game notes as needed (or to fill air time). He also has a button he can push to pick up the referees’ calls.

Brian said he spends eight or nine hours getting reading for each game.

There is also an “analyst,” someone who has played football and can talk about why and how after Brian has covered what, where and when. And a statistician whose information appears on Brian’s monitor.

In addition to juggling all of this, Brian reads commercials. By the end of a three-and-a-half-hour broadcast, he says, his “mind is like scrambled eggs.”

For basketball, Brian is at courtside. He doesn’t use a spotter, because he can see the numbers and there are only 10 players on the court, but occasionally coaches or referees stand right in front of him.

The problem with baseball is finding something to talk about when there is so little action. (Brian says there’s about eight minutes of action in a three-hour game.)

Hummel: A good trip to Maryland. JoAnn Smith: $2 in the pig for a nice story in the News-Gazette about Don Hunt’s retirement as trustee of the Edge-Scott Volunteer Fire Department. Gary Stensland: $1 for the joy that the U of I volleyball season starts Friday. Dick Underwood: $ for the joy of his guest Chuck Huegy. Ron Wilcox: The joy of having Brian Barnhart speak today.More music The members sang (in honor of the guest speaker) Take Me Out to the Ball Game, Hail to the Orange, and (with a somewhat less obvious connection to Illini sports) In the Good Old Summertime. Contents of pig: $15 plus $59 for the project fund, for a total of $74.

Program : Ron then introduced today’s speaker, Brian Barnhart, “Voice of the Fighting Illini.”

Brian grew up near Tolono and graduated from Unity High in 1982. He attended Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia. After working in Virginia and Oklahoma City, he became an announcer for the Anaheim Angels. He joined WDWS in 2000 and became the voice of the Illinois in 2002. WDWS has three radio stations, all operating out of the same building, and Brian appears

on all three. Brian also guest lectures on broadcasting at the U of I.

The U of I football season begins on September 3 with an at-home game with the Murray State Racers. Brian says that right now the team is selling hope, but there have been a lot more season ticket sales this year.

Brian talked about techniques for play-by-play reporting from the press box high on the 8th floor in the stands, where he’s too far away to see the numbers on the players and sometimes cannot even see all the action. He fabricates player sheets (“score sheets”) with U of I offence/visitors defense on one side and U of I defense/visitors offence on the other. (And he passed around examples.) The sheets separate the various positions, so he can find names quickly.

To help him with the things he can’t see, Brian has a “spotter” on the field to tell him who the specific players are, including who does what on each play. At away games, Brian can’t always take his regular spotter with him, and he relies on local staff or uses binoculars to see the numbers on the jerseys. (Teams occasionally come up with clever new color schemes where the numbers are unreadable.)

In addition, all teams produce “game notes” that are distributed