I’ve had the honor to be your President this last year. And, I have some people I’d like to thank, both for the work done and for helping me to do what I could for the Club.
First, winter trips, led by Josh Sensintaffar , got super trips to Beaver Creek, Telluride, Whistler, and Steamboat. As a relative newcomer, I was a little shocked at the complexity of making all the pieces of winter trips fit together. Josh, together with Karla and others, somehow made all of it work. Josh will be your president next year, so be gentle with him!
Summer trips chair, Linda Stubbs, put together a trip to the Colombia River Gorge, a scenic and beautiful place few of us would have gone otherwise. BTW, there are still a few pillows left for this trip, so if you are into scenery and nature, give it some thought.
Dave Dennis has found the Club convenient and always– pleasant places for our Skiers Night Out events. Please don’t think this is easy—Dave visited each place beforehand, and made sure it had adequate accommodations and service for our crew. Again, not easy, and very time-consuming.
Particularly impressive for me this year was the organization of both the summer picnic and the Christmas party. The picnic was a great example of Club members all doing their part to make a casual event run smoothly, and best of all, memorable. The Christmas party, as I watched the planning stages from the outside, seemed like chaos that was captured, only just, by the organizational skills of Leslie Mullinax and her cohorts in crime. I have to admit, participating in the preparation for those two events sometimes made me laugh out loud. But, as I learned, that was much more a reflection of my inexperience. The reality was two events that came off flawlessly.
Thanks to determined efforts by Haven Willis, both membership and retention were up this year.
And, it would be a gross oversight not to give Karla and Andrea the kudos they so richly deserve. As many of us have come to realize, they’re the principal cogs that make the organization work on both a daily and ongoing basis (I know, it’s a cliché, but in this case absolutely true, and deserved!)
Finally, it’s been a wonderful experience for me. I very much appreciate the people I’ve gotten to know and rely on, and the opportunity to visit and ski places I likely never would’ve ventured to on my own. Thanks to all of you for the opportunity and the experience.
Bob Pezold