report by D Chaisson
These were the up-front statistics:
Yosemite Region Annual Dinner
Sunday February 11th
Redwood Café in Modesto
Here is an additional statistics from the meeting worth thinking about:
48 members/guests attended — representing almost 25% of all members/associates in the region. For a comparison, for Golden Gate Region to get 25% they would have to rent out the convention center for over a 1000 people!
Yes, the meeting was a success!
The Redwood Cafe was a great host for the event, providing a great menu, comfortable setting, responsive service, great food reasonably priced, our own “parking lot” with “security”!
Larry Watson, who kept his “membership” with Yosemite even after moving out of 
the area came back to party with Yosemite friends — so he got the “I came from the farthest award” for the event!
As members arrived, we had an opportunity to order some “pre-dinner” drinks at the bar; but as more and more arrived, we moved into a reserved space, apart from the rest of the restaurant, for our event. Tables filled up, great conversation followed and dinner was served!
During the evening, Virginia Swanberg brought some patches, decals and other items from the “goodie store” and was rewarded with a number of sales.
Chuck Pierce gave a brief “speech”, thanking everyone for coming, announcing that members signed up for upcoming events — essentially making the Drive to Featherbed Railway B&B and Ladies Tea Room Luncheon SOLD OUT! (note, after the dinner, Virginia was able to get two more chairs for the Tea Room Luncheon – so go to the posting and reserve your spot if interested!) and outlined other coming events. As he reprised in an email-blast, the club used to work hard to get people to “come out” for events, now the club is working hard to deal with “sold out” events!
Chuck also awarded the “Member of the Year” award (to me, your webmaster!). WOW. Honestly, it has been a pleasure helping with the website development and maintenance, helping with Drive Tours and in various other “duties”. Thank you to the board for this honor!
