Presidential Ramblings…
by Patricia Fontova
I'm baaack!! Yes. I am not totally sure how this happened but here I am again - President of the Bayou Haystackers Paddling Club. And I am proud to serve. Thank you for having the confidence to elect me as your president. I will strive to uphold the values we all hold dear, etc., etc., etc.
This newsletter doesn't have a lot of pictures but there are quite a few new ones available on the Bayou Haystackers Yahoo Groups site. If you are not a member of that group, go to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bayouhaystackers/ and click on the Join this Group! button. (There's also a link to it on the Bayou Haystackers home page.) Even if you don't want to see the pictures it's good to join this group so that you can keep up with what other members are doing and find out about last minute trips.
We have several changes in the works that we think will be good and I'm going to try to tell you a little about them here.
- General Membership Meeting FREQUENCY: We decided to change how often we hold our meetings. We used to meet every other month (although I don't believe this was done last year). Now we will meet four times a year - March, May, September and Paddlefest. This may seem like a weird schedule but the meetings during the summer months are never well attended. This is also the case for meetings near the end of the year around Thanksgiving and Christmas. So we got rid of those meetings.
- General Membership Meeting LOCATION: For many, many years we have been meeting at 118 Cypress St. in Hammond. We did not pay actual rent for the place but we did have to pay the utilities. This ended up being kind of expensive for a place we rarely used. The location was convenient for the northshore members and it was kind of centrally located but it really was pretty far for some. Now we will rotate where we have meetings from New Orleans, to the Northshore, to Baton Rouge. The schedule for this year is as follows:
- March 16: At Masseys on Carrolton in New Orleans. Warren Davis has coordinated this event. It will start a little earlier than usual at 6PM and we will have 2 presenters. Byron Almquist will discuss changes he has seen in the 40 years he has paddled the Gulf Coast area; and Massey's manager, Blake Gill will talk about launch sights for canoes and kayaks in Southern Louisiana. We will have some refreshments and, as always, the meeting is open to the public. Masseys' will also be open in case anyone wants to make a purchase.
- May 18: On the NorthShore. Woody will foster the effort. Details will be published once they are confirmed.
- September 21: Baton Rouge area. Bill Hager will foster the effort. Details will be published once they have been finalized.
- Paddlefest: The last meeting of the year will be at Paddlefest. At this meeting we will probably elect officers for 2012.
- New Officers for 2011:
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Officers: |
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President: |
Patricia Fontova |
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V. President: |
Woody Wood |
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Secretary: |
Tracey Arnaud |
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Treasurer: |
Hoyt Sayler |
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Board Members: |
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Bill Hager |
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Ann Hager |
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Harry Todd |
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Kathy Gividen |
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Dottie Hartman |
Ciao! |