Thank you
I want to thank everyone who attended the rally. I worked very hard to make my first time as wagonmaster yield an event that would be enjoyed and appreciated. I spent literally hundreds of hours making it happen. It wasn't easy but it was worth it. I'm very proud of my first rally and of all that we accomplished. Based upon comments at the event and messages on the forum I feel that the East Coast Luau was a great success.
But of course I did not do this alone. I would like to give explicit credit and my personal thanks to those who helped with all the work. Especially:
My wife Tracy spent a huge amount of time shopping, searching for recipes, decorating, hostessing, overseeing the kitchen, making certain the room was open every time it needed to be, and coordinating the others who were helping with things in the conference center.
The Bylinskis made all of the name badges and those refrigerator magnets. I know that had to take a lot of time with designing, printing, cutting, gluing, etc. Plus they helped out at the conference center.
The Walkers did the shirts. I'm not sure how much time of theirs it took, but it couldn't have been simple. They had to collect checks, tally orders, coordinate with the shirt printers -- including resolving some problems with the first run, tallying and sorting the shirts, and they even distributed many of the shirts themselves. They are still working on shirts to get shirts for those who missed the first orders.
The Wolbecks first started helping when we got the keys to the room. But they were both there helping from the first moment until the last item left the room. They worked their butts off doing practically everything they could possibly do. Kevin and Nelly would make ideal wagonmasters in my opinion and I hope they consider doing a rally in the future...
Debra Funderburg helped a lot with the decorations and with all of the food coming in and the cooks in the kitchen. Debra did some of the accent tables (including providing some of her own stuff) when Tracy was too pooped to keep going on those. Before the rally Gus Funderburg maintained a spreadsheet of the camp site and names information, got the Bylinskis to do nametags, got the Walkers to do the t-shirts, and tried to get Jim B to come to the rally. Unfortunately Jim wasn't able to make it so Jim sent the *prize laden* Ron Dickeson to talk with us. During the rally, Gus held a chapter meeting, hosted a breakfast in his rig for the early arrivals, handed out the name badges and greeted campers as they arrived, socialized and went rig-to-rig with messages and reminders sometimes, and took care of the seafood cooking team for Saturday night. An unquantifiable thing Gus also did: he provided guidance, suggestions, and a shoulder when I needed them -- and that was quite a lot near the end.
Chrissy Akers and her girls helped with the decorating (including providing a lot of decorations herself!), the cleanup, and wrangling the alcohol (that was quite a bar she had set up in the kitchen!). As an aside, the Akers and the Beasleys watched Emma for us when we were busy (which was most of the time).
There were so many people there at the end with the cleanup too. The Lathams, the Norwoods, and several others deserve special mention here for doing that tedious and frequently unthanked job.
Special mentions also go to Don Massengil for helping out, for cooking pig, and for bringing a projector (which despite my best efforts I failed to integrate into the rally as I'd hoped); Dave Yocum brought a sound system and took the group photo in front of the banner; Jared Beasley helped Tracy get sand and seashells from the ocean beach for Saturday night's table decorations; several other people also helped with the decorating.
Everyone else who helped but was not mentioned here, please accept my apology for forgetting to thank you by name.
As wagonmaster for this rally I know that without the assistance of others this would not have come off so successfully.
I want to thank everyone who attended the rally. I worked very hard to make my first time as wagonmaster yield an event that would be enjoyed and appreciated. I spent literally hundreds of hours making it happen. It wasn't easy but it was worth it. I'm very proud of my first rally and of all that we accomplished. Based upon comments at the event and messages on the forum I feel that the East Coast Luau was a great success.
But of course I did not do this alone. I would like to give explicit credit and my personal thanks to those who helped with all the work. Especially:
My wife Tracy spent a huge amount of time shopping, searching for recipes, decorating, hostessing, overseeing the kitchen, making certain the room was open every time it needed to be, and coordinating the others who were helping with things in the conference center.
The Bylinskis made all of the name badges and those refrigerator magnets. I know that had to take a lot of time with designing, printing, cutting, gluing, etc. Plus they helped out at the conference center.
The Walkers did the shirts. I'm not sure how much time of theirs it took, but it couldn't have been simple. They had to collect checks, tally orders, coordinate with the shirt printers -- including resolving some problems with the first run, tallying and sorting the shirts, and they even distributed many of the shirts themselves. They are still working on shirts to get shirts for those who missed the first orders.
The Wolbecks first started helping when we got the keys to the room. But they were both there helping from the first moment until the last item left the room. They worked their butts off doing practically everything they could possibly do. Kevin and Nelly would make ideal wagonmasters in my opinion and I hope they consider doing a rally in the future...
Debra Funderburg helped a lot with the decorations and with all of the food coming in and the cooks in the kitchen. Debra did some of the accent tables (including providing some of her own stuff) when Tracy was too pooped to keep going on those. Before the rally Gus Funderburg maintained a spreadsheet of the camp site and names information, got the Bylinskis to do nametags, got the Walkers to do the t-shirts, and tried to get Jim B to come to the rally. Unfortunately Jim wasn't able to make it so Jim sent the *prize laden* Ron Dickeson to talk with us. During the rally, Gus held a chapter meeting, hosted a breakfast in his rig for the early arrivals, handed out the name badges and greeted campers as they arrived, socialized and went rig-to-rig with messages and reminders sometimes, and took care of the seafood cooking team for Saturday night. An unquantifiable thing Gus also did: he provided guidance, suggestions, and a shoulder when I needed them -- and that was quite a lot near the end.
Chrissy Akers and her girls helped with the decorating (including providing a lot of decorations herself!), the cleanup, and wrangling the alcohol (that was quite a bar she had set up in the kitchen!). As an aside, the Akers and the Beasleys watched Emma for us when we were busy (which was most of the time).
There were so many people there at the end with the cleanup too. The Lathams, the Norwoods, and several others deserve special mention here for doing that tedious and frequently unthanked job.
Special mentions also go to Don Massengil for helping out, for cooking pig, and for bringing a projector (which despite my best efforts I failed to integrate into the rally as I'd hoped); Dave Yocum brought a sound system and took the group photo in front of the banner; Jared Beasley helped Tracy get sand and seashells from the ocean beach for Saturday night's table decorations; several other people also helped with the decorating.
Everyone else who helped but was not mentioned here, please accept my apology for forgetting to thank you by name.
As wagonmaster for this rally I know that without the assistance of others this would not have come off so successfully.
