Armand Minnie
Summer is going by a little slowly for us here in Southern Arizona. It has been over 100 degrees most days and got as high as 117 during the last few days of June. Besides my 'normal' activities (woodworking and GMC stuff) I have been busy working on the bylaws, karaoke, and the web site. We are trying to finish up our Arizona obligations and get to a cooler place as soon as we can.
Dave and Donna de Graffenreid and Pat and Sharon Cerrina have also been very busy planning our Fall "Survivor II" rally at the Emerald Desert Resort in Palm Desert. That rally will be October 1-5 and, as usual, is sure to be tons of fun. Dave has promised that he won't work us too hard.
Some updates: The revised bylaws were submitted to the FMCA and were approved by them. As I have written before, the FMCA required us to make the changes so we didn't have to vote on them - and, better yet, have any meetings about them. We will provide copies to anyone who wants one (email or call me) or you can wait until they are available on the web site - I am hoping that will be soon, maybe by the time you are reading this.
On the subject of rally entertainment, we have purchased a software package that will play and display karaoke music and lyrics from a laptop computer. We plan to plug a laptop into our projector and sound system at the Fall rally and have a karaoke sing-along party on one of the nights. The good thing is we will be able to have a request list and play music you want to hear and sing - I don't know how large our song selection will be but we will try to have what you like and we can add to our collection if there is enough interest. I hope so.
The web site additions I have been talking about in prior newsletters and at rallies are well under way. Probably, by the time you read this message you will have gotten one or more email messages from me telling you about the new web site features and how to log in for the "members only" content. If you don't have an email address or we don't have it you will not the messages and you won't be able to sign in and use the members-only content. If you want a user ID on the system you will have to have an email address. I am planning to use the web site and emails for communications with members so we don't have to wait for newsletters to tell you what is happening - rally planning, rally reports, club policy decisions and questions, etc. For the members who don't use computers at all - they will continue to get paper periodically.
I hope you all have a great summer and we'd love to see you at Emerald Desert in October.