Greetings and felicitations!
I hope everyone is enjoying the nice(r) weather. Hurry up, because it's already August! We've had some good fun this summer, starting with our anniversary picnic in June. It was so fun to have a beautiful day, good food and fun friends, and what a wonderful thing to experience a Peep Toss after a years-long hiatus. It was especially fun to see the 20-somethings, who grew up on the Peep Toss, having a good time and remembering the glories of past Tosses. Thanks to Lori for the fun!
As you know, we have been working feverishly for months on the plans for CONvergence 2019. I'm happy to report that the room worked out well in the new hotel, and you can find details in this newsletter.
We have not been idle in our community service efforts this summer. We hosted our 36th blood drive at CONvergence, collecting 46 pints of blood. The better news is that we had 89 people who were willing to donate, so next year we'll be increasing the capacity of the drive. The best news of all is that we hit our 1,000 donor! The happy (and unsuspecting) winner received applause from the crowd and a prize pack of American Red Cross and USS Nokomis goodies from us. Thanks to Jane, Roxanne, Jenna and Joann, who all helped on Saturday at the bloodmobile. A special round of applause to Jane, who spent many hours calling donors in the weeks preceding the con.
Another community service event this month was our visit to Feed My Starving Children. A group of us packed food in the Eagan location, and our final total was 62 boxes and 13,392 meals packed. That's enough to feed 37 children for a year - great work!!
Don't forget our upcoming events (especially those that need advance registration). As I do every August, I am putting out a call for ideas for the upcoming calendar. At the September Governing Board meeting, we'll entertain all submitted ideas for social, community service and science fiction events. Send you ideas to me or another board member by the end of August, with all relevant details. Remember that no idea is too big or too small, and it always helps if you are willing to chair your activity. We know that there are lots of fun things to do out there, so let us know!
See you around the Galaxy!
Mary
