Our meeting; what a gourmet pleasure. Our meeting hostess Jennifer decided our potluck theme would be hors d'oeuvres. We had so many good things that there was no way be could start with a meeting first, per usual. Shrimp appetizers, FOUR ways. Crab appetizers, TWO ways, chili quesadillas, crustini, roulades, dips and I can't remember all. Thank God our members brought recipe copies. My holiday party menus are easy now.
When we got the meeting going, we had introductions and thanked members who gave referrals or permitted new members to follow them cooking.
We reviewed the seminars, photos and material from the San Diego Summit for those not able to attend. Our Librarian Peggy has also started a photo album to display at our chapter functions/ promotions. She also authored our chapter mission statement 'We are in business for ourselves, but not by ourselves'.
Gina is putting together a chapter outing in February in Sonoma/Napa to tour a cheese factory and have lunch at a new restaurant there owned by a past chapter member, Daniel Patrick.
We practiced elevator speeches about our businesses. Some members, including Lori(who brought her new 'very cool' baby Benjamin), gave ideas on how they have been getting clients during this slow economy. Lori is a trained Wine Connoisseur and helps us out with food and wine pairings.
Michael, our treasurer, will be organizing new photos for Dennis to use on our APCA web page link/listing
Our chapter has been amazing me with it's new energy. Kristell has got me going to Toastmaster meetings. She also is heading up our publicity committee as well as on the steering committee for organizing our next meeting.
Our next meeting will be a two day affair in Napa on January 10 & 11. We will have our annual dinner out and meeting on Saturday and the next day will be fun adventuring. The steering committee will be looking into hotel space and restaurant venue.
Our dues supports our annual gourmet dinner outing and other activities such as a portion of Summit registration fees for five members. We have 7 meetings and events planned so far for 2004. Our chapter is about 5 years old.
