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Rotary Meeting July 25th 2018
Our annual post RIBFEST meeting where we have a chance to decompress and remember all the events that happened over the previous week of Set-up, 4th annual RIBFEST, and take down.
Guests: George Balzer (Music man at RibFest and Summer Sundays and Linda’s Husband) and Sean Sexton recycler volunteer for 3 days.
George spoke briefly about the success of the bands again this year—as always the music was a highlight for so many of our guests in the open area, and Sean spoke about how he worked for 3 days and helped to mentor some of the younger volunteers who sorted in our open area recycling station.
Ian led off with a big thank you to our Club—40 members who punch way beyond their weight. This year was the busiest of the 4 years—every day was ahead of the corresponding day last year. Saturday was one of the busiest days ever in the park—as we know there was absolutely no room to move in the open area in front of the bandstand and all of the “:extra chairs” were in use for folks who just picked them up and formed their own little party group. We have no final numbers yet as so many of the expenses are still being tabulated, but hopefully in the next couple of weeks. Thanks to everyone who helped make this year’s event a huge success.
Some of the category managers got a chance to tell about their areas but not everyone has spoken yet as there was so much input and memories from our members as these managers talked that we didn’t get to everyone. We also found out that all 3 of our Rotary Club “cousins” are extremely happy with their takes from the weekend—PoCo managed the Inlet Field parking and did well on donations, the Coquitlam Sunrise Club selling 50/50’s made over $10,000 and the Coquitlam Club made well on the pop up store selling pop, etc.. The Langley District Rotoactors sold out of their corn mid afternoon Sunday and our Club’s “donation Team” led by Gayle and Dan G brought in enough money to send lots of kids to Camp Jubilee next year.
Alan S who wasn’t there (attending a family wedding 1,000 miles away) but was following everything on social media, remarked on what great stories were being posted, remarked on what a great job Claire did speaking on Global’s 6:00pm NEWS HOUR on Friday (and who was a GREAT problem solver for all of us over the 3 days—all the complaints, requests for special needs, or problems for 1 department that needed to be solved by another department, were handled quickly and efficiently—Great Job Claire), and remarked on how much he missed the excitement. He also reported that the shuttle bus on a normal weekend has been averaging 150-200 people per weekend and for our event there were 950 to 1,000 riders. Good that they added the extra runs over the weekend. We have since found out that this year’s RibFest was the BUSIEST weekend EVER for our Brewer’s Row!!
Brian Wormald took ownership of the main parking lot (and all the complaints that come with that task) he and his team of volunteers handled it wonderfully. They have some suggestions to help manage the traffic flow for next year and how to get folks dropping off in and out more quickly.
VIP tent was managed ably by John and his team including of servers, cleaners, greeters and customer service folks. Jill (Linda’s daughter from Atlanta) served as an inside head as did Jennifer MacKinnon from PCT—everyone did what it takes to make it a first class experience for our VIP sponsors and their guests—THANKS ALL. We know we need to get started earlier next year with our sales team but it will be an easier job as the experience is such a giant step up from the adult beer tent we expect to be sold out early next year. Well Done John & Team.
Bill reported almost 200 shifts and about 800 hours of volunteer time given to our recycling project. So far only numbers in are from the City Organic Handling portion and we tipped over 5750 KG of organic goods equal to 12,650 pounds up 15% from last year.
All areas of our RIBFEST are important, but without the volunteers we can not put on an event of this size. A huge big thanks to Trudy, Karen and last but certainly not least was our 13 year old Kate from Atlanta who worked all three days from 9:00 am to 9:30pm . What a great girl.!!!!
We will be having an official RIBFEST Review on Wednesday night, August 1st from 7:00pm- 10:00pm at Aria ll.