Carole J. Greene, President
You think I’d skip this article just because we haven’t had a board meeting since our May planning retreat? Nay nay, I say. Your board members have been busy throughout the summer, meeting or no meeting.
Nearly all the board members who stay in town year-round contributed time, talent and efficient effort to our marvelous “Just a Lytle Celebration” event in July. See elsewhere in Scoop for a complete wrap-up of that delightful affair.
One obvious lesson grew out of the way we set up registration for this event. We asked all who wanted to attend this tribute to Jeff Lytle to pre-register and pay on Eventbrite. They did, with few problems and almost no complaints. Our terrific check-in crew for monthly luncheons (Connie, Karla, Fritzi and whoever else they can persuade) had only minimal chores to perform because everyone—yes, everyone—had prepaid and could show a receipt. No long line to pay at the door. No question about walk-ins having to wait to see if there would be room for them, because we had NO walk-ins. No need to bill no-shows. It was wunnerful, wunnerful, wunnerful.
Guess what? You know what’s coming, don’t you? At our next board meeting, we will discuss making this system permanent. To eliminate the long lines, walk-ins and no-show hassles for this upcoming season, we recommend that we establish an Eventbrite pre-payment program for all our luncheons.
It really is simple. Our treasurer, Connie Kindsvater, will set up the ticket. You’ll go to Eventbrite.com, search for Press Club of Southwest Florida, find one ticket price for member, another for spouse, a third for guest. Pay the appropriate amount via PayPal or the credit card number you enter, print your ticket. Done.
Eventbrite spits out a list for us to have at the door, so you don’t even need to make a reservation with Rhona. We’ll know the exact number of meals to plan for and will turn in that number to the Hilton.
If you feel strongly aye or nay about this, be sure to let me know before the board meets on Sept. 11. I’ll deliver your responses to the other board members before we vote.
Two board members received honors this summer for their professional pursuits. Karla Wheeler received the inaugural “Founders Award” from the Florida Authors and Publishers Association. Gina Edwards won a prestigious journalism award that you will read about elsewhere in this issue of Scoop. Kudos, you two, from your proud club colleagues.
At our upcoming board meeting, I will appoint a nominating committee to fill a slate for our annual election in December. If any member reading this has an interest in coming onto the board to help lead and guide our club, please don’t be shy. Let me know. I’ll pass along your name to the committee.
The board has for some time wanted to improve member benefits available through the NPC website. We want to establish a “members” section, with a 100-word bio and a photo of each NPC member. Two FGCU journalism students will work as interns with NPC this semester to tackle this project. Please cooperate when they contact you for a bio and photo.
See you at The Rusty Bucket (Mercato) for our Sept. 25 mixer or, if you’re not in residence at that time, at our first luncheon on Oct. 23.