OF SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA
CFFU
ANNUAL DINNER & FUND RAISER
REPORT & PHOTOS
This page last updated November 26, 2011
©Copyright 2003 - 2011 , California Fly Fishers Unlimited, All Rights Reserved.
E-mail comments or questions to:
Saturday, November 5, 2011
Bob Bittner Memorial Scholarship
California Fly Fishers Unlimited (CFFU)
Report of CFFU's 2011 Annual Dinner
and Fund Raiser
By Phoebe Larne
It was definitely the best Annual Dinner and Fund Raiser ever. A whopping 125 guests enjoyed a very profitable, fun evening, good dinner, a few awards, and most of you went home a winner.
The Carmichael Elk's is the perfect place, lots of room, good food and great service.
Our most talented and entertaining emcee, Gregory Shaffer presented a few of our VIP Sponsors: Joe & Barbara Bania; Jason Cotta and Mike Folden from Orvis; Mike Powers, American Fly Fishing; and Tim Au-Young (and wife Heidi) representing Kiene's Fly Shop.
President Tim Landrus presented the 2011 Annual CFFU Awards as follows: Outstanding Board Member - Rich Wilson; Outstanding Member - Carl Lang; three President's Awards - Brandie Herron, Earlene Coldiron, and Forrest Oldham; Wettest Fly Award - Tim Landrus. Tim's Wettest Fly Award was presented by John Coldiron. A very special presentation this year was a newly designed membership badge for CFFU's FIRST two 50 year members, Neil Hansen (1963 Past President, not present) and Don Edgar. Seven Past President's attended the Dinner this year. Welcomed and photographed were: Bob Larne (2009-2010), Gary Howard (2008), Bill Felts (2006-2007), Jerry Kilbert (2001-2002), Bob Cooper (1998), Dave Ford (1986), and Jim Victorine (1985). Sam Yee was introduced and presented the new CFFU Coachman Program members: John & Earlene Coldiron, Ken Giesser, Keith and Betty Pfeifer, and Don Wallace.
Many members and spouses worked very hard to make the Dinner a success, but a special thank you goes to CFFU member Gregory Shaffer for his outstanding effort as Emcee and Auctioneer. Another huge thank you to the very capable and energetic women who, led by Lucy Badenhoop did an excellent job of bagging items for the guests: Penny Siska, Anita Scuri, Yvonne Berdan, Verna Puglisi, Nancy Edgar, Diana Hale, Melanie Howard, Trudy Lewis, and Vicki Landrus. Rich Wilson contributed his usual highly organized skills and did various tasks, counting and packaging raffle tickets, making the Raffle Boards, and working the entire afternoon of the Dinner to have everything perfect. Brandie & Arthur Herron also helped wherever they were needed and then took photos and helped with the Silent Auction. Bob and Phoebe Larne began requesting donations months ago and stored them at home.
Rich Wilson, Brandie & Arthur Herron, Bob Effa and Beth Ison, and Bob and Phoebe Larne arrived at the Elk's Club at Noon to begin setting up the room. Rich brought the pop-up, raffle boards and boxes of supplies; Bob Effa brought the computer and the Silent Auction Bid Sheets, Beth helped everywhere she was needed; Bob and Phoebe brought their horse trailer filled with all 275 plus donated items. They had already been there at 9 a.m. to set up the boat for one of our raffle boards. This Raffle Board for the 8 foot pram will also be presented at the next couple general meetings, so be ready to pick a square and do your part to support your club! By 4 p.m. guests began arriving in droves. The Dinner officially begins at 4:30 p.m., so apparently they were eager to see what was displayed this year for the raffle, silent and live auctions. Or maybe they just wanted to eat some of the yummy appetizers. The evening zoomed by after that. Dinner was served at 6 p.m. by the very capable staff at the Elk's Club, and CFFU's complimentary wine was very capably served with the dinner by Past Presidents Bill Felts and Bob Larne, and later by Pam Felts.
For those of you who haven't attended the Dinner during the last three years, groups of our Silent Auction now close in three phases approximately an hour apart. Emcee Gregory Shaffer announces a warning to all bidders that the Phase is about to close, and bidders flock to the tables to try to be the high bidder for the items they covet. It's crazy, but fun! The Live Auction followed and auctioneer Gregory Shaffer did a exemplary job of bidding those items up! Sixty-six guests bid on the items and CFFU appreciates their support, as well as the guests who purchased raffle tickets, squares on the raffle board, and the bidders for the Live Auction Items. There were really great items on the tables this year and the bidders who won them were thrilled with their prizes. If you didn't attend the Dinner you missed out on great deals for six fly fishing guide trips, several rods and reels, several overnight stays at various motels and resorts, as well as dinner, See's candy, and more.
Bob Effa and Phoebe Larne entered the donation data over the last several months and then Bob printed out the invoices and everyone should give him a big thank you for his hours and hours of effort. Keith and Betty Pfeifer again did a fantastic job of selling the Raffle tickets. Thank you to Beth Ison for organizing the Raffle items and handing them to the runners, and other assigned tasks. Jim Berdan and his helper Bob Bettati (later assisted by Rich Wilson) took your money or credit card. With Jim's new system using smart phones and a small reading device for live credit transactions, the payments went very quickly. Thank you John and Earlene Coldiron for making the name badges.
I hope I didn't forget thank anyone, but if I did please know that you were appreciated. It was a busy evening. It was fun. We made a good profit. What more could we want. The Thank You letters have been sent out, and the 2011 Annual Dinner and Fund Raiser was a great success. Thank you ALL!
