I HAD A GREAT TIME MEETING ALL YOU FOLKS ON SATURDAY! WHOA!! That was a HOOT!
I had the best seat in the house; passing out name badges/drawing numbers, and recognizing most of you AFTER you gave me your ECF Screen Name!
(Special THANK YOU goes to Taxman32, for relieving me long enough to 'relieve myself'
, check out most of our vendors
, check out the juice bar
, and travel the outer areas calling winning numbers at the top of my lungs!
)
- As far as I know, the inception of the idea that led to THIS event, occured on Thanksgiving night. I received a PM from Balthezar on November 24, 2011, with the following sentence: "Just a quick note, I will be starting a thread next week about a GA get together. I'll keep in touch about where I'm posting it."
The following week, the thread appeared and was titled "Georgia Vapers Let's Get Together".
Balthezar, I haven't told you this, but 'the devil in me' really enjoyed watching you squirm when so MANY folks responded to your post...and you never considered limiting the number of tables we might pull together somewhere. It was quickly obvious to all readers, that this thang was going to be far too much for one person to organize, and that's when 'the planning committee' materialized...seemingly out of thin air!
Ultimately, ALL of us on 'the planning committee' experienced several grand opportunities to 'squirm' along with Balthezar, and sometimes we were blindly taking the next step...simply because it WAS the only step to take.
As for ME, it was a PLEASURE getting to know each of the folks on the 'Planning Committee' (me, Chatter97, ChaosAffect, Balthezar, Sammy43, s3anvap3s, rabernet, Nestoche and Zogem). Each meeting was another great opportunity to spend time with GOOD FRIENDS and SPECIAL FOLKS...as well as learn more than I EVER thought I needed to know about everyone's P.E.N.I.S. (
Personal
Electronic
Nicotine
Inhalation
System)!
Would I do it again?? Uhmmmmm...YEP, and YOU should, too!
HERE ARE THE NUMBERS:
As the 'Official Head Counter',
I was predicting between 127 to 142 attendees at the event.
At the event:
- We had 119 'numbered' names participating in the DRAWING.
- We also had 5 additional folks attending that were either underage or did not want to participate in the drawing.
- THE 'OFFICIAL TOTAL HEAD COUNT' was 124!!!
(We would have had more folks if it had NOT been raining, so my prognosticatin' was darn good!!
THANK YOU TO ALL THE VENDORS who
attended!
THANK YOU TO ALL THE VENDORS who
provided 45 generous donations for our drawing!
THANK YOU TO ALL THE VENDORS who
provided hundreds of bottles of flavorful juices for our JUICE BAR!
THANK YOU TO THE FOLKS OF
VapersPlace | VP Live Vape Team who helped publicize the event and streamed it LIVE over the internet. (I'm getting PM 'THANK YOUs' from folks who watched online while vaping right along with us, and it's the VAPETEAM that made it possible!)
THANK YOU TO OLDE TOWNE TAVERN & GRILL (Lawrenceville, GA)
for not only allowing us to use their facilities, but for working with us to meet the demand, by expanding 'our space' throughout the entire upper floor! Our turnout was SO GOOD, we would have been extremely cramped if OTG had confined us to only our little 'enclosed room'.
- Funny...at the time we reserved the 'enclosed room', it was a significantly larger space than we thought would be necessary. WE WERE WRONG!!!
And THANK YOU TO THE FOLKS POSTING PICTURES AND VIDEO OF THE EVENT, cuz it gives us ALL the opportunity to enjoy it again and again!
Last, but not least,
THANK YOU TO ALL THE FOLKS WHO CAME! It was YOU who 'the Planning Committee' was working for, and we would have been a sad/sorry bunch if you had not supported us with your presence! YOU CAME THROUGH FOR US!
I believe
most of us felt as though we were attending one big reunion of long lost friends/family, and each of us can probably say, "I am SO GLAD I WAS THERE!" That's how I feel about it.
GOOD JOB, EVERYBODY!
(AND...
HAPPY BIRTHDAY to all the
FEBRUARY Folks!
)
*******************************************
Chatter97, when you get a chance, please post a list of all the vendors who attended, as well as those who provided donations. These are the folks who supported us 'above and beyond' our requests, and they are the same folks I want to support with my business!
(Also, by posting a list of these folks, it will give us ALL a chance to email them a short note of appreciation and THANKS!
)
We also need to reimburse expenses, tally TOTAL donations generated for CASAA (including VapeTeam auctions), and post the numbers. When that step is completed, The 'Atlanta Vape Meet of February 18, 2011' will be history...and such a
good, good story!