Hi everyone,

The board last night approved the change of our Hamfest venue from the Elks to Earl Warren Showgrounds. Since this is a jump in the scale, we are starting early to build the event. I volunteered to be the Hamfest Chair for next year, and we need to start now in building the team to put it on. It is also possible that this could be a section wide Hamfest as well.

I've always had a vision of what we could do with Hamfest and this change was something I had in mind when I chaired my first Hamfest back in 1995. And now as back then, I am promoting the thought that we are not only working on the 2009 Hamfest, but also on future hamfests. I have several goals in mind:

* Build a Hamfest team that will continue into the future. * Make the content of our Hamfest spectacular so people WANT to attend as opposed to attending only because of tradition. * Provide a means to follow up on people interested and get them involved in ham radio.

The kickoff dinner will be Tuesday, October 14 at 6:00PM at the Sizzler's Restaurant in Goleta, and will be a brainstorming/planning session. A number of changes are in the works to expand what we have done in the past, and the first will be weekly dinner meetings to work on and keep everything on track.

I was told many years ago that the more people that are involved in an event, the more successful that event will be. So please give me a call at 687-8881 if you can attend or if you want to participate but can't make the dinner meeting.

Together, we WILL make a difference!!!

Thanks!

Marvin, KE6HTS