The season of thanks is now behind us, and the season of Joy is rapidly approaching.  Being Commander of Berea Power Squadron has given me much thanks and much joy!  Watching our members participate and contribute in each their own ways.  Whether you are serving on a committee, attending a social event, or taking one of our courses, your continued participation makes Berea the best unit in the District and at National.  It gives me much joy, to thank each and every one of you.

I spent the first weekend in November in Canton at the District 7 Fall Conference.  If you have never attended a conference, you should seriously consider attending one in the near future.  It is so much fun!  Unfortunately, only one member at a time gets the opportunity to represent Berea as her Commander.  I don't want to say that being Commander is easy, but the members sure make it easy to be proud of our Squadron.

The Conference took place at the McKinley hotel in downtown Canton.  The weekend started off in our hospitality room.  Many of us showed up in the late afternoon to decorate our room.  Our theme was The Good Ship Lollipop.  The signature song that Shirley Temple sang in the movie Bright Eyes.  The Conference Committee did a really great job decorating the room.  We made exactly one zillion lollipops (I counted them all) with construction paper and straws.  We hung the lollipops from the walls, the ceiling, the doors, the door jambs, the tables the chairs and everything else in the room!  It was a sea of lollipops.  We all dressed up in a sailors outfit, similar to what Shirley wore in that scene in the movie.  Kudos to Lynn Kantura and the conference committee for designing a great room and skit.  Lynne obtained a blonde wig with curls.  When the Judges came into the room to view our skit, I told them that we had a Shirley Temple look a like hired to sing the song.  Unfortunately she could not make it.  So we were going to have a drawing to determine who would sing the song in her place.  We had the Chief's rep (V/C Dick Peoples, SN) draw the "lucky" name from a basket.  Unbeknownst to him, all the papers in the basket had his name on them.  He was a good sport and wore the wig and sung the song.  While the song was playing, we put candy and sweets into a basket that he was carrying, just as they do in the movie for Shirley.  Unfortunately, we did not win first place for the Tankard Award.  But we did place third, and we had lots of fun putting together the room and putting on the skit.  It has been quite a while since Berea has won the Tankard, but we almost always seem to place 2nd or 3rd.  Berea always heavily contributes to the Friday festivities by always participating in the theme with a room and a skit.  This is something to be proud of!  I was also very happy to see the entire bridge present on Friday night and most of the bridge at the Saturday business meeting.  I received many compliments that the entire bridge was present.

On Saturday morning we had department meetings for squadron bridge members.  The District Bridge stressed that Membership is job one, and that we all need to do better recruiting new members.  National is particularly proud right now, as membership has increased this year.  This is the first time in 8 years that National membership has increased!  I sat through a very good presentation that was put on by CLUE (Cleveland Underwater Explorers).  The presenter discussed SCUBA diving the shipwrecks of Lake Erie.  Saturday afternoon we had our conference business meeting.  I thank all the Berea members that were present at the meeting and voted as Berea delegates.  We had some controversial motions presented to the District.  It was very important that all Berea votes were exercised.  Walking out of the meeting there were a few ruffled feathers, but the business of District 7 continues to press on.

Saturday night was a very good night for Berea Power Squadron.  We won most of the awards presented that evening.  All the awards were education awards, and as our SEO, Barb Spraggins accepted them all.  She had a well worn path from her dinner table to the speakers podium.  Berea won: Arnold Erickson Trophy for Elective Courses; Jack T. Rehberg Trophy for Advanced Grades; The Joseph Marzzarella Trophy for Advanced Piloting; and the Rodney M. Allen Trophy for Teaching Aids.  The SEO gets to accept these awards but these awards are not just for the SEO.  These awards are for all the members of Berea Power Squadron and your continued hard work in education.  I was damn proud of Berea that evening.  The only awards that we did not win were the Tankard for the room decorations, and the Prince Henry Award for JN.  The Prince Henry was just won by Berea at the last Fall conference, and we had just turned that award back to District that evening!

The weekend ended with a Sunday morning meeting of the D/7 Council.  Which is comprised of the Squadron Commanders and the District Bridge.  The feathers were still a little bit ruffled from the Saturday business meeting and some issues were rehashed.  It was definitely a conference to remember.  I hope that you will join is at the Spring Conference in Hudson that is hosted by Akron Power Squadron.  The theme of the Fall conference is the Tony Awards.  All the Squadrons were assigned Tony Award winning productions as their room themes.  Berea randomly picked "The Producers" as our theme.  Your help might be just what we need to put us over the edge to win that Tankard award that continues to elude us.  I look forward to seeing you at our next conference, and I look forward to seeing you at the Christmas Party.