Brunch Fun
There's a Club Leader's Brunch on Friday morning during Meeting of the Minds. PHiP (Parrot Heads in Paradise which is our national organization) sponsors it and there are presentations by the officers and several guest speakers from our various charities and sponsors. Each club is entitled to send two members. They don't have to be club officers but they often are. It's the best free meal on the island and a great chance to catch up with old friends from other clubs.
The event has changed over the years. When I first started attending, it was a free for all. Grab seats where you could find them and make some new friends. I actually liked that because it was a chance to meet people from the other side of the country. However, a few years ago, they decided to put all of the folks in the same region together.
I belong to the Western Region which covers Arizona - California - Colorado - Idaho - Hawaii - Montana - Nevada - New Mexico - Oregon - Utah - Washington Alberta - British Columbia - Saskatchewan. (Can you tell that was a cut and paste list?) Each region has two or three Regional Communicators (you didn't realize you were getting a Parrot Head organizational lesson, did you?) and it's those folks who are in charge of making sure the sections for their regions are staked out before the brunch starts. That's a heated battle sometimes as there always seems to be too few seats available.
Another change is that the RCs are encouraged to provide some "spirit" to the event and there's an unofficial Spirt Award. I say unofficial because I think someone just decides, "you guys won". So, we get there early and set up then provide some entertainment or gifts for our peeps.
This year, all of the attendees were given a colored ticket to make getting everyone in easier and the ticket color was coded to a region so it made it easier to get people together once they were in.
Our color was purple which is the color of royalty. So, I decided to provide some arts and crafts and bought a bunch of crown and tiara kits. It was fun to watch everyone (even the guys) indulge their creative sides.
Being the Princess, I didn't make my own tiara. I got Tkay to make it for me. It was truly because I was busy trying to greet everyone in our group but hey, it worked for me, too.
One of my other RCs bought plastic wristbands and key chains in purple with PHiP Western Region on them. That was a nice keepsake and we had some extras for the peeps to take back to their clubs.
However, we had no chance at the Spirit Award. My friends Dawnie and Jim have a lock on that. Last year, they got everyone to dress up as pirates for the brunch. This year, they took their color of grey and ran with it to excess. Everyone got a shark fin headband and a sign with different grey related facts. Oh, and they also got almost everyone to wear matching Midwest Region t-shirts.
It was all fun. One of the regions had a coconut bra decorating contest. Another gave out little gift cups full of goodies. And there was one who did just nothing but their people had a good time anyway.
The event has changed over the years. When I first started attending, it was a free for all. Grab seats where you could find them and make some new friends. I actually liked that because it was a chance to meet people from the other side of the country. However, a few years ago, they decided to put all of the folks in the same region together.
I belong to the Western Region which covers Arizona - California - Colorado - Idaho - Hawaii - Montana - Nevada - New Mexico - Oregon - Utah - Washington Alberta - British Columbia - Saskatchewan. (Can you tell that was a cut and paste list?) Each region has two or three Regional Communicators (you didn't realize you were getting a Parrot Head organizational lesson, did you?) and it's those folks who are in charge of making sure the sections for their regions are staked out before the brunch starts. That's a heated battle sometimes as there always seems to be too few seats available.
Another change is that the RCs are encouraged to provide some "spirit" to the event and there's an unofficial Spirt Award. I say unofficial because I think someone just decides, "you guys won". So, we get there early and set up then provide some entertainment or gifts for our peeps.
This year, all of the attendees were given a colored ticket to make getting everyone in easier and the ticket color was coded to a region so it made it easier to get people together once they were in.
Our color was purple which is the color of royalty. So, I decided to provide some arts and crafts and bought a bunch of crown and tiara kits. It was fun to watch everyone (even the guys) indulge their creative sides.
Nice looking crowd!
Being the Princess, I didn't make my own tiara. I got Tkay to make it for me. It was truly because I was busy trying to greet everyone in our group but hey, it worked for me, too.
One of my other RCs bought plastic wristbands and key chains in purple with PHiP Western Region on them. That was a nice keepsake and we had some extras for the peeps to take back to their clubs.
However, we had no chance at the Spirit Award. My friends Dawnie and Jim have a lock on that. Last year, they got everyone to dress up as pirates for the brunch. This year, they took their color of grey and ran with it to excess. Everyone got a shark fin headband and a sign with different grey related facts. Oh, and they also got almost everyone to wear matching Midwest Region t-shirts.
Just can't compete with this...
It was all fun. One of the regions had a coconut bra decorating contest. Another gave out little gift cups full of goodies. And there was one who did just nothing but their people had a good time anyway.
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