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Letter from the Editor
Dear Friends:
Do you remember the old detective series Dragnet? It always started
with words something like: “There are 16 million stories
in the city. This is one of them.” Perhaps there aren’t
quite as many stories about our 6th Annual Gala Garden Show and
Sale, but this is one of them.
Although
I co-chaired the Vendor Registration Sub-committee with Peg Rinker
before, this year I got more involved. It all started when Peg
and Jack went on vacation and she turned over all her files to
me for almost a month. It was a Thursday. At that time there were
only two vendor spaces left, one inside, one outside. How exciting
to see so much vendor interest so early – the show was still
nearly two months away!
The
following Thursday two messages were left on my answering machine
by perspective vendors for the show. One more message was left
the next day. A week later there were three more calls. A vendor
“waiting list” was started. Calls continued to come
in and the list grew. Sandy Reed wondered if the Boys and Girls
Club had an additional room we could use to accommodate more vendors.
The
Sequim Gazette had offered to do a pull-out section of the paper
that would highlight our Garden Show specifically. Sub-committee
chairs were responsible for getting the appropriate information
to the Gazette. A list of the vendors was part of that information.
Peg
had given me a large map of the main room with the booth numbers
marked and the vendor names hand written in. Her records also
included the registration forms that the vendors mailed in to
her. I matched the map against the registration forms, but I found
a few discrepancies. There were a few booths assigned that didn’t
have corresponding forms. I reviewed the information three times.
I was starting to recognize the vendor names. (Was this subconscious
training?)
When
Betty Oppenheimer from the Sequim Gazette called and said to send
her the entire vendor list, I did. Some of the vendors were going
to be contacted to be interviewed but all would be invited to
be advertisers in the special section. The newspaper also wanted
a map showing the assigned booths. I prepared a map of the main
room with the booths numbered. I did up a list of the vendor names
and corresponding booth numbers.
About
that time, Peg came back from vacation. I started to breathe a
bit easier. I returned all of Peg’s records to her and explained
what I had found. She clarified the information and I sent the
map and list to Betty at the Gazette.
Sandy
Reed and Peg visited the Boys and Girls Club and a decision was
made to add an additional room. This meant a map and vendor list
of assigned booths was needed for the second room which we referred
to as the East Room. I gave Peg the waiting list of vendors. Now
that we had more spaces available, she was going to contact those
in waiting and get the booths assigned. This happened very quickly.
And a new waiting list started. I prepared the information about
the East Room and sent it to Betty.
The
week before the show I prepared pre-printed name tags for each
of the vendors. The day before setup two vendors called with emergencies
and cancelled. Vendors from the second waiting list were ready
to fill the open slots.
The Saturday morning of the Garden Show just after 6:30 am, I
walked into the Boys and Girls Club with my purse and digital
camera. I figured I would take a few pictures for the newsletter.
I noticed Peg had her film camera. She usually takes pictures
of each vendor. After the show a copy of the photo is sent with
a thank you letter to each vendor. Later that morning Peg told
me there was a problem with her camera and asked if I would take
pictures of the vendors. (I have always wanted to learn how to
use my digital camera more productively. Was this more subconscious
training?)
It wasn’t easy to get photos of the vendors because there
were so many people. That is a good thing though. It meant that
people were interested in the vendors’ products. When there
was a bit of a break, I started taking pictures. My thought was
to get the vendors in booth order. That didn’t work because
many vendors had non-stop customers. Still, I was able to take
pictures of many vendors on Saturday.
-continued
on page 3
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