Hi Everyone!

We wanted to thank all of the members of the North Coast Gamers who came out to the Holiday Game Bash! It was good to see everyone again to such a friendly event.  I also wanted to thank the members of other groups that came out, particularly the gang from NOWS who hosted some great games.  

We also wanted to extend special thanks to Alex Ford, Lisa Ford, Dan Radakovich, Ken Podolski, Becky Roberts, Lydia Roberts, Kaylee Mazur, Sean McClain, and Emanuel Felouzis who helped out a huge amount with the scheduling, setting up, check-ins, raffles, and/or tearing down of the event.  I’d also like to thank all the GMs that prescheduled their events before the deadline.  We had some great games going on all day!

The gaming at the Holiday Game Bash this year was great!!  This year, the adding of the second floor rooms made a huge difference!  We had nearly 50 more people attend than last year, but the added space made it feel very comfortable.  For those of you who never made it upstairs, we had 6 additional rooms, 3 dedicated to miniatures and 3 dedicated to RPGs.  Additionally, the Artemis Bridge Simulation Event had its own dedicated room and was a huge success.  People loved the experience.  I thought I would attach their site for the people that asked where to get the game:  http://artemis.eochu.com/   There were many, many more games played this year from classic board games to new strategy and Euro games.  I saw several brand new games being played that are not yet published yet!  More announcements on the brand new games when they are officially released!

We kicked off the day with the annual Board of Directors meeting.  We had a good turnout for that, but we would have loved to see more folks.  The PDF of the Annual Board Report is LOCATED HERE.  There is a great amount of information about the Sponsoring Organization and very interesting statistics for the North Coast Gamers.  There are announcements for new leadership, so don't forget to take a look!

We had a couple of great fundraisers that included the Fight Cancer Benefit for Chris Ziga.  We rose over $750 at the Bash along with over $500 at the Roleplayathon!  Huge thanks for all those that donated games, bought tickets, and donated cash for Chris in his fight against cancer.   Everyone said it was great to see Chris in 'gaming spirits' ;-)

The Holiday Game Bash was successful from a financial standpoint as well!  After renting the hall, purchasing the games for the prize giveaways, etc., the organization cleared nearly $600!  (More details are included in the Annual Board Report)

As I mentioned, we had a great fund raiser for Chris Ziga.  Two tables of games were donated by members to help raise the money and STEPHANIE BAKER walked away with over $1,000 in games that covered 2 full tables!!!  Congratulations to Stephanie!  

It has been a great year once again and we’ve had a lot of fun!  We are looking for your active involvement in all of the activities in 2012.  We are still in need of event organizers across North Coast Gamers, Writer’s Bloc, and the Natural Adventures programs.  We also need help with newsletters writers, research writers, blog writers, etc. too!  If you’d like to volunteer in any way, let us know!

Take care and the best Holiday Wishes to you and your family!