San Diego

The San Diego meet-up brought together chairmen and members from throughout North America and beyond.  Cheers and thanks for Simon Tissington, Chairman of the San Diego Lions for being the point-person and host of this year's meet-up.  From the Shakespeare Pub on Friday night, to the Bluefoot Bar for the early morning match, to opening up his home for an afternoon of tacos and swimming, then a Sunday lunch gathering at the Wonderland Ocean Pub - it was a great time had by all!

At some point in the future, we will host an annual meet-up in Northern California.  Most likely in San Francisco.  August would be a great month to be in the City.  Weather is great and lots to do.

Next year's meet-up is already being discussed amongst the North America chairmen - with the location TBA early next year.

Inactivity here does not indicate Lions Club inactivity

I finally have a moment to post something about the tremendous activity of the Aston Villa Lions Clubs in North America and of course, here in the Golden State.

Lions Clubs continue to pop up across North America like wildfire.  The momentum from 2013 continued in 2014 with the help of pre-season tour in Texas (Dallas and Houston).  The current North America Lions Club roster looks like this (as of a couple of weeks ago):

Alaska (Fairbanks, Alaska)
Alberta (Edmonton, Alberta)
Arizona (Scottsdale, Arizona)
Atlanta (Georgia)
Austin (Round Rock, Texas)
Boston (Dorchester, Massachusetts)
Buffalo  (New York)
California (Castro Valley, California)
Capital (Washington D.C.)
Chicago (Illinois)
Colorado Springs (Colorado)
Dallas (Richardson, Texas)
Denver (Wheat Ridge, Colorado)
Detroit (Utica, Michigan)
Illinois (Geneva, Illinois)
Los Angeles (Lakewood, California)
Maryland (Glenn Dale, Maryland)
North Carolina (Waxhaw, North Carolina)
Nova Scotia (Dartmouth, Nova Scotia)
Philadelphia (Pennsylvania)
Queen City (Cincinnati, Ohio)
Saint Louis (Arnold, Missouri)
San Diego (California)
Seattle (Washington)
Space City (Cleveland, Texas)
Toronto (Holland Landing, Ontario)
Vancouver (Coquitlam, British Columbia)

Many thanks to Simon Leach of the Chicago Lions for keeping us coordinated and in communication with one another via Facebook pages and Twitter!

Texas Tour is Right Around the Corner!

Can't believe it is already June… which means the pre-season Texas tour is right around the corner.  I can already tell that a massive Villa following will be showing up in Dallas (really Frisco) and Houston in July.  A lot of things still to do - but things are starting to come together.

1) Texas T-shirts:  Working with the great Kurt Maciej, chairman of the Austin Lions, on getting some great t-shirts printed up to sell with net proceeds going to Acorns

2) I'm trying to put together some CA Lions Club caps.., also to support Acorns (hoping I can pull it off).  Its tough to do some of this stuff when you have to have some upfront $ to work with for production.

3) Acorns raffles are being planned for both Dallas and Houston.  Hoping to still get more raffle prizes. The more we have in terms of great prizes, it will encourage more people to by more tickets.

4) Supporters games are being planned for both locations.

5) Pub headquarters have been selected and organized:

In Dallas (Frisco) - The Londoner  http://www.londonerfrisco.com

In Houston - Lucky's   http://luckyspub.com/downtown/

Put in a great group order for Houston tickets - had people from San Francisco, San Diego, Denver, Toronto,  St. Louis, Florida, and the UK!

End of Season Trip to Brum and Upcoming Texas Tour

Enjoyed a May trip to Birmingham to converge with other Lions Club chairmen at Villa Park for the Hull City match, Chairmen's match, and an away fixture at Man City.  Great time was had by all and many North America chairmen made the trip this year.

Next is prepping for the upcoming pre-season tour stops in Dallas and Houston (July 2014).  Glad that the Villa is returning to the States, but Texas....in July?  It will be scortching!  Will see many Lions Club comrades from the States, Canada, and the UK - should be a great time. (23 July vs. FC Dallas and 26 July vs. Houston Dynamo)

Lone Star

It was really exciting to hear about Villa's announcement of a return to the U.S. for a couple of pre-season friendlies in July 2014 against FC Dallas (23 Jul) and Houston Dynamo (26 Jul).

Within hours of the annoucement, there has been all kinds of chatter amongst chairmen and members of the North America-based Lions Club branches.  Plans are underway to organize a foray of North America Lions to the Lone Star State for these 2 matches.

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N. America Invasion of B6  May 2014

A good size group from North America is also traveling to Villa Park in May for the last home match of this season (Hull City) and 2 away fixtures (Man City, Tottenham) + Lions Club Awards Night, UK vs Overseas Chairmen's game.

Match Programme vs Che$ea

Match Programme - Man City

Al Saunders - Oakland Raiders

Recently I was informed that Al Saunders, current offensive coach for the NFL's Oakland Raiders, is the great-nephew of legendary Villa manager Ron Saunders.  I just sent a note to Coach Saunders inviting him to be an honorary member of the California Lions Club.  It is amazing how Villa connections pop up everywhere!

Villa legend - Ron Saunders

Al Saunders

 

Detroit "Lions" and Update on FB

So I just heard that the newest U.S.-based Lions Club has been established in Detroit.  The Detroit Lions Club headed up by Mike Pearson.  UTV! 

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Have started a page on Facebook using the FB "Page" format.  The orodinal AVFC California FB page used their old "Groups" format which has only basic admin features compared to the updated "Page" format that is now used by most businesses and organziations.  I'm in the middle of moving as many of the AVFC California photos to the new page.  I will keep both pages up for a little while and then will give a warning with a date when the old "Groups" page will disappear.

More from Chicago

I wanted to share this photo of the three Lions Club chairmen that were in Chicago for the first North American Lions Club meet-up.

(from l-r  Rick Leong, (California Lions Club), Simon Leach (Chicago Lions Club), Chris Fetters (Seattle Lions Club)

Time to start thinking about next year!  UTV

Momentum for an Annual Event

 

 

The 2013 North America Lions Club Meet-Up held in Chicago this past weekend was an amazing success.  Kudos to Simon Leach, chairman of the Chicago Lions Club, for taking the lead in planning and organizing the event.  A tremendous thank you to the owners and staff at The Globe in Chicago.  It was a perfect venue and we all felt right at home.  Your arranging for our match field and the "fully equipped" team bus was above and beyond the call of duty.  Thanks so much!

 

Many voices in the crowd were eager for another one next year - so I think the momentum is already building to turn this into an annual event.

 

UTV!

Chicago 2013

It has been a busy month as preparations are being made for the FIRST meet-up of North American Lions Club branches set for 17 August 2013 in Chicago USA.  Simon Leach, chairman of the Chicago Lions Club has taken up the lead in organizing this first of what we hope will turn into an annual event.  The focus of the weekend will be joining together at The Globe Pub in Chicago to watch Villa take on Arsenal at The Emirates.

On Friday 16 Aug a match has been scheduled between AV Lions Club vs The Globe Pub team.  We will also be running a fundraiser for Acorns in conjunction with the weekend activities.  It is only a few weeks away!  A couple of us California Lions will be making the trip out to Chicago to participate in the festivities.  Up The Villa!

Villa Reach 1M Facebook Fans!

Wow.  Aston Villa has reached 1 Million Facebook fans - amazing.  AVFC California received a shout out from Eric Lichaj on the video produced to celebrate 1 millionth FB "Like".  It is so great to be a small part of this legendary football club!

AVFC California

Audio Boo

I recently discovered "Audio Boo" and Aston Villa's official Audio Boo page.  It is a great way to listen to Jack Woodward's iconic commentaries and descriptions of Villa goals.

http://audioboo.fm/channel/avfcofficial

Villa and U.S. TV

One of the most challenging aspects of this Lions Club chair thing is figuring out when Villa games are being broadcast "live" in the U.S.  Typically, the matches that are televised in the U.S. are broadcast on the primary Fox Soccer:  Fox Soccer Channel, Fox Soccer Plus, and Fox Soccer 2Go (internet by subscription).  Every once in awhile maybe ESPN2. 

I was informed today by a couple of our members that tomorrow's Liverpool match, listed as being broadcast on Fox Soccer 2Go, also is available live on "The Fuel Channel", which I have never heard of before.  Apparently it is available on DirectTV and ATTUverse.  I'm not even sure if our pubs have this channel. 

Because television is our only visual link to the Villa, I am going to have to find good sources for this information.  It's a challenge.  Once central site that is good is LiveSoccerTv.com

 

Birmingham for the Holidays

It's been great helping some California Lions who will be traveling to Birmingham for the holidays sort out tickets for December, January, and February home matches.   Probably one of the most satisfying duties of a Lions Club Chairman. Also, will be getting the AVFC California flag to one of the traveling members so he can fly the California Lions colors at Villa Park.

Reflections on Portland 2012

It has been about 24 hours since our AVFC California journey to Portland for the friendly versus the Portland Timbers ended.  I was exhausted, but it was all worth it.  There was some level of planning involved (buying, collecting payments, distributing tickets, arranging for a hotel group discount, preparing for the raffle, working with Aston Villa, Portland Timbers, Timbers Army, Kelly's Olympian, and The Bitter End) and then all of the coordination as the events unfolded.  I was so pleased with the turnout and how flexible and helpful everyone was during the events.  Having Ian Taylor at Kelly;s Olympian was a hit with our membership and that brought great satisfaction.  Would I have done anything different?  Maybe encourage more members to join us on the next one, have an Acorns banner made and have Acorns literature available to educate folks more as part of the charity raffle, and arrange for a supporters game like they had in Philly and Chicago.

This is another step forward in the growth of AVFC California.  This trip helped draw us together as a California Lions family and also provided us even greater exposure to Villa supporters from other parts of the U.S. and also back in Birmingham.  Can't wait until the next time!  (Maybe at Villa Park?)

...will need to get in touch with Tom Hanks :)

  

Well, the time has come!

California Lions are preparing for travel with some already in transit to Portland.  Meet-ups are set.  Open training.  Acorns raffle.  At this point, its time to just let everything roll out on its own.  It should be a great time.  I'm really hoping that the Acorns raffle generates a lot of interest and money for Acorns.  Villa's connection with Acorns is what drew me to Villa in the first place and now we have a California Lions branch with close to 80 members on our roster.

Portland prep (con't)

Working on logistics for the Acorns raffle, but it is coming together.  I had some buttons made a couple of weeks ago to give out to AVFC California members in Portland and then thought name tags would be nice to have for members to connect with one another.  Figured out a way to use the buttons and make a name tag by adding 1/2 of an index card.  Its good because it will serve its purpose as a name tag, but it isn't permanent and can function alone as a button still.