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.

___________________

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

California Lions Club Kit

Toying with the idea of creating a kit for the California Lions Club.  Came up with a crest that I like.

I didn't realize how difficult it is to locate a teamwear company that does a "claret & blue" kit.  This is especially difficult to find in the U.S.  Some thoughts that have bounced around in my head.

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!

AVFC California

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 is Drawing Near

It is the eve of the start of the U.S. Tour for Villa.  It is amazing to read about the planning and activities that have been planned for by other U.S. Lions Club chairmen with AVFC.  Out tour stop is Portland Oregon.  Because there isn't a Lions Club in Oregon, our club - AVFC California - has stepped up to take a lead role in planning activities for Villa supporters coming to Portland.  The pleasant surprise in taking the plunge on this event,  I have encountered so much support and cooperation from AVFC marketing staff, Portland Timbers marking staff, The Timbers Army, our own AVFC California members, and all the Villa supporters on Facebook.  

I am feeling a little nervous about it all as it draws closer.  Will it be an enjoyable time for all?  Have I gotten to far over my head?  Should I be doing more?  At this point, I really don't have enough time to plan anything additional.  Its time to just let it happen and the Claret and Blue spirit will take over.  This is AVFC California's first "formal" meet-up other than at our pubs on match day.  Gonna have to figure out a creative way to have members wear name tags that have some Villa spirit.  I guess I do still have some thinking and work to do before the 24th!  UTV!

California - A Vast Place

In my next few posts, I wanted to touch upon what it is like coordinating a Lions Club in such a large geographic place such as California.  This post just provides some basic geography facts.

Some geography facts:

* 163,695 sq. mi./423,970 sq. km - 3rd largest state (behind Alaska and Texas)
* 1,200 mi./1,931 km of coast line along the Pacific Ocean
* 400 mi./644 km - length of Sierra Nevada mountain range
* 14,494 ft./4,418 m. - Mount Whitney (tallest point in the lower 48 states)
* 282 ft./86 m. below sea level - Death Valley (lowest point in North America)
* Coast, mountain, desert climates

AVFC California is based in the San Francisco Bay Area

What does the desk of a Lions Club chairman look like?

The desk where I currently spend a huge percentage of my time these days (unfortunately) has a good part of it dedicated to the Villa.  It helps me get through those tough days... UTV!