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

 

Aston Villa News & Record

Another enjoyable task of a Lion's Club chaiman is to submit club photos to Alan Perrins for possible inclusion on the Lions Club website and also the matchday programs.  In recent matchday programs (vs WBA and vs Man Utd) a couple of children of California Lions members were featured in the "Lions "Den" (the section in the matchday programme devoted to Lions Club members and their activities).

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.

Membership Cards, Skype, and the Birmingham Mail

I finally got membership cards into the mail to all California Lions Club members.  It took a little time, but I'm excited about the continued growth of the club (80+ members now on the books).  It was nice to receive a "chairman's" pin from Villa + a couple of Lions Club scarves.

The first chairmen's meeting is scheduled right before the upcoming match against Swansea City.  I emailed in a suggestion of maybe trying to set up a simple Skype connection for some of us to "join" in from afar.

One of our members was home visiting family in the UK over the summer and he had to miss our July trip to Portland.  While he was on holiday, he picked up a copy of the Birmingham Mail and there was a short article about the California Lions!  I really appreciated his effort to bring an actual copy of the paper back to the States for me!