Well, let me say a few words, coming from someone that worked very hard to make this a great event, and not knowing where to start. I have only been to 2 STAR's in the past, 2017 Ark and last year in Colorado Spr. Then, to take on such a huge accomplishment, I never thought it was going to turn out as good as it did.
To do that, I looked at and copied and pasted many of the comments from 2017, onto a sheet, that people did not like, and hoped that we could change, and also looked at what they did like and hoped to improve those also.
It seemed to have worked, as there have been many great comments. And some not so great, which are probably some of the people that can never be happy and always seem to look for fault. But, they also will not step up to volunteer either. Just my observation from being in many other organizations.
FYI, I told Harry last Fall that I came from a job that we had goals that many times were not achievable. And, I said that my goal for STAR 2018 was to make it the best STAR ever, knowing that was probably impossible, but it was my goal. It is pretty hard to do that when you have so many people that have had experience with STAR's in the past, and this is my first, but that is what I shot for. It seems from many of the comments, in La Crosse and the surveys and such that we came close to that goal.
I want to thank the many long time members, such as Harry and Dianne and others that were there to answer questions and offer advice, and Dennis for convincing me to take on this task. Without their help, it would not have been as successful.
I was told a few months ago, that this club does not seem to thank people when a job is well done, and not to worry. Well, I cannot count how many times in La Crosse people thanked us for the hard work and great STAR. It was amazing how often we heard such great words in La Crosse from people that I did not know, and still do not know many of their names. But, it made me feel good when long time members thanked me and said it was a great STAR.