Can you believe spring is upon us?  This year is full of great things for NACE on a national level and at home in our chapter.  We have some impressive meetings planned this year and just enjoyed a wonderful evening at the downtown Il Fornaio in March.  Those Italians definitely know how to cook and serve…I felt like I was on a luxury cruise for the evening! 

Our Sacramento Board just did our annual retreat and we were lucky to have Tracey Amernick fly up from San Diego to facilitate our day.  She is a regional VP on the national board of NACE and is the past president of the San Diego chapter.  She works at a lovely hotel on the bay and has even worked for Donald Trump.  She shared some great ideas to move our chapter forward and also said she learned some things from us too!  

We have two new board members that have recently been appointed and they are James Tokuno from Arden Hills as our Hospitality Chair and Matt Brys from Extreme Productions Entertainment as our Affiliate Chair.  Speaking of new members, we just found out today that our Spring Membership Drive will run from April 14^th thru May 23^rd.  New members will have a chance to join and save $100. off their first years membership!

Our upcoming national conference is scheduled for August 2^nd to the 6^th in Philadelphia, PA.  The Philadelphia chapter is a dynamic group of professionals and our national president also is a part of that chapter so I know they will be dazzling us with their work.  You really should consider attending.  Our NACE national conferences are the best professional conferences I have ever attended and I have attended many other association conferences over the years.  They are informative, fun and a great value.  If you are looking for new ideas to move your business forward, this is a great opportunity.  For the agenda and more details, check it out on our national web site at www.nace.net 

In an effort to save time, money and go green, we are now doing email invites for all of our upcoming meetings with the exception of our “added value” meetings.  So make note of those NACE meetings on the fourth Tuesday of each month and join us for  networking, information and always a delicious dinner and see what your competitors and business associates are doing to be the best in our industry!   

I look forward to seeing you at Granite Bay!

Best,Georgia Barron, CPCE
Sacramento Chapter President

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By Michael Anderson, NACE Membership Chair.

 This month we would like to welcome a great addition to the Sacramento NACE team, please welcome Tatiana Munoz from Acrobat Staffing. If your facility or company is in need of additional staffing for a grand event,  look no further because Acrobat Staffing is only a phone call away. The employee application process includes written testing, oral questioning, and a 3-hour hands-on training course that covers all areas of event set-up, fine dining, and many other areas of food service and catering. For more information on Acrobat Staffing please visit their website at www.Acrobatstaffing.com

This month we also had the honor of welcoming back Katie Edwards of Ambience Floral Design to the Sacramento NACE chapter. Over the years she has provided her beautiful floral arrangements for countless NACE events, and we are proud to welcome her back. You can get more information on her services at www.ambiencefloral.com.

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  Cat’s Charity Corner
By Catriona Arcularius, NACE 1st VP.

 I am so excited to bring you amazing stories of our members who have taken the time and care to participate in charity efforts.  Nothing will make me happier than to write about our associates and friends who find unique and helpful ways to better someone else through giving.  I often think of ways to participate in charity programs, but then don’t follow through.  If this sounds like you, then I hope the articles to follow will encourage you to make a change. 

 I have finally committed to something: though it’s been a small effort I held a charity benefit party this past month.  I chose to have my guests donate to The Sacramento Crisis Nurseries (www.crisisnurseryonline.com).

 The Crisis Nursery is a local resource for young children and their parents.  As a new mom myself, I understand how difficult it can be to care for a child in the best of circumstances.  I can only imagine how much more challenging parenting would be with added stresses.  The Nursery is there to support these families in order to keep the children safe and prevent injury.

I am happy to say that I was able to raise over $1000 for this charity.  The Friends of the Sacramento Crisis Nurseries are currently looking for others to assist them in planning fundraisers for the “4 the Babies” campaign.  Please call Chris Weske at 916 988 5870 for more details.

 Next month…   Jenny Gialanza will compete in the Avia Wildflower Triathlon.  Her goal is to raise $3,000 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.  Please go to www.active.com/donate/tntsac/JennyG to support her cause.

Please feel free to contact me with your charity activity and I’ll spread the word!

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 Go Green and Kill the Green!

 By Susie Calise, NACE Secretary

Spring is here and as lovely as it is, it unfortunately it brings the dreaded weeds!

I know they say most of those weed killing sprays aren’t supposed to cause harm, but I hate to dump a lot of yucky chemicals onto the earth.  Especially important to me, since we live near a creek.  So, since I have a lot of decorative rock and tan bark around our home, I found something that kills the weeds for an entire season, but won’t harm anything but the weeds.  Vinegar!  I buy it at Sam’s Club by the 2 gallon box, dilute it half and half in a large watering can and go to town raining it onto my rock beds and any problem tan bark areas.  Be careful not to hit any of your flowers and bushes – this stuff will kill whatever it hits.  It does need to soak into the soil a bit.  Within a day or so you will see the weeds that you poured the vinegar on turn brown and die.  In the areas where there are no weeds it will usually protect the soil for the whole season.  The acid in the vinegar does the trick.  Note:  You have to be sure to give it a fairly good soaking, I tried just spraying it on to the surface of the weeds and it didn’t work. 

So happy green killing, but in a good way.