Bay Breeze

Barry and Mary Cohen, Co-Presidents

Dear Members,

We’re getting close to the end of another year and we continue to concentrate on increasing membership. In the past few months, we’ve welcomed new members Abel Beas with Elevated Landscape, Michael Ding with Bobyard and Jesus Bustos with JB Landscape. We’ve also welcomed returning members Julie Orr with Pergolas by Julie, Craig and Vivian Rapp, Filiberto Fonseca with New Path Landscape Services, Elisa Baier with Small Spot Gardens, Inc and rep, Mike McPherson with Vista Professional Outdoor Lighting.

A great big Thank You to Beth Valdez, Jackie Marsey and Scooter Wren for putting on a great golf tournament. We didn’t play golf, but we arrived early enough to borrow Beth’s cart and tootle around the course, saying hello to our golfers. Dinner was delicious and plentiful, and the golfers were parched from the hot temperatures, but very happy to be there. Congratulations to the winning golfers and raffle prize winners!

For those who missed the Dinner Meeting last Thursday, you missed not only a delicious dinner at Jack’s Restaurant in San Mateo, but you missed a very interesting informative presentation by new member, Michael Ding, owner of Bobyard (bobyard.com), a new company that has brought Artificial Intelligence into the landscape industry. He shared the history of AI and how information is repeatedly (hundreds of thousands of times) “fed” into its “brain”, its more recent exponentially increasing use, both positive and negative, and how he has developed a system for contractors to use for takeoffs and estimates “10x faster”. He did a quick demonstration with a plan that had been previously uploaded into his system. The program “read” the legend and, when he hit the button to do the takeoff, it was completely counted and measured in about 10 seconds. It was incredible as we remember working on takeoffs, well into the night, during the early years of BL Cohen Landscape.

As is customary and a long-standing tradition, it was our honor to host the last Auxiliary meeting of the year at Pompeii Ristorante in Los Altos. The Auxiliary is an invaluable part of our Chapter, so it is appropriate to show our appreciation for all they do for and with us.

Installation for both the Chapter CLCA and the Auxiliary will take place on Wednesday, November 6, 2024 at 5:30pm at Celia’s in Menlo Park. This is a week earlier to accommodate the State Convention November 13-16 in Newport Beach. Thank you to Tom Ellington, who will install both Boards again this year.

Speaking of the Convention, are you going? Remember, if you’re a new member who has never attended a Convention before, the registration for your first Convention is at a reduced rate. We will be there, so please look for us. We’d proudly introduce you to members of your new CLCA Family!

As we mentioned in our Message last month, we are already working on next year’s dinner meetings and speakers. What subject would make you get up off the couch and to a dinner meeting? Have a suggestion for a restaurant? They can be located anywhere in our chapter geographic area. Is there a subject you’d like to hear or learn more about? Please share your recommendation(s) with us (barrymarycohen@gmail.com).

See you at Installation!

Barry and Mary Cohen
Co-Presidents