October 2024

Bay Breeze

In This Issue

From the President

Barry and Mary Cohen, Co-Presidents

Dear Members,

We’re sorry to have missed the Chapter Picnic, but we’re confident it was a smashing success and everyone had a great time. We look forward to hearing who won the horseshoe tournament, the chili cookoff and the cookie competition. Congratulations to the winners!

MARK YOUR CALENDAR for Thursday, October 17, 2024; 5:00pm and come to the Dinner Meeting at Jack’s Restaurant in San Mateo. We’ll enjoy a delicious dinner served family style and hear from new member, Michael Ding, owner of Bobyard, a new company that deals with AI in the landscape industry. He’ll demonstrate how AI helps contractors do takeoffs and estimates “10x faster”. Would that be valuable to the efficiency of the bidding process in your business? Then you owe it to yourself and your business to hear all about it. Here’s an idea. Bring your estimating team and let them hear it first-hand!

The presentation and election of the 2025 slate of officers will also take place at the October Dinner Meeting. We’re still looking for a contractor member to serve as Secretary along with Beth Valdez, Jackie Marsey and Scooter Wren. Please reach out to any Board member if you are interested. Installation of next year’s Officers will take place on Thursday, November 7, 2024 at 5:30pm. This is a week earlier to accommodate the State Convention November 13-16 in Newport Beach. Location is yet to be determines, so stay tuned for more details.

We’re already starting to work on next year’s dinner meetings and speakers. What subject would get you up, out and to a dinner meeting? Is there a restaurant you’ve been wanting to try? If you have a suggestion for a venue or speaker for a dinner meeting, please share your recommendation(s) with us (barrymarycohen@gmail.com) as we will be charged with these tasks as next year’s Chairs of the Board.

Craig and Vivian Rapp are hard at work getting next year’s Achievement Awards program up and running. Most, if not all, of you have heard from them. Make the commitment to participate and start selecting the jobs you want to submit. Let’s make this the grandest, most attended event we’ve enjoyed in decades. The SFBA Chapter knows how to do it and with Craig and Vivian at the helm, we will exceed our goals for sure!

Looking forward to seeing you and learning all about AI!

Barry and Mary Cohen
Co-Presidents

Auxiliary Report

Boo! Happy Halloween! Time to be scary, get scared or play tricks on someone. Hopefully no one will be playing tricks on you! Thanksgiving, Hanukkah and Christmas are right around the corner…although decorations have been in the stores for two months.

The Chapter Picnic on September 8 at Cuesta Park in Mountain View was a terrific event. We had 58 people in attendance, a new post COVID pandemic record. Thank you to our picnic committee (Chair Rick and Marina Camin, Alice Domine, Vicky Parrott, Cindy Singletary, Girvin and Lesley Peters, and Charlene Ott) for putting together this fun and festive day. Huge thank you to Marina Camin for doing the cooking. Excellent food as always. A full report of all of the winners (dessert, chili and horseshoes) is elsewhere in this newsletter but I will say our judges had their work cut out for them (chili and dessert) and the horseshoe tournament had some familiar names, especially in the winner’s circle, but a new winning team received the trophy!

Our last Auxiliary meeting of the year is Wednesday, October 30 at 6 p.m. at Pompeii Ristorante in downtown Los Altos. This meeting is hosted by Chapter Co-Presidents, Barry and Mary Cohen, which means that the chapter pays for our dinner! All are welcome to attend. A Paperless Post invitation has already gone out. If you would like to join us, please email me at the address below and I will send you the invitation along with a membership application. I look forward to seeing everyone there.

There are still a lot of activities through the end of the year. October’s meeting is on artificial intelligence with the guys from Bobyard (Michael Ding, Ethan Nordin and Matthew Waliman). November is installation of officers, the state convention in Newport Beach and Thanksgiving. December is the Christmas Holiday Party, Hanukkah and Christmas. The year will close with a bang, I’m sure. I probably say that every year.

Have a great October. Enjoy the cooling weather, changing colors and Halloween candy! Hope to see you soon.

Lesley Peters
Garden Designer
650-444-4580
gpland@sbcglobal.net

Annual Chapter Picnic

Annual Chapter Picnic – A Day Of Family Fun!

I always look forward to our annual Chapter Picnic as it is by far one of my favorite CLCA events. It is a great day to catch up with fellow members and share stories of what everyone did over the summer and meet new members. I went to “Burning Man” for the first time, so I had a story or two to share. We had 60 attendees this year held on a gorgeous sunny day to enjoy the traditional BBQ, Chilli and Cookie Contest, Scavenger Hunt and hotly contested Horseshoe Competition for the rights to engrave your team’s name on the perpetual horseshoe trophy.

Unfortunately, the two-time defending champions Ed and Jonathan Ott didn’t attend, so it left the competition wide open for new champions. The huge favorite was Brian and Kurt Domine, who won the title four times in a row before Ed and Jonathan dethroned them. Brian and Kurt crushed the competition heading into the finals, but they were met by Joe and Alex Domine for the trophy and family bragging rights. Amazingly, Joe and Alex cruised through the finals to make no doubt who were the deserving champions. This was Joe’s second championship as he won one year with Camille, his father, and this year with his son Alex. Congratulations to Joe and Alex, our 2024 Horseshoe Champions!

Below are the judges and big winners of the annual chili and cookie contest.

Chili judges: Laura Villalpando, Greenwaste, Nick Sanchez, Davey Tree and Matthew Waliman, Bobyard
Chili entries: Jackie Marsey, Dominic Bryan, Alice Domine, Michelle Ott and Cindy Singletary
Winner: Jackie Marsey
Second place: Cindy Singletary

Cookie judges: Julie Orr, Scooter Wren and Rick Camin
Entries: Alice Domine, Ethan Nordin, Bobyard, Zoe Domine with help from Mom Sarah, Beth Valdez and Tobin and Briar Bayless with help from Mom Sabrina
First place: Ethan Nordin, Bobyard, Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
Second place: Tobin and Briar Bayless, Everything But The Kitchen Sink cookies

The Chapter Picnic is a big production, but a great committee team pulls together every year to make it happen. I am so grateful to the following people for their huge help this year.

Vicky Parrott – prizes. Charlene Ott – name tags, salad, beer and wine donation. Alice Domine – Scavenger Hunt and games. BBQ chef – Marina Camin, Kitchen help – Al and Beth Valdez – Set up – Girvin Peters.

Last but never least, Lesley Peters, our Chapter Auxiliary President who always keeps me in line with her amazing organization skills and leadership.

Looking forward to seeing everyone next year!

Rick Camin
2024 Chapter Picnic Chairperson

Ethan Nordin, Girvin Peters, Michael Ding

Marina Camin

Ethan Nordin, Girvin Peters, Michael Ding

Zoe Clara & Veda Domine Veda, Tobin and Briar Bayless

Ernst Lehmann, Camille Domine

Jackie Marsey, Vicky Parrott, Lesley Peters

Julie Orr, Mathew Waliman, Michael Ding, Ethan Nordin, Beth Valdez

Ethan Nardin, Vicky Parrott

Lesley Peters, Tobin Bayless, Briar Bayless and Veda Domine

Joseph Domine, Alex Domine, Rick Camin, Brian Domine and Kurt Domine

Awards of Excellence

The Awards Program is Back for 2025!

Upcoming Events

SFBA Annual Golf Tournament

Tuesday October 1st | Spring Valley Golf Course

Dust off your favorite Hawaiian shirt, grab your grass skirts and get ready to network, have fun and tee off with your CLCA SFBA colleagues! Contests include Putting contest, Closest to the Pin, Longest Drive, Themes. Prizes will also be given to the best Hawaiian themed teams. Register your foursome and get a $120 discount for your team!

Schedule

Registration: 11:30 - 12:30 PM

Lunch: 12:00 Noon

Putting Contest: 11:30-12:30 PM

In Your Carts: 12:45 PM

Shot Gun Tee Off: 1:00 PM

Cocktails/Drinks: 5 - 6:00 PM

Dinner: 6:30 PM

Acknowledgements - Prizes - Winners

Registration

Early Bird Individual Entry Fee (ends 9/6) $125

Individual Entry Fee (after 9/6) $150

Foursome Entry Fee (includes a $120 discount) $450

Dinner only $55.00

Sponsorship Opportunities:

Closest to the Hole, Longest Drive, Putting Contest and Hole Sponsorships ($250)

NEW Sponsorship Opportunities:

Golf Cart Sponsor ($350) includes signage on 10 golf carts, green fees and lunch & dinner for one player

Lunch Sponsor ($800) includes recognition at lunch cart, green fees and lunch & dinner for two players

Dinner Sponsor ($1000) includes recognition at lunch cart, green fees and lunch & dinner for two players

AI & the Future of Software Technology in the Landscaping Industry

Dinner Meeting | Thursday, October 17th | 5-7:30pm | Jack's Restaurant & Bar | San Mateo

Michael Ding, owner and brains behind Bobyard uses AI artificial intelligence to help contractors do takeoffs and estimates “10x faster”. He will discuss what is AI? What is AI capable of doing today? What will it be capable of doing in 5 years? 10 years? What will the tools of the future look like, and how will workflows change? How do we stay on top of these coming changes?

Cost: $60.00
CLCA Life members: $30.00

Partner Spotlight

The Month’s Partner Spotlight is Pacific Nurseries

Bay Area Landscape Pros have to get a lot right to manage a client relationship, develop a successful solution, and complete a project within budget to satisfy their customer.

Pacific Nurseries recognize that this can sometimes be more than challenging. As a result, these Bay Area Landscape Pro Case Studies detail how a select group of local Pros have produced some very impressive work.

Learn how they assessed their situation, conceived an inspiring solution, and overcame unique project challenges to create a beautiful landscape.

If you want to avoid mistakes and improve the outcome of your project, check out the CASE STUDIES.

Contact Pacific Nurseries

Diamond Partners

Platinum Partners

Gold Partners

Emerald Partners

Sapphire Partners

Achievement Award A La Carte

CLCA Member Benefit

2024 Board of Directors

Immediate Past President – Juan Carlos Esparza
President – Barry & Mary Cohen
Vice President – Beth Valdez
Treasurer – Scooter Wren
Secretary – Jackie Marsey
Associate Liaison – Marin Villalpando

Auxiliary President – Lesley Peters
Auxiliary Vice President – Girvin Peters
Auxiliary Treasurer – Rick Camin
Auxiliary Secretary – Vicky Parrott