Saturday August 12 was a perfect day of clear skies and mild temperatures at Cuesta Park for the annual Chapter BBQ. (It sure was nice to see San Luis Obispo Creek flowing through the park in the middle of summer too ! ) Approximately 50 delicious meals of BBQ chicken, beef, beans, salad, and bread prepared by Ken Fargen and crew were served. The Fargen family and Fargen Surveys crew members started this annual tradition in approximately 1980-81. That is over 40 years ! Amazing and so appreciated, THANK YOU to Ken, Kathy, Marshall, Geoff and all the others that have volunteered each year to prepare and serve the food at this annual event. Thanks also to Dave and Jeri Carey for their delicious dessert cookies!

This year also saw the much anticipated return of the "Survey Olympics." Kyle Huerth was Executive Producer of this hands-on fun test of basic surveying skills. With out the aid of any instruments, contestants were challenged to determine (guess) the horizontal angle between 2 points, the vertical difference in elevation between those points as well as pace off the approximate length of a predetermined distance. In addition, a self-timed tripod set up was also included in the competition. Great fun ! A BIG THANK YOU to Kyle for all his work to preparing the site, coordinating and overseeing the competition and presenting the Bronze, Silver and Gold Medal awards. ( I did notice a couple of competitors using what I assume was the compass app on their mobile device....dang it, why didn't I think of that ? Kyle, do we need to tighten up the rule book for next year's competition ?)

Gold - Clay Margason
Silver - Geoff Villegas
Bronze - Dan Manion
Best 53 foot Pace - George Marchenko @ 52.08'
Elevation Estimate - Dan W (MBS Land Surveys) 4' and 7' (actual 3.64' and 6.71')
Distance Estimate - Robert Reese 47.8' and 76.8' (actual 46.03' and 75.12')
Tripod Speed - Clay Margason 1:00

Prior to lunch being served two of the three local Trig*Star winners were presented with their awards and cash scholarships. Luz Garcia coaxed George Marchenko out of retirement to present the awards, interview the students and speak to the history of the Trig*Star competition. George has an admirable way of engaging each student in fun conversation during the presentation by focusing on their particular interests be it sports, music, pop culture, books, etc. THANK YOU George ! (See the Trig*Star Awards report following this BBQ recap)

THANK YOU to Kathy Fargen for selling meal tickets and raffle tickets. Doug Rion (beverage and ice coordinator, a very cool job) called out each winning number drawn from the ticket tumbler during the prize raffle. Thanks to everyone who contributed numerous prizes for the raffle which included handmade items such as fused glass art, earrings, an exotic wood handled pen and a pocket sized bottle opener with a handle crafted of colorful exotic woods. BBQ meals packed to go were also an available prize selection.

Each meal ticket included an entry into the door prize (a.k.a. Grand Prize) drawing. This year's lucky winner was Loy Zambo who won a metal locator generously donated by Ed Reading. Congratulations Loy and a BIG Thank You to Ed !