To Our Southsiders Volunteer Team:
How we are approaching the end of 2017 is still beyond me. It feels like I haven’t had a chance to look up since our AGM last December, but in the best of possible ways! To say it’s been a busy year is an absolute understatement and without each of you helping and guiding me along the way, none of it would have been possible.
From the Membership side of things, I want to take this opportunity to personally thank Joann Bessler for getting me into this (I’ll get you back for it one of these days, I promise haha) and to Dan Olson, Dan Emerson, and Janna Gabrek for their support at the Membership table at Doolin’s throughout the season. Without their help, it would’ve been complete and utter scarf chaos, so kudos to them for keeping me in line!
Events & Partnerships have been a bit of a whirlwind this year. We had many things to accomplish in 2017 to get us back on course with our Partners and am happy to report we made excellent headway. Re-building our Match Day events was a HUGE goal of ours this year, and we’ve seen numbers in the 75+ range show up to Doolins for away viewings. That is a colossal step forward and I hope we can keep that momentum going into next season and beyond.
Another one of my goals at the beginning of the season was to plan at least one event per month that wasn’t solely match-day related and am happy to report we pulled off sixteen (16!!!) of them! From our Launch Party in February, to our 2nd annual Blue & White Navy trip to Bowen Island, to Ousted Appreciation Night and everything in between, we’ve accomplished so much and I truly cannot wait to see what 2018 brings. Events would not work without each and every supporter who comes out and celebrates with us. Thank you to everyone who made an effort, both on match days and at other events, to come out and show their Support with the Southsiders.
I’d like to take a moment to thank Rob Wheeler for passing the torch and being an amazing sounding board for some of my hairbrained event ideas. Special thanks are owed to Gail Embree & Brendan Beynon for bringing their enthusiasm our way over the course of the year and helping out with events whenever I needed some extra hands on deck. Thank you to Ryan Burns for holding down the fort and making sure the other volunteers were taken care of when I needed extra help. Thank you to Julian Anderson, Darren Alexander and the SouthIslanders for hosting our crew at Yates Street Taphouse in Victoria. Thank you to Chris Corrigan for all his help with Blue & White Navy as well as some awesome suggestions over the course of the season. Thank you to the Pigeon Casuals for bringing their enthusiasm over to Doolin’s in the latter portion of the season and getting the supporters pumped up with a few new chants. And finally, a massive thanks to James Young, Kieran Baldwin, Barry Walsh and the crew at Doolin’s for taking care of us this year. Our demands were high and they did a great job hosting us (Read: Sorry about the shout-y emails. I only meant *some* of it).
Thank you to each and every member and volunteer for making 2017 one of my proudest to be a Southsider.
Bring on 2018!
Aaryn Vivian
Vancouver Southsiders Events, Membership and Partnerships
