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"I was lucky enough to say good bye to hundreds of the guests at the door last night and the comments were all glowing. 'Please do it again next year', 'The best party of the year', 'The best time we have had in a long time', 'What a perfect venue' and the list goes on. But two said, 'This was such an exceptional night that I am going to write a letter to the editor.' "
- Jim Scartz
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Greetings!
 When something runs like clockwork, it is assumed that everything has gone according to plan and has been executed perfectly. "Like a Swiss watch," some might say. But sometimes, even a Swiss watch needs tuning.
Take a look at Roger Federer's performance at Wimbledon earlier this month. The flawless player who seems to execute with precision was toppled before the quarter finals for the first time in as long as anyone can recall. He found himself down 2 sets and even with a record of 178-0 in that situation, he was sent packing back to the Alps. Evidently Rog just couldn't get "into the zone" with total concentration during that match. But you can bet Rogie didn't just sit back and wait for his next tournament; he spent hours analyzing his performance and making adjustments to improve his already near perfect game.
Last March our patrons thought we had executed with precision and were thrilled with the results, but we know well that there are a lot of things to work on to continue to refine our guest experience and to truly reach the point where we run like a Swiss watch. We debriefed, interviewed and analyzed our performance to do even better in the future. As we start winding up now for our next big performance we are taking the lessons learned and applying them to Grapes & Apes 2012 to assure we get into the zone and always make the finals to excel like champions.
Sincerely,
Rich Ahrens
Gorilla-at-Large
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Something New - Zone Leaders
A new level of organization has been planned into Grapes & Apes this coming year. The entire event area has been divided into six "zones" and every zone will have a manager overseeing every aspect from pre-event planning, needs assessments, communication with committee chairs operating in the zone, set ups, operations and breakdown/cleanup of the area afterward. The zone arrangement will allow for a much more sophisticated level of communication during Grapes & Apes and allows us to focus with precision on executing at the top of our games.
The six members who will act as our Zone Leaders are Hal Atzingen, John Botsko, Paul Huber (pres-elect), Mitch Melheim, Phil Regala and Steve Stolz. The coordinators will furnish the ZLs with our Vision Document 2012 for their review in the next week.
The next stage of planning will be a meeting between the coordinator team and the zone leaders to discuss the specifics of the coming year with a walk through of the zones at Naples Zoo. |
| Sponsor Levels Published
Grapes & Apes is becoming a high profile event in Southwest Florida. It is already a brand that is identified with The Rotary Club of Naples and we will continue to work hard to build awareness in the community and beyond. Snowbird Quinn Martin is working on the registration paperwork that we will file with the State of Florida to trademark "Grapes & Apes" so we can protect our brand from misuse. Yes, we take what we are doing very seriously and it is apparent to all who are involved.
Our affiliates will appreciate all that we are doing to make a professional impression upon our community and our patrons. Randy Kurtz and Michael Orden have been working hard to define our sponsorship levels and have expanded our original offerings to include new site specific sponsorship opportunities. These will include a company to sponsor the boat cruise, the wine IQ classes, various musicians, and more. Of course we will also offer five levels of sponsorships this year - Gorilla, Tiger, Giraffe, Zebra and Macaw.
The sponsorship packet will be available for distribution in early August. You can preview the sponsorship levels here.
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About Grapes & Apes
Grapes & Apes is the signature annual fundraiser for The Rotary Club of Naples Charitable Foundation, Inc. All proceeds benefit the projects and programs of The Rotary Club of Naples as well as the endowment fund of the foundation. |
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