2008 Traveling Supremes Sponsor’s Rally Rayne, LA October 23 - 26, 2008

Hosts for the rally will be Connie and Lou Butaud

Lou and Connie pulled together yet another great rally. There were 20 units of Traveling Supreme members at the gathering of our yearly business meeting. They were the Williams, Butaud, Hauffe, Brian, Bayles, Cook, Moreau, Rickles, Moore, Skinner, Bruce, Bruce, Lester, Fisher, Wellock, Vann, Reed, Rees, Lacour, James & Gail Smith. There was no rally fee and we had two wonderful dinners and two great breakfasts offered to us by the club and Gauthiers, our sponsor.

Some came as early as Monday, but we were all there by Thursday morning to begin the rally. Of course there’s always someone making a scene like breaking down as they entered the campground (hmmm, that was the Bayles’). Of course all the guys gathered around and watched Chuck, Buddy and BJ figure out the problem while Lou went and fetched the real help (welders of course).

We started out the rally gathering Thursday afternoon in the clubhouse for some social time followed with a great dinner of sausage and chicken gumbo with potato salad, provided by the club. We were then put into teams and each team was given a pumpkin. We were to decorate/carve them during the day on Friday for a contest that night.

Friday morning we had eggs prepared to your liking with Freedom toast and sausage. After breakfast each team got together to do whatever they chose to do in decorating and cutting of their pumpkins. Not sure about the other teams, but the team I was on had great fun in creating our masterpiece. Jessica was the brainstorm of our pumpkin project and even though we didn’t win, we were all proud of her. I’m sure all the teams felt equally the same about their own pumpkins and had just as much fun with this project. The winners were the gold team.

Friday night we all dressed up in crazy Halloween costumes. It was quite a sight to see all these grownups acting like kids. We laughed and had a great time. The pumpkins were also judged at this time as well. We did decide to donate all the beautiful pumpkins so professionally decorated and carved to the local Rayne nursing home.

Dinner was sponsored by Gauthiers and prepared by Connie and Lou’s nephew (and family). It was a great dinner which included pork loin, rice, string beans, corn and a roll.

After dinner we got serious and had the annual business meeting. This meeting started with introductions of our sponsors, the Gauthiers. Nancy read the minutes from the 2007 Sponsor’s rally which were passed. Maria gave the treasurers report which was also passed. Also mentioned were the four new members who joined this year which include the Wiseley’s, Bestor’s, Laninga’s, and Wenig’s.

Joe Moore, 2nd V.P., mentioned the appreciation of our website and also his creating emergency lists for the rallies.

I gave a report on the website and how appreciative I am of those that send in news items. I also asked if anyone would help gathering information such as recipes for me, but got no response. Maybe someone out there will volunteer in the future.

New Business was discussed which included our new by-laws. The committee consisted of Brian’s, Fisher’s, Hauffe’s, Moreau’s, and Butaud’s. The by-laws were then presented to the Executive Committee (our past presidents). A survey was created and 60% of our membership responded to it. We voted on the new By-Laws which were passed unanimously. All current members are grandfathered into the club if they should buy another brand. New membership of those not owning a TS will be at the discretion of the Executive Committee for now.

Gene Fisher then nominated the slate of officers which were passed as presented. There were 40 members present and 30 mail in votes. Our 2009 officers remain the same except for our new 2nd Vice President is now Jack Bruce.

Read the Official Minutes.....

Saturday morning after another great breakfast of beignets and egg sandwiches we got back together with our teams and went on a scavenger hunt. What fun that was driving all over town finding clues to questions we were asked. Some of the pictures were places we had to go to find the answers.

Saturday evening a bunch of us went to D. I. ‘s Cajun Restaurant for dinner. What a great place for food and dancing. We all had a great time even though we did have to drive 35 miles to this fun place. It was definitely worth the drive.

Sunday morning we all packed up and got back on the road heading off to our respected homes or places yonder. Hope to see ya all at the next rally!!!!!!

Bobbie Bayles