Reminders, updates, and invites…

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Hey PG!

I thought it best I send a few reminders, updates. and invites as we roll into February here. I hope this message finds you well, with a glass of beer and some friends and family nearby. 🙂

THIS WEEK

The team at LA Ale Works cordially invites us to check out their taproom during the soft-launch this Wednesday February 1st from 7pm – 10pm.  We are so proud of our friends at LAAW and I can’t wait for Wednesday!

Looking further ahead toward the weekend, our friend Drew and the crew at Santa Monica Brew Works invites us into their taproom as well for February’s First Friday. Drew and I had a blast floating FOUR 1/6 bbl kegs of SMBW beer at Surfas this past Thursday night and I’m looking forward to trying the other styles they have, especially the taproom only stuff.

Reminders…

First: Remember, we’ve got our 3rd Annual Los Angeles Belgian Brew Challenge coming up quickly and registration and submissions are due sooner than you’d think. Get those Belgian’s brewing and visit belgianbrewchallenge.com for more info.

Also, we’ve got the VERY fun CHA Southern California Homebrew Fest coming up in May. For more info and to reserve a spot for you and your PG camping party, fill out our sign up form here:  http://pacificgravity.com/schf

Finally, a brief update regarding the Anchor California Homebrew Club of The Year trip too: President’s weekend created a scheduling conflict for the team at Anchor so they are rescheduling with us on another weekend. As soon as the date is known, I’ll post a sign up with info for those of you who are looking to attend.

I had hoped to be brief but truthfully we have a lot going on. 🙂

Looking forward to seeing you all this week!  Reach out if you have any questions.

Thanks,

Michael

1feb7:00 pm- 10:00 pmLA Ale Works Soft Launch7:00 pm - 10:00 pm LA Ale Works

3feb7:00 pmFirst Friday - Santa Monica Brew Works7:00 pm Santa Monica Brew Works

Club of the Year, Club member or the Year, and Chili Cook-off Recap!

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Hello PG Members,

We all have been pretty busy the last week, so its taken me some time to officially get this post out here. So please Read on:

First, if you haven’t heard Pacific Gravity won the 2016 “Anchor California Homebrew Club of the Year” competition!!!! We turned in our submission and judging was on Nov. 5th during the Cal. State homebrew comp. Check out the link here: http://castatebrewcomp.org. I want to thank everyone for a great year and to all the board members for helping make it so. We strived to make a difference, to evolve this club to higher standards, and this is just one of the pay offs. I hope everyone, for years to come, will continue to make Pacific Gravity one of California’s best homebrew clubs around. By striving for more education, involvement, club charity, and as always brewing the best damn beer!

Second, if you “missed” the Chili Cook-off and did not get a chance to vote for Pacific Gravity’s “Club Member of the Year” nows your chance! Please email your vote here: memberoftheyear@pacificgravity.com you will have tell Next Sunday to vote. That is voting will now close after Nov. 20th. Nominated Members are: Lloyd Johnson, Michael Musgrave, Tim Bardet, Carl Townsen, Terry Malloy, Michael Patterson, Mimi Bardet, Tania Musgrave, Dean Sussman, and as always feel free to vote for any other PG member not on that list. You will get two votes for two different people. So please send those emails with two names!

Third, we had a blast at the Chili Cooks off. It was a good day, hot at first and then the marine layer rolled in to cool us off a bit. Chili’s and cornbread where showing up and snack where laid out. Terry had the lights up for night and a fire pit ready to go. We had a slow start, but soon got some good number later. Just in time for Rives amazing rare and expensive cider and mead tasting that lasted for quite some time into the night. Thank you Rives for going so above and beyond! We did announcement and last calls for voting about mid evening. As there was no contested board members for 2017 we did a vocal call for agreement in next years board members. They are as followed: President Michael Musgrave, VP Terry Molloy, Treasure Tim Bardet, then Carl Townsend for Competitions Coordinator, Dean Sussman as Styles, Mimi Bardet as Charities and Special Events, Tania Musgrave as Secretary, Michael Patterson as Education Director, and Brett Wilson as Activities Director that I know for sure as of now.

All the chili’s where great. We absolutely stuffed ourselves, but only two chili’s could come out on top. Ian Fraser took the win for Best Chili and Parker took the most unique! Both where amazing, Ian’s was a delicious super spicy meat chili and then Parker’s was like an amazing Mole like vegetarian chili (sorry Parker blanking on the actual ingredients). Also we did not get a lot of the style of the month beers that night, but we did get a bunch of kegs so we opened the best beer of the night to everyone that brought beer. It looked like by the end of the night Ian, Tim, Luis, and Larry took the win with there Big Red IPA, and then Carl was in close second with a hoppy pale “Extra Galactic”.

I want to give The Molloy’s a big Thank You for hosting at their house again this year, great times! Check out some of the pics below.

http://pacificgravity.com/2016/11/club-year-club-member-year-chili-cook-off-recap/

IMG_6854 IMG_6859 IMG_6866 IMG_6867 IMG_6869 IMG_6874 IMG_6878 IMG_6880 IMG_6881 IMG_6885 IMG_6886 IMG_6891 IMG_6898 IMG_6901 IMG_6904 IMG_6907 IMG_6910 IMG_6918 IMG_6924 IMG_6926 IMG_6927 IMG_6928 IMG_6929 IMG_6932 IMG_6934 IMG_6935

 

 

 

PG Golf Outing @ Westchester and Bottle Share @ the Trux Stop!! Oct. 22nd

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Hi Everyone,

First off I would like to announce that Brett Willson is Pacific Gravity’s new “Activities Director” for the rest of 2016 and proposed 2017! Brett’s goals are to add more outdoor and physical activities combined with out love of Beer!
Brett’s first activity, which we have started to announce and some of you have signed up for is a PG Golf Day at Westchester Golf Course.
Also to top it off we are inviting all PG club members, even if you are obviously not a golfer, to the afterwords 19th Hole Bottle Share at Tomm Carroll’s beloved Trux Stop bar and backyard! (aka Tomm’s place).

Note: if you want to sign up for the Golf Day you have to do it now, so email Brett ASAP and you have to commit to the day and the price. brettwilsonpg@gmail.com

Here is all the info and words form Brett:

Pacific Gravity will at long last combine our love for golf and beer into one glorious day. We are joining for a round of golf at Westchester Golf Course and then heading to the 19th hole at the Truxx Stop to relax and revel in an afternoon bottle share.  There will be prizes and bragging rights to those who are the best dressed, post the highest score, post the lowest score, and are closest to the pin on the first hole.  The round will be $45 and payable at the golf course.  A few of us will be at the course a little early to hit some warm up balls.  Feel free to join us at the driving range.

The bottle share will be from 3PM until 10PM at the Truxx Stop.  Please bring bottles to share and a your favorite side dishes or grill items because we will be cooking food on the charcoals at Tomm’s place during the bottle share.
You do not need to play golf to attend the bottle share, but all must RSVP to: brettwilsonpg@gmail.com so we can get a head count for food! If you’ve never been to a bottle share at the Trux Stop, well it’s one you do not want to miss, you never know what Tomm’s going to pull out of the walk-in cooler! Just ask any other member thats been there.

———————————————————-
Pacific Gravity Golf Outing
When: October 22nd -9:30am to 2:30pm
How Much: $45 – Payable in Cash at the golf course
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19th Hole Bottle Share @ The Trux Stop: (close to Westchester)
When: October 22nd – 3pm to 10pm
Where: The Trux Stop (aka Tomm & Denise’s) 7643 Truxton Ave. Los Angeles, CA 90045

So please RSVP now for Golfing and/or going to the Bottle Share. Bring your clubs to the course and your bottles and food to the Trux Stop!! Hope to see you all there.

 

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Other Announcements
Happy Birthday to our resident club Chef, Ian Fraser today!!

-October Club Meeting: Culver City Homebrew Shop, Oct. 20th, the Third Thursday. Style of the Month: British and American Strong Beers
We will be taking nominees for Board Member votes (President, VP, and Treasurer) as well as Club Member of the year nominees.

-November Club Meeting and Chili Cook off: Nov. 5th a Saturday at Terry Malloy’s house. Set your Calendars and think of your chili recipes your going to cook up!!!
This is an extremely early meeting in the month and the only day Terry could Host. We will be Voting that day for Board Members and Club Member or the year.
We have not decided on whether or not we are pushing First Friday, but it is more then likely. Nov. 5th will be our November Meeting.
Style of the Month: Ciders and Meads, plus Spiced, Smoked and Wood aged beers.

 

Summer Party 2016 Recap!!

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Well if you didn’t make it to the Summer Party this year, it was a blast and if you did make it you know what I’m talking about!!

So much great homebrewed beers and sodas. I counted at least 40 beers on tap with the Wave tap system, all the jockey boxes, and one on the recently fixed hand pump. There was multiple tables of amazing Mediterranean themed food coming from the Ian bbq kitchen crew. Things like Lam, Lemmon chicken, Tuna, and all the sides. Plus, all the excellent dishes, apps, and desserts brought by the members was incredible. Such things like Hummus’s, tabouli, fallafel, even some amazing Thai dishes, and the list goes on!! We also gave away a ton of prizes consisting of door prizes and raffle prizes during the day and end of the night. Everything from beers for the door prizes and a whole list of items for the raffle: books, glass wear, T-shirts, Firestone swag packs, Culver City Homebrew Supply Gift Certificates, a Big Mouth fermenter, a 5lb Co2 tank with regulator, and the grand prize a big Igloo mash tun and boiler pot burner. We had a crazy fun day of drinking, eating, swimming, and just chilling. You will see in the pictures that it was one of the day’s the fires where blazing back in the hillsides. It darkened the sky and through an orange’ish red hue over all of us that day, but we partied on.

A big Congratulations to a few people that brought beer and soda to the the Party. Tad and Ramesh for winning “Best Beer of the Party 2016” and to Craig Corley for “Best Soda of the Party 2016”. Tad and Ramesh won with their Firestone Walker Parabola Clone which was spot on and I though was better then the bottle of actual Parabola we where blind side by siding it with. Craig won with his amazing “SLaM Soda” which as stood the test of time and has proven once again that its soda to be recorded with.

A special Thanks you to all that brought donation for OPCC.net. We had a good amount of good and money to turn in from the collection at the party, you can see it in one of the picture.

Thank you to all that brought beer, soda, and food to the party. Also thank you to everyone that brought beer despensing equipment, tables, pop-ups, ice, and other party supplies. Thank you for coming, for buying raffle tickets and PG gear. Thank you to all the guest who came to enjoy not only the summer party, but our passion as homebrewers. We had a great turn out that helped pay for putting on parties like this and continuing the support for the club. We could not have a party with out you, literally!

Most of all we really could not put on a summer party like this with out these following people. The one’s that sacrifice so much time and effort to make sure everyone has a fun and fulfilled experience at these parties. Let me go down the list best as I can:

Thank you to Dean, you lending us your place every year is one of the greatest gifts we could get form you. I could not image a summer party any where else.

Thank you to Mimi Bardet and the Board (Michael and Tania Musgrave, Tim Bardet, Carl Townsend, Dean Sussman) for organizing the multitude of preparations and extra meetings needed to make sure every detail is taken care of and that the party runs as smooth as humanly possible. From what I saw it was a great team of people working together to make it happen and everyone that came had an amazing time. I can not thank you all enough for doing your parts and playing your rolls.

Thank you Ian and to the kitchen crew!! As always the food was mind blowing, every bite better then the last. The food you always prepare for these parties and events makes them that much more special.  I still talk about dishes I’ve had from years past and this year was just the same, excellent. Ian wrote me about some of the guys in his crew this year so I figured I could not say it better, so from Ian and all of us Thank you:
-Neil for the transportation, I could not cook without the equipment. Thank you!
-Luis for the Lemon Chicken and Friday night prep and Sat. cooking.
-For Reed for the Friday night prep and smelling like fish.
-For Rob Kadota whose rumor of being dead was proved false; you are still a rock star behind the grill, I know I owe you a tuna steak, still sorry not sorry for eating yours!
-For our host who showed off his knife skills…Sorry about the bread dough!
-And thank you all the beautiful people who brought dishes!

I also want to thank Carl Townsend and Tom Rierson for transporting and taking care of the “Wave or Beer” system. Thanks you Carl for always taking care of it and making sure its cleaned, as well as housing it. Thank you to Tom for the use of your truck transporting it around and also for fixing the Hand Pump this year so we could put a stout on it.

Thank you to Craig Corley for stepping in as Door Prize and Raffle announcer guy! Terry had to be out of town and Corley was our next seasoned vet in the art of raffling. You did a great job and I thank you for giving out some many great gifts to the masses! Especially the the special beers you when out an got for the door prizes.

Thank you to Dan Hakes as always for your use of the string lights you bring and set up every year! I really love the colored bulbs in them this year. Hope your Wash Summer Party went great, sorry I could not make it, but I did post it so hopefully some PG’ers showed up!?

Thank you for everyone that donated to the Party and Raffle this year. Especially to:
-Kevin and Greg at the Culver City Homebrew Supply Store for their donation of multiple Gift Certificates and other discounted items for the Raffle!
-Mark Takahashi, now brewer at Golden Road, for bringing a box load of 6 packs of various beers. We will still have some left over for this up coming club meeting to raffle off, because there was so much!
-Tad and Ramesh for the donation of the 5lb Co2 tank’s and regulator’s, plus some clean up parts from Culver City Homebrew Supply. One full tank set up was raffled off at the Party and the other ones regulator is now a permanent part of the clubs newly acquired 20lb Co2 tank set up!
-Also a big thank you to Tomm Carroll as well for donating a bunch of beers from his personal collections to the raffle. Also for the great experiniece had by all drinking more beers from your collection at “The Trux Stop Pop-Up Spot” you put on this year, it was so much fun.
-Thank you Michael Musgrave for the books we put in the raffle, and to anyone I might be missing that dropped off some great stuff that day.

Last, but not least I want to thank all of the volunteers that came to help set up, work the party, bartend, and brake down.  There are so many of you and your help at these events are key. You all know who you are and we all can’t thank you enough for stepping up and helping out.

Im sure Im missing some thank you’s? Here’s one, thank you for reading this post! Please feel free to add any recaps, thank you’s, or corrections in the comments section below this post on the PG website.

Cheers to awesome times and to next years Summer Party!!
Your Prez,
Lloyd

2016 Summer Party photo album on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10155178343115884.1073741833.125659175883&type=1&l=93e38ae70d

 

Pro/Am opportunity for a Pacific Gravity member!!!

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Hello Pacific Gravity members,

We have been given the possible opportunity to have one of our members that have won a bjcp certified homebrew comp placing 1st-3rd since Jan. 1st of 2015 the chance to be hand picked for a Pro/Am from an LA brewery in town. This means they will pick a beer out of a list we give them and if picked you will be able to brew that beer with the brewery and they will possibly turn it in as their Pro/Am entry into GABF this year.

-To qualify for this Pro/Am you must be a current dues paying Pacific Gravity Member, if not you will not make the list turned into the brewery for the Pro/Am. So pay your dues!!!

-You mush have won 1st-3rd place in an AHA and BJCP sanctioned homebrew comp since Jan. 1st 2015.

-You must be a member of the AHA, by the time the brewery turns in the beer to the Great American Beer Festival Pro/Am Comp (June 2016) and a current member of the AHA by the time of the judging of that comp (Oct 2016).

I have emailed the current PG members from the list we have of winner of homebrew comps the club keeps track of. If you did not get an email please email me ASAP and let me know of your winning beers and provide me with this info:
(Date won/Comp/Placing/Style/ABV/Special ingredients and methods)

I will be turning a list into the brewery by the end of the week hopefully, so contact me now with your winning beer info if you want to make the Pro/Am list.
President at Pacific Gravity dot com

Also let me know if any of your beers have won a Pro/am in the past or you are currently already participating in a pro/am this year.

 

Club Meeting: January 21st @ Culver City Homebrew Supply

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Hi Everyone,

The first club meeting of the year will be next week Jan. 21st at the Culver City Homebrew Shop starting at 7:30pm.

Culver City Home Brew Supply
4234 Sepulveda Blvd, Culver City, CA 90230

Brew Shop

I really hope you’re all in for a good year! Your new and continuing board members have a lot of great stuff in the works. To start off:

Beer Style of the month we will be splitting into two parts as of now.

  • One: the “Commercial Tasting Style” reflecting some of the new 2015 BJCP Style Guidelines. Where we taste Commercial beers of the monthly style.
  • Two: the “Best Beer of the Meeting” competition. Where like in the past if you bring beers to the style of the month, the club would vote on the best beer of the night and you would win a $25 gift certificate from the Culver City Homebrew Supply. The difference this year is that the “Best beer of the Meeting” reflects similar or even different styles to the “Commercial Tasting styles”. Just Check out the Style page on the website for the latest monthly style guidelines.

This month in January will be “All Beer Style” for the best beer of the meeting for your chance to win the $25 certificate. Bring any beer you have that you would love to share.
Note: kegs/growlers/and bottles are all welcome to enter, but it helps to have enough for everyone to share and taste.

Next, We are adding some educational aspects to the monthly meeting. Starting off Michael Patterson will be presenting an “Off Flavor Sensory Test” each month until all the samples are gone from the kit. He will demo 1-2 commonly unwanted off flavors found in beer.  Demo will be at the start of the meetings from 7:30-7:45 or later.  Come early and learn!

Yes there will be Raffle at the January meeting!! What will be raffled off…… probably mostly beers and goods purchased from the Culver City Homebrew Supply Shop. The more Tickets you Purchase the more we will raffle off!

As we work out the details of the year and all the new anticipated events, we need your help too!!! Please feel free to volunteer.
Check out the “Commercial Tasting Styles” of the months to come this year. We would love to give anyone the opportunity to have a budget to go buy some amazing commercial beer and Host them at our monthly meeting. This Month your VP Michael Musgrave will be purchasing Januarys styles of English Bitters and Commonwealth beers. Please follow his lead.
We always need Homebrew for the club meeting of course, but for up coming events, like So Cal homebrew festival, Parties, and other pouring events. So Get Brewing!
Finally if you do have any denotable gear, beer, good, or other brewing related stuff for our raffles please bring it to the club meeting or events, or email anyone one of your board members or all of them at board@pacificgravity.com

Sorry I know that got long, but I had a lot to say. Here are the quick built points:

  • Club Meeting January 21st start time 7:30pm @ Culver City Homebrew Supply
  • New “Commercial Tasting Style” posted
  • Return of “Best Beer of the Meeting” comp, bring beer win $25 gift certificate
  • New Educational Demos at the beginning of the meetings, 7:30-7:45pm
  • Yes, there will be a Raffle!
  • We need Volunteers: for “Commercial Tasting Style” of the Month
  • We always need more Homebrewed Beer!!
  • We would love any Raffle Donations: Gear, Beer, Goods, or other Brewing related items.

Thank you all and hope to see everyone next week!

Firestone Walker – XIX Anniversary Tickets pass code distributed!

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Everyone-

If you signed up for tickets to the XIX Anniversary party you should have received an email this morning with a link to the website and a code to access our discount.  Tickets go on sale at noon.  if you did not receive an email please let me know asap.  My direct email address is bholterpg [at] gmail dot com.

If you didn’t sign up for our discount you can still purchase tickets at noon today.  Your ticket will cost you an extra $10 but it is still very much a bargain so please join us!  Ticket Link!

Cheers!

Brian

Weekly Updates: First Friday @ The Doughroom

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No major updates this week.  I just hope all of you are brewing some awesome beer for all of the upcoming events!  Ive seen a few of you post pictures of your brew day’s for Bite at the Beach on various social media accounts which is really awesome to see.

First Friday @ The Doughroom

Im really excited about this month’s First Friday.  Kaveh and crew at the Doughroom are hosting April’s First Friday which we are putting together as a bottleshare:

 

doughroom_insta

Bring along some rare beers that you have been holding onto along with your appetite for some of the best pizzas around.

LABBC T-Shirts

We are still waiting on some logos from our sponsors before I can submit the artwork to our T-Shirt screenprinters.  As soon as we get the last few in I will place the order and have the shirts at the following meeting.

Cheers!

 

Weekly Update: Club Meeting Recap

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For those of you that were unable to attend last week’s club meeting – for shame.  You missed out on some fun stuff:

Bite At the Beach

  • Spots are still available.  You still have a few weeks to brew a beer for this and participate in the event.  Shoot us an email at board [at] pacificgravity.com to signup.  If your name isnt on the list at the bottom of this post we did not receive your email (or i screwed up and forgot to notate it on my list).  Just send me a reminder and shame me for poor organization.

Firestone Walker Brew 

  • The brew day has officially been set – we are going to head up to Paso Robles and brew up a batch of beer on 10/31/2015.  The brew will be at 8:00am at the Paso Brewery and will be followed by the 19th Anniversary party that evening.
  • If you signed up at the club meeting for events – thank you.  I am using that list as a tentative head count to provide FW with an idea of how many people will be attending.  If you were not in attendance that does NOT mean that you are missing out.  It just means that my head count is missing you.  Shoot me an email  at president [at] pacificgravity.com to let me know if you will be able to attend the brew and the 19th anniversary party and if you will need a hotel room for Friday and Saturday night.
  • We are NOT chartering a bus for this trip.  Many of you have expressed interest in making the trip a full weekender and I know some of you cannot make it for more than the brew itself.  You will be responsible for getting yourself to Paso for the brew.
  • The club WILL be locking down a block of rooms in Paso at one or two hotels.
  • Most importantly – the beer.  The team at Firestone Walker has asked our club to brainstorm what our ultimate brew would be and present the ideas to their team.  After announcements this past week a few of you approached me with some ideas for the beer which are included here:
    • Come up with a list of historically important beers brewed by Pacific Gravity club members.  The idea was to build off of a recipe from one of our homebrewers that we all look forward to drinking at club meetings.  Like Carl’s harvest ale, Rives’ sour quad, Craig Corley’s Belgian (fill in the blank), etc.
    • A Belgian styled beer because FW doesnt have a huge history of brewing belgian beers and it would tie in with our Belgian Brew Challenge.
    • Anything barrel aged.  FW makes some of the best barrel aged beers – it would be cool to be a part of one.
    • Hold an in house homebrew competition (using one style) and having judges choose the best beer.

LABBC

  • We wrapped up our first LABBC.  There were a total of 95 entries into the competition and the results were absolutely DOMINATED by Pacific Gravity homebrewers.  Thank you to everyone who submitted beers and helped PG have a good showing in our inaugural comp.
  • Kingsley and I won BOS – thanks to everyone who offered their congrats.
  • Scoresheets have been emailed out to all participants.  If you entered a beer and have not received an email from us email labbc [at] pacificgravity.com and we will send you a link with your entry numbers.
  • Ribbons will go out sometime soon to those of you who were not in attendance.
  • T-Shirts – We will order T-Shirts next week and should have them ready for April’s club meeting.  We had a sign up sheet at the judging day and at the club meeting.  Volunteers (staff, stewards and Judges) receive free shirts.  If you signed up for a shirt at the club meeting the price per shirt will be somewhere between $15-$20.  We will have our pay pal setup at the next club meeting for you to pay for your shirts.

April First Firday

  • Reminder that next month’s first friday is at the Doughroom in Culver City/Palms and is a bottle share.  Bring out some special beers and lets pack that place out.

Membership Renewals

  • Membership dues are due now.  Just a friendly FYI.

 

Club Bylaws – For all Club Associates to review!

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Everyone-

As discussed at last month’s club meeting at Culver City Home Brew Supply, the board has been working towards creating a draft of our club bylaws for all associates approval.  This is the first step in a potentially lengthy process towards converting the club to a 501c3 Non-Profit with the state of California and ultimately filing for tax exempt status with the IRS.

Please review the attached document and come to next week’s meeting at Smog City Brewery in Torrance prepared to vote to approve or reject the attached bylaws.  So to review, we WILL be voting next Thursday April 17th at the club meeting, please review this document prior to the club meeting.

Cheers and I look forward to seeing you all next week-

Brian

Pacific Gravity Bylaws.v2.04-01-14