We’ve done it! We completed the 2021 OC Fair, and we did outstanding with our Wine Courtyard. Thanks to all of you who volunteered and spent time (and money!) at The Courtyard. Our results have been more than we ever could have hoped for, since we did not even know if we would have the Fair as late as March. For those of you who volunteered, I hope you had a great time and made some new friends. Again, a big thanks to you all!

Now that we have completed our three big events, the Commercial Wine Competition, the Home Wine Competition, and the Fair, we will be hosting our Annual Business Meeting on September 10 at 7:00 pm via Zoom. You can now sign up for the free members-only event after logging in at the Events tab located on our website at ocws.org. We will tell our members how we did financially through this year and what we have planned for the remainder of 2021 through August 2022. We will also introduce our candidates for the three vacating positions on the OCWS Board of Directors, so you can hear what they want to do if they are elected. I hope you all sign up to see and hear how we have come out from this pandemic, Kicking and Screaming, and Raisin’ the Roof!

Now is the time to re-start our social events! On September 11, we will be having our Gold Medal Mini-Tasting, which will give you all a chance to taste many of the Double Gold and Gold Medal wines from this year’s Commercial Wine Competition. These events are potlucks where we all bring a food dish to share, and they will be held at a variety of private homes across the County. This event is always a sell out, so we hope you signed up to attend!

Our annual election of three new members to the Board of Directors is coming up, so please pay attention to our publications later in September, listen to their presentations at the Annual Business Meeting, and read their Candidate Statements on the OCWS website. I know we are all tired of politics during these trying times, but I guarantee you won’t be disappointed with the great volunteers we have lined up to help run our Society.

In October, we will have our first post-pandemic member BBQ at The Courtyard on October 9, and our Membership Wine Auction on October 16! I will talk about these events in my next newsletter, so mark your calendars to save the dates!

Thank you all, for all you do!

– Kevin Donnelly, President