Get The Latest Info A New (and fun) Way

It started as kind of a joke, a Facebook page for "The Butte Lady" (the name people often call Carol when they can't remember her name). Last summer we were in a Fred Meyer in Fairbanks, Alaska, and someone yelled, "Look, it's the Butte Lady.  So we put up the Facebook page not exactly knowing what might happen.

Its quickly become a good way of communicating with people interested in SMB and PBSS. Plus Carol's having a lot of fun with it.

HERE'S THE DEAL: You don't have to have a Facebook account, or even know what Facebook is, to enjoy it. It's quickly becoming sort of an online newsletter. Check it out when you get a chance. Here's the link:

https://www.facebook.com/TheButteLady

Fundraising For SMB 2014 Going Great

There's still a great deal of support out there for SMB. Starbucks (Eastside and Downtown) recently became our Mega-Sponsor for the second year. This year they're pledging even more--$350. Remember, the Mega-Sponsor is all or nothing. We'll have to hit a certain number of miles total to raise this money from Starbucks. Please RSVP as soon as you can and spread the word. We plan to have close to 1,000 participants this year.

As mentioned previously, Bend Pet Express became our first Diamond Level Sponsor at $350. They're involved in a lot of other ways to be announced soon. This is also a pledged donation, meaning we have to hit an even higher total number of miles to earn all of it. But this one isn't all or nothing. If we come up short, we raise a percentage of the amount pledged.

All of this will be much easier to understand at SMB 2014. Part of the fun of SMB is everyone working together to raise as much money as we can for Pilot Butte. Last year we just barely earned the entire amount. This year the stakes will be higher (more money available) and it will be that much more fun. Other big sponsors are in the works, so stay tuned ...

Btw, Carol was back on the Butte yesterday after an extended absence. She had a great time and plans to be up there as much as she can while still spearheading our fundraising efforts. Look for her and other board members who will have brochures and RSVP cards for SMB 2014. They'll all be wearing large green "SMB 2014 Information" buttons.

New Website, RSVP now for SMB 2014

Great news. Our new website is up and running. To be sure, it's not perfect or even completed. But it's so much better than what we had and all of the important stuff is working. We tested it for the past week with our members. You can RSVP for SMB 2014, become a PBSS Member, volunteer at SMB, and learn a lot about PBSS that you may not have known. Here's the link:

http://pilotbuttesummitseekers.org

There are even some surprises. For example, Carol now has a Facebook page. There's a link to it on the bottom of the Home page. I keep teasing her because she only has 12 likes. At least that many people like ME and I'm not all that likable! At least not in comparison to her. But that's probably going to change after she learns how to use Facebook on Monday. Btw, for all you Facebookers, she has a Facebook contest running and you're odds of winning are pretty darn good. Be sure to sign up.

More announcements soon. SMB season has already kicked into high gear!

SMB 2014 is Saturday, May 10th

This year's SMB is Saturday, May 10th

We've had the date reserved for months and now it's official. Please mark your calendar if you plan to attend. We don't have a way for everyone to RSVP yet, but that will be in place soon. Our new website is done and being tested as I write this. We want to make sure everything is working right before the website launches in about a week.

Expect everything at this year's SMB to be a lot easier, starting with the RSVP process. We learned a lot in 2013 and you'll definitely notice all the positive changes. You'll also notice that there are even more participants, businesses vendors present to support them (i.e., not to sell stuff), and a ton more fun. It's going to be a blast. It's also still free mostly because of the financial support of our members. So far we've raised over $1,000 through memberships, roughly half what it costs to hold the event this year. If you like SMB, please consider becoming a member. There will be an easy way to do that on our new website.

Finally getting there

It seems we've been talking forever about the "members only" blog. It's not for lack of trying that it didn't happen. Maybe there's a way, but for us it was impossible to create one that was user friendly. We gave up recently and then switched gears. What we have now is, we think, much better than a members only blog. It took only a couple of hours to get it working and we should be able to launch it soon.

So we started cleaning up this blog by transferring posts that seemed to belong on the members only site. If you're looking for an old post, and it's gone, that's why. Eventually, even more old posts will be transferred elsewhere leaving this blog primarily about SMB and other PBSS events. New posts here will be about PBSS events from here on out. We're getting there folks...