UC Berkeley Ski Club Meeting notes

I went to Chico State. I was in a Fraternity (Lambda Pi- #1 in fun!). I was one of the rowdier guys, in one of the rowdier Frats, at one of the rowdier colleges. I know rowdy. Thursday night I was on the UC Berkeley campus to promote the shop at the ski and snowboard clubs annual "big meeting". I do it every year. I enjoy working with their group. I get to know a few board members pretty well each year. I always like them. I also always feel tame at the campus while attending the big meeting. The auditorium is always packed with several hundred revved up students. This year seemed even bigger and rowdier than ever. Many students seemed like they had spent the last few hours pre-partying. Others just had the look of wild abandon that college students often have. Lot's of girls wearing jeans with bikini tops (just an interesting fashion trend I happened to notice). A little bit of party action at the meeting too. No details as I wouldn't want to cause trouble for anyone. Nothing against school, federal, or state laws that I can recall! In any case there was a LOT of energy in that room. Some of it was just youth. Some was, I suppose, ingested before the meeting. But in the end it was more than that. It was a passion for snow sports. Most of all these students were just charged up to a fever pitch over the thought of hitting the snow soon! It was contagious and got me a bit fired up too. Kinda like Warren Miller movies used to be - back in the day. With no microphone, I gave a short spiel on our sponsorship role. I think maybe 10 people heard me. I had stickers, posters, t-shirts. Never got them out. The club did a great job gathering swag from all over and the meeting kicked off with the board members tossing dozens of swag items from goggles to sweatshirts into the crowd. I will save my swag for when they come to the shop on October 7th for their special sale event. I also brought a ski. The ski was a prize for later in the meeting. Head USA has been the ongoing primary sponser and graciously donate skis each year. So I did my little gig and made arrangements to pick up the ski in the morning. Then I busted out and headed home. I knew from past years what was to come at the meeting. Lot's of fun for them. Less interesting for me. I arrived at about 9:30am Friday to retrieve the ski at the "ski club house". It is, I believe, unofficial but many of the board members live together there. It has been the club members party central for the past few years. Bodies were all about. Some were asleep, some were awake. Most seemed to be in between. The was a VERY large and very empty champagne bottle that impressed me quite a bit. There was also ample evidence that there was much fun had there the night before. Now they were in 'morning after' mode. There was some studying. I will admit that. I did see one person working on a laptop. Overall however, there was the look and feel of students trying to have as much fun as possible. At the expense of everything else. I am sure that all these kids are very bright or they wouldn't be at Cal. They will (for the most part) go on to lead productive lives. They may be future senators, astronauts, and surgeons. But not yet. Not right now. They are not any of these things yet. Yes, they may hide behind their various majors, but they share one thing in common, and I know it when I see it. These kids are ski bums!