Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 7, 1995 TAG: 9506070060
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: F.J. GALLAGHER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
If you need the services of a lawyer, a banker or an investment counselor today, you might find yourself out of luck. Nearly 200 of them have left town for the annual meeting of the Roanoke Valley Booster Club.
Instead of taking care of business as usual, members of this obscure club will spend the day at a different sort of work - networking on one of The Homestead resort's tennis courts or three golf courses, followed by a cocktail party and prime rib dinner.
"We don't boost anything except for fun. It's simply getting to know people," said club member Heth Thomas. "You might be at a cocktail party and meet somebody that could buy a million dollars worth of insurance."
Thomas, a group sales specialist for Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance, said he has attended the event every year since he moved to Roanoke 13 years ago.
Following the dinner, Thomas said, awards are given to those deserving special recognition.
"Everybody pretty much comes away with a gift," he said. "We have awards for the best and worst golfers, things like that."
Club Chairman Claude Reynolds, now retired from Appalachian Power Co., has been organizing the gathering for the past two or three years. The club, he said, has been meeting on or about the first Wednesday in June since the 1920s, always at the 15,000-acre Homestead in Hot Springs. The club has no official function other than its annual meeting.
"We have a guaranteed 180 going this year," Reynolds said. "That's down from the 230 we had last year."
There will be more women attending this year, he said, although he wasn't sure exactly how many.
"I don't keep track of things like that," Reynolds said.
Nor does he worry about the weather, saying the prospect of rain does not deter the stalwart boosters.
"We'll still have it," he said.
The memberships, Thomas said, cost $60. Most members are solicited by word of mouth. Although the group is not widely known outside the business community, Thomas insisted anybody can be a member, simply by calling one of the group's officers.
"Members are year to year," Thomas said, "and the $60 gets you dinner and cocktails."
And just maybe some valuable business contacts.
by CNB