December club meeting

When: Tuesday, December 1, 2020, 7:00 p.m.
Where: Zoom meeting (members, check Diane’s Nov. 25 email for log-in information)

This month, Cassie Cichorz of the state Dept. of Agriculture will be updating us on their busy fall season of tracking and trapping Asian Giant Hornets. Also, you can keep up-to-date of their happenings through their Asian Giant Hornet Facebook page.

Sadly, due to our Covid pandemic, we are unable to have our Beekeepers Ball this year.  Next year we’ll be back with bells on.  BUT WAIT…in order to bring some holiday cheer and festivities to our meeting, we are going to have a Virtual White Elephant Gift Exchange.  Check out the details below.  Gary has quite the online set up for us.  Bring a beverage of choice to our Zoom meeting and let’s have some fun and enjoy this virtual festivity.

White Elephant Gift Exchange

Here is how we will play:

1. Each participant should buy a gift ahead of time ($15 or less in value, please)
2. Each participant will wrap their gift to make it look like a fun and entertaining present
3. We will gather together on our December Zoom call.
4. We will select a picking order, probably based on a name or magic number.
5. Gifters will hold up all presents in the zoom call.
6. Each participant picks a present in turn, based on the picking order. The gifter unwraps the gift on camera and we will collect who selects each present so that we have the master list at the end
7. The next player takes a turn, either stealing the present or having another gifter unwrap a new present.
8. The game continues until all presents are gone.
9. Once the event concludes, gifters send presents to their rightful owners.

Here are some rules to make it fun for all!
1. Stick to the budget – Like any gift exchange, the white elephant works best when all participants stick to the suggested price range, so try to keep the gifts to $15 or less.
2. Remember that your gift is still a gift, not just a joke – While selecting an outlandish gift is one of the most fun aspects of a white elephant party, consider that your recipient will keep the present once the party ends. The best white elephant gifts are silly, but still desirable.
4. Gift givers send the presents only after the game ends – Stealing presents while playing virtually presents a logistical challenge. Instead of trading gifts on the spot, the member who bought the item will hold onto the present until the game’s end. The gift givers can still wrap the object up and unwrap the box when a team member picks that present, but will not ship the item until the game ends and there is a definitive recipient.
5. Players can choose to keep a present or steal a present from a player who has already gone – If a player prefers another present over the unwrapped gift, that player can force another participant to give up the gift. To keep the game from getting too chaotic, we will stipulate that no more than three steals can occur during one turn. The third person must accept the gift opened during that turn.
6. No player can decline a trade – Swiping gifts is part of the fun of a white elephant exchange, and all players enter the event with that knowledge. A guest cannot refuse to swap, and cannot steal back an item during the same turn.
7. There is a limit on stealing  – This is an optional rule. To keep the game from getting out of hand, we will decree that players cannot steal a single gift more than three times and that a single player cannot steal more than three times per game.
Want some fun during our December SVBA meeting?  If so, then plan on participating in our Virtual White Elephant Gift exchange! Virtual white elephants are online gift exchanges where participants give wacky and impractical gifts to each other. We will have a “steal” mechanism, where one participant can snag a gift from another. White elephant exchanges aim to entertain, and teammates compete to see who can find the strangest-yet-still-desirable present.