Two of the three top Local Trig*Star award winners were presented with their awards at the Summer BBQ. First Place Winner Gwenyth Lemon from Paso Robles High School was unable to attend the event. She received her awards during a visit to the campus by Chapter President and Trig*Star Coordinator Luz Garcia. Gwenyth will be attending to Colorado School of Mines studying chemical engineering. She really like STEM and is excited to start college this fall! Her hobbies include playing basketball, snowboarding, hanging out with family and friends, and watching The Office. Congratulations Gwenyth !
Gwenyth Lemon Paso Robles High School
Second Place winner Jon Raj of San Luis Obispo High School attended the BBQ with his parents where he received his awards from Tri*Star Coordinator Emeritus George Marchenko. Jon played Basketball and Tennis at SLO High School and will be attending Cal Poly SLO this fall.
Third Place winner Anthony Williams of Paso Robles High School attended the BBQ with his parents and younger brother, also received his awards from George Marchenko.
Paso Robles High School was presented with the annual Regional Champion trophy cup for display at the school. Accepting the award for Paso Robles High School was Mathematics Teacher Evan Clark.
The students, their family members and teacher Mr. Clark were all treated to the BBQ lunch as guests of the Chapter. Thank you to every member of the Chapter and Trig*Star sponsors whose additional generous donations fund the cash awards and trophies the students received,
Saturday August 12 was a perfect day of clear skies and mild temperatures at Cuesta Park for the annual Chapter BBQ. (It sure was nice to see San Luis Obispo Creek flowing through the park in the middle of summer too ! ) Approximately 50 delicious meals of BBQ chicken, beef, beans, salad, and bread prepared by Ken Fargen and crew were served. The Fargen family and Fargen Surveys crew members started this annual tradition in approximately 1980-81. That is over 40 years ! Amazing and so appreciated, THANK YOU to Ken, Kathy, Marshall, Geoff and all the others that have volunteered each year to prepare and serve the food at this annual event. Thanks also to Dave and Jeri Carey for their delicious dessert cookies!
This year also saw the much anticipated return of the "Survey Olympics."Kyle Huerth was Executive Producer of this hands-on fun test of basic surveying skills. With out the aid of any instruments, contestants were challenged to determine (guess) the horizontal angle between 2 points, the vertical difference in elevation between those points as well as pace off the approximate length of a predetermined distance. In addition, a self-timed tripod set up was also included in the competition. Great fun ! A BIG THANK YOU to Kyle for all his work to preparing the site, coordinating and overseeing the competition and presenting the Bronze, Silver and Gold Medal awards. ( I did notice a couple of competitors using what I assume was the compass app on their mobile device....dang it, why didn't I think of that ?Kyle, do we need to tighten up the rule book for next year's competition ?)
Gold - Clay Margason Silver - Geoff Villegas Bronze - Dan Manion Best 53 foot Pace - George Marchenko @ 52.08' Elevation Estimate - Dan W (MBS Land Surveys) 4' and 7' (actual 3.64' and 6.71') Distance Estimate - Robert Reese 47.8' and 76.8' (actual 46.03' and 75.12') Tripod Speed - Clay Margason 1:00
Prior to lunch being served two of the three local Trig*Star winners were presented with their awards and cash scholarships. Luz Garcia coaxed George Marchenko out of retirement to present the awards, interview the students and speak to the history of the Trig*Star competition. George has an admirable way of engaging each student in fun conversation during the presentation by focusing on their particular interests be it sports, music, pop culture, books, etc. THANK YOU George ! (See the Trig*Star Awards report following this BBQ recap)
THANK YOU to Kathy Fargen for selling meal tickets and raffle tickets. Doug Rion (beverage and ice coordinator, a very cool job) called out each winning number drawn from the ticket tumbler during the prize raffle. Thanks to everyone who contributed numerous prizes for the raffle which included handmade items such as fused glass art, earrings, an exotic wood handled pen and a pocket sized bottle opener with a handle crafted of colorful exotic woods. BBQ meals packed to go were also an available prize selection.
Each meal ticket included an entry into the door prize (a.k.a. Grand Prize) drawing. This year's lucky winner was Loy Zambo who won a metal locator generously donated by Ed Reading. Congratulations Loy and a BIG Thank You to Ed !
In accordance with Chapter Bylaws the Executive Committee met on 8/21/2023 and voted unanimously to approve the Slate of Officers presented by the Nomination Committee. The Nomination Committee Report is available here: NOM COM REPORT
1980 Bob Hilliard 1981 1982 Jim McGillis 1983 Tom Mastin 1984 Richard Cassera 1985 1986 1987 Ken Fargen 1988 Alan Volbrecht 1989 Joe Waters 1990 Susan Jensen 1991 Tim Fox 1992 Clay Margason 1993 Joe Morris 1994 Robert Reese 1995 Linda Richardson 1996 Mike Stanton 1997 Randy Ellison 1998 Mike Baumberger 1999 John Sanders 2000 Robert C. Fredricks 2001 Mark Lewis 2002 Rochelle M. Vierra 2003 Craig Yates 2004 Robin “Rob” Isakson 2005 Nick Pasquini 2006 Linda Richardson 2007 Rochelle M. Vierra 2008 Kenneth “Jim” Wilson 2009 Victor Rasgado 2010 Terri A. Green 2011 Matt Cunningham 2012 Ian McClain 2013 Mark Lewis 2014 George Marchenko 2015 Jonathan Walsh 2016 Cristi Fry 2017 Dave Karp 2018 George Marchenko 2019 George Marchenko 2020 Jesse Brady 2021 Robert Reese 2022 Kyle Huerth 2023 Luz Garcia
-Editor's note - if anyone can fill in the missing blanks please send your information to central.coast.clsa @gmail.com
The California State Lands Commission has partnered with California State University Fresno to create the “California Map and Aerial Digitization Project” to digitize archival maps and aerial photographs. The digitization project work is ongoing and additional maps will be added to the collection.
