Vince Diez Crowned Member of the Year 2012

One of my favorite EASL meetings every year is our December regular meeting.  Not just because my beautiful bride usually accompanies me to this meeting or that we have fried turkey and dressing for supper.  All these things are great, but my favorite part of this meeting is the presentation of the VJ Bourque Member of the Year award.  I’ve had the privilege and honor to win this award once and I’ve also been especially honored to be able to give this award out over the past three years.  You really don’t realize how much some people do to help out EASL until you start putting it all on paper.  By the time I had finished typing up the list of nominees and their accomplishments for the year 2012 I ended up filling two full pages (single spaced!) of a Word document.  So for this month’s article I’d like to give you, in no particular order, the nominees, the winner and a brief description of their accomplishments for 2012.

The first nominee is Barney Callahan.  Barney has been one of EASL’s most active members for quite some time.  2012 was no exception.  Barney works very hard each year representing EASL and the Louisiana Wildlife Federation (LWF) at several key events.  One of Barney’s most important achievement’s each year is EASL’s Sporting Clay’s Scramble Fundraiser.  Barney is the Chairman for this event and does the majority of the leg work before and during this very important fundraiser.  Thanks for the hard work in 2012 Barney!

Next up is Andrea LaCarbo.  For quite some time Andrea has been the manager of EASL’s monthly newsletter, The East Ascension Sportsman.  Andrea makes sure that all of our advertisers are happy with their ads and that they are current with their financial responsibilities.  She also makes sure that we pay all of our bills from the Post Office to the company that prints our newsletter.  Thank you Andrea for keeping our paper running, it is one of the most vital parts of our organization!

For the second year in a row, Teri Henry was also nominated for Member of the Year.  Teri is a person of many talents as she seems to have her hand in almost everything we do.  She’s the editor for our paper, she does work on EASL’s website and Facebook page, she had a significant role with the Kid’s Fishing Rodeo in 2012 and most importantly she’s handled the job of EASL’s Treasurer like a professional.  Teri has stepped into her new role as Treasurer in 2012 and excelled from the beginning.  She jumped right in and started converting EASL’s financials into a computer format which makes our financial records easier to access and keep track of.  Because of these reason’s Teri has become an important piece of the EASL puzzle.  Thanks for your hard work Teri!

The next nominee on the list is Jim Hebert.  Even though Jim is no longer a part of EASL’s Board of Directors he continues to be very active in EASL’s day-to-day operations.  Jim handles the duties for the Big Bass of the Month Award, the Bass Club report at our regular meetings and Jim also writes a detailed article every month that is published in our newsletter keeping us up to date on all of EASL’s Bass Club’s activities.  In 2012 Jim assisted in any way possible for our Kid’s Fishing Rodeo.  He also helped with the migration of EASL’s website.  It’s nice to have someone like Jim in your organization that you can rely on even after he’s served so many years on EASL’s Board.  Congrats Jim on an outstanding 2012!

Saving the best of 2012 for last, our winner this year was Vince Diez!  In my opinion Vince has been one of the unsung heroes of EASL over the past decade.  Vince has handled the duties of arranging meal sponsors for EASL’s monthly meetings.  He has also been a tremendous asset to EASL over the years as he’s never been hesitant to open up his sign shop for EASL to hold special meetings.  At least three or four times each year our Board of Directors is required to hold special meetings.  As long as I can remember all of these meetings have been held at Vince’s sign shop, Diez Signs off Coontrap Road, free of charge to EASL.  He has a meeting room there that is perfect for our needs and he either cooks a meal for the meeting or makes sure that there’s something delicious on the stove just in time for our meetings.  Vince has also donated various signs, posters and banners to EASL which we’ve used for the EASL Saltwater Challenge and the Sporting Clay’s Scramble.  Vince is also a key organizer for our Terry Melancon Saltwater Challenge held in Grand Isle every year.  He assists with finding a location to hold the festivities and takes care of getting all of the groceries needed to feed more than eighty people for the weekend.  Congratulations Vince you earned it!!