Well year one is behind us. It’s still a little hard to wrap my head around.  I got through the last few weeks by a combination of force of will and being held up by the most fantastic group of people I’ve ever worked with.  What was the end result?  There are attendance numbers and financial amounts that will take time to add up, but they really don’t matter.  The fact is we did it, and we did it very well.   We’ve built a strong foundation for something that can only get better from here.  Saying thank you seems inadequate, but I’m not sure what else to say, so here it goes.

Red Shirts:  Wow!  I never dreamed that we would get such a fantastic group of volunteers.  You did whatever was asked.  You bent over backwards to make sure all the guests were taken care of.  You were there early and stayed until all hours.  All I had to do was say I need someone to do whatever and it was done.  In many cases you were the face of APF.  And we couldn’t ask for better.  To a person, every guest said they want to be invited back.  Take pride in that fact because it is from your efforts.  I’m sorry I didn’t have time to learn everyone’s name, but I hope you will all be back for years to come, so I can get the chance.  Thank you.

Track Directors:  You took the challenge to fill 6 rooms with interesting programming utilizing a haphazard selection of speakers and succeeded wonderfully.  Thank you to Scott, Chris, Steve, JD, Jeff, Sandra, MarkAdam, DET, Ami, Daniel, and Kara.

Department Heads:  You all did so much.  Thank you to Renee, Kimberly, Arnold, Mike, Lynn, Tina, Tom, Beverly, AJ, Jonathan.

Thank you to all the costumers that came out to help promote at events and on TV. 

Thank you to the sponsors.  You had no reason to take a chance on us and yet you did.  Alabama Ghost Busters, DriveThruRPG, Silvermeet Studios, PlayOnCon, Bud’s Place, Vulcan Game Box, Steve Jackson Games, KM Wealth Management, Kingdom Comics.

Special thanks:

JD: You made lit one of the strongest tracks despite being brought in at the eleventh hour.  And because that wasn’t enough for you; you took over the gaming schedule and set-up and were right there to help handle the fires all weekend.

Renee and Kimberly:  You’ve been working on APF for almost as long as Tim, Stan and I have.  Nights, weekends it didn’t matter you came in work on whatever was needed.  Thank you for being among the first to believe in what we were trying to accomplish.

KC Projects: The results pretty much say it all.  Interviews on every local station, Front page of City Scene, 10 pages in the B Metro and everything else.  You went above and beyond what we expected.  Thank you, Maree, Alicia and Krista.

The Alabama Ghostbusters:  Thank you for bringing Robin Shelby to APF.  She has to be one of the sweetest people I’ve ever met.  And thank you for just being a great bunch of guys who use your fandom to help people every chance you get.

I can go on like this for days and still not properly thank everyone, so many of you did so much for APF.    So when I say we did it, that includes all of you.

I hope you are all rested now because it’s time to start work on APF 2013!

Steve