Good morning 4CU! We have a report on 2025 Board elections, rallies coming up, a call-out for 2025 rallies and hosts and a mini-rally report for you, all here, right in this tidy little package!

4CU Board Elections for 2025

Wow. August already! It’s time to start thinking about next year’s board membership. Barbara has been busy reaching out to all of the current board members and committee volunteers to establish which positions will need to be filled for 2025.

Elections for open positions will be held in the fall.

Serving on the 4CU Board, is a fabulous (and really FUN!) way for you to get involved in the Club. So many of our members have experience that could be a benefit to us all. A nominating committee is currently being formed to fill openings on the 4CU Board. If you have an interest or questions regarding serving on the Board, let Barbara Engelmann know!

While we’re doing that, let’s take a minute to thank our outgoing trustees, Janet Hauck and Sophia Rodgers, for their two years of service to the club. Their input, involvement and commitment has been a tremendous help. Please thank them personally when you see them at an upcoming rally.

Please also thank Ken Johansen for stepping up to serve as 1^st VP. As a founding member of the 4CU, his history and commitment to the club has been invaluable.

The role of trustee is a vital one, with just two year terms permitted, the trustee role ensures the board always has fresh minds and voices bringing the needs, ideas and concerns of the membership to the board’s attention.

With the two trustee positions and a VP role open for nominations, please let Barbara know if you are interested!

We also want to thank the 4CU Board and Committee Members for their continued service. 

• Bruce Stevenson – Second VP
• Bonnie Bobman – Past President
• Jeff Engelmann – Secretary
• Richard Girard – Treasurer
• Lee Gatten – Trustee
• Michael Houlden – Internet Communications/Jotform
• Leon Haulk – Website
• Louis Hall – Membership
• Marsha Rose – Membership Welcome 

If you have any questions or interest in getting more involved in the 4CU, consider serving on the Board. Questions or interest….just ask me. Contact Barbara Engelmann

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Four Corners Unit Rally’s for 2025

The Rally Planning and Support Committee has established the following rallies for the 2025 rally season.

As with all organizations, it’s a team effort to make it enjoyable for the everyone, and the 4CU is no different. Planned rallies cannot succeed without hosts or co-hosts. Of the eight rallies planned, we have hosts for only 3 rallies. The following rallies still need hosts:

• Dead Horse in March (co-host needed)
• Bisbee in April
• Flagstaff in May
• Westcliffe in July (co-host needed)
• Moab in September

Also note that there are four months with no rally planned. Do you have a rally location, theme, event idea? Let us know, and we’ll help you get it organized! Heck, just because you send up a rally idea doesn’t mean you have to host it! Often the hardest part of rally planning is identifying the when, where and why of the rally. Once that’s established, we can seek out a host, and then everything falls in place!

Here’s the detailed listing of the rally’s planned for 2025. Please look and see where you could help, either hosting, co-hosting, or coming up with a new idea and new rally for the 4CU. Rally themes are always a big hit!

• December 28^th – January 1^st
  Picacho Peak New Years Rally. Hosts:  Louis Hall and Sergio Quiros. 
• February – No rally planned yet
• March 6th – 9^th, 2025 Dead Horse Ranch SP, Cottonwood, AZ. 
  Hosts: Chuck and Andrea Hanson, Co-hosts are needed.
• April 10th – 13^th, 2025
  Bisbee Rally, at the Queen Mine RV Park, Bisbee, AZ.
  Host and Co-host are needed.
• May 15th – 18^th, 2025
  O’Leary Campground, Flagstaff, AZ.  
  Host and Co-host are needed.
• June 12th – 16^th, 2025
  Angel Fire RV Resort, Angel Fire NM.
  Hosts: Scott and Cathy Verhines and Debbie Vesco and Joni Lindsay. 
• July 10th – 13^th, 2025
  Tentative Westcliffe Bluegrass with the Colorado Airstream Club.
  Co-host needed  
• July 23rd – 27th, 2025
  Region 11 Rally, Granby Co.
• August – No rally planned yet
• September 22nd – 26^th, 2025
  Moab DT Sun Outdoors, Moab UT
  Host and Co-host are needed.
• October 23rd – 26^th, 2025
  Caballo Lake SP, Caballo NM. 
  Host: Steve and Sophia Rodgers
  Co-host:  Chuck and Andrea Hanson. 
• November 2025 – No rally planned yet
• December 2025 – No rally planned yet

Not to hold y’all hostage or anything but rallies can only happen if members participate and get involved. If members don’t step up to hosts and co-host for the rallies listed below that need hosts, they will be cancelled. 

[Editor’s note: Jen and I have co-hosted a rally, and as the Jotform rally guy, I have an inside view on rallies – it’s only as complicated as you want to make it! If you have the flair and drive to go all out, awesome, go for it and the team will provide all the support you need. If you just want a chill rally with self-directed fun, that’s all it needs to be! If you aren’t really sure, but want to try hosting out, offer to co-host a rally to get your feet wet.]

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Upcoming Rallies

We have the following rallies coming up to close out the year!

• 2024 International Rally, 5-10 October, Sedalia, MO
  The Region 11 (the 4CU is part of Region 11) dinner is being planned for October 8^th, at 6:00 pm. There are currently 199 Region 11 members attending the International Rally, but only 80 people have signed up for the dinner. If interested in attending the Region 11 dinner, contact John Holly
• Keeping it Real in Kanab, 16-20 October – Rally and Waitlist are full and closed.
• Tucson Unplugged, 7-10 November – Rally full, Waitlist open
• 18^th Annual New Years Park at Picacho Peak SP, 28 Dec – 1 Jan – registration coming this fall
  Rally Info and Registration coming this fall.

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Mini-Friends Rally Report

Muskoka, Ontario & Arrowhead Provincial Park

Did you know that not all rallies have to be formally planned to be a great way to connect and visit with the friends you’ve made in the 4CU?

Club members Bruce and Cathy Stevenson and Michael and Jennifer Houlden recently met up in gorgeous cottage and lake country, Muskoka, Ontario, Canada. Yes! Rallies don’t even have to be confined to the Four Corners states, especially when they are informal, mini-friends rallies.

As it is exceptionally difficult to book provincial or national park campsites on weekends in Canada, this was quite the hybrid get-together.

We started out with two nights at the fabulous Arrowhead Provincial Park just outside Huntsville in Muskoka, Ontario. (Note: If you plan a trip to Arrowhead, check the “distance to power” notes in the campsite details carefully. The Houldens were 67ft from their power pole and the Stevensons were over 100ft!!! Fear not, the camp office rents extension cords but they may not be 30A. Of course, this means the campsites are very well separated.)

Michael and Bruce checked out some local mountain bike trails at Lance’s Loops while Jen and Cathy chilled out in the woods. Jen had big plans to do some paddling on the serene waters flowing through the park but found her book and hanging out with Cathy far too relaxing!

On Friday, the Stevensons relocated to the Camping in Muskoka campground just outside Gravenhurst while the Houlden’s returned to their cottage just 12 minutes away on Kahshe Lake. Saturday brought threats of rain and wind, but that didn’t stop us from jumping aboard the Wenonah II for a lunch cruise on picturesque Lake Muskoka. Lake Muskoka is one of the keystone lakes in the Muskoka district containing recreational homes for people all over the world! Goldie Hawne and Kurt Russell have a place but, unfortunately, no celebrity sightings on this trip!

The Wenona II is a replica of the great steamships that provided entertainment, transportation, and mail and supply deliveries in the 1800s and early 1900s Muskoka. We were originally intended to cruise aboard the steam-driven, 1860s Royal Mail ship, Segwun, but she has been dock-bound this season for unplanned mechanical repairs.

On our final day together, Sunday, we relaxed, dined, and played cards at the Houlden’s lakeside home before the Stevenson’s packed up to continue their Eastern Canada trip on Monday.

Where have you travelled? Who have you met up with? Do you have a story to share? Let us know! And remember – a mini-friends rally is a great way to catch up, keep in touch, or build a deeper friendship with those kindred spirits you meet at our organized rallies!

Until we meet again, keep on ‘streaming!

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