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A bit of our history

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We are one of the original, and longest running decorating gatherings in the country.  2025 marks our 21st Anniversary with only one dark year with Covid in 2020. 
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The year is 2004. Mark Zembruski & Kevin Thomas attend their first regional Christmas decorator meeting at Bill & Nancy Foley's house on Lake Saint Clair. We met in Bill's workshop and wow, what a workshop it was. Antique petal cars hanging from the ceiling and Bill had just about any tool or power tool you would ever need to build anything. 
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We had a great time, learned a lot, meet lots of great people and couldn't wait for the next one. Bill agreed to host the next years gathering only if Mark and Kevin ran the meeting. We had a great time, learned a lot, meet lots of great people and couldn't wait for the next one. Bill agreed to host the next years gathering only if Mark and Kevin ran the meeting.
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Bill Foley, was at the time pals with Dan Baldwin of Light O Rama. Bil, always the proficient businessman, and "tinkerer" was LORs first Outside Vendor Representative before Dan Baldwin even knew what that meant. Bill attempted to be Dan's first Marketing/Engineering influence for the just fledgling business. A bit o trivia, CLAP has 2 of the original prototypes of the LOR home controllers. We have them tucked away for safe keeping. Then there was Chuck Smith founder of Planet Christmas was also key part of this power trust.
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​​Our PNW meeting continued to grow and we used to call it a "Mini" PLUS. Chuck Smith of Planet Christmas coined the phrase. PLUS was, Planet Christmas Light Up Symposium, and was the first national Christmas Decorating Conference. Started in 2003, PLUS was held every other year and the Mini's were to be held in the off years.
 
The Mini's were starting to identify themselves with names or regional themes. Early on Mark came up with the tag line and Forum "Signature" - "I have the C.L.A.P., do you?" "CLAP" for Christmas Light Addition Problem. Mark should have trade marked/copy righted the phrase as it is showing up everywhere on t-shirts and mugs. Our PacNW membership then voted to name our Mini - CLAP to follow the trend in the country. This CLAP stood for Christmas Light Addiction Program, intended to help those with the Problem. The name stuck and stayed, now you know. 
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We lost Bill in October 2012 but Nancy insisted that we continue to have CLAP at their home and Bill's shop. We eventually outgrew Bill's workshop but were invited to his son Eric's property. Eric was just completing a replica firehouse that would be perfect for our meeting. So, we moved to the Foley Firehouse in 2018 which is actually a event venue managed by Jen and Eric Foley. This new venue is really unbelievable as the building was erected to resemble a real firehouse. The property is also home to the Foley fire engine collection. Bill and his family collected fire engines and the property has a dedicated barn which houses most of them.
 
Through the years of generosity by the Foley family, the CLAP meeting was always free to attend. The Foley's have volunteered their homes and catered a wonderful lunch but we had to step up eventually. In 2021 with our group growing year over year. we asked $25 per person to cover the cost of snacks and lunch. 

2023 was a big step for CLAP as the Firehouse was no longer available for events. We did an exhaustive search for a new venue and settled again in the Lacey area. The Thurston County Fairgrounds Expo Center had a large capacity that we won't soon outgrow. So we moved again.  With this new venue comes some increase in the costs but with a provided lunch we wanted to keep it under $50 per person and  settled at $45. Not free like we were spoiled with for so many years, but very competitive to other Mini's around the country. The final costs were determined once we got costs for things like food and event insurance (yep, we need that now).  But even this great facility had limitations. It was one large room with an entry hall, but no option to reconfigure the space into smaller areas for things like Build Classes. After great discussion with the membership, it was determined that it would be good to have multiple education tracks going at the same time, and the group was OK with an increase in the registration fee to allow for this. This facility did not allow us that.  So we moved again......
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2024, we selected a venue in the Maple Valley Grange, that gives us more flexibility, and helped us get into the black with expenses. The Grange offered an upstairs/downstairs to accommodate lunch and the multiple education tracks, but it was limited in space, either for teaching, vendor set ups for sales, and our annual Swap Meet for members to rehome items. We were tight and with 82 attendees, a high water mark for CLAP, we could not grow.  So we moved yet again......
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2025 opened up a new chapter for CLAP. Planning to grow our group, we needed a facility that could accommodate approx 100 attendees, vendor sales space, Swap Meet space, and multiple simultaneous education tracks for classes. The opportunity to book the Des Moines Yacht Club opened up. This is a step up in quality. CLAP started on the shores of Lake Saint Clair, and is now on the shore of Puget Sound. This serves as probably one of the most pictureque venues for a Mini in the country. So! We are NOT looking to move again anytime soon, as long as we can have access to this beautiful facility we hope to set some roots for a while. 
 
We strive to keep the cost to attend as economical as possible, with still putting on a very exiting, productive and informative gathering. Coffee, snacks and lunch is always in cluded. 
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CLAP needs to be self-sustaining, informal but most of all fun. We have one of the best locations in the country, with outstanding members who are always willing to help. We have a very diverse, and knowlegable membership who can answer just about any question someone may have. We stive to keep the tone neutral in the group, with great relationships with just about all the major vendors who support our community. We have had those vendors come hang out with us during CLAP over the years. We hope this can continue with the upswing in Mini's that has started to happen in recent years.
 
OK so all Mini's around the country have thier quirks. Ours started not too long after the first few meetings. We had a long great day,  and after cleaning up Bill's shop and house, we wanted to continue to yap about blinky flashy and were hungry. We needed a quick place to have 15+ people sit at the last minute.  We also wanted to thank the Foley's for hosting us, and wanted to treat them for dinner. They suggested Super Buffet in DuPont, and they could seat up. A tradition was born. Every year since, even with all our moves, we went to the Super Buffet. That is until last year. We went to Renton. 2025 we will not break tradition and have scoped out a new Buffet for us to converge on. 

Look for more details here  or if you want advice or input on anything decorating, check out our Facebook page here
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We even have our own Theme Song

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Elevator

Your Elevator Speech: 

This year we want to keep things humming along so here's the format for the Introductions:
Name?

Location?

Display Name?

How long have you been doing your display?

Your expertise? (That you may help others)

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We will have tables set up for a Swap Meet.
Bring all the decorations you no longer use
and be prepared to bring home more! 
P.S. There's tons of door prises!

Contact Us

Find us on Facebook or email us:
PacNWClap@gmail.com

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