This story is for Sami Juraifani, who loves "It's a small world" stories.  Love you Sami!

Three years ago, when I had an idea for a business and started designing and planning it, I had a mental image for my logo.  The catch was that it had to be hand drawn and not computer generated.

I tried a few professionals, but all they gave me were computer generated images that I didn't want.  I finally sent e-mails to several art teachers at Conroe High School, one of whom e-mailed me back and agreed to meet with me and see if she could draw my logo.

I went to the high school after school hours one day and met Kristine, an attractive young woman.  We talked about the logo and she agreed to draw it.  About this time, I notice that she is wearing an Arabic name necklace, so I ask her where she got it.  She says "I grew up in Saudi Arabia".  You all know how the conversation went from there!

That's how I met Kristine Buck-Canestorp, DH 91, in Conroe, TX.  And, she is the artist who drew my
company logo.  What a small world!

Gail R. Gantt
RT 75

For you reunion-goers, here is some useful information for sharing your reunion experience with other Brats at the reunion as well as your classmates or family who couldn't make it:

On twitter: Use #brats2013 on your reunion tweets, so everyone can follow you! Click the icon to follow ABI and keep up with any important announcements. We'll be sharing our reunion experience, too!

On Flickr: Share your fun reunion photos right from your phone and help us build an album of great memories!  We've set up a "Tucson, AZ - 2013" album for reunion photo and video uploads.  You can do this with just an email!  Here's how it works: Email your photos or video to this address: europe82itself@photos.flickr.com Put that email address in your contacts, so you don't have to look for it again! Add a description: Use the subject line to give your photo or video a title and the body of your email to add a description. Add "tags:", if you want, in the subject line or body of the email. Just type "tags:" in the subject line or body of the email followed by the list of tags you want added to the photo(s). Don't forget to include #brats2013!  Here's an example: Subject: Brats at the pool!   tags: Dhahran '77 #brats2013 Body: Class of '77!  Best ever! Or you could send them in the body: Subject: Brats at the pool! Body: Class of '77!  Best ever! tags: Dhahran '77 #brats2013

See you in Tucson!  Safe travels, everyone!  #brats2013

They met at a reunion - and the rest is history.

The reunion is less than two weeks away, and the last day to purchase raffle tickets at the discounted rate is on May 20th (midnight CST).  Why wait until you are in Tucson?  Put your order in now, and they will be ready and waiting for you when you check-in!

Pre-Reunion Purchase Price	Reunion Purchase Price
3 Tickets/$5.00	2 Tickets/$5.00
8 Tickets/$10.00	5 Tickets/$10.00
25 Tickets/$25.00	20 Tickets/$25.00

Because Friday is the night that most people arrive at the hotel – looking forward to seeing everyone and not exactly sure what they are going to do for the evening, we have our Friday Night Opening Reception (FOR). 

FOR has evolved over the years since ABI incorporated.  Previous contracts provided free drinks for an hour or two with perhaps some pretzels – or we received drink tickets to distribute.  Hotel contracts have changed.  This year we negotiated $4,000 back to the master account with a minimum charge to the master account of $30,000.  We were pretty sure this was something we could accomplish.

We are pleased to announce that in addition to the $4,000 back from the hotel, we have several generous donations that we decided to put toward FOR.  Aramco Services donated $10,000, ABI authorized up to $20,000, the La Paloma Two Night Raffle brought in $740, an anonymous Brat donated $2,000, and another anonymous Brat donated $500.

We are applying $25,000 from these donations to food at FOR.  This equals $35.71 per person. 

Keep in mind that food might not be offered at FOR the next reunion, since we rely solely on donations to fund food for this event.

We hope you agree that this is the best start to a reunion yet!

Don't wait a minute longer.  The Tucson Reunion Committee can't wait to host us and they want you to know that the hotel requires an accounting for the number of banquet attendees prior to the reunion, and you may not get to participate if you wait to register on-site.

Are you having issues registering?  If so, please contact Dawn at dawn@aramco-brats.com and she will get you straigtened out.  Please also note that we will shut down on-line registration at midnight (CST) May 20th so that we can get everything ready for you in Tucson.

Speaking of registration....

Did you sit at your computer getting ready to register, shaking your head wondering why your registration fee is $77.00?  What exactly does it pay for? 

The Reunion Committee develops a budget that has to be finalized so the registration fee can be set before we go live with registration in January.  This fee covers many things that you will receive and experience at the reunion.  This year, $55.00 goes toward your meal at the Sunday Night Banquet.  This negotiated price is considerably less than prices offered on their website.

The other $22.00 is your share of goodies distributed to you when you arrive (we could tell you about all of these, but it would spoil the surprise), lanyards and name tags, karaoke for Saturday night, a band for Sunday night, garage band equipment rental, canteen equipment and games, computer rental, hired personnel to handle registration and the raffle/auction, photo booth, table decorations (somebody at your table gets to take it home), volunteer gifts, door prizes, signage, the reunion newsletter, and miscellaneous supplies. 

This year we based our budget on 700 attendees.  An anonymous Brat donated $5,000 which was applied to the reunion budget. This equaled $7.14 less per person.  Without this donation you would have paid $84.14 registration fee.  Thank you Anonymous for subsidizing the cost for all of us!

We used an online randomizer to pick 15 winners for the Comp Night Drawing. All winners were notified via email Tuesday morning. Our favorite response was from Damian: "Yippee! Thank you so much for the great news! I believe this is the first time I've won anything like this so again "yippee" & look forward to seeing you all! "

There might be a few more to distribute, but we won't know that until reunion weekend when the hotel provides us with our final room block count. Congratulations to:

Christine Faye Crawford-Oppenheimer
Anna Prusinski Gertz
Tina Marie Clausen
Karen Morrow
Damian Drum Collins
Victoria Fate-Gorrell
Whitney Hart-Baglin
Rise B. Johansen-Ryan
E. Ralph Robertson
Monica de Barcza
Amber Perkins
Michelle Fink
William J. Mathe III
Tor Hermannsson
Sandra Kerr Louchard

Imagine planning a birthday party where you expect 100 people to attend.  On the night of the event, 250 people show up.  Please do not wait until you arrive at the reunion to register.  It is important that we have close to accurate counts for various activities and surprises planned that cost money.  Some might not even be available to you if you aren't registered before the reunion as we have to give guarantees to the hotel in advance.  We have received some reports that people are having difficulty registering for the reunion.  We are sorry about that. Please contact our Webmaster Dawn Kolb at dawn@aramco-brats.com.  She will be glad to help you get registered.

We have also noticed that many brats have reservations at the hotel, but have not registered.  Please remember to cancel your reservation if you are unable to attend the reunion.  Please note that the hotel has a 7 day cancellation policy.  If you need to cancel you must do so at least 7 days prior to your arrival date to avoid penalty.  If you cancel inside of 7 days, the hotel will charge a (1) night room & tax deposit to your credit card.