A Personal Note regarding Postponement of the Santa Jamboree

Hello Friends.

As a vendor, supplier, prospective sponsor or advertiser, or just as a friend of Santas, I felt it was important to send you this note and to thank you for your interest and support in the efforts to produce FORBS 2010 International Santa Jamboree.

As you may know The Fraternal Order of Real Bearded Santas (FORBS) has announced they are postponing the 2010 International Santa Jamboree, which was scheduled to open on June 27, in Anaheim, California.

Currently the FORBS Board of Directors is working on the details for rescheduling the convention and has already initiated full refunds to all registered delegates, vendors and sponsors.

The Jamboree was to be the first-ever west coast Santa convention. As the Jamboree’s General Chairman I was pleased to bring this event to FORBS and am so proud of the more than a year and a half of work by the Jamboree Steering Committee and more than fifty dedicated volunteers.

It was a very difficult decision as the committee and volunteers had all put in a tremendous amount of time developing and planning this convention. Fortunately their efforts and plans will be the foundation for 2012 convention.

FORBS has been holding successful annual luncheons for the past three years, with attendance numbers reaching 300 or more. These have been followed by wonderful cruises to Mexico. So it was easy to believe they had the opportunity to move to the next level and host a convention for the Santa Industry.

Unfortunately the current economy is as robust as we had hoped. The number of registrations and vendors who had signed up were below expectations. FORBS could have produced a smaller convention. But knowing they would not be producing the size or quality of convention that was planned and expected, would have been unfair to those Santas, Sponsors and Vendors who had already registered and signed on.

As you can easily guess, we have come to realize that even though America’s economy is recovering, the results have not reached all areas of the society. Things may be a little better, but not enough for some Santas, Vendors and Sponsors, to invest in a convention or vacation this year.

Currently the Board and Jamboree Committee are working with the Crowne Plaza, discussing future dates in 2012, when they plan to reschedule the Jamboree. A list of proposed dates will be considered and FORBS will be inviting the Santa community to participate in a survey and give suggestions on when they should re-schedule.

Should you have any questions or suggestions, I would be glad to discuss them with you and invite you to contact me.

Santa Tim Connaghan
General Chairman
FORBS 2010 International Santa Jamboree
chairman@SantaJamboree.com