From our PHiP President, Kathy Pfister:
Here’s a primer for our new members and a reminder for our long time members about how Parrot Head Clubs (PHCs) function and also a list of useful/interesting resources. It’s a might long of a read but it’s interesting, promise!
There are 213 officially sanctioned Parrot Head clubs world wide (currently the United States, Canada, Mexico and Australia). The first club was founded in 1989 in Atlanta.
All PHCs are run under the guidance of Parrot Heads in Paradise (PHiP) which is our national organization. PHiP has a website, http://www.phip.com/.
PHiP is run by a Board of Directors, most of whom are voted in for two year terms on a staggered basis. Each club gets one ballot for the Elections. You can find the current list of officers at http://www.phip.com/club-leaders.
To retain our rights to be a sanctioned club, we have to follow a few rules. These are the biggies:
File two annual activity reports on dollars raised and hours donated to charitable events..
Maintain a functioning website.
Renew the club charter every January and pay dues of $75 or $1 per active member, whichever is a higher amount.
Have a designated person as our official point of contact. For most clubs, this is the President but it can be anyone that the club chooses.
There are some other rules and they can be found at http://www.phip.com/club-general-guidelines.
There are no rules about “stinkin’ badges” but most clubs have them. Stinkin badges, that is, not rules about them. ;)
After the annual reports are filed in January, PHiP publishes a summary State of the Phlock report. For 2018, Parrot Head Clubs donated/raised over $3,400,000 and volunteered 211,459 hours.That’s sure something to be proud about! You can read the entire report, and see numbers for prior years, at http://www.phip.com/about. It’s truly an impressive set of data and one that every PHC member should be proud of.
To read more about clubs, PHiP and what they’re up to, there’s a quarterly PHiP Newsletter called The Tradewind Times. You can always find the most current version at a link on this page - just look at the bottom left - http://www.phip.com/club. There’s also an annual Club Newsletter contest that all clubs are encouraged to participate in.
While you’re on the club page, check out the information about the PHiP Scholarship (have a college student in the family or maybe you’re the student?) and the Golden Coconut which is an annual reward to clubs given by PHiP.
Another page to check out frequently is the Featured Club at http://www.phip.com/featured. You’ll see a variety of clubs doing great deeds. Always inspiring!
There are also several group communications resources available. For the general membership, there’s a PHiP Yahoo Group. You can sign up by sending an email to parrotheadsinparadise-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.
Each club can also have up to four officers on the PHiP Club Leaders Yahoo Group. This group is used to post messages ranging from Buffett ticket information, promotions for major club events, discussions about club challenges and presenting results from charitable events.
There are also Regional Yahoo Groups as PHiP is divided into geographic zones. Each zone is assigned Regional Communicators (RCs) and they maintain the Regional Yahoo Groups and Facebook Groups. The RCs are also there to help with club related questions, emphasize time sensitive PHiP messages, conduct Regional Leaders Meetings and be cheerleaders for their clubs. To see all the regions and their RCs, you can go to http://www.phip.com/club-communicators..
There’s a list of all the Clubs at http://www.phip.com/club-chapters. This is your go-to spot for when you’re talking to your cousin or old college chum about what fun you’re having with Parrot Heads and they say, “Gee, I wish there were a club near me!” There probably is so check out this list and send them to the club website to see what’s going on.
Another use for the club chapters page is for when you’re traveling. Believe it, you’ll get a very warm welcome when you’re a visiting Parrot Head and show up at a local club event. In fact, some clubs are known to create events just for out of towners to meet people.
Besides the links to the individual Clubs and their websites, there are also Regional Calendars that can be found at http://www.phip.com/club-calendars. Very useful if you’re planning an extended road trip!
Also, most clubs have Facebook pages or groups so Like or Join as the case may be and you can see what everyone is up to.
One last thing to talk about is PHiP’s Meeting of The Minds (MOTM). MOTM is our national convention held in Parrot Head Mecca of Key West, Florida. It’s around the end of October each year and registration is limited to 3,500 attendees. You can find lots of information about Meeting of the Minds at http://www.phip.com/meeting.
PHiP’s Meeting of the Minds is a must-do at least once! Not only are you in the cool spot of Key West, you can’t help but hit a Trop Rock musician if you throw a rock. Not that it’s recommended to actually throw a rock, that could hurt someone. There are musicians and bands from all over the country. There are also often the Coral Reefers! Oh, yeah, and that Buffett guy sometimes shows up, too.
Registration is only $90 and that includes a great gift bag and a custom designed event t-shirt. Bargain! You must be registered to attend any events at the host hotel and there are no couples or family registrations - it’s one registration per person. Registration closes on September 1st or when we hit 3,500 attendees and you can sign up at http://www.phip.com/motmregistration.
The host hotel for MOTM is the Casa Marina. We build a big main stage out on the sand just a few feet from the ocean which is fantastic for catching the shows. There is a beach stage where entertainment happens in the early morning. Also on-site are a Mini-Mart and a place to meet the convention musicians. There are great food and drink specials just for us! The Land Shark beer is offered at the lowest price in Key West during the event and most years there are $5 Margaritaville Tequila margaritas.
Meeting of the Minds runs from Wednesday until Saturday. The gift bag stuffing party is on Wednesday morning in the Casa Marina ballroom and only open to the first 125 people to sign up each year. It is a very popular party! Registration opens at 9:00 sharp on Thursday morning and credentials are required for the entire event. Registration will continue through Saturday morning for late arrivals. Check our phip..com web page for the registration hours each day.
On Thursday morning the music starts early with a Mini Mart party going until just before lunch then the PHun moves to the beach for a few hours on the beach stage. Be sure to setup your beach chair early in the sand in front of the main stage as the music NEVER stops until at least 11:30 PM. Sometimes there may be a set a little later but for the most part you should pace yourself and not stay up all night although it is tempting! Thursday, Friday, and Saturday will bring you music starting early in the morning all the way until 11:30 PM each night.. See the schedule for exact times. http://www.phip.com/meeting-schedule
There is a club leaders brunch on Friday morning sponsored by PHiP for two leaders from each club. The PHiP Department of Membership manages registration for this event.
Jimmy Buffett's Coral Reefer Band as well as Coral Reefer alumni have been in full attendance for most of the recent years of MOTM. This is the only event of this type that happens throughout the year where a fan can get this close to all of the Coral Reefer Band members for several days. With concert ticket prices soaring this event remains a solid bargain for this type of entertainment at this value price. This is three solid days and nights of entertainment in a beautiful location with Parrot Heads from all over the country.
If you ever have questions about the clubs, the organization or Buffett related things, please feel free to ask your Club Leaders, the RCs or any PHiP BOD member. We’re here to be stewards of this great organization and to serve you!
Kathy Pfister Parrot Heads in Paradise President http://phip.com Lone Palm Foundation Board Member http://lonepalmfoundation.org/