Many decades ago PAA decided that the private beachside community St. Malo in
Oceanside, with several Art Alliance members in residence there, would be a
perfect place to “get away” and get some serious business accomplished at the
beginning of each year.  The size of the Board has fluctuated over the years, as
have the number of homes available to us.  In addition to “taking care of
business”, the retreat provides great bonding experiences for the members, and
well as food, drink, and sports activities.
The first day of the 2022 retreat consisted of carpooling down the I-5 freeway for
just under 2 hours to our haven by the sea.  The attendees were divided among
the available homes and checked in with their hostess and the activities began in
earnest.  There were tennis matches, pickleballing, beach walking, ocean
swimming, along with quiet conversations, paperback reading, and sitting in the
sun.  Then, after hot showers and donning cute outfits, all attendees communed
at Leslie Prussia’s divine brick patio for sangria and delicious appetizers.  Plenty
of catching up was had by all.  Walking from the northernmost end of the
compound to the southernmost, critiquing others’ homes and gardens as we
went, we all descended upon Allison Alanis’s divine abode for a catered sit-down
dinner with candles and wine and, surprisingly, more “story" telling.  Following
dessert, Leslie P. led a rousing game of "Who knows the most about Art?”  I think
I won, but no one was keeping score so maybe not.
The NEXT day we got down to business.  The agenda consisted of each board
member making a presentation about what their goals were for the upcoming
year.  There were no power points but several costumes.  There were also larger
themes discussed & dissected, with pros & cons flying through the air as,
surprisingly, 100% consensus was avoided.  Oh well.  After a totally divine
luncheon on the deck overlooking the sea, we hugged & kissed goodbye and
realized that we never could have been there if we hadn’t said YES when asked to
be part of the Board.  So, in the words of Nancy Reagan, just say Yes!  Or
something like that.
(Mary Alexander)