Social Clubs for Life

The value of being part of a group.

The Pyramid of Luxuries

The Bespoke - $1,000 Grocery Gift Card

The Ultra High End - $15 Starbucks eGift Card

The Superpremium - Barton Springs Pool

The Premium Core - $15 Krispy Kreme eGift Card

The Accessible Core - Social Clubs for Life

The Affordable Luxury - New Prize Idea?

The Everyday Luxury - BBQ Social and Charity Social Idea

BESPOKE WINNER ANNOUNCEMENT

The winner of September 2024 Bespoke Contest is…

CONG from ARLINGTON, TEXAS! Congratulations on winning the $1,000 Grocery Gift Card! Here is his submission for “your favorite tool”:

CONG, now you’ll have groceries to utilize your favorite tool. Check out some of the other tools you love:

I love the tools you have selected as your favorite. You can sometimes see the hobbies and personalities of the individuals from their tool-of-choice. Precision and cleanliness seem to be the theme in most of our submissions.

The Bespoke

Click on the banner to enter The Bespoke Photo Contest. Click here for the Official Contest Rules.

• Prize: $1,000 Grocery Gift Card [ARV $1,000]

• Odds: For every 130 Ducky Tran premium member by the time of judging, I will give out one (1) Grocery gift card

• Contest Period: October 2, 2024 at 10 AM CST to October 29, 2024 at 10 PM CST

I know the holidays are around the corner and groceries are going to rack up, so I have decided to repeat the Bespoke Grand Prize to assist with your groceries bill this upcoming holiday season. Don’t forget it is a gift card to your favorite grocery store so you can purchase everything you need for the upcoming season.

The Ultra High End

Previous Contest Winner

The winner of Issue 45 Ultra High End Contest is GIANINA from IRVING, TEXAS! Here’s her submission for “something big”:

Congratulations GIANINA, you won the $100 Potbelly eGift Card! You can now try my favorite Big Italian sandwich from Potbelly’s! Check out the other submissions:

I’m impressed with all the photos that are taken that fit with all my prompts. Not sure if my prompts are too easy or you guys are just taking a lot of photos! Let’s see what you got for this week’s prompt.

This Week’s Contest

Click on the banner to enter The Ultra High End Photo Contest. Click here for the Official Contest Rules.

• Prize: $15 Starbucks eGift Card [ARV $15]

• Odds: Every Ducky Tran premium member that submits a valid entry will receive one (1) eGift Card

• Contest Period: October 2, 2024 at 10 AM CST to October 8, 2024 at 10 PM CST

I always wanted to do something like this but didn’t know what the prize should be; however, I’m pretty sure everyone knows someone that likes Starbucks so even if you don’t want it, get it for a friend.

Make sure that you follow the rules when submitting so you aren’t disqualified from this easy contest. Just a reminder, it needs to a be photo; occasionally, I’m receiving online stock pictures with watermarks on them or Clip Art. They need to be a photo, even if it’s a photo of the Clip Art, make it obvious if needed.

This will be my first multi-winner contest and I wanted it to fall on our Social Wealth week. I want to show that one day Ducky Tran can become more than just a newsletter to our members and this is just the beginning.

The Superpremium

This week’s Superpremium topic is Barton Springs Pool. If you have visited Austin, Texas but did not stop by Barton Springs, you are missing out on one of the most amazing places in Austin. The pool is fed by the Edward’s Aquifer and is about 3 acres in size. This pool stays temperate due to the natural underground water and enormous size of the pool. The water is very refreshing and as varying depths for all levels of swimmers.

It isn’t free; however, the entry fee is very affordable. Austin has many natural escapes from the busy downtown, but this is one of my favorites because you still have a good amount of people but will not feel crowded due to the sheer size.

The spring water is the best part, it is extremely clean, clear, and refreshing. Unlike normal pools or even the beach, there are many different regions of the pool. There’s even a map for the different areas and what you can expect to do there. One of the best areas has stadium-like hills that allow you to have a picnic or sun-bathe but still see the entire pool and opposing hill. Another favorite of families, is the near the end where the runoff is like a small waterfall into a shallow area that kids can play.

It really is a great place for varying ages, groups, and levels of swimmers. What a better place to be social than a gathering around a pool the size a downtown block.

The Premium Core

This week’s focus is social wealth, and what better way to be social than to share food with friends and family! When I was in the military, nearly all my meetings were in the early morning so the chance there were donuts was 99%. But that has become something the community has come to expect for our morning meetings. So, I have a deal for you so you can share your mornings with a few friends.

Deal #1: This week you can get a $15 Krispy Kreme eGift Card gift card for free, if you are the first four (4) members to email me your favorite donut flavor to [email protected]. If you don’t have a favorite donut flavor, then email me the donut flavor that you think would interesting.

The Accessible Core

Social Clubs for Life

When we think about social clubs, we think about the elite golf clubs and hanging out at the bar with fancy watches and talking about the latest car we bought. However, there are many other social clubs that we don’t even consider a social club, but even more so, how social clubs can affect us and our lives.

To not get into the nitty-gritty about social clubs, here are a few that we forget to consider at times:

• Religious Gathering (church, temple, synagogue, etc.)

• Scouts

• Interest Groups (book club, whiskey club, car club, etc.)

• Orgs (PTO, Booster Club, Charity Boards, etc.)

• Sports (being on team, coaching a team, cheer leading, etc.)

Not all these groups have the same amount of interaction; however, any interaction is good for your health. The community you are a part of can improve and lengthen your life. The group doesn’t have to be expensive for it to be a social club; moreover, it doesn’t have to be intentionally bringing people together to socialize to be a social club. If you have some kind of common interest, is it sufficient to be a social club.

Like most mammals, humans are social creatures; however, because of our intelligence we may at time, stray to be alone. And even though, living alone may be fine with some, social interaction is still deemed as required for humans to develop, live, and thrive. We should find those with similar interests and explore the reasons we love those interests. This interaction will build a sense of community, belonging, and purpose that will prolong your life to continue the enjoyment of those things.

Hopefully, one day I can say that Ducky Tran is a social club that provides community, belonging, and purpose for each member.

The Affordable Luxury

Issue 45 Community Poll Results

Here’s the results from last week:

1. I asked if you were part of an in-person social group and only one person voted yes. As you know by now many of us see social group as a specific to socializing only; however, church, scout, book club, sports group, poker group, and more are all social groups. So, there may be much more based on how we define it.

2. I asked again to see if you were interested in the Grapevine Polar Express as a prize, with the majority voting No, I will not be adding it to the pool of prizes.

3. TRIVIA: Which term means “the fear of being alone”? The answer is autophobia and about 70% got it correct.

This Week’s Community Poll

Here are this week’s poll questions:

The Everyday Luxury

This is my idea on the BBQ Social and Charity Event. This would obviously need to be discussed with the restaurant that we do it at; however, let me know what you think about this idea:

• We negotiate with the restaurant for some of the proceeds to be donated to a food pantry based on the sales during a specific time, and it can coincide with the BBQ social. As for the members, if members bring at least one item for the food pantry (list of items accepted will be provided), then BBQ meal will be provided by Ducky Tran. We will then encourage our community to come eat during the specific time to raise funds, but for everyone that donate food to the food pantry, Ducky Tran will provide a small gift like a Ducky Tran ducky keychain.

(The referral program is only viewable on the email version of the newsletter.)

Visit shop.duckytran.com with the weekly password: starbucks