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President’s Letter Spring 2009, May 17, 2009 To the Membership, We are finishing up a busy and successful spring trial season here in Texas. It looks like we have a few nice summer trials on the schedule to keep our dogs shaped up until the fall season begins. We had several handlers do well at major out of state events including the Cattle Dog Finals and the Bluegrass Trial. Congratulations to all of them. I would like to single out Red Oliver and Jimmy Walker for placing 1st and 2nd at the National Cattle Dog Finals in Nebraska. The board has been busy working on several items. First is the State Finals trial for 2009 in Ft. Stockton. We are working on a budget for the trial, securing judges, and formulating plans for the best use of the trial site. If you have suggestions for Finals judges, please let the board know. We also, as always, need volunteers to help make the finals run smoothly. As you know the finals trial is run by the members, for the members, so we need every one to pitch in order to make it a success. Herbert Holmes is this year’s finals chairperson and will be counting on all of us for help. A committee has been appointed to explore how to best integrate triallers coming into TSCDA from other organizations such as AKC, ASCA and AHBA. The committee will be working on guidelines that will be fair to newcomers to TSCDA, yet protect our novice handlers from unfair competition. Jo Anne Noble has graciously volunteered to head up this important group. Work has already begun on planning the 2010 Stock Shows. Dal Lamphere is lining up judges and stock. Speaking of 2010, Gary Payne is already beginning work on a possible Finals bid in the Stephenville area. The Cattle Dog Committee is now headed by Kenneth Beasley. The committee has already had their yearly meeting and has selected dates and location for their finals trial. As always, please let me know how I can better serve the TSCDA. Kay Stephens, Ksteph5260@aol.com _________________________________________________________________________ December 1, 2008 To the membership: We have just completed our 2008 finals trial and annual meeting. We had enthusiastic participation in both of them. The finals trial requires a lot of hard work by a large number of people. This year was a special challenge as we didn’t have Danny Monzingo and his crew working behind the scenes for us. That meant we had to scramble to keep up with all the many details, including having help at all the pens. This trial was a success because of the Board members and volunteers who put in many hours of planning, worrying, and working. My heartfelt thanks to them. We all got a list of sponsors at the annual meeting and I hope every one will take a few minutes to contact and thank our sponsors. I would like to offer a special thank you to Gene Perry who generously permitted us to use his private property for the trial. I would also like to thank the Board and the DOY Committee for the commitment of blood, sweat, and tears spent trying to address a challenging and controversial topic. This has been a very stressful time for everyone involved. As we move forward and look ahead to new issues, remember that the ties that unite us –such as appreciation of the working ability of our dogs, and the determination to spend our weekends in cold, windy, dusty, thorn filled, exotic locations—are stronger than our differences. We have an outstanding line up of winter trials coming up in January. The economy may affect our trial entries but TSDA will continue to evolve and adapt to the changing times. I look forward to seeing you all at the trials. As always, please let me know how I can better serve the association. Kay Stephens ________________________________________________________________________ To the membership: Dec. 10, 1007 We have just completed our 2008 finals trial and annual meeting. We had enthusiastic participation in both of them. The finals trial requires a lot of hard work by a large number of people. This year was a special challenge as we didn’t have Danny Monzingo and his crew working behind the scenes for us. That meant we had to scramble to keep up with all the many details, including having help at all the pens. This trial was a success because of the Board members and volunteers who put in many hours of planning, worrying, and working. My heartfelt thanks to them. We all got a list of sponsors at the annual meeting and I hope every one will take a few minutes to contact and thank our sponsors. I would like to offer a special thank you to Gene Perry who generously permitted us to use his private property for the trial. I would also like to thank the Board and the DOY Committee for the commitment of blood, sweat, and tears spent trying to address a challenging and controversial topic. This has been a very stressful time for everyone involved. As we move forward and look ahead to new issues, remember that the ties that unite us –such as appreciation of the working ability of our dogs, and the determination to spend our weekends in cold, windy, dusty, thorn filled, exotic locations—are stronger than our differences. We have an outstanding line up of winter trials coming up in January. The economy may affect our trial entries but TSDA will continue to evolve and adapt to the changing times. I look forward to seeing you all at the trials. As always, please let me know how I can better serve the association. Kay Stephens _______________________________________________________________________ To the Membership: Thanks again to everyone who volunteered at the Finals trial. The trial ran very smoothly and efficiently. Special thanks go to the set out crew, pen crew, Danny Monzingo, Emil Luedecke and to our judges for making the trial such a success. Also thanks to George Wallace and the rest of the cattle committee for a great cattle finals trial. The board is preparing for our annual business meeting, so if you have any issues that you would like the board to address, please contact me or any of the other directors. We need to start planning for next year’s final trial. First a new location must be found. I ask all members to look for possible sites. Once we get closer to the Finals trial, we will need all the help possible from the membership as we won’t have Danny to set up fences, contract for stock, and line up help for us anymore. We’ll also need to locate stock for the finals and I welcome input on finding sufficient numbers of fresh stock. I would also like to try again to have committees working on issues concerning our rules, by laws, trial approval, membership, and public relations. Some of these committees made good progress this year, but I failed to get some of the others properly organized and motivated. So again I ask that any members interested in working in these areas to please contact me directly. Please volunteer as we need the participation of the membership for these committees to succeed. As always, I welcome any and all ideas on how to better serve TSCDA. I am looking forward to the spring trial season and hope to see everyone at the trials. Kay Stephens 936 825 2610 _______________________________________________________________________ Sept. 2007 To the Membership, I want to take this opportunity to thank the board for their contribution of time and effort over this past year as they handled the business of TSCDA and resolved the conflicts brought to them. I’d like to thank Emil Luedecke as he has graciously taken over most of the work setting up our Finals trial. This is quite a large undertaking and very generous of Emil to contribute so much time and energy to the orgnization. I hope all the membership will remember to thank him and everyone else who volunteers to work at our Finals trial. I hope all of us will volunteer to help out with the Finals. Remember this trial is run by the association and for the association so it is up to all members to step up and help out. I also want to thank Monika Treadway for her contribution of hours of work and her expertise in editing to the rules project. I believe Red and the rules committee will have the first draft ( which is only rewording and reorganizing, no changes) finished shortly. Then the committee will ask for and welcome input from all members on what steps to take next. I am looking forward to the fall trials and hopefully cooler weather. I hope to see all of you at the trials. As always, I am open to ideas, opinions, and constructive criticisms on how to better serve the TSCDA. Thanks, Kay Stephens , Ksteph5260@aol.com 936-825-2610 _________________________________________________________________________________ Date: May 29, 2007 To the Membership : Although trial season is winding down for the summer, the board has been busy with TSCDA business through the Internet forum. Red Oliver authored and the board discussed and approved a clear set of rules for the cattle trials. The board is still soliciting judges for our state finals. This is harder than it looks, I've contacted three good judges, all have declined. Emil Luedecke is coordinating the sheep side of the finals. Red Oliver will work with the new cattle committee to coordinate the cattle side. We have established a stock show committee with Rita Crane as the chairperson to coordinate the stock show trials. The rules committee is continuing with phase one of the rule project, which is simply to reorganize and clarify wording with out changing anything. Once phase one is finished, phase two, of presenting to the board and membership which items may need changing will follow. We still need volunteers for other committees and to help with the state finals. In December the board approved a cattle dog committee to give the cattle side of the organization more representation and autonomy. The committee has been finalized and consists of George Wallace, chairman, Ricky Kennedy, Larry Burkes, Gilbert Carter, Chester Williams and Jimmy Walker. I thank all of them for volunteering their time to help TSCDA. As always, I welcome comments, criticisms, ideas, and opinions on how I can better serve the membership and the TSCDA. Thanks,
Kay Stephens March 2007 Membership, I hope everyone has had the opportunity to take part in our spring trial season. This season has been unusually cold and windy, and has offered challenging courses and tough yet workable stock. I want to personally thank each and every member that has helped in putting on these trials. Without trial hosts, fields, stock and all those who work long hours to make the trials run, we would all be sitting at home. It is easy to forget how much work, planning, time and money is involved in putting on a trial and I hope we will all remember to thank those of us who host our trials. The board of directors created committees to work on getting more and better trials, increasing membership, improving public relations, updating and rewording our rules and by laws, and to educate the membership about judging guidelines. These committees will not succeed with out members getting involved. So if you want changes or improvements in these areas, volunteer to work on a committee and make help make a difference. The old saying that ‘if you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem’ still holds true. You can also get involved by discussing issues of interest on the Texas Sheep Dogs list. Sign up at texassheepdogs@yahoo.com . This list is a good way to every member, from the newest to the oldest, to be able to voice an opinion. I hope that all members will take advantage of this forum to keep in touch and to exchange ideas and information. The board is beginning to plan for the State finals. We will soon need to nominate judges for the finals, so let the board know if you wish to suggest a candidate. As president for this year, I am committed to making TSDA the best organization possible and to energize and mobilize our membership. Please don’t hesitate to contact me with your ideas, suggestions or criticisms. Kay Stephens 936.825.2610 |
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