Meeting notes for December 12, 2010

Hello everyone!
This is still Rebekah editing the blog. I'm trying to find a way to hand it over to Tye, but can't figure it out. If you know how to do this, please help me out! Thanks! In the meantime, I'm transferring the notes that Tye typed out. Thanks Tye for the help! I added a little bit in the parenthesis.

** Voted on Officers, they are as follows -
President - Casey Ramos
Vice President - Aaron Jackson
Secretary - Tye Turner
Treasurer - Caka Household, lol (officially Rebekah:)

** Aaron Jackson's contact info:
cell: 512-696-9071
e-mail: aajrealtor@yahoo.com

** We talked about dues but nothing ever came of this, I do think we said not to charge dues and they can make a donation and buy a shirt. As long as they are a participating member, but I am not sure. (- Yes, we decided NOT to charge dues b/c there's nothing to give a paying member in return. If people want to donate money, that's great. But we're going to operate more on a volunteer type basis.)

** Check on outstanding money owed to the club.

** We are only having the one show this year in Georgetown, you already have all of that covered. But there was talk of concessions and I believe John & Sherry were talking to a guy who has done this for us or them before, but still not sure of which day is ours. Need to call Elaine (?) and talk to her about the concessions. (- Yes, Casey needs to contact Elaine and talk about this. John agreed to contact the last guy we used.)

**Advertising was also discussed, we decided to put an ad in the Gazette, as well as a flyer, which Aaron was going to redo and make current and I will post it all over the net and send out a mass e-mail and FB message as well as the forums I am a member of. I can also have it cross posted. We also discussed putting it in the Thrifty Nickel as well as the Austin, San Antonio, Waco, surrounding area newspapers.

** Raffle - I know I can get several things, and Travis said about the guy with the treadmill as a donation. We will get this together. And I am taking notes on who is donating what if it is a smaller business, to send out thank you cards. ( We discussed how important it is this time around to get all the contact info for the raffle donaters. Last show, we dropped the ball on this and would like to do better next time.)

** Trophies & ribbons are taken care of from what Casey said, they are all being put together and done at his house.

** Need to select judges & check on air flights for them, the sooner the better, lol. (Kerry's already sent out an e-mail with some info on this! Thanks Kerry! We still need to get judges approved by the ADBA before we move forward with booking flights, hotels, etc.)

** Contact, not sure of the guy's name, about books for the raffle. ( Fat Bill)

** I am going to call Lucretia and Tom about doing a little speech and setting up a table for the EBA.

** We also decided on 6 places to donate too, with a budget of $150.00, so $25.00 to each charity. Charities are as follows: Animal Trustees of Austin, TownLake Animal Shelter, Blue Dog Rescue, Bastrop Animal Shelter, Georgetown Animal Shelter & and I was thinking either the EBA or the RPOA, as I cannot find a shelter in Hays Co. Will look in the phone book and see what I can find.

** Is still a little bit away but need to find a representative to go to Las Vegas or ask Elaine to pick it all up for us. That is Feb. 25th.

** I also have contact info for Tom Lundberg, Laura Dapkus and Lucretia Ashcroft, i will send that to you when I get it all written down. I hope these notes are ok. (This is great- thank Tye!)

Next step is to get moving on picking the judges. We need to work on contacting Heather about this.
Thanks to all who attended the meeting! It was the best turnout so far this year, I believe! Awesome!

Updates

Those of you who are getting e-mails, know that the vet clinic was a no-go. We just didn't have enough people behind it and our club officers are really busy. Maybe we can try again next year.

The big news to share is that we have our show dates set for next year - April 2nd and 3rd! We have the Georgetown show barn reserved for that weekend as well.

We need to have our officer elections sometime before the end of the year so we can update Heather. As you know, an officer update is a requirement before the beginning of the new year.

Any ideas on a meeting date to elect officers? Or should we nominate/vote via Internet?

Vote, vote!

Thanks to all who voted! It looks like the club blog idea was approved of, so continue it will! :)

The next poll is more of a head count. We need to know who is going to be dedicated to making it out for the vet clinic in the park in September! You can put in your vote on the poll, and if you want to comment more specifically just click the comment button for this post OR e-mail everyone.

Thanks!
~Rebekah

Veterinarian update from Tye!

Yes, he will do it! Our clinic was penciled in tentatively for now as he does not have his son's football schedule for A&M for this next year, but he will get that soon. He said we have to do all the advertising and if we paid his gas he said he has no problem coming to do it. I told him he was the only pit bull friendly vet I know and he is awesome and he just smiled and chuckled, and told me he had a influx of pit owners since I had been coming to him :p. He said he would hold it on a Sat. afternoon which would be the 25th between 2pm - 4pm. It would be himself and two of his helpers. Prices are as follows and $1.00 from each vaccination goes back to the club.

$5.00 - Rabies (dog)
$10.00 - Distemper/parvo (dog)
$10.00 - Distemper (cat)
$10.00 - Leukemia (cat)

He also told me this is the cheapest you would find anyone to do the cat vaccinations as well as the distemper/parvo for the dogs. I just wanted to pass along the info. ttys

Meeting notes for July 18th, 2010

Heart of Texas Club Members,

Thanks again to the 4 members who made it to the meeting last Sunday! (Not to mention two tiny members - Jonah and Eliana :) )
We had originally planned to meet at Pfluger Park in Pflugerville, but after realizing how small the turnout was and feeling the squelching heat, we moved the meeting location to Casey's house. Thanks to Casey for the hospitality!

Our main topic of discussion was the fun show we've been thinking of doing for some time now.

* We decided that our overall goal and focus for the fun show (aside from fun:)) should be to educate folks on the APBT and provide information for anyone interested in joining our club or showing within the ADBA. After much discussion, we decided that we didn't want to cater too much to the "bully" fad that's all over our area right now. But instead, educate people on the proper structure, conditioning, preserving, etc. of this great breed of dog! Not to say we wouldn't be completely accepting and welcoming of those who own primarily "bullies".

*We talked again about finding a veterinarian do some sort of vet clinic/vaccination drive prior to the fun show. We figured if we scheduled this vet clinic event several weeks before the planned fun show, this would give us one way to advertise for it. During the vaccinations, we would like to have some packets of info made up to hand to people including information on the APBT, showing within the ADBA, articles and info on BSL, membership form, and a flyer advertising for our fun show. We realize that most of the dogs showing up will not be APBTs, but this is still a way for us to get our club out there and possibly make some money! The proposed dates for this vet clinic is September 25 or 26. We would like to do this in a park - preferably in Central Austin area. Any ideas on a good park?? Tye is talking to her veterinarian about helping us put this on. We are still waiting to hear back on what he's willing to do.

* The dates that look best for a fun show this Fall are October 23 or 24. This would be approximately 3 weeks after the vet clinic event.

* We felt the fun show also should be located in a park near Central Austin.

* As far as advertising goes, the newspaper hasn't been real successful yet, but that's still an option. Other suggestions were Craigslist, Dog forums, Facebook, Myspace, and posting flyers everywhere possible.

* We would like to have food available for people at the show. Any good ideas? John and Sherry - do you happen to have the phone number for the good BBQ concession guy we've talked about at previous meetings?

*We wrapped up discussion doubting whether or not we'll have enough people dedicated to helping this events take place. If there are only 4-5 people willing to come out and help, these plans might not become a reality. If you are willing and available to come out and help, or if you know of others that would be interested, please let us know! That way we can continue on with plans without doubt and hesitation.

Thanks everyone! Let's continue supporting and preserving this amazing breed!

~Rebekah Caka

July Meeting Update

Hey Everyone,

I haven't quite gotten together my notes for the meeting today, so I'll try to get those up tomorrow.

The members who showed up for this July 18th meeting were myself (Rebekah), Travis, Casey and Tye.

We had good discussion about future fundraisers opportunities and a fun show this Fall, but were discouraged wondering how many club members would actually be committed to helping with these ventures! We really need more involvement before a lot of these plans can spring into action. Anyway, more details of the meeting to follow!

In the meantime, check out the new blog and take the poll to your right to tell me what you think!
Give me any lengthy ideas via the "comment" button below!

Thanks,
Rebekah Caka

Meeting Reminder!

Hey Everyone,

Just wanted to send out a reminder about the meeting this weekend!
It's Sunday, the 18th, at 1:00 PM in Pfluger Park! Be there if you can! We will be discussing plans for an upcoming fun show!!
Kerry - Thanks for the ideas in your last e-mail! I plan to print your note and bring it to the meeting so we can include all the ideas in our discussion! Very much appreciated!
Any other comments, ideas, or questions?? Keep 'em coming! Hope to see you Sunday!

~Rebekah

Meeting notes for May 23rd, 2010

Hey Everyone!

Thanks to all who made it out for the meeting on Sunday!! We had about 8 people show up, which is actually a really good turnout these days. :)

Here's an outline of our meeting for those of you who couldn't make it:

We started by talking about our April show in Georgetown (April 24th and 25th), combined with the Texas Black Gold club.

Ideas on concessions were:

*More organization and better communication next time (within our club & between us and Black Gold)

*Contact a caterer that used to take care of concessions when we did shows in Seguin or San Marcos. Apparently he took care of everything (money, work, etc.), cooked great quality food, and at the end of the day just cut our club a check for a percentage of the profit. This would allow our members to have more freedom in other areas, to be involved with the dogs and people, and help in the show barn.

*It was important to the Black Gold club to be involved in concessions last show, so if they are still adamant about working concessions (and/or our caterer idea falls through), we may work out a compromise with them. One idea was that our club could be in charge of breakfast only, and they could be in charge of lunch and dinner options. Keeping things a little more separate next time may avoid some disagreements or complaints (between the clubs) about food options and quality of food.

We also discussed:

*Overall, our show went very well in April and we should be proud of our efforts and accomplishment!

*Crate rentals for next show. We had an issue with several people double crating their dogs, which is against the rules of the ADBA. We agreed that having several extra crates on site for rent (maybe $5 or $10/day) would solve the problem. Also, we may try to have several extra sheets or blankets for owners that need to keep their dogs covered in the crate.

*We had an issue with the software Saturday morning that kept the show from starting until noon. That was a problem that we couldn't really foresee or avoid, but it would have been considerate of us to inform the crowd of the hold up over the intercom. We left a lot of people wondering what the problem was and complaining about the delay.

*Along the lines of better organization next show, we decided that having show duties assigned the morning of the show would make things run more efficiency. There was definitely some confusion last show about who was supposed to be doing what.

*We may want to ask Texas Black Gold if they would like a 3rd person to help in registration next time. Several of our members felt there may have been a need for that 3rd person to help things move along more efficiently.

*Although we've have our issues in the past, the majority of our club members feel that it is beneficial to continue working with, and combining shows with the Texas Black Gold club. They take care of all the registration which is a big plus. They have also offered to pay for all show expenses upfront in the future and then split the profit after the show. This would keep things so much more organized and hassle-free.

*Some concern was expressed about the reputation of the club in the future, namely club member's interaction with judges before the shows take place. We, as a club, want to be as blameless and unassociated with unethical behavior as possible. We don't want to give anyone a reason to complain or suspect.

*As a club, everyone seems to feel that a Fall show would be a great idea. We are going to start the process of petitioning the ADBA for a 3rd and 4th show for next year. We would also like to continue on with plans for another April show next year ( preferably, same date and location).

Moving on from show related items:

*We agreed that bi-monthly meetings are the best frequency. Our location at Pfluger Park this past weekend seemed to be a great meeting place, but we're always open to suggestions.

*Our newspaper advertising has not seemed to be working very well in the past several years. It's starting to seem like a waste of money and we may just need to scratch that idea for now.

*We talked about better organization pertaining to our actual club meetings. It's so easy to get off on rabbits trails and discuss some fun things in between topics, but there are times some members of the club have only a limited amount of time to stay for the meeting. It's important to stay on topic and prioritize discussing the important things before moving on. Also, it may be beneficial to start each meeting with a "report" from the individual officers.

*It was suggested that better organization regarding officer positions, voting, membership roster, and club dues would be beneficial. We discussed the option of membership dues, whether to require them at all, give active members a break, etc. There were a lot of good things said and good points made. Ideally, we felt that people shouldn't have to pay to be involved with this club. That dues were unnecessary. But at the same time, there has to be a criteria in place for who is considered an "active member" or in other words a "voting member". Should we require a certain amount of involvement from a member for them to earn voting rights? Should we continue to collect dues every year only from those who would like their votes to be considered? This was a difficult discussion for us, because ideally we'd like anyone and everyone involved who would like to be. And involved as much as they would like to be without feeling required to pay dues. But then again, how do we stay organized and how do we determine who has a vote when it comes to deciding important matters or even electing new officers? This is somewhat how the discussion was left. Any ideas on this issue are welcome.

*One idea was to have a special dinner/meeting for all club members the beginning of December every year. This meeting's main purpose would be to elect officers. (It's important to have the officers finalized before the end of the year both for ADBA and for tax purposes) All club membership fees would be due either before or by that meeting date, and would allow nominations and a vote for each paying member. Those who were not interested in voting or paying a membership fee, but would still like to be involved in the club, would still be encouraged to come.
Then, we would start the new year with newly elected officers and hopefully a clear idea of where we're headed in the future and what kind of involvement to expect from members of the club.

* We may need to print some more shirts in the next several weeks. Let us know if you have any special orders.

*We briefly discussed starting back with a newsletter again. The newsletter equals a lot of time and effort, so please contact one of the officers if you have some interest in either receiving a newsletter quarterly, or even contributing the the creation and distribution of them.

*An idea that could replace the newsletter would be a Heart of TX blog. If someone could be responsible for creating and updating a blog, this may be a wonderful addition to our efforts in reaching out to the community and even just staying in touch with other members. Also, this may be a great way for members of our club to vote proxy if they cannot make it to a meeting that includes a voting issue. Once we get home Internet back up and running (hopefully in July), I would be willing to attempt the blog. Please let me know what you think of the idea and add any of your own suggestions!

*One of the last topics discussed was fundraisers. We have not had a lot of interest in the direction of fundraisers in the past, but one of the best ideas brought up was a fun show. There was some interest amongst members at the meeting in having a fun show in the Austin area! We will need to check on some of the details, discuss location, rules, focus, etc. but overall I think this is something our club might like to do in the near future! We even talked about having a veterinarian on site, giving affordable vaccinations as an additional fundraiser. It may be beneficial to have a specific meeting for the purpose of discussing the fun show plans. Is there any interest here?

*Last thing on the agenda to discuss was donations. Should we donate this year? How much money? To whom or to what organization should we donate to? Local animals shelters and fighting BSL were the main ideas. Any others?

We are going to try to compile a membership roster of some sort and hopefully in the future, provide a way for everyone to network as easily and efficiently as possible. For the time being though, you're on an e-mail list that includes everyone in our club. If you hit "reply all" you will be able to communicate with everyone at once. Please keep in touch with us and let us know of any suggestions or ideas you may have!

Thanks!
Rebekah Caka