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This is a pretty exciting time of the year for me. Our Spring Board meeting, held via Zoom, is scheduled for mid-April. Before both the Spring and Fall Board meetings, all committee chairs are contacted for their reports, so for the past week or so those reports have been coming in, and I’m getting to read about the work that all our BHCA committees are doing!
It’s really the club’s committees that carry out our activities, represent the club and our wonderful breed in the community, and basically are the moving parts of the engine that keep BHCA moving. Here’s some highlights from the reports I’ve seen so far…
The Public Education Coordinator, Sue Smyth, reports that the Berkshire Valley Basset Hound Club staffed the New York City Meet the Breeds event put on by AKC. There was a record attendance of over 30,000 visitors. Sue provided materials – a flyer on Basset Hounds, a club brochure and past issues of Tally Ho magazine - for the event to hand out to visitors. Members of Berkshire Valley BHC, of course, provided person-power, dogs for folks to meet, and shared their knowledge of our breed.
The Field Trial Advisory Committee chair, Jan Allison, has provided the proposed FT schedule for Board approval. Just between mid-September and end of December, BHCA member clubs will offer 24 field trials across the country. That’s pretty impressive, especially considering that some trials are multi-day. In all, Basset Hounds and their people will be out competing in the field for a total of 34 days just within about 3 months – TALLY HO!
Member Education, chaired by Bethany Berger, will be offering two educational events upcoming.
- The first will be an online event on “How to Protect Our Dogs After We Are Gone”, by Jennifer Obreiter of Obreiter Law, PLLC, covering establish planning to include a dog clause that will protect our dogs in the event of our injury or worse.
- The second will be Anatomy 101: The Colors of Conformation, which will be a seminar and hands-on event offered by Dr. Claudia Orlandi at our National Specialty in Albany, Oregon. This will incorporate Claudia’s Practice Canine Anatomy and Movement, as well as hands-on session with dogs to help us better understand our Basset Hounds’ structure. I’m SO jazzed about this session, and I hope I’ll see lots of our members there!
Rosemary Ryan reports for the Health Committee that they are going to be expanding publicity about the availability of discounted health testing from PawPrint/Neogen. As a result of the Health
Committee’s work with PawPrint over the past several years, they have a very positive relationship. The Health Committee, to encourage testing of puppies and use of results to make good breeding decisions, asked Pawprint/Neogen for a discount for testing litters. In response PawPrint/
Neogen extended their already generous discount through May 31, 2025 – yes, into 2025. And with code BHCA, it will now be 20% off any order for 1 dog, 30% of any order with 2-5 dogs, and 40% off any order with 6+ dogs.
More reports, I know, will be rolling in the next few days, and I am so pumped to see what our
committees – and the hard-working BHCA members that do their work – are making happen in our club and for our breed.
THANK YOU TO ALL OUR MEMBERS WHO WORK SO HARD ON THE CLUB’S BEHALF!
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