Montana Brittany Club

Past Meetings, Minutes And Records: 3-12-2008

MTBC HOME     Back to Past Meetings, Minutes And Records  

Montana Brittany Club Meeting Minutes, March 12, 2008

The meeting was called to order at 8:05 by President Todd Breitenfeldt.  Members present were, Todd, Jan, and Skye Breitenfeldt, Tana and Eric Kradolfer, and Alex Burks.  Bob Myers via cell phone.

The minutes of the last meeting, January 30, 2008, were approved.

Jan Breitenfeldt, treasurer, reported that we have $985.00 in our account at the present time. 

Membership:  Jan reported the following people as paid members as of March 12, 2008:
Charter Members:  Alex Burks, Jo Ann Kish, Tana and Conrad Kradolfer, Todd and Jan Breitenfeldt and Don Vondra.

Annual members:  Rod Richardson, Bob Myers, Leslie Andreas, and Brandon Moss.

Annual Family members:  Robert and Barry Bartlett and Eric & Melody Kaelin.

Concerning dealing with our large state, we have decided to have three regional officers, breaking the state roughly into thirds, East, Central, and West.  Alex Burks is the Eastern Regional Director, we are hoping to get Terry Courtright for the Central Region, and someone from the Missoula or Kalispell area for the West.

Concerning meeting by conference call or Internet we decided the best we can do for now is to use our personal cell phones on speaker mode.  This was done at the meeting to contact Bob Myers from Helena.  Bob Meyers offered that we might want to look into a new internet service called Go to Meeting .com.  Alex Burks had also heard this service advertised and said they are offering a free one month trial.  Apparently everyone logs into the same site on their computers and sees the same screen; I believe you still need the phone or some sort of vocal connection.  If we needed to look at a lot of graphics, charts, printed material this might be of interest. 

On the topic of club fund raisers the following projects are in the works:  A Mike Okamura clinic scheduled for May 17-18 in the Helena area.  At the present time we think this will be held at the White Earth Campground close to Winston, MT.  Bob Myers is the point man on this clinic for our club, (the clinic is being co- sponsored by the Montana German Shorthair Club and our Club), and is sending out the information on this by e-mail and any changes as they occur.  Bob says the maximum number of people we can have for this is 40.  Bob attended a previous Okamura clinic sponsored by a Helena dog club and they had 18 in attendance.

Fund raiser # 2 is a raffle for a Garmin GPS, “Astro” dog collar.  Tana is doing a great job on this and already had tickets printed.  She distributed them to everyone at the meeting.  We are selling the tickets for $5 each or 5 for $20.  We discussed sending a few tickets to all paid members for them to sell and return by mail.  Bob Myers wonders if Sportsman Warehouse would help us sell the tickets.

Fund raiser # 3 is a Rattlesnake avoidance clinic, otherwise known as a snake breaking.  The well known trainer Butch Nelson is going to handle this for us at the Kradolfers in Bozeman.  The date that was chosen for this is July 12, 2008.  The details will follow concerning times and fees.  Tana Kradolfer offered to do a dog dental care presentation at the snake breaking to fill some time as people waited for their dogs turn.

Fund raiser # 4 is still in the planning stages.  We are considering offering a porcupine avoidance clinic as well.  Todd has researched this a little and thinks he can come up with a porcupine at short notice.  He is going to check into the legal aspects of this with his local game warden. He says he has even found “domesticated porcupines for sale on the internet and suggested this might be the way to go is if it is against the law to use a wild porcupine. Stay tuned for more info on this, in the past I have has some serious porcupine problems with certain dogs and one of my friends had some expensive vet bills last year with one of his dogs. 

The last fund raiser on our plate at this time is the possibility of providing lunch for an AKC Hunt Test sponsored by the Montana German Shorthair Club to be held at the Three Forks Trial Grounds on April 18, 19, and 20th.
Todd Breitenfeldt, Conrad Kradolfer, and Bob Myers thought they could handle this, if the German Shorthair people wanted us to help.

Website:  Todd reported he has added a counter to our website and the last count was 123.  Bob Myers asked about listing his upcoming litter on the website and Todd told him to get his pictures and information sent in.

E-newsletter:  We received articles from Jan Breitenfeldt and Alex Burks.  Alex Burks is going to attempt to convert these articles into a PDF and get our first e-newsletter out. 

Dog and Pony shows:  OK just dog shows, Todd suggested we should do a “Supported Entry” at the 2009 AKC Dog Show in Helena.  Jan thought we should try doing a fun match first.

Field Trials:  Tana reported that Terry Courtright of Great Falls has offered his training grounds on a private ranch for a fall trail.  Terry says this is great Hun country and we could eventually turn this trial into an ABC Hungarian Partridge Championship like the ABC Chukar Championship.

Todd and Tana’s research so far, points to us having a late summer trail in far eastern Montana.  Ed Tillson is training north of Circle, MT and we believe he might attend a Montana Trail that was handy for him before he leaves for the first trail of the Midwest circuit in  Bonesteel, SD.  So far the West Coast Pros have not expressed any interest in coming to Montana for a trial.  Tana is going to ask some West Coast Field Trail people about coming to a Montana trail  at an upcoming trail she is going to attend.

Concerning field trail equipment Tana told us she had purchased three sets of walkie talkies that are available for club use when we have our field trails.

Networking:  Todd recommends that we get to know our local dog clubs, AKC, NSTRA, and breed clubs.  Let them know what we are doing.  He is going to check with the American Brittany Club and see if they will provide us with a membership list for Montana.  We are developing a very good relationship with the Montana German Shorthair Club as evidenced by the joint sponsorship of the Mike Okamura training clinic.

Annual Meeting:  Tana suggested that we could work in our annual meeting for the club at the time of the snake breaking in July.  This could be a BBQ or Pot Luck lunch after the snake breaking at the Kradolfers home and kennel.
 On behalf of the club I want to thank the Kradolfers for hosting the meetings and offering the use of their kennel and facilitates for the snake breaking and annual meeting.  They have a wonderful home and kennel and have been extremely generous with the club, THANKS.

Dues:  As you can see the club has been making steady progress and we are moving toward being AKC and ABC sanctioned.  If you have not yet filled out the membership application and mailed you dues in we would really appreciate it.  One of the first things we have to do before holding any events is secure liability insurance and that is the main reason we could use your dues at this time. 

Next meeting:  The next meeting will be held on April 19, 2008 at the Three Forks Training Ground, Missouri Headwaters State Park, Horse Pasture.  This is the German Shorthair Pointer Club’s Hunt Test where some of our folks are planning on providing the lunch as a fund raiser.  The meeting will take place around the noon break at the trial. 


MTBC HOME     Back to Past Meetings, Minutes And Records