Letter from the Editor…
Well this has been quite the year. We personally had way more excitement going on in our day to day lives then I personally cared for. Starting off the year we were stuck in the I-90 pile-up coming back from St. Louis in 2008. Then there was the flood this past summer. Finding out we’re expanding our family come this July with a hopefully healthy baby girl! She’s already given us quiet the amount of trouble so please keep us in your prayers. Chad has received a few extra gray hairs. That’s part of the reason the bulletin is so delayed on getting out to you. Then I had a virus on my computer. It was almost like this bulletin wasn’t supposed to come out.
We started the club’s very own web site trying to increase our membership using this as a tool to do so. We’ve increased the amount of advertising we are doing with the club… or updated it at least so that it’s correct. I’ve been trying very hard to keep up with everything going on with our club. I haven’t been doing the best job I would like. I’m a little anal on organization and I haven’t been keeping it as such.
I wish I wouldn’t have to beg for letters or even information from the club’s members. I really enjoy putting together a healthy bulletin that would take several trips to the bathroom to finish reading! (So who did I make blush with that one?!?!) We’ve been bringing home the show reports, so I have a good chunk of that to always put in, but this Spring bulletin I would love to have letters from everyone saying how they have done with getting the breeding going. Even if it’s a few short lines, I will take it! So get that to me PLEASE!!!! Even if it’s a note saying hello to your friends in the off-season, send me something!!! It only takes a minute to fix your type-o. J
I would also like to say congratulations to all the winners this past show season! I enjoy picking on all the veterans to the Champion spot! These guys really know what they are doing since they have done it time and time again. Although my hand was going numb from writing a few names over…and over… and over again, I will smile broadly at the dominate winners. For the new members, take notes on who is listed in the Champion or even Top 5 places. They are the ones to contact! Hopefully they will all be willing to help get the new members started on the right tracks with tips and advice.
Other then that, I don’t think I have a whole lot more to say. I’ve enjoyed attending a few more shows then we normally have in the past this years. HarleyJohn is greatly enjoying attending and helping out. He doesn’t jump when the birds flap quite like his mom. It won’t be long before he will be helping carry birds, show his own and who knows, maybe he will become the youngest judge!
FAITHFULLY HIS~ Jaclyn
LETTER FROM THE MEMBERS
Hello! Show season is almost over for the year, some will be going to the NPA in Lancaster while others will be going to St. Louis. I went to Jefferson, Wisc. and had a great time. We were very fortunate for the good weather and made it back home with no trouble. Dave W. judged the show and we were talking about the size of our baldheads. It seems like we are not going in the same direction as the show rollers. I agree with him since we adapted the show rollers standard, we should try to keep up with them. It is only my opinion, but I think we should have awards for at least the top 5 places at our National shows.
In closing I would like to thank Jaclyn for doing such a great job with the bulletins.
Bob Taylor
(*Editor’s note: The club provides awards for all point shows. If you have questions, please call me.)
Well it’s been four weeks since the Grand National in Lancaster, Pennsylvania and I’m STILL on cloud nine! First I would like to say that the show hall and facilities were first rate, five stars! What can I say about the judging? OUTSTANDING! Frank Padufalski had the honor of judging this year’s National. And may I say did an outstanding job! Frank gave his expert opinion on almost all the birds. Telling the audience about each bird and how he placed them. Frank brought up feathers, condition, station, body weight, keel into vent, total body structure and making sure the bird has twelve tail feathers to be a true champion. I can only hope that this year’s National can match up to Lancaster’s standard.
Two notes I would like to discuss are the Purebred pigeon issue. I know I have discussed in the past bulletins how great this would be to promote our beautiful Baldhead Rollers. However, this is going to take a lot of work from you the members. We need pictures, articles and information to be put into this project.
Second note would be where this year’s National is going to be held? What I would like to suggest, is that we the members take a vote on this. What we will need is a location and date. My bid is Fremont, Oh. They have a very large facility and the date would be January 16th, 2010. We will need other dates and locations ASAP to get this voted on before Louisville.
Last, I would like to say to all the members. Good luck to everyone in the pigeon hobby. May everyone breed that special champion this year. Thanks to everyone!
Bob Kuzminski
Hello to all! Well another year of shows are in the books and its back to the drawing board as soon as we get some warm weather. I would have to say it was a very good year for our club, and also for me as far as continually showing progress. As Chad and I were talking on the way to the wrap up I stated that I was pleasantly satisfied with my year for showing. I had gone the year so far either winning or placing top five in all the shows. Sooo, after my no win-no place only show, I now can say I ran a good race, but I should have been playing horseshoes that day. I was so close. Really though, I enjoyed the show and a lot of birds near the top. I also had mentioned to Chad that Bill had not dominated a show yet this year. Well now that has been done also. Way to go Bill! You are always a tough competitor. You deserved it.
Also, congratulations to Roger Bessemer! He also had very good showings all year and at the Wrap Up. At the end of the show we also presented Roger with the Master Breeder award that he has worked so very hard for. He is the first Master Breeder in both roller classes. I know I felt very proud to pose for the picture with fellow Master Breeders--Berry Wegner, Bill Murkley, Roger and myself. That is as good as it gets for competition. Now we can watch the fellows right behind us work towards this award. There are some very good breeders nearing that goal, and the competition gets harder every year. They just are not as old as we are, but just as competitive with great birds. If Bob K. could have escaped that “blue light special”, and made a few more shows, he would already be in the group that has been dubbed, “The Killer B’s”. He has a really good loft of birds and has really spread the wealth of it to fellow breeders these past few years. I only wish we could take a break in the middle of every show just to mingle and look at each others birds. The shows always go so fast and we are on the road thinking of the next show. Personally, my fondest memories are the times laughing and talking to everyone. What a group! Now getting to the work part of our club. We abandoned having our annual meeting at Kentucky this past year. Supposedly it was to get a wider input on issues of the club by doing it through the bulletin. Well, not one person sent in a nomination by mail. So I nominate my son Chad for president, and hope we get some response in our next bulletin. Needless to say I think we need to go back to our voting at the National again. We have always had great participation doing it this way. People, our club will only grow by how well we take care of it. We also consolidated our standard a number of years ago, and the person that took responsibility to print up the new edition has yet to do so. Let’s get it done because we have
many members asking for a copy of our standard. Jacky has been doing a great job with our bulletin, and I am sure if she is given the rough draft of the standard it will be published post-haste. Enough said on that. Git ‘er done! Also pay your taxes unless you are an elite ex-government employee. I think our pigeon club is the only entity not applying for a bail out. We need your letters, articles, and we will be just fine. Keep in touch. It is always good to hear from someone. Have a great spring and summer. Always say a prayer for each other and the country. We sure need all the help we can get.
Butch
I’m sitting here at work (busy obviously), and thought I better get an article written for the bulletin or my wife will shoot me! This past show season was fun, and enjoyable for me as my wife and son came to almost every show with me. HarleyJohn got to hold a bird all by himself in St.Louis. Hopefully my wife will put that picture in the bulletin as it was the highlight of the show season for me. Every year I say that I am going to get the lofts cleaned out and the birds mated up by the end of February, but the last 2 years it took me until April to get them mated up. This year my goal is to have everything mated by March 15th! I feel that this year, I have the best group of stock birds I’ve ever had. I have high expectations for next year. I am breeding out of ten pair of baldheads this year. Congratulations Roger Besemer! Roger will be the first to tell you how hard it is to become a Master Breeder as he is only the 4th one in our club, but Roger is the first person to become a Master Breeder in both the Baldhead and Non-Baldhead Rollers. This accomplishment is truly remarkable. It is a record that might not ever be accomplished again, so again CONGRATULATIONS ROGER! I would also like to say congratulations to Bob Kuzminski. Bob has worked as hard as anyone in the hobby trying to have a National Champion, and he accomplished that this year at the NPA National in PA. We haven’t had a chance to calculate all of this year’s Master Breeder points, but Bob is also very close to becoming the 5th ‘Killer B’. My dad nicknamed the Master Breeder club the Killer B’s (Barry, Bill, Butch, Besemer, and soon to be Bob)! As it turns out, I was the only one elected to run for President of the club. The nominations were pretty poor, as we didn’t receive one single nomination from the last bulletin. We are going to have to change a few things in the voting process, if we don’t have better results with the vote than we did with the nominations. I guess if I get voted President I can address those issues in a future bulletin. I was excited to see that we had a few different names than the usual ones in the top five at some of the point shows this year. What that tells me is that our club is getting stronger because more and more members are becoming competitive. Speaking of members, I had the pleasure of meeting several NEW members this year at both Louisville and Des Moines. If anyone has any questions about how to care for the birds, how to groom them, how to condition them, or how to feed and water them you can email me at cguell@holidayautomotive.com, call me at 920-375-0823, or go to our website www.welovebaldheads.com and post a message for all the members to see and respond to. Since I brought up the website, I would really encourage everyone to get on the site and check it out. The website will be as good or as bad as we make. Since a co-worker and I designed the site, I can change it! So I would like some feedback on the website. What do you like what do you dislike, is there something that you would like to see on the site that isn’t there. Let me know, as I feel this website is essential to our club growing in the future. There has been a few that have contacted us through it and its always exciting. That’s all for now as we are starting to get busy so I should get back to work. Best of luck to everyone this breeding season, I look forward to hearing from all of you.
Chad Guell
P.S. DON”T FORGET TO VOTE!
AMERICAN BALDHEAD SHOW ROLLER BALLOT
PRESIDENT: --------------------------------------------- Chad Guell _______
Write in ________________ _______
VICE PRESIDENT: ------------------------------------ No nominations _______
Write in ________________ _______
SEC/TREASURE: -------------------------------------- Jaclyn Guell _______
Write in ________________ _______
We received no nominations for District Directors. Current Directors are listed.
DISTRICT #1 (WI, IL, MN, IA) -------------------- Pete Dempsey _______
Write in ________________ _______
DISTRICT #2 (MI, IN, OH, KY) ------------------- Bob Taylor _______
Write in ________________ _______
DISTRICT #3 ------------------------------------------ Frank Podufalski
(PA, NY, WV, VA, MD, NJ, DE, CT, MA, NH, VT, ME, RI) Write in _________ _______
DISTRICT #4 (TN, NC SC, GA, FL, AL, MS) --- Steve Olsen _______
Write in ________________ _______
DISTRICT #5 (NM, TX, OK, LA, AR, KS, MO)- Bob Evertson _______
Write in ________________ _______
DISTRICT #6 (WA, OR, ID, CA, NV, UT, AZ)-- Mike Spencer _______
Write in ________________ _______
DISTRICT #7 (MT, WY, CO, ND, SD, NE) ------ Vacant
Write in ________________ _______
DISTRICT #8 (CANADA) --------------------------- John Geiger _______
Write in ________________ _______
Send ballots to Jaclyn Guell by April 7th, 2009
Hey! This is kind of important. So if I don’t get yours returned to me.
Thanks for another great year! We look forward to continuing to improve our club for the next generation. Again, I apologize for the bulletin taking so long to get out to you. I know Mike was hoping to see it before he passed and now that didn’t happen. I do hope you enjoy the finished, hard-worked product. It is all a work in progress. Enjoy your Spring and the next bulletin is scheduled to arrive out the end of April. I promise it will be closer to on-time. I received several phone calls and emails asking where this one is. I like to keep you in anticipation!
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