K G
09-16-2010, 07:39 PM
When we get the accommodations details out of the way Friday morning, the premium will be finished and we'll "open for entries."
If there's one thing I've learned in almost 30 years of doing this stuff, it's that no good deed goes unpunished. Two weeks ago, we found out that our JROTC group would not be able to handle our bird boy duties, a job they've held and done admirably for over 10 years. Trip Smith has done yeoman's work in securing another area JROTC group who's willling to do the trial for us.
Earlier this year, we saw the AKC corresponding date calendar http://www.akc.org/pdfs/Corres_Date_Table.pdf . This is what the AKC uses to schedule EVERY event regardless of the venue. I'd suggest you print it off for future use. Perhaps someday soon they'll take off the past three years and add the next 3 years beyond 2013. Anyway, it showed that our date, normally the first weekend in October, had moved to the second weekend in October. The confusion caused by this calendar is reflected in the Retriever News event cards this year. In any event, we discovered this week that the TWRA had scheduled an Archery Deer Hunt for the same weekend as our field trial (10/8-10). We had this happen almost 20 years ago due to a paperwork snafu in Crossville and were allowed hold the event the same weekend as an archery hunt, but with revised hours. This year, we couldn't do that.
We weren't about to go to the CSRA or MTARC groups (10/1) or the Tall Pines club (10/15) and ask them to move their events so that we could use either of their weekends, since no hunts were scheduled for the Hiwassee Refuge on those weekends. Nope...it was either cancel it or hunker down and find new grounds...and that's what we did. Well, it wasn't exactly WE that did it...it was our President, Carter Hughes.
Carter immediately started contacting landowners that he knows in the Flat Rock, AL, area where his retriever training kennel is located. He secured grounds that are more than adequate to hold both minor and major stakes including some very impressive water. Trip Smith made sure that the new JROTC bird boys that he recruited could make the trip to the grounds (by Google maps, the new grounds are about 3 miles further from downtown Chattanooga than our Hiwassee Refuge grounds...). I contacted my AKC peeps and got event approval in record time...and when I get our accommodation details handled, we'll be good to go.
I could go into a lot more detail for the benefit of those who haven't enjoyed the pleasure of coordinating a NORMAL field trial, much less what it takes to SAVE one...but I won't. The important thing is that THE SHOW WILL GO ON Oct. 8-10, 2010, in Flat Rock, AL. See the info on Entry Express for more details for feel free to email me at rockytopkg@aol.com.
Hope to see you there!
k g
If there's one thing I've learned in almost 30 years of doing this stuff, it's that no good deed goes unpunished. Two weeks ago, we found out that our JROTC group would not be able to handle our bird boy duties, a job they've held and done admirably for over 10 years. Trip Smith has done yeoman's work in securing another area JROTC group who's willling to do the trial for us.
Earlier this year, we saw the AKC corresponding date calendar http://www.akc.org/pdfs/Corres_Date_Table.pdf . This is what the AKC uses to schedule EVERY event regardless of the venue. I'd suggest you print it off for future use. Perhaps someday soon they'll take off the past three years and add the next 3 years beyond 2013. Anyway, it showed that our date, normally the first weekend in October, had moved to the second weekend in October. The confusion caused by this calendar is reflected in the Retriever News event cards this year. In any event, we discovered this week that the TWRA had scheduled an Archery Deer Hunt for the same weekend as our field trial (10/8-10). We had this happen almost 20 years ago due to a paperwork snafu in Crossville and were allowed hold the event the same weekend as an archery hunt, but with revised hours. This year, we couldn't do that.
We weren't about to go to the CSRA or MTARC groups (10/1) or the Tall Pines club (10/15) and ask them to move their events so that we could use either of their weekends, since no hunts were scheduled for the Hiwassee Refuge on those weekends. Nope...it was either cancel it or hunker down and find new grounds...and that's what we did. Well, it wasn't exactly WE that did it...it was our President, Carter Hughes.
Carter immediately started contacting landowners that he knows in the Flat Rock, AL, area where his retriever training kennel is located. He secured grounds that are more than adequate to hold both minor and major stakes including some very impressive water. Trip Smith made sure that the new JROTC bird boys that he recruited could make the trip to the grounds (by Google maps, the new grounds are about 3 miles further from downtown Chattanooga than our Hiwassee Refuge grounds...). I contacted my AKC peeps and got event approval in record time...and when I get our accommodation details handled, we'll be good to go.
I could go into a lot more detail for the benefit of those who haven't enjoyed the pleasure of coordinating a NORMAL field trial, much less what it takes to SAVE one...but I won't. The important thing is that THE SHOW WILL GO ON Oct. 8-10, 2010, in Flat Rock, AL. See the info on Entry Express for more details for feel free to email me at rockytopkg@aol.com.
Hope to see you there!
k g