Minutes for the Montana Brittany Club, Special Board if Directors Conference Call 05-27-2010.
The meeting was called to order at 7:17 PM by President Todd Breitenfeldt.  Members on the call were:  Sandy Becker, Tana Kradolfer, Eric Kaelin, Todd Breitenfeldt, Jan Breitenfeldt, Bob Myers, and Alex Burks.
This meeting was called to finalize plans for this summer’s Rattlesnake Avoidance Clinic. 

President Todd Breitenfeldt offered five possible options to move the meeting along:

1.  Not have a Rattlesnake Avoidance Clinic this year.

2, Have one Rattlesnake Avoidance Clinic in July and another follow up clinic August, (with Butch Nelson doing one clinic and Eric Kalein doing one).

3.  Have Butch Nelson do a morning clinic on July 11 and Eric Kaelin does an afternoon clinic on July 11.

4.  Have Butch Nelson do the Snake Break on July 11.

5.  Have Eric Kaelin do the Snake Break on July 11.

    After some discussion Sandy Becker made a motion to have Butch Nelson do the July 11 Snake Break and have Eric Kaelin do one in August.  Eric suggested the one in August might not be well attended considering our event in July and the fact that he plans on doing a snake break in the Livingston area before August.  Sandy changed her motion to just having Butch Nelson do our Snake Break on July 11.  This motion passed with a vote of three to one.
    After some discussion concerning participation at club events, Alex Burks made a motion that “Any Montana Brittany Club member in good standing with the club is welcome and encourage to participate in all club functions and events”.  This was seconded by Eric Kaelin and passed unanimously.
    The discussion then moved to having some sort of raffle to cover the cost of the special “Hungarian Partridge Champion” buckle the club plans on presenting to the owner of the dog with the most points on wild Hungarian Partridge during the trial.
    After several ideas were mentioned we came back to offering a Garmin Astra as the raffle prize.  Tana Kradolfer got the Astor collar we raffled a couple of years ago from “Selby’s”, in Bozeman and Alex Burks offered to call a person he knows at the Selby’s in Billings to see if they will give let us have a unit at cost or a low price.
    Eric Kaelin made a motion to adjourn the meeting, Jan Breitenfeldt made the second we voted to adjourn and Todd Breitenfeldt closed the meeting at 8:07PM.

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Minutes of the Montana Brittany Club
Conference Call Meeting. May 12, 2010.  7 PM.
    The meeting was called to order at 7:10 PM by President Todd Breitenfeldt.  Members on the Conference Call were:  Todd Breitenfeldt, Jan Breitenfeldt, Sandy Becker, Tana Kradolfer, Eric Kaelin, and Alex Burks.
    Sandy Becker moved to approve the minutes from the last meeting and Jan Breitenfeldt seconded, motion passed.
    We then heard reports from the officers with the president’s report first:
    Todd gave a brief report on our recent Hunt Test and stated that we probably lost a small amount of money, mostly due to the expense of bringing in judges from a long distance and paying their fuel expenses.
    Alex Burks gave the secretary’s report and stated that he had received a letter from the AKC approving the judging panel for our August Field Trial.
    Jan Breitenfeldt gave the Treasurers report and stated that we have approximately $2,500 in the bank after paying some of the Hunt Test Expenses but there are some bills yet to be submitted.
    Sandy Becker, who is our Membership Officer, reported she plans on doing a member survey to see what kind of activities our members would like to participate in.  At this point Todd asked if the Donovan’s and Fred Overby ever received their ABC Magazine.  Tana stated that the magazine is running late this spring due to some kind of glitch, but she will check to see if her friends are receiving their magazine.
    Under the topic of Hunt Test, Todd expressed his surprise that more of our members didn’t enter any dogs.  It was mentioned that we were very lucky with the weather this year and might not do a spring hunt test in the future as it is too risky, (there was several inches of snow at our Hunt Test Site just a few days prior to our start).  It was mentioned that we need more of our members participating and perhaps need to have a chairman for the event and a co-chair who is in training so they can chair the next event.
    Fund raising plans for 2010:
    Rattle Snake Avoidance Clinic:  This is to be held in conjunction with the Clubs annual picnic.  Eric Kaelin offered to get the snakes needed for this and be in charge.  JoAnn Kish who is the chair of this dual event was in Alaska and not on the call; Tana suggested we table discussion on this until our next meeting when JoAnn can attend.
    Porcupine Avoidance Clinic:  Due to poor attendance last year Todd said he thought we should not hold one this year.  The board agreed.
    Rick Smith Training Clinic:  Bob Myers who is the chair on this event was not present but we are told the event is sold out and we expect to make about $3,000 on it.
    Review of Website:  Todd suggested we add a page to our website for “Montana Dog Services”, this would include such things as dog training, training birds for sale, with a disclaimer that the club is not vouching for the quality of anything offered or endorsing anything.  After some discussion it was clarified that no puppies would be offered for sale and the Webb Master would be able to use his discretion on the listing.  The basic idea was to offer people a place to offer products or services that would be of help to our members.  Alex moved to question, Tana seconded and the motion passed.
    E-newsletter, “The Whoa Post”:  Editor Eric Kaelin reported that he has most of the articles he needs ready to go and that Sarah Davies is going to help him get this out in the next couple of weeks.
    Tana who is chairing the Fall Horseback Trials at Ulm, MT reported that she expects 80 dogs as she has some pro-trainers who summer in SE Montana coming.  She figures we need 100 dogs to break even considering the high cost of bring judges in from out of state.
    Terry Courtright who is the contact with the landowners for this trail said he had already ordered $400 worth of Pheasants for the landowner and would like us to split the amount with the land owner as payment for using their ranch.
    Tana explained that we need to build a portable bird pen and is getting plans from the Idaho Brittany Club.  Eric Kaelin said he would help build the pen and may have some materials left over from building his Chukar pen he would donate to the club.  Alex Burks made a motion that Tana purchase any materials needed to build the pen and expense it back to the club.  Eric Kaelin seconded and the motion passed.
    Tana also stated her idea for a Montana Silversmith Buckle to be given to the dog with the most Hungarian Partridge finds.  She said the buckle would cost about $200 and wondered if we could fund the buckle with a fund raiser of some sort.  A raffle for an Astro Collar was mentioned and Jan Breitenfeldt thought a 50/50 drawing at the trial might be the easiest.
    Tana mentioned she would need help getting all of the gear up to the Great Falls area.  Eric stated that he could put the water tank in his truck. 
    Alex asked whatever happened to the idea of the club buying an enclosed cargo trailer.  It was decided that we would send out an e-mail asking our club members to keep their eyes open for a deal on a 7’ X 14’ dual axle trailer.
    Other items discussed:  Doing a “Club Brag Ad”, Todd suggested we hold putting such an ad in the ABC magazine until after our August Trial and only if we can afford it.
    Meeting adjourned.

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Special Board Meeting
Montana Brittany Club
May 29, 2009

At 8:03 president Todd Breitenfeldt called a special board meeting of the Montana Brittany Club to order.  This meeting was held by telephone and board members present were Todd Breitenfeldt, Jan Breitenfeldt, Tana Kradolfer, and Alex Burks.

The main purpose of the meeting was to address a recent request by the AKC.  As we work toward our club becoming AKC certified we received a letter from the AKC stating that they wanted to condense our stated geographical area.  Apparently their reasoning is that if our club covers a smaller geographical area, another Brittany club might be formed in other parts of the state at a future time. 

The consensus of the board is that this request will not fundamentally change the basis of our club and we feel it is the best interest of our club to accept this guidance from the AKC.

The AKC suggested we focus our club on a triangle of Montana Cities: Bozeman, to Great Falls, to Missoula, and back to Bozeman with a focal point of Helena.  Todd noted that this will not exclude anyone in other parts of the state from joining our club; indeed we even have a member in Mississippi!

Vice President, Tana Kradolfer, will prepare a synopsis of proposed changes to be sent out to all members. 

A motion was made by Tana Kradolfer, and seconded by Jan Breitenfeldt and passed unanimously by the board to amend the Montana Brittany Club By Laws:  to accept the geographical area of Bozeman to Great Falls to Missoula and back to Bozeman with Helena as a focal point.  The motion also does away with the club having three regional directors, (East, Central, and West).

Secretary, Alex Burks, by June 1, 2009, will send out the information necessary to vote on the proposed amendment.  We need a 20% quorum of our current paid members by June 13th.  Members can either vote by e-mail responding Yea in favor of the proposed amendment or Nay against to President Todd Breitenfeldt by Saturday June 13, 2009 or participate in a conference call on June 13th and vote at that time.

The reason for the rush to get this done is in the hope of getting AKC approval for our club by July 1, 2009.  We have a couple of AKC events planned but they may not happen unless we received approval very quickly.

Tana Kradolfer moved and Alex Burks seconded that we use July 1, 2009 as a “drop dead” date.  If we aren’t AKC sanctioned by this date we will not proceed with plans for our August AKC Field Trial.  This motion passed unanmously. 

Todd Breitenfeldt said he would take over the planning and responsibility of the AKC judging seminar that we are going to be doing in conjunction with the Montana German Shorthair Club.

At 9:10 PM, Jan Breitenfeldt motioned for adjournment, Tana Kradolfer seconded, and the motion passed unanimously.

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Minutes of the Montana Brittany Club
Meeting of May 18th, 2009

The meeting was held at the home of Conrad and Tana Kradolfer, Belgrade, MT.  President Todd Breitenfeldt called the meeting to order at 7 PM.  Members present were, Todd Breitenfeldt, Eric Kaelin, Bob Myers, Tana Kradolfer, Conrad Kradolfer, and by phone Alex Burks.
The minutes from the last meeting, April 18, 2009, held at the Montana German Shorthair Club hunt test were read.  Tana Kradolfer moved to approve the minutes as read and Bob Myers seconded and by vote they were approved.
Treasurer’s report:  As of April 1st, 2009 the club had $5,055.22 in the bank.

Old Business:
Rattlesnake Avoidance clinic:
 This event is set for July 11, 2009 at the Kradolfers.  Butch Nelson the well known dog trainer from Denton, MT will again handle the snakes and do the avoidance training.  The price is set at $40 per dog for non-members, $30 per dog for members, and $20 per dog for a re-test, (dogs that have been trained on snakes previously). 
This clinic is held in conjunction with our club’s annual meeting and picnic.  We will have a free lunch for members and non-members are welcome to have lunch with us for $5 per person.
We may have a veterinarian on hand to talk about the rattlesnake vaccine that is available and also vaccinate peoples dogs, (Tana is going to ask her veterinarian if she is interested in doing this).
Porcupine Avoidance Clinic: 
These clinics are scheduled for the following dates:  Billings, MT, August 1, 2009, Helena, MT, August 2, 2009, and Missoula, MT, August 7, 2009.
There is also a possibility of having a clinic “on the fly” in Livingston, MT
as Todd travels through Livingston, MT.  Eric Kaelin thought he might be able to line up several people in Livingston. 
We don’t have the exact locations of the clinics nailed down yet.  We will ask our members if they have any good spots in mind that have some brushy cover and are conveniently located close to the towns we have targeted.
Rick Smith Dog Training Seminar:
Bob Myers of Helena is our club chairmen for this event.  Bob reported we have 19 paid participants at this point.  We need at least 30 people and can stretch to 35 if needed.  The seminar cost is $350 per person.  Rick Smith takes the proceeds from the first 20 participants and the Montana German shorthair club and our club will split the proceeds from the number of participants over 20.
Tana pointed out that the owner of the land we will be using for this event wants to take the seminar at no charge as his pay for using his land and facilities.  Tana is going to see if Rick Smith will donate this one slot.

Summer Raffle:
It was decided that we would explore the possibility of holding a raffle this summer to be drawn at our AKC Hunt Test and Walking Field Trail to be held August 21,22, & 23. 
Alex Burks, club secretary will send an e-mail out to see if any of our members are interested in being the ‘Chair Person” for a raffle.  We kicked around some different ideas on what we might raffle and also on the idea of getting a dog food company or dog equipment manufacture to donate something.

Zeppa Studios:
This is an art studio that specializes in dog art, note cards, ceramic tiles, and various gifts.  This company has dog art of almost every breed imaginable.  They have a fund raising program, where by listing their company on our club’s website and sending our club members a letter telling about their company and products we can earn money for our club.
  How it works is: our club would establish a code such as (MTBC), and every order that Zeppa receives with our code the person ordering will receive a 10% discount and our club will receive a 20% earn back.  So if a member or some one using our code orders a $100 worth of merchandise they get it for $90 and our club will get a check for $20.  Our club will receive a quarterly statement from Zeppa with a check.  Alex Burks will be sending out an e-mail to solicit feed back from our members on this idea before we proceed.

Website Review:
Everyone agreed out website looks good, Thanks Todd!!  Bob Myers told Todd that they need to update some of the Rick Smith Seminar information on the web site.

E-newsletter:
We are still interested in doing an e-newsletter.  Our first attempt last year contained two or three articles.  We need more contributors as our core of club officers are very busy.  Alex Burks will make another appeal to all members to see if anyone is interested and willing in doing an article for us.

Future Events:
Tana listed out equipment our club needs to purchase to handle the upcoming Hunt Test and Walking Field Trials.  After some discussion it was decided we need to purchase 7 Chukar Crates, 6 plastic water tanks, and 4 bird bags.  Alex Burks made a motion that Tana purchase these for the club and Bob Myers seconded, the motion was pass unanimously.
We need members who are interesting in apprenticing to become AKC Hunt Test Judges.  Alex Burks, club secretary will send out an e-mail to see there are members interested in this.

Club member, Eric Kaelin, will be responsible for providing gunners for the upcoming AKC events.

Hunt Test and Walking Field Trail:
The stakes that will be offered at our Walking Field Trail are: 
Open Puppy
Open Derby
Open Gun Dog
Amateur Gun Dog
These stakes are open to all breeds.

AKC Hunt Test:
We will have two fields for the hunt test:
The Montana German Shorthair Club will run one field and our club will run the other field.

Location for Hunt Test and Field Trail:
Connor Ranch, Three Forks, MT
Judges for Hunt Test and Field Trials:
Jo Ann Kish is working on getting the judges for the events.
Paper Work for the Hunt Test and Field Trials:
Tana Kradolfer is handling the paper work for the AKC and the ABC.

AKC:  We will have Tom  Maneely , an AKC Field Rep mentoring the Hunt Test and Field Trial for us.
AKC Sanction:  We received a letter from the AKC stating that our club will not be approved for AKC sanctioning at this time, they suggested we focus our club on a smaller geographical area, instead of the whole state.
The members present at the meeting feel that because of the small population base of Montana we need the “whole state” included in our club.  It was pointed out the AKC had already set a precedent by stationing the Montana Shorthair Club as a state wide club.  It was also pointed out that the AKC field rep seems to be on our side and is actively helping us prepare for our AKC events.  The  feeling among the board members is that this issue will be untimely resolved in a positive manner for our club.

Other Clubs:
We encourage working with other dog clubs in our area and encourage our members to join their local AKC Kennel Club, i.e.; Yellowstone Kennel Club, in Billings.  As you may know we currently have a good working relationship with the Montana German Shorthair Club and co-sponsor fund raising activities, etc.
Tana Kradolfer reported that on our club’s behalf she donated a gift basket and center piece to the National Brittany Specialty in Colorado.  Thanks, Tana!!

Legislation:
It was a scary year in the Montana Legislature this year with a lot of anti-breeder proposals.  Todd Breitenfeldt discussed the possibility of us joining with some other state clubs and organization to fund a lobbyist on our behalf.  Alex Burks suggested that we need a “legislative officer”, someone in our club to watch what is going on in the legislature and then report back to our members with an easy to understand synopsis of the bills.  Alex told Todd that at one point this legislative season a member responded to Alex that they had received an e-mail from the club but was confused at to whether the club wanted her to call her state senator and representative to be in favor of the bill or be opposed to it.  Todd conceded that perhaps we had forwarded on too much  information that was confusing.  Alex suggested we send out an e-mail before the next legislative session to see if we can find a member who is willing to watch things for us and report to the club.

Club Logo:
Todd reported that Jessica Carlson, well know Brittany Breeder and Handler, is working on a club logo for us.  Todd followed up by sending out by e-mail, to the board members, a very attractive  piece of art work for our consideration.

Location and dates of next meeting:
We want to have a meeting in the next month and decided we will try to make it a conference call.  Bob Myers volunteered to find a company we can get a good rate from.
 As soon as we have this set up will contact all members by e-mail.  We would love to have more member participation at the meetings and hope having a conference call option may really help.

Alex Burks,
Montana Brittany Club Secretary

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MTBC meeting 4-18-09 at the MTGSPC hunt test near Three Forks. Noon.

Members present: Todd, Jan and Skye Breitenfeldt, JoAnn Kish, Tana Kradolfer, Bob Myers, and Paul and Susan Mickelson.

Our lap top was not working so we did not read the minutes to the last meeting.  We will review and approve both at the next meeting.

Officers Reports:       

Treasurer: We have just over $5,000 at this time.

Membership: We have over 40 members listed on the web site however, not all have paid their dues.  Todd will send out one last email to all and those who have not paid their dues will be removed from the email list and the web site.  Jan will send a list of those paid/not paid to Alex and he will edit the email list accordingly.  This will be done by May 1st.
    We talked about giving out membership forms with all new pup owners and at all dog events we attend.

AKC Notebook/Application: We have heard nothing new so far from AKC however, and AKC representative (Tom Maneely) was at the trial and came over to our meeting near its end.  Tom spent about an hour talking to us about the process and offered to check on where our app. was in that process.  He will try to help facilitate the process and said to go ahead with plans for our August hunt test and field trial event planning as if we had the sanction.  We had a very nice chat all about Brittany’s in general.  Tom mentioned we should contact him in about 2 weeks.
    The consensus of the group was to proceed expecting AKC sanctioning before the August events.

Fund Raising:
1. Rick Smith : Bob Myers reported that the Rick Smith training seminar July 17-19th was still a go however, we have 13 paid participants so far.  We need over 20 to break even and can have a max of 30.  We will ask all of our member breeders to contact (email) their past pup owners about the seminar.
2. Snake Break and Annual Picnic: We tentatively set a date for Sat. July 11th.  Tana will check with Bud to see if this date is OK for the snake break.
3. Porky Break: Todd tentatively set the dates for:
    Billings Sat. Aug. 1st
    Three Forks Sun. Aug. 2nd
    Missoula Area (Lolo) Sat. Aug. 7th

Events Committees:
1. Hunt Test: Chair: JoAnn Kish.  We talked to the MTGSPC folks and plan on a 2 for 4 hunt test on Aug. 21, 22 and/or 23rd.  JoAnn will be seeking more folks for her committee.  Bob Myers volunteered to work with the GSPC chair directly as she is in Helena where he lives.

2. Field Trial: Co-Chair: Tana and Conrad Kradolfer.

3. Judging Seminar: We plan to have a judging seminar just before the Aug. Hunt test.  Tom Maneely said he could probably do it and will check with his superiors.

Logo:
Todd will check with Jessica Carlson and see how progress is going.

Meeting adjourned.    1:30 PM.

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Montana Brittany Club Meeting, 01-08-2009

Kradofler Dog Ranch, Belgrade, MT

The meeting was called to order by President Todd Breitenfeldt at 6:30PM.  Members present were Todd, Jan and Skye Breitenfeldt, Conrad and Tana Kradolfer, JoAnn Kish, Alex Burks, and Bob Meyers, (by phone).

The minutes from the last meeting, (August 2, 2008), were approved.

Treasures Report:  Jan Breitenfeldt reported that we currently have $4,195.20 in the bank.

Membership report:  This years dues are to be paid by March 1st, 2009.  Now that our club has received a provisional approval by the ABC, (American Brittany Club), our members will now receive the official
ABC magazine when they pay their dues.
  Tana Kradolfer had researched the way the dues can be collected:  we as a club collect the dues and forward part of the money on to the ABC or we let the ABC collect the money and return our portion to us.  After some discussion a motion was made by JoAnn Kish that we continue to collect our dues and forward on the ABC portion.  Jan Breitenfeldt seconded this motion and it was passed unanimously.
 The $30.00 membership will be paid directly to our club and we will forward $20.00 of each membership on to the ABC to cover each person’s membership in the ABC and their magazine subscription.

President Todd Breitenfeldt volunteered to send out a post card to all current members reminding them that club dues are needed by March 1st.
At this point Tana Kradolfer presented the club with the Club Notebook that had to be prepared for presentation to the ABC at their annual meeting in Booneville, AK this past November.  While several club members worked on this, Tana really took charge of this project: a huge special thanks goes out to Tana and her sister,  Sandy Becker,  for doing all the typing, collating, and organizing.  The ABC board commented that this was the Best Club notebook they had every seen.  Thanks Tana and Sandy!!!

Fund raising for 2009:

It was decided we would skip having a raffle this year and instead plan on a Snake Breaking Clinic held in conjunction with our annual club picnic and annual elections.  We anticipate doing this sometime mid-summer.


We also decided we want to go ahead with a porcupine breaking clinic again.  This was moderately successful last year and we think will be a bigger draw this year.   We are the first club we know of to offer this and weren’t sure how it would be received and how well it would work.  Reports from this past hunting season show it worked very well. Tentatively we plan on offering this in the Billings area, Three Forks, (Bozeman, Butte, Helena, draw), and Missoula, MT. 

2009 Dog Training Clinic:  At this point in the meeting we called member, Bob Meyers, of Helena, MT to give us a report on the Rick Smith Pointing Dog Training Clinic we are planning for July 17, 18, & 19.  We are co-sponsoring this clinic with the Montana, German Shorthair Pointer Club.  Bob told us we have 8 people who have pre-registered already.  The cost is $350 and includes Friday night kick off meeting and a full day Saturday and Sunday.  We are shooting for a minimum of 30 registrations and a max of 40.  Tana thinks this is a great price for a seminar with Rick Smith and should sell out relatively quickly. 
The clinic will be held in the Bozeman area.  Right now the only ads out for this are  the Rick Smith ad in the Pointing Dog Journal. Bob is going to get some Public Service Announcements out in local area media and produce some flyers for our use in spreading the word.  We will be taking deposits and then if we over book we will start a waiting list.  Lunch will be provided on site for a nominal price.

Review of our web site:  We have a great web site and Todd plans some updates and improvements to it now that hunting season is over.  Alex Burks made a motion that the club take over the monthly fees associated with this site, ($20.00 per month), that Todd had been paying out of his own pocket.  Jo Ann Kish seconded this motion and it passed unanimously.  It was decided that Jan our treasurer would pre-pay for a whole year.

E-newsletter articles:  It was discussed we would like to do a second version of our club E-newsletter; the timeline mentioned was early February.  Tana said she was interested in doing an article on the Garmin Astro Collar, Todd mentioned an article on the “Dual Dog Concept”, and Jan was interested in doing something concerning legislation and how it applies to dog breeders and owners.  Other topics mentioned were “Vaccinations” and “Rattlesnake Vaccine” and mammary tumors in Brittany’s.  It was also mentioned that Tana and Jo Ann have a veterinarian that is willing to do some articles for us.

Articles or topics from any member are very welcome, just let one of us know.

Fun practice events:  We need to hold some of these to finish up some AKC accreditation requirements;  We planned a fun trial for February 7, 2009 to take place at the Gray Cliffs Ranch, (a hunting preserve), near Three Forks, MT.  I will be sending out an e-mail with more specific information very soon.

Dog Show, supported entry:  Pending approval for the AKC, Todd and Jan are going to talk with the Helena Kennel Club concerning us sponsoring a supported entry.

Hunt Test:  At this point we are planning on having our first hunt test on August 22 &23 at Great Falls, MT.  This will be held in conjunction with the Montana German Shorthair Pointing Club.

Fall Field Trail and Grounds:
Member Terry Courtright of Great Falls, MT has secured some great grounds for our use close to Ulm, MT.  We reviewed the pictures and descriptions of the grounds.  Terry feels that this is the spot where eventually an ABC Hungarian Partridge Championship could be held on wild birds!

ABC and AKC:  We have now gained provisional approval from the ABC and need to get our AKC approval to be fully accredited with the ABC.  Tana is working hard on this and is in contact with Michael Liosis, of the AKC.  Todd is going to make some calls and see if he can assist Tana in this endeavor.

Membership, regular and charter:

December 31st was the deadline for becoming a Charter Member.  We have several Charter Members and they are listed on the web-site.  Dues for everyone are due by March 1st and this year everyone will receive the ABC magazine.

Working with other clubs:
We have a good working relationship with the Montana German Shorthair Pointer Club and Tana had mentioned doing some joint things with the Idaho Brittany Club and the High Desert Brittany Club of California.

Officers, Board Members, regions:
Tana suggested we need to try to get things happening on a more regional basis.   Right now our club is sort of centered in the Bozeman area for practical reasons.  We would like to see, for example the people in Billings get to together for an afternoon of training, same for Missoula, Helena, and Great Falls.

A motion to amend our by-laws to move our election of officers to the annual picnic in July was made by Jo Ann and seconded by Tana. It passed unanimously and will be placed on the agenda for our next meeting.    Todd is working on the mechanics of amending the by laws to make this happen.

Next meeting:

The next meeting will be held in conjunction with our fun field trail, at the Grey Cliffs Ranch near Three Forks, MT, on Saturday February 7th.  Details to be announced.

Tana moved for adjournment and Jo Ann Kish seconded and we voted to adjourn.

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Minutes, Montana Brittany Club Meeting
June 4, 2008

The meeting was called to order by President Todd Breitenfeldt at 7:10 PM at the Kradofler’s home in Belgrade, MT.  Members present were Todd Breitenfeldt, Tana Kradolfer, Conrad Kradolfer, and Alex Burks, participating via telephone were Bob Myer from Helena, MT and Terry Courtright from Great Falls, MT.  The minutes of the previous meeting were read and approved with a motion from Tana Kradolfer and a second from Alex Burks.

The treasures report stated that the club now has $1,469.82 in the bank, with 30 paid members. 

Concerning other fund raising activities, Bob Myer, of Helena who was our point man on the Mike Okamura training seminar that was recently held there as a joint venture with the Montana German Shorthaired Club, reported the seminar grossed $3,450 and had expenses of $894.  Bob stated that our share of the proceeds is $1,280.  This money has not been received yet and is not reflected in the treasurer's report above.

Bob reported that the seminar was very well received and that we picked up a couple more members as a result of it.  He said most of the participants came from Great Falls, Helena, and Bozeman.  He said our club brought in about 16 or 17 of the 31 people who attended.  As a club we were very glad to know that we did our part in bring participants to the clinic as the Montana German Shorthaired Club was very gracious in letting us co-sponsor the event with them.  As far as the dogs the people brought to the seminar he said it was about 1/3 German Wirehairs, 1/3 German Shorthairs, and 1/3 Brittany's.  Nice job Bob, THANKS!

Tana Kradolfer commented that our club can now afford to buy our insurance before we have our snake breaking which is scheduled for Saturday, July 12th at the Kradolfer’s in Belgrade.

Another fund raiser we currently have going is a raffle for a Garmin Astro Collar.  This is the new GPS tracking collar that Garmin makes.  The tickets are $5 each or 4 for $20.  Tana suggested we draw for the winner of the collar at the snake breaking on July 12th.  Alex Burks suggested that we mail each club member a few chances so they can purchase some themselves and perhaps sell a few.  Alex will send these out with a brief letter and explanation.  We will need all of the sold tickets and money back in by Wednesday July 9th unless members want to hand carry the tickets and money to the snake breaking. 

Details on the snake breaking:  well known trainer Butch Nelson will be running this for our club.  This will take place on July 12th, which is a Saturday at the Kradolfer’s in Belgrade.  The time is 8:00 AM until 12:00 noon.  The cost per dog is $40 to the public, $30 to members, and $20 for a retest.  A retest is a dog that Butch Nelson has done before.

There was a discussion about how to advertise the snake breaking and it was finally decided to make posters and advertise the event through local veterinarians and dog clubs.  Our primary concern is offering this to our members and of course we will be sending e-mails to our members.

Bob Meyer suggested we look into having a veterinarian present to offer the Rattlesnake vaccinations.  Tana is going to run it by a couple of vets to see if they are interested.  She said that the cost for the vaccine is about $40 a shot and two shots re required.

In conjunction with the snake breaking Tana offered to host a club picnic that would serve as our annual club get together.  We plan to do this at the conclusion of the snake breaking, after 12 noon.  The BBQ will be free for members and $5.00 for non members.

Concerning other up coming fund raisers:  We have been investigating doing a “porcupine breaking”, we now feel like we have the necessary information, equipment, and a source for our porcupine.  Todd has spent quite a bit of time on this checking with Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks, people that have done this before, etc. 

The dates and places for the porcupine breaking are as follows; Saturday, August 2, the Billings, MT area, Sunday, August 3, Three Forks, Helena, MT area, and Saturday, August 9, the Missoula area.  The prices will be the same as the snake breaking, $40 for members and $30 for non-members.  This year their will not be a special “re-test” price offered as this is our first year to offer this service.

Rick Smith Seminar:  Tana and Conrad Kradolfer have sponsored Rick Smith Seminars in the past and have a personal relationship with Rick.  Rick has offered us the date of July 17, 2009 if we want it.  The seminar is typically a Friday night, all day Saturday and all day Sunday.  The estimated cost is $350 per person.    Bob Myer of Helena volunteered to be the contact person for the clinic as Rick Smith does the magazine advertising etc. but always list a local host that takes the calls and books the participants.

We also decided to offer this opportunity to the Montana German Shorthaired Club and let them co-sponsor the event if they are interested.  Our club really values the friendship and cooperation we have received from them, in such things as the Mike Okamura clinic and AKC hunt test. 

Tana will call Rick Smith and tell him we want the date and Bob will call the German Shorthaired club and see if they are interested in co-sponsoring this clinic.  Todd is going to check in with a Whitehall area ranch and see if will let us use their property for the clinic.

Concerning a bird hunting experience for handi-cap hunters it was mutually agreed on that the club was very involved in fund raisers and that we already have a lot on our plate for now.  Tana suggested we move that project to a back burner for now.

Todd mentioned articles for an e-newsletter.  Alex Burks is going to send out an e-mail requesting ideas for articles people would like to see and looking for people to submit articles in areas they have expertise in.

Concerning dog shows, Todd will talk with the Bozeman and Helena Kennel Club about doing a supported entry in 2009.  Tana says she is going to join the Bozeman Kennel club.

Club Sponsored Field Trial:  At this point in the meeting we called Terry Courtright of Great Falls, MT.  Terry has a couple of ranches where he hunts that offer us an excellent field trail venue.  The same grounds are currently being used for an American Field trial.  Terry reviewed the attributes of these grounds and what they can offer.  Alex Burks, club secretary, had a chance to have dinner with Terry, the night before the meeting and go out and look the grounds over.  The grounds are only 18 miles from Great Falls and only about 8 or nine miles off of I 15.  That night on our tour we saw a couple of Hungarian Partridge and Terry says the grounds not only have a good population of Hun’s but also some Sharptail Grouse se and Pheasants.   Terry has several continues courses laid out through large expanses of CRP, dry land wheat stubble, and native range.  There are good ranch roads where we can operate a dog wagon with no need to drive off road.
 
Terry believes there is a spot in the AKC Brittany Trial schedule for a trail in our area around the last week of August. 
Alex Burks did some looking around in Eastern Montana in the last month or so talking with the Montana Fish, Wildlife, & Parks Information Officer in Region 7, Miles City, MT.  This gentleman used to be the State Lands Manger for Eastern Montana.  Alex told him the club was interested in holding a field trail in late August or early September in Eastern Montana.  He stated that most of Region 7, (South Eastern, Montana),  was privately owned other than for some areas of the Custer National Forest, and that private owners were very concerned about fire danger at that time of year.  He did have one suggestion on an area that has quite a bit of state land and BLM land that was east of Broadus.
Alex told the club that the logistics of running a trial in such a remote part of the state, with no supporting local members, would be really difficult. 

Terry Courtrights’grounds appear to be really great from several different perspectives, large grounds,  good cover, lots of wild birds, easy access off of the interstate, close to a major city that has restaurants, motels, medical facilitates, and a local member who has supporting help and equipment!

Todd is going to call Marylynn Little concerning a Montana Trail for late August to see what is available schedule wise.  Bob Myer is going to talk with Dave Walker on the same vein.

We continue to discuss ways to include more people in the meetings:  Tana has been investigating different Conference Call ideas and suggested we look into one called freeconferencecall.com; she says you need to set it up 48 hours in advance and get a PIN #.  Then every one that calls in pays for their own long distance call.  We agreed to try this for our September meeting. 

Remember the annual meeting and picnic will be run in conjunction with the Butch Nelson Snake Breaking on July 12, 2008.  The BBQ will be held immediately after the snake breaking which will run from 8:00 AM to 12:00 noon.  We will also be drawing for the Garmin Astro Collar. 

The snake breaking and the picnic are at the Kradolfer’s 5075 Clearview road, Belgrade, MT 59714, telephone 406-388-4974.

Tana Kradolfer moved that we adjourn and Conrad Kradolfer seconded.