I hope everyone had a safe and happy 4th of July weekend!

I have instituted monthly Zoom Board meetings. My goal, shortly after each Board meeting, is to communicate to you all in a timely fashion the general business of BFCA that the Board discussed and, if appliable, the results of any votes taken.

I will continue to have a President’s Message in our quarterly Bulletin. However, the Board intends to utilize e-mails through the program Constant Contact much more than we have in the past. Therefore, I will announce in my President’s message in this next Bulletin, what day everyone will receive a “TEST” e-mail utilizing the Constant Contact program. If you receive this e-mail, then that’s Terrific – you’re all set! If you don’t receive it and have provided your current e-mail address to the Recording Secretary (as that’s where our list comes from) then please contact our Recording Secretary to make sure our records contain the up-to-date contact information for you. You should also e-mail Shannon Tupes who is responsible for sending out the Constant Contact e-mails to be sure Shannon also has the correct information in her distribution list. By doing this “Test” e-mail, I’m hopeful that we will have everyone successful in getting the Constant Contact e-mails so that everyone has access to the same information.

As you know, our Agility Chairpersons can no longer be in charge of Agility nor continue to put on our annual BFCA All-Breed Agility Trials. We asked for anyone who might be interested in taking over Agility and this task to please contact any Board member. The key thing is to make sure there are enough BFCA members in order to have the AKC required 5 members present at all times during the trials. Shirley Hamilton has graciously agreed to mentor whoever takes over this function for the Club. So far, we have had 1 individual express interest in assuming this function; however, she will speak with her local members to assess interest and be sure 5 active BFCA members can be present at all times. I will keep everyone updated.

Sadly, Laura Winston has had to step down as Health Committee Chair due to personal reasons. Nancy McDonald has graciously agreed to step back in as Health Committee Chair at least through May of 2022. Thank you, Nancy! Laura, please know our thoughts are with you during this personally challenging time.

The Board might need to utilize more membership surveys in the future. Matt Abbott did research on free survey tools – thank you, Matt. During this same time, I spoke with our Webmaster regarding a survey tool, and he indicated that BFCA, through needs for our Website, has already purchased a software program that can do everything a free survey tool can plus even more sophisticated surveys and data exports. Therefore, BFCA will utilize the software program that we already purchased for our website to send out any future surveys/votes.

As you know, AKC is conducting “virtual” Meet The Breeds in multiple locations around the country. In order to have a booth at any of the Meet The Breeds locations, AKC is charging $500 for each location’s booth. In order for BFCA to have a booth, 4-5 people along with multiple Bichons would be needed to be able to man the booth for the entire hours of each day’s event. The Board will ascertain which clubs would be interested in participating before making a financial commitment.

The Board is extremely close in finalizing the updated Constitution & By-Laws. We have received recommendations for some changes from AKC and are currently reviewing them. Once the Board has a finalized version, the proposed updated Constitution and By-Laws will be sent to the membership for approval. Once they are approved by the membership, the Updated Constitution and By-Laws will be forwarded to AKC for final approval. Only after receiving final approval from AKC will the newly updated version become effective.

The Board continues its work along with our Show Chair, Cyndie Adams, on our National Specialty and our Parent Club Specialty in Madison, WI, in November. We are working with the hotel regarding our Wednesday night Welcome Back Reception as well as the trophies that will be awarded. Thanks to all of you who sent your trophy vote to Sheri Kennedy. Thanks, Sheri for coordinating this survey for the Board. The vote result was for our trophies to be the combination of the scissors/comb and the hand-painted Bichon items. A 3-person committee, Lillian Endo, Kayley Kovar, & Matt Abbott, will discuss which placement receives which trophy, and their recommendations will be submitted to the Board for review and approval. Thanks Lillian, Kayley, & Matt for doing this work for us.

Now, to conclude my report on a Fun note, please visit BFCA’s website as we have rotated out the Home Page pictures and the pictures that scroll at the bottom of the page. As a reminder, one of the goals of our updated website is to be more Welcoming to the public and hopefully entice interest (membership) in our Club as well as show our beloved Bichons as the fun-loving, family friendly breed that they are.

So, have a look! I know every time I look at the main Home Page picture, I can’t help but smile!

I hope you all like it as well!

Myra