Cocktail Party

At 6:00 pm, everyone reconvened at the Vicksburg Convention Center for the Saturday night Cocktail Party. Everyone had returned to their hotels after the meetings to go and change into their finery. The food was delicious and the camaraderie and friendship continued into the night. Good cheer was abundant as the evening wound up and everyone returned to the places they were staying to air their dogs and put their "game face" on for tomorrow.

Y  U  M  M  Y    !!!

Our Judges … Bill Goldstein, Gary Ahlgren and Alan Madsen

General Meeting at the Vicksburg Convention Center

The General Meeting was called to order at 3:07 pm  by 2014 NRC President Joe Broyles. He invited everyone to join him in the Pledge of Allegiance. He requested a moment of silence in the memory of all those friends we lost in the past year, including our canine "best friends."

NRC President, Joe Broyles

David Opseth, NRC Secretary/Treasurer, came to the podium for a roll call of the club delegates present. He found there was a quorum. The minutes from the 2013 NRC meeting were approved. Thanks were given to the member clubs who made contributions to the Workers' Party. 

NRC Sec'y/Treasurer, David Opseth

Next, Paul Sletten, PRTA President came to the podium to announce that they voted to give all six applicants a land grant this year. They are as follows:

1. Saskatoon RC

2. San Jose RC

3. Cooper River RC

4. Montgomery RC

5. Madison RC

6. Mission Valley RC

Our Judges Bill Goldstein, Gary Ahlgren and Alan Madsen

John Russell and John Parrott

Next Gwen Jones, the Corporate Sponsor Liaison, gave the Corporate Sponsor report. She asked everyone to be appreciative our Sponsors and to personally take the time to thank each one of them. The Representaives were as follows:

1. Purina Petcare – Dean Reinke, Mike Witt and Jerry Cacchio

2. Avery Sporting Dog – David Carrington

3. Garmin/Tri-Tronics – Mike Witt

4. Dogtra – Tellus Calhoun

5. Kent Cartridge – no representative, but they provided all the ammunition for the gunners

We have a new friend this year, a start-up company … we would like to welcome Eddie Dunford and Sam Adams of WetMutt to our fold.

Gwen Jones, Corporate Sponsor Liaison

Mitch Patterson, 2014 NRC Chairman, presented the painting of the 2013 winner. He introduced and thanked Mark and Suzanne Medford for being the Sponsor of this painting by Chris Chantland. The painting was presented to Danny Farmer as the winner of the 2013 event with NFC Trumarc's Dot Come, "Dottie."

Mitch Patterson, FT Chairman

Suzanne and Mark Medford

Suzanne and Mark Medford present the painting to Danny Farmer

Danny Farmer and "Dottie"

NFC Trumarc's Dot Come, "Dottie"

David Carrington of Avery Sporting Dog

Dean Reinke of Purina

It was then announced by Gary Zellner that the 2015 NRC will be held in Corning, California at the Clear Creek Sports Club with headquarters at the Rolling Hills Casino. The dates for the event are to be November 8-14, 2015. The Chairman will be Bill Kolstad and the Co-Chair will be Julie Cole. The Judges for next year's event will be Randy Whittaker, Eastern Time Zone; Laura Parrott, Central Time Zone and Wayne Bleazzard; Mountain Time Zone.

Next we had the drawing for the starting number for the 2014 event. Mark Medford and David Carrington, scattered bumpers numbered from one through ninety-eight on the floor. Linda Patterson ran "Rachel" (JJ's Rachel, a female Chessie) and she selected the lucky "bumper" – dog # 38, FC Hyfly'n Turbo Jet, "Turbo." 

Mark Medford and David Carrington spread out the bumpers …

"Rachel"

Ray Voigt with luck Number 38!

An introduction was made for the new Official Photographer, Mark and Shannon Atwater of UpClose Photo.

Mark Atwater, UpClose Photo at work!

After that, Loren Morehouse, Chief Marshal, took the podium. He announced that the rotation would be 38 – 62 – 87 – 13. The first series will be a double and a blind with rooster pheasants for all three birds. The handlers were instructed that there will be three holding blinds, leading to the line that are to be filled at all times. The Judges announced that the handler is to be on the mat for all marks and the dog should be on the mat for all blinds. The protocol for no-birds was reiterated: go back six, run seventh on the first one; second, go back six, run seventh; third one, you go to the end of the running order.

The Test Dogs were announced as follows:
FC-AFC Ace On The River III "Ace," LM– Handler, Peter Ketola
FC-AFC Mitimat You Go Girl "Diva," LF – Handler, Tim Thompson

Test Dogs will be running at 6:30, with the first official running dog, #38, at 7:00 am.

It was announced at the last minute, that due to the expected heavy rain, that we would have gun changes every 20 dogs.

The Bitch Check.

Retriever Advisory Committee Meeting

The meeting was called to order by Katharine Simonds. Those in attendance with Kate were John Russell, Ray Vreeland and Jerry Mann, AKC Rep.

The topics under discussion were the Owner/Handler stake. The RAC was trying to make the Owner/Handler stake to be what it was designed to do by cleaning up the language associated with it in the Rulebook to bring it back to the spirit in which it was intended. Several people made comments …

For Downloadable PDF version Click Here:

http://www.theretrievernews.com/RNews/Documents/RAC-2014.pdf

Jerry Mann, AKC Rep, Kate Simonds and John Russell

Jerry Mann, AKC Rep, Ray Vreeland, Kate Simonds and John Russell

Tommy Parrish

Tom Vaughn

Gary Zellner

John Russell

Joe Broyles

Dennis Bath