The Big Sky Chapter was first started in 1977 and since then the club has had a great history of yearly tests and training days. We have great expertise in the club and our mission is to help each other to make our dogs as good as they can be. If you have any questions or concerns about the testing, preparing or training, please do not hesitate to contact one of the officers by phone or an email, or better yet, show up for a training day.
New members are always welcome!

This weblog, or "blog" serves as a communication conduit for BIG SKY NAVHDA members.
If you need contact with a club member, please use the telephone numbers or email addresses listed next to the officer's names on the right side of this page.
Posts will be made chronologically, with the most recent being on top. We will be rebuilding the "Bigskynavhda.com" site....but for the time being, this should serve as our e-resource.







Thursday, January 2, 2014

Annual Business meeting February 8 2014 at 11am at Lambkins in Lincoln

The Big Sky Chapter of NAVHDA will hold our annual business meeting on Feb 8, 2014 at Lambkins Restaurant in Lincoln, MT at 11 am. Before our pending annual business meeting, the officers and some members have conducted a review of the financial status of the chapter. We need to make you aware of the results of that review as we will be presenting some ideas which involve significant increases in our fee structure at the business meeting. The Problem: We are losing money on events that were making money five years ago. Our current fee structure is losing money as the chapter holds events. (Thank you to those who renewed your annual membership early. We were able to pay our insurance for the coming year because of your prompt response.) The Chapter is a nonprofit organization. The Chapter has insurance costs, maintenance on our equipment and various costs involved in holding the events as explained below. When we hold tests and handlers clinics we should see a small left over amount of money after expenses to pay our insurance and maintenance, and pre-ordering birds for coming events. We have gradually gotten to a point where there is not enough left over to do these things. Here's the breakdown...We are losing approximately $700 per test under our current cost structure. Our main expenses in a test are birds and judges. We are required to have at least one outside area judge each test, one senior judge each test, and we have a very limited pool of judges within our area, so we have to pay for travel , lodging and food costs for bringing in judges. Bird prices have increased drastically over the last five years. A three day test with 30 NA dogs at our current $125 per dog fee creates $3750 if we fill the test. Our bird costs for the test are approximately $2000. If you have flown anywhere recently you know that to fly 3 judges in, put them in a motel and feed them for 3-4 days is going to eat up the remainder of that income pretty fast. We have been lucky to use some of our few local judges and have had some judges not charge us travel costs as they stay and hunt with members after the fall test. But that is the exception. I can think of 7 members off the top of my head who donated actual supplies and materials, or paid for unreimbursed club expenses out of their own pockets last year. And that doesn't consider fuel costs which are born by numerous members when they pick up birds, equipment, supplies, etc to haul to tests and training days. Often these members are showing up and volunteering on training days and tests, and not even working their own dogs, just to support the club and membership. (Thank you to those members. You know who you are. There are probably more of you, that I am unaware of. It is great that we have such members who donate materially, as well as with their time, but we can't expect to continue to operate that way.) We get wonderful donations of time, energy and labor from our members. We shouldn't expect them to pay for the privilege of being a volunteer within our chapter too. Some Proposed Solutions: Increase Test Fees: Our test fees have not increased in the past 5 years. 5 years ago, chukar cost $4 each compared to $11 each in 2013. Pheasant cost $7-8 each 5 years ago compared to $16 in 2013. Ducks were $7 and are now $10. Air fare for judges and motels has significantly increased during the same time frame. Five years ago, our average cost per judge was anticipated at $300 for airfare and $120 lodging and $120 meals. Based on those costs a full three day test 5 years ago cost the chapter $82 per NA test and $124 per UT test . (The chapter made approximately $43 per NA test and $26 per UT test five years ago.) If we anticipate our cost per judge in the future to be an average of $500 per flight, $200 for 4 nights lodging and $200 in meals over the 4 days, we have a total cost of $900.00 per judge per test or $900 per day of the test. If we have a full test day of 10 dogs each entry costs $90.00, if we have UT day @ 6 entries each entry is $150.00 just for the judging cost. Add the bird costs in and the cost to the club per test today looks like this: NA Tests- 5 Chukar @ 11.00 = 55.00 1 pheasant @ 16.00 = 16.00 Judges cost = $90.00 total cost to the club per dog = $161.00 (under our current pricing we lose $36 per dog / $360 per day/ potentially over $1000 on a 3 day test.) UT Tests- 5 chukar @ 11.00 = 55.00 2 ducks @10.00 = 20.00 Judge cost = $150.00 total cost to the club per dog= $ 225.00 (under our current pricing we lose $75 per dog / $450 per day/ potentially over $1000 on a 3 day test.) These figures are approximate as each test may have variable costs involved in judge expenses or bird prices. We can't continue to operate tests at a loss. And we can't expect the core membership to keep donating more and more to keep the process going. Research of 13 other chapters found the following information: A review of 13 NAVHDA chapters showed an average test cost for NA is $125.00 / UT $160 The lowest was Kettle Moraine in WI. Their cost for NA is $95 / UT $120. The highest was San Diego Chapter at $225.00 for either NA or UT. Keep in mind that more populated areas have a much larger pool of local judges to draw from and are not geographically so isolated as we are. Our judge costs are going to be understandably higher. I am also told that bird prices are cheaper in the midwest and east. If we increased our test costs to $175 per NA test and $225 per UT test, we break even on UT tests and hopefully make $14 per NA test. Even based on 24 NA dogs over a 3 day test we only make $336 on a 3 day test as a chapter. (hopefully) Increase Membership Dues: Our membership dues have not increased in the last 5 years. One proposal is to increase the dues from the current $25 individual membership to a $40 family membership. There would be no more individual memberships. That gives the chapter a $15 per year increase. Since we are a family oriented group and want to promote youth opportunities, we are considering that if you are a member, your spouse and kids are welcome without additional costs. Research of the same 13 chapters referenced above found an average membership dues cost of $35 for individuals. Training Day Fees: We have resisted training day fees which are popular with some other chapters. I think we all agree that we are there to think about our dogs, not to think about collecting money. Our chapter and members make no money on the training birds the members use. The members get the birds they use at cost. The members who are there volunteering their time, energy and wisdom are not compensated in any way. The land owners are not compensated in any way. Maybe it's time to look at a $10-$20 per dog daily fee to keep the chapter afloat. (not per person... we want to encourage family participation) Please give us your thoughts. Some have suggested that the club charge a surcharge on training birds. Some have suggested that becomes more cumbersome for those keeping track of it. It's more complicated than a flat daily 'per dog' fee. Let us know your thoughts on that as well. We also have had requests to look at training weekends, as we are getting more members who are coming from further away and a single day training event is not worth their driving time. Adding more training time into the trip for the members may make the training fee more palatable. Please let us know if that is something you prefer. Corporate Sponsorships NAVHDA International has corporate sponsors. Our chapter is registered as a nonprofit organization. If anyone has any ideas of Montana businesses who might be interested in sponsoring our chapter, we should consider taking sponsorship money to help with our expenses, which might allow us to keep the previously mentioned cost increases down. In exchange for sponsorship, businesses could get sponsorship recognition on the Big Sky Chapter website, the chapter trailer, mention of their support at our tests, and hopefully some business from our members who recognize and appreciate the value of their contributions. And the contributions would be tax deductable. Please give us your feedback on this idea. Corporate Donations If anyone knows of businesses which might be interested in making donations of goods which could be raffled or auctioned at tests/ events, we could use those donations to keep costs down, and the business gets the tax benefit for the value of the donation. Member Involvement This is not a money issue. But we have a small group of members doing a large percentage of the work to make training days and tests happen. Some have been doing it for a very long time. We need some folks to step up and become more involved. New people need to get involved before some of these folks burn out. If you are interested in being a board member, please let us know. If you have time, talent, ideas for training day sites or test sites, or ideas we haven't thought of, please speak up. The current board members and the members who are doing most of the volunteering would welcome any new ideas, help, or people who want to take on some responsibility. This chapter belongs to the members. If you can attend the meeting, please do. If you are unable to attend the meeting but would like to express your thoughts on these (or other) issues, please email: Mark Troyer, President jxtroyer@hotmail.com Phil Matteson, Vice President cascadegriffs@gmail.com

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