The placement of 2009 National Meet has certainly been a learning experience for Rob and me. The club is in the second year of rotating the National Meet among the districts. Requests for proposals were sent to shows in New Jersey, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Ohio. Responses were received from only one club by the November 15, 2008 deadline for the meet to be placed in Northeast District. If the 2009 National Meet was not placed in the Northeast District by November 15, 2008 the meet would have automatically rotated to the Southeast District for placement.
The 2009 National Meet will be in Columbus, OH November 14-15, 2009. Rob made the decision to place the meet at the Ohio National so the meet would be in the Northeast District instead of passing the meet to the Southeast District. The following is the letter from the club:
2009 Ameraucana Breeders Club National Meet
The Ohio National would like to place a formal bid to host the Ameraucana Breeders Club National Meet for the 2009 show year. The Ohio National will be held on November 14, 15 2009.
The Ohio National can offer $100.00 in awards to be dispersed at the direction of your club. The only restriction is that all monies must be dispersed at the Ohio National show. The Ohio National will provide your club with a meeting room, and four trophies (champion, reserve champion large fowl, champion, reserve champion bantam), and a club table for you to promote the Ameraucana Breeders Club and to sell or raffle any items your club sees fit to do.
The Ameraucana Breeders Club will have its choice of judges from the list of judges that the Ohio National will hire for the 2009 show. The judges list will be published in early June of 2009.
If you have any questions please feel free to contact me at any time at the contacts list below. Thank You for your consideration. __________________________
Eric Markley
Secretary Ohio National
Email markley@ohionational.org
Phone 419-568-7402
Cell 419-303-6909
Several members in the Northeast District would have liked to have seen the National Meet at the Southern Ohio Poultry Club Show in Lucasville, OH. Lucasville has a very nice national meet package of $500.00 for awards, a free meal, meeting room and choice of judge. Unfortunately, Lucasville had many requests for national meets and the club had to vote where to begin extending offers to host national meets. Tim Bowles was very nice to visit with and took our request to the club. As Tim indicated, a club can only host so many national meets well. Neither Rob, nor I heard from the Southern Ohio Poultry Club before the November 15, 2008 deadline.
As a club secretary I have learned several lessons regarding show clubs throughout this process that I have passed along to Barbara Campbell regarding the placement of the 2010 National Meet. First, start early! Second, many show clubs only have one or two meetings a year and do not authorize the club officers to make bids on hosting national meets and additionally most do not have standing national meet packages, so the general first reaction is silence and then the need to bring the national meet request up at the next club meeting. With the help of John Blehm I have developed a request for proposals document that explains what the Ameraucana Breeders Club minimally requires for a National Meet. I plan to work with the board on a proposal evaluation for the district director to use to score proposals in the event more than one proposal/bid is submitted. I personally believe it is not too early for Paul to begin talking to clubs in the South Central district about hosting the 2011 National Meet, which I believe he has started doing.
I want to personally thank Rob for his offer to help our incoming Northeast District Director, Harold Knapp, with logistics and organization for the 2009 National Meet at the Ohio National, Columbus, OH November 14-15, 2009. I believe that Patty and Kathy have also offered their assisstance and it should be a great time. Columbus, here we come!