Metropolitian Area Papillon Club

July 25, 2008

Dear Map Members,

Although the National has been over for a couple of months, we have been working very hard on the final accounting of the National. We are about to turn over the books to the PCA Board and they will review “our accounting” and share the profits with MAP. We ran a very successful show! Most of the comments included, “best National ever” and “future shows will be measured against the MAP 08 National Specialty”. It also appears that our National will also go down in the history books as the most profitable National ever! It may be some time before MAP gets a check from PCA for our efforts, but we should all be very proud of what we accomplished for our club and its treasury—not to mention upholding the fine reputation of MAP and its members. (My time to celebrate will be when our portion is in the bank!!!! )

We have all heard it “takes a village” and in our case, it took a club and its members each doing their part to pull off this huge success. Everyone’s part no matter how large or small, contributed to the show and its success. It was very hard work. We should all be very proud of ourselves and our club!

I’d like to take this opportunity to thank the individuals who really were at the core of our success through the planning stages and on to the show itself (and this is in no particular order) and offer the recognition each one deserves. Thank you to the Show Committee.

Susie Shepard did a phenomenal job with trophies from inception to the selection and ordering and then being absolutely on top of the trophies every single day for the ENTIRE WEEK. She put in an enormous amount of time and energy and everything was perfect! I don’t know how she kept everything straight and so organized—maybe no sleep all week? Susie also brought us Bil Jac as a Welcome Bag donor—a major coup. Thank you, Susie!

Barbara Cohl always had a vision for the National as the social chair and brought that vision into reality. The flair and creative ideas (Papitini’s anyone?) for food selections that she brought to the National made it a special event in everyone’s eyes. Barbara knew that a live auction would be successful although mostly everyone said “it won’t work” but Barbara was right. The live auction was not only great fun but it made a lot of money! In addition, she spent hours writing letters and begging for items and organizing the Welcome Bags. Thank you, Barbara!

Donna Clas-Ewy was the driving force behind this National. Together with Lisa Edwards, there never would have been a National had it not been for the work of these two women! Lisa researched and filed the application that led to MAP’s hosting the National and then negotiated a very fine contract for PCA with host hotel. Thank you, Lisa!

Donna was quick to jump in and handle any task that needed doing. I’m not sure we could count the number of hats that Donna wore—but let’s try: Welcome bags, raffle, auction, grounds, and commemoratives. Donna’s house was the storage facility and ground zero for ALL the stuff we needed to pull of the show. She and her husband, Kurt Ewy loaded, hauled and unloaded hundreds of pounds of items to and from Frederick and the Holiday Inn. Donna spent hours organizing and manning the raffle and auction tables. These crucial events not only made the show fun but also brought in a lot of money. There were many happy winners! There was not a single complaint about the grounds—Donna thought of everything! Way too many choices made the commemoratives an overwhelming task but again, she pulled it off. Thank you here to Donna’s committee members who sorted and stuffed commemorative bags and welcome bags: Barbara Cohl, Shirley Schwartz, Becky Flanagan, Peg Quarto, Anita Rosen, Maureen Dyer and Susie Shepard. Donna was always there! Thank you, Donna!

Peg Quarto did a fabulous job with the vendors. She put together a wonderful, diverse shopping extravaganza for all to enjoy! It took many hours of organization to keep that many vendors happy. On top of this, Peg handled reserved seating. Oh my God, what a job from beginning to end! She spent hours upon hours keeping everyone and every group happy! The reserved seating brought in more money than any other category. People paid a lot for the seats, tempers flared over deadlines but Peg absolutely kept everyone happy! Amazing! Peg also found us a wonderful photographer, Tammie Wilkerson—wasn’t she a gem? And finally, Peg was always there and offered wonderful support throughout a very long year! Thank you, Peg!

Margaret Van Cleave also had a vision for seminars, continually striving to find not only timely but new and different educational topics to the National. This was no easy task and was wrought with frustration but Margaret pulled the entire aggressive seminar schedule off beautifully! It was a big success! Thank you, Margaret!

Mary Keith put on the BEST hospitality room ever! She worked tirelessly to provide food and refreshments for 8 straight days of dog shows—from Agility on Sunday thru the MAP Specialty on the following Sunday. She was there at the crack of dawn to make sure anyone who wanted coffee had it at 6 AM! She weathered the technical, electrical and equipment problems in our hospitality room! (Our original room was flooded out!) Not to mention serving lunch during the “monsoonal” rains at the Agility Trial on Sunday. The food was great and plentiful—just the way we all love it!!! I truly believe that “hospitality room” made everyone feel so welcome, it set the stage for all other events, every day! Thank you, Mary Keith!

Becky Flanagan coordinated an absolutely fabulous rescue parade event! I am glad we were able to honor the many families who rescued so many lovely Papillon pets. Becky also created the lovely
“green” butterfly bush centerpieces for the banquet—which we raffled off at the end, making us TOTALLY green and recycled! She also was our communications genie—always quick to send out email announcements to club members. Becky was always willing to give a helping hand all year long prior to the show. Thank you, Becky!

Jan Paulk was instrumental in the planning and execution of the Top 20 and Parade of Champions. Both events were a big success and a delightful way to spend an evening at the National. Thank you, Jan!

Karen Stout was a wonderful helping hand during the show and provided the embroidered draped logo which appeared in all show photos. Thank you, Karen!

Letty McNulty chaired the Obedience and Rally events and “talked up” our show wherever she went during the year which led up to the show. Everyone seemed very happy about the Performance portion of our show—no small accomplishment. She had many great suggestions for us before and during the show. Letty also made the wonderful butterfly doggie cookies for our Welcome Bags by hand. Thank you, Letty!

Shirley Murphy single handedly changed history – I do believe that Agility has never made money at a National. Shirley chaired this event so expertly that future agility trials will be measured against the trials held at this National. Shirley had a vision of how to conduct a great trial (down to every detail) and she did it! Those first two days of our National really set the stage for the events which followed. Shirley is the queen of expert planning and organization—even when the rains came and tried to flood out the event! Our thanks also to the wonderful team of volunteers Shirley put together to help at each event. Thank you, Shirley!

Lori Bovee, stepped up to the plate and took over the “thank-less” job as fundraiser for the show. Whenever I got nervous about our financial position—which was often-- Lori was quick to reassure me that we’d be ok and that she could pull a miracle or two out of her hat if we “got into trouble”. (Thanks to everyone she never needed toreach into that “hat”!) Lori created budget projections –remember how she kept asking for “budgets” from everyone--throughout the year to make sure we were on target with fundraising—again to repeatedly reassure me we would show at least some black ink rather than red by the end of the show. Lori also stepped up to the plate to help Susi Gleffe with advertising and was totally responsible for catalog preparation. This may have been the only National to have ALL EVENTS in one catalog A N D more importantly, the first National to not run out of catalogs!!! We still have plenty if anyone wants a souvenir copy! Lori was always there with good suggestions to ensure that the show would be a success. It is a wonder we kept our jobs with all the phone calls during those last few months! Thank you, Lori!

Thank you to Lori’s son, Dylan Bovee and his friend, Tyler Mills for lending a helping hand where ever needed all week long!

And finally, Jean Keating, Treasurer, who has had the worst post National job. Jean carefully organized and tracked all money, deposited and wrote checks associated with the National. But that was the easy part. Since April, she has been accounting for every penny spent and taken in with dogged persistence and determination. Jean would not pay a cent more than she thought should be paid no matter who she “took on” to argue the penny!! I think managing satellites for NASA was an easier task than the accounting part of this show! When the books are presented to PCA, we will be able to account for every penny. This will be the best, most complete and most accurate National Specialty accounting ever presented to PCA (in my humble opinion). In addition, Jean, too, kept reassuring me we would be okay and in the black. I still cannot believe how MUCH BLACK Jean found!!

Thank you, Jean!

No thanks to Jean and company would be complete without mentioning Puff the Papillon and the GREAT CRAB HUNT. Their expert guidance and inspiration pulled off the biggest crab hunt in the history of Walmart. Every Welcome Bag contained a doggie welcome crab to play with while not in the ring at the National. It is a shame that the Puff and Jean “chart of donors” did not make it to the catalog but perhaps they would share it with us on our web site. A hearty thank you to all the Walmart crab hunters.

Thank you to Maureen Dyer, chair and Elisa Kamens, trophy chair, for making the add-on Specialty on Sunday a big success for MAP. That helped to really boost entries and make it one incredible week for showing dogs. Maureen also organized the stewards and provided invaluable onsite assistance especially on the first day of the show at the hotel. What a hectic morning that was!!!! Thank you, Maureen.

Thank you to Tracy Burdick, a new MAP member, who gave me so many helpful technical tidbits of information and suggestions (i.e the dry erase boards for results—such a little thing but oh so helpful).

Thank you Anne Carmichael (all the way from New Orleans), who procured tourist magazines for Welcome Bags and added “points of interest” to the show web site.

Thank you to the club members who sat at the Hospitality table and other key posts for your part in making the show run smoothly: Dianne Mc Rae, Dick and Betty Graham, Donelle Dermer, Terry Brownfield, Susan Austin, Frank Reynolds, Marcia Noble, Clayton Mooney as well as the others who took turns at the catalog and info table. Our presence at that table really helped to make the show run smoothly and spread that special MAP hospitality. Thank you also to those who sold raffle and auction tickets—WOW did you make a huge difference!!!!

Thank you to Ruth Iverson and Gloria Williams our show secretaries.

Thank you to Robin Kost who was liaison between PCA and show chair.

Terry Brownfield and her husband were wonderful helpers during set up and at the show itself. Thank you both.

Thank you to Bob Katz and your dashing bow tie for assisting with the live auction.

Thanks to Paul Flanagan for the photographs which became our decorations.

Thank you to the club members who filled the important posts as ring stewards.

It was said that MAP did not have the manpower to pull off a National Specialty. How wrong they were!!!! We all should be proud of what our club accomplished. Most clubs have several years to plan and execute a National Specialty and we did it in a year! This is one amazing group of people. It has been my extreme pleasure to have represented this club as the 08 National Chairperson.

MY heartfelt thanks and appreciation,

Jan Nadeau