Membership

It goes without saying that we encourage each of you to renew your membership in both the Northern Michigan chapter and NAVHDA international. While the reasons for membership are many, some of the more popular ones include:

• being able to utilize training resources and areas which would not otherwise be available or open,
• being able to network with a group of other like minded, dog and hunting oriented individuals,
• broadening one’s hunting pleasure through greater canine performance and increased camaraderie between man and dog,
• participating in a non-competitive, hunting oriented testing format that objectively evaluates canine performance and the success of an individual’s training program.

Membership costs are returned many times over if for no other reasons than for the friendships that are formed and the experience gained by joining both the local and international organizations.

Please click here for a membership form to renew your affiliations. While local membership is kept on a calendar year basis, your membership with international may be on a different twelve month cycle. Again, all chapter members will be required to maintain international affiliation. International membership expiration can be verified by contacting:

If international affiliation is not kept current, we will have no choice but to drop an individual from the chapter rolls and discontinue their chapter privileges. Thank you in advance for your timely assistance in preventing this from becoming an issue.

International News

Membership Directories and Test Reports - These items are available at NAVHDA's on-line store while supplies last.

2003 Annual Meeting (by David Nordquist) - By attending a NAVHDA annual meeting, you get the chance to become friends with new people and to visit with those you have known for a number of years that come together from all parts of the country for a couple of days. As a chapters delegate, you have the chance to experience the good working relationship that exists between the chapter members and our executive council (EC). Our EC is comprised of our international officers and directors, whom are also members of local chapters. Everyone has a voice in helping to direct the future of NAVHDA. All it takes is participation on your part. What could be better than to spend a couple of days talking about dogs and enjoying the company of like-minded people?

Click here for a copy of David's report on the 2003 Annual Meeting. Adobe Acrobat is needed to view this document. This piece of software can be downloaded free of charge from Adobe's web site.

Promotions Committee (Lake Region, USA) - As your promotions committee member, I often ask for your thoughts in how we might improve NAVHDA. How can the national office or executive council (EC) help your chapter? It is my task to improve the two-way communication between each chapter member and the national office/EC within the Lake Region. Through this section of the Paw Print News and Paw Print Updates, I have passed on a lot of information to you that has originated from the national office and/or EC. I would also like to send questions and information back. Please contact me with your thoughts.

Work Bee

As the saying goes, with membership and access come responsibility. Keeping that in mind, all members will be expected to attend a work bee on Norm's property on Saturday, 5 April 2003. With all club members in attendance the activities (i.e. general maintenance on club equipment, grounds clean-up, etc.) should go fairly quickly.

While this event has been listed as tentative, it is only tentative insofar as the date is concerned. If an alternative date is selected it will be communicated appropriately.

Please RSVP your attendance confirmation to Kurt Bard at 231.267.9376 no later than Friday, 28 March 2003.

2003 Test Volunteers

As always seems to be the case, we are still in need of a few volunteers for the 2003 spring and fall tests. If you are interested in doing so, please contact Judy Balog at 231.938.4426 (spring test) or Kurt Bard at 231.267.9376 (fall test).

If in the past you have enjoyed participating in chapter activities but have yet to assume some of the volunteer positions for these events, this is an excellent opportunity to begin paying a little back to the club...your fellow chapter members. Don't worry about not knowing what to do and when; there are others who will help guide volunteers in performing their respective responsibilities.

In an effort to encourage greater test volunteerism, the chapter will begin raffling off the two 30% discount coupons it receives from Tri-Tronics each test to interested test volunteers. Further, test volunteers will receive preference when it comes to allowing members to run their dog(s) in the bird fields following the test. So if a person is interested in receiving the Tri-Tronics discount or wants to run dog(s) in the bird fields after the test, the best opportunity to do so will be to volunteer to help at the chapter's tests.

2003 Testing

Please click appropriately for testing applications and 2003 test information for the Northern Michigan chapter. During the last couple of years, our chapter has received ever increasing interest in its tests. As such, the tests tend to fill to capacity quite quickly. If you are in the least bit interested in running your dog(s) in either of these two tests, it is highly recommended that you complete and submit your respective registration as quickly as possible. If you should have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact Judy Balog at 231.938.4426 (spring test) or Kurt Bard at 231.267.9376 (fall test).

Classifieds

If you would like to place items for sale in future newsletters please contact Chris Raymond (preferrably by e-mail) at 231.929.7537.