No sooner was a very eventful Hambletonian day in the books; it seems we are now counting the days to the Little Brown Jug. Where does the summer go? With so much racing action seemingly every week the time looking forward to the next great race just eats away at the calendar.
HALL OF FAME VOTING
The 2017 Hall of Fame ballots are in the mail; if you haven't received yours already, it should be in your mailbox shortly (or let the Secretary know). Please keep in mind that the deadline for voting is Wednesday, September 13, and you may reply with your selections either via e-mail or the good old USPS. Please make sure you follow all the instructions included with your packet and reply in a timely matter.
Hall of Famer and advisor Jim Simpson remarked that this was by far the best set of complied biographies that the Hall of Fame Screening Committee had ever received and praised the work of the new USHWA Advisory Committee for their work putting them together.
NEW USHWA WEBSITE IS CLOSE TO COMPLETION
The new USHWA website is nearing completion and I can tell you it’s looking awesome. Tom Hicks has been working hard with designers from web.com, who is building the site for us. The new site will give us the option for online pay, and you could also pay annual dues, buy Dan Patch Banquet tickets or even conduct any other business that would require the transfer of funds.
We will also have live streaming ability as well as the capacity for selling banner ads. And of course the new site will display all of our content in a more cohesive and easier-to-navigate manner.
We will send out a notice as soon as it goes live.
ROSEN SHINGLE CREEK/DAN PATCH AWARDS BANQUET UPDATE
Florida Chapter President and new Hall of Famer Steve Wolf took a road trip up to Orlando for us to look over the Rosen Shingle Creek, which is the host property for the 2018 Dan Patch Awards Banquet. And to say he was impressed with it would be an understatement. The food, the accommodations, all the facilities and the property were all top of the line. Mr. Wolf also looked over the layout of the banquet room and simply said “It’s huge!”
We will have a reservation link up shortly so you can start making your arrangements early.
PLAN A CHAPTER MEETING NOW
You might want to start planning a Chapter meeting in the next month or so to discuss possible human awards and Communicators Hall of Fame nominees, and perhaps talk about By-Law change and Rules and Regs change proposals.
And also the first nomination deadline of the year comes up in October for the Bergstein/Proximity Award (250-500 word biography per nominee, one per chapter). That would also be a good topic of discussion.
DON’T FORGET ABOUT ITEMS FOR THE DPA SILENT AND LIVE AUCTIONS
As was mentioned in my previous newsletter, you are aware that we annually hold a silent auction to help fund not only the business of USHWA, but also the Harness Horse Youth Foundation and the Clyde Hirt Workshop.
In recent years, the items that have been made available to us for this auction have dwindled severely, and we need your help and support to turn the tide.
This is a call to EVERY USHWAN! Please take a minute of your day to call a business, hotel, sport team, industry outlet, race track, farm, distributor, anyone or anything you can think of and try to get donations for this auction so we can more adequately support the worthy causes that the proceeds are put towards.
To date, I have only received a response from Dave Brower and Melissa Keith with offers of auction items. I know it’s early, but it’s never too early to help the organization. Whether you attend the banquet or not, it would help the functions of the organization immensely if everyone got just one donation of any value to put into this auction.
The best of racing luck to everyone the rest of the summer, and hopefully I will see you sometime between the Jug and the Breeders Crown.
Tim Bojarski
President of USHWA