Greetings all SCWS-er’s!

I want to say THANK YOU to the outgoing board and officers who have served SCWS so well. Cheri Hollenback has turned over her very heavy mantle of Presidency but will be continuing to serve as Corresponding Secretary. Barbara Campbell and Judie Lucas have stepped aside so that Tina Grant and René Brimhall can serve as Board Members. Joy Ritter, our Über-Treasurer of so many years, is taking a well deserved break and the purse strings have been turned over to Kim Leslie. Please join me in thanking all the dedicated volunteers who have stepped down, in welcoming newcomers to the club leadership, and most especially in thanking all of those who continue to serve their club. Without club involvement there is no club!

I also want to thank all of you for your faith in me during this upcoming year. It will be exciting as both SCWS and WVSF members work toward our 2006 National Specialty next September. I was a very new member when this club last sponsored a National in 1996 and I remember well how hard the National Committee worked to put on the show. I had never heard of a National Specialty before 1995 -- heck, I hadn’t even got the whole “show-thing” down as I’d just started showing my Malamute in conformation a few months after Nicky and I made our obedience debut! Nicky flunked his debut, by the way, but he did go on to a respectable run at herding, which is how I ended up as Herding Chair in Puyallup.

I believe this club could use a boost in its communication. Our newsletter, ably edited by Liz Swearingen, is only published monthly. In this day of electronic communication, that isn’t always the best way to disseminate information. To that end, I’ve set up a Yahoo Email Group for SCWS members. I would like this list to be an aid in communicating with other club members and for club announcements. Please, if you have an email address, join this list. Simply send an email to SCWS-subscribe@yahoogroups.com or click on the link on the club’s website to sign up.

Our most recent club meeting was a great success! We had 8 members, 9 guests, and 18 dogs attend the meeting and walk around Green Lake last Sunday. Near the end of the walk, three other people (past rescuer adopters) and one dog met up with the larger group. As always, it’s really fun to walk any where with one or two Sammies but imagine our response when ALL of us started walking the lake! People were smiling and laughing as they watched the dogs bounding with joy as they explored this urban park. So many children had to come up and ask to pet the dogs, and of course, all the dogs wanted to be “the one” getting the attention. J

This was so much fun that everyone involved wants to do it again. I am still looking for a couple dedicated volunteers to head up the Working Committee and the Education Committee so that fun and educational activities can be planned throughout the year. Please give this some consideration as I’ll be making phone calls and emails to all of you asking the same question very soon! Also, if there are certain activities you’d like to participate in – or try out for the first time, please let me know about it! Is there something specific you’d like to learn more about? Shoot me an email, letter or phone call. This is YOUR CLUB, and I’d like to help it help you learn more about the breed! We can all afford to learn more, even those who have been “in the breed” forever. The chairs of the two committees (could that be you serving here?) will take these ideas and tailor activities to match the club member’s interests.

Also, please consider signing up for the SCWS email list. This list is designed to be used to get information about club gatherings out to the membership. Please go to our website at www.samoyedclubwa.org and click on the link to join!

The Sammy Olympics were held on Saturday, September 10, 2005. As always, this is an event that everyone who attends enjoys. Not only the humans, but the dogs as well. This year the turn out was great and there were several events offered.

Cheri Hollenback chaired the event and was in charge of the herding. It is amazing to watch these dogs get into the pen with the sheep and instinctively do what they were bred to do. The most amazing dog to watch was Ariel. Ariel is just one day shy of 5 months old and thought that it was wonderful to have stuffed toys to herd that ran on their own and did not wind down. It was the most amazing thing to watch her in that pen.

In addition to the herding, Joe and Linda now have a complete set of agility equipment which was available to us. Jason Loper was kind enough to work with everyone on taking them through the ability equipment. It is so much fun to watch the dogs work with this equipment and especially to watch the owners and handlers try to keep up with them.

The third event we had available this year was scootering. Both Kathy Buckner and Van Swearingen brought their scooters and Kathy spent the day working with this event. Although it was difficult for the dogs to run in the field as there was no trail to follow, they managed and many got an opportunity to see how their dogs could pull and a chance to ride behind them on the scooter.

Finally was the Grooming Demonstration. Kim Leslie got drafted to do this and did a wonderful job. She spent a great deal of time working with the folks and answering their questions. She explained both show grooming and general grooming techniques. It was a very beneficial session.

We saw many old friends here and several new ones. There were even folks who attended without dogs, just because they had Sammies in the past and wanted to get back in touch with the Sammy community. As always, what this event pointed out to us is WHAT AMAZING DOGS WE HAVE!!!!!!!

To see the rest of the pictures from the event, go to http://www.eskimo.com/~sams/sammyo2005/