2022 NAPS Annual Meeting Recap
Annual Meeting Review
By Matt Morgan
Our latest quick family get away was spent in the heart of Florida’s wild country in a secluded area of Martin County. The Quail Hunt Florida Ranch, or QHF Ranch for short, consists of 1350 acres of cow pastures, live oaks, native grasses, pine flatwoods, sabal palms and marshes. A great place to run Pudelpointers, kids and adults of all ages. This was the site for the North American Pudelpointer Society’s Annual Meeting.
Many images come to mind when I think of Florida. I grew up spending summer days on the white sand beaches of Panama City getting sunburnt while boogie boarding, playing putt-putt, racing go-carts around a concrete track, riding rides at the Miracle Strip, and eating a steak and fried shrimp at Angelo’s or stuffed flounder at Captain Anderson’s. Those are fond memories, I snuck my first beer from a cooler left unattended by my daddy and his friends when I was maybe 12 or 13. My high school and college days, we spent spring break on those same beaches pursuing other things that young men pursue.
These days I seek a different version of wild animals while in the Sunshine State. Old Florida is what I look for and that is what my family found at QHF. The broomsage grass and palmettos, the live oak and longleaf pine trees and the beautiful songs by Mr. Bob White are what we basked under for this get away. Once we latched the front gate back so that none of the resident cows escaped, our clocks hands seemed to turn at a different more genteel pace.
We were greeted at the campsite by Mr. Tim and Luca, two of the employees of QHF, they steered us to our camper and made sure everything was in order. As we unpacked Angel checked in to see if we needed anything further. They were all as kind as they could be and very helpful throughout our stay. After our belongings were arranged we followed the sand two track trail out of camp to a field with the tallest broomsage I’ve ever seen to air out our two dogs Syrus and Tito. They were happy to stretch their legs after being cooped up for 6 plus hours. It might have been 200 yards into the field before they both locked up on a solid point, I stepped in front of them and a covey of 20 or so quail erupted in one beautiful flurry of escape. This time I had no gun in hand so the only reward for our two pups was a couple pats on the head followed by some high praise and a release to find the next group of birds.
Back at camp we found more of the Pudelpointer folks congregated and began to shake hands of social media friends that we’d had for years. It’s a funny thing that social media brings to our lives, someone will ask me if I know this person or that person and I feel torn to say that I do because we are friends through Facebook or Instagram or whatever. There is something about meeting others in person that makes that connection so much stronger. That was the point of overcoming the past two year’s limitations on our society, we needed to get back to meeting face to face, even if it were in a hybrid Zoom-In Person format. There are many more out there I’d like to share a campfire, or field, or beer with and be able to say, yes I met him or her and their pudelpointers too. That is where the need for Annual Meetings, Fun Runs and training weekends come into play. In order for these things to happen we need help from our membership. We have the playbook ready we just need the locations and people to make them happen. Bringing the NAPS membership together will only help in starting and continuing conversations on the best path forward for the breeders, owners, potential owners, and the Pudelpointer as a breed.
Somewhere in between the beginning and the end of this weekend, the activities consisted of a Ducks Unlimited pheasant tower shoot where all the pheasants were retrieved by Pudelpointers, a Fun Run that featured 11 Pudelpointers and their handlers as participants, a wild hog blood tracked by a Pudelpointer, training sessions by various groups, food cooked and shared by the attendants, the actual NAPS Annual Meeting, and a pre and post meeting in-person group discussion. Congratulations to Chris Randell and his girl, Foothills Native Heart “Lillie”, for earning the most points in the Fun Run. Chris and Lillie will be headed to New Mexico this upcoming September and we wish you and all other Pudelpointers the best of luck in the NAVHDA Invitational and to all other handlers in their various stages of NAVHDA training and testing.
Many hands took part in making this NAPS Annual Meeting a possibility. Listing them all would be a tall task. Three of our members were instrumental in bringing the participants together, Karen Kucker, Alycia Baird and Chad Bumb and I thank them all. In the end I left QHF Ranch with a satisfaction that comes with a well planned, well run weekend and a greater confidence that there are people like myself that are striving to protect and steer this breed down the best path. Now I can truly say that I’ve shaken his or her hand and met their Pudelpointer and that we are friends.
Motion M01-22 Voting Results
We had one motion to change the Bylaws this year which was as follows:
Motion: I move to amend the bylaws Article IV., Section 1, with a change to the following statement: “An annual meeting shall be held in January/February of each year and shall consist of”
I propose the amended version to state “An annual meeting shall be held in March/April of each year and shall consist of”.
Reason: To provide more regional flexibility, during months of better weather, in the planning of the Annual Meeting which will allow NAPS to combine the Meeting with Pudelpointer events such as training clinics, fun runs and other competitions.
A link for voting was emailed out to all current 2022 members on February 27th with a deadline of Friday March 4th for voting. We received 37 votes but 1 was past the deadline and was not counted. All votes were in favor. Therefore the Bylaws have been updated to change the annual meeting timeframe from January/February to March/April of each year. We are currently planning to have the 2023 annual meeting in Ohio with a full weekend of socializing, training, and fun!
