We are in the heart of the regional awards season. Some regions held their banquets the past two weekends and others will the next two weekends. Congratulations to all the winners and thank you for supporting our CFA shows this past year. Thanks also to the many club members who worked so hard producing those hundreds of CFA shows around the world. Without all that volunteer effort we would not be able to have so many memorable, top quality cat shows. We couldn’t do it without you.
Within a matter of days many of us will gather at the Turning Stone Resort & Casino outside Syracuse, NY for our Annual Meeting. There will be a number of events and among them will be a meeting with the delegates representing the 600+ CFA clubs as well as an awards banquet to honor the national award winners from around the world. This is the highlight of the year for many of us in the CFA family. I hope you plan to attend. I am looking forward to seeing so many of you all in one place.
This past year has been an incredibly successful one for our association. Thanks to each of you who contributed to our success by registering your cats with CFA, exhibiting at our shows, participating as a volunteer in so many ways, etc. We also need to keep in mind the two dozen staff members who work diligently to service us with registrations, show licenses, scoring our cats, processing our payments, keeping
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Photo by Carolyn Jimenez
the computers humming, producing our publications, and so much more. It is more than just a job for many of them. Special thanks to our Executive Director, Allene Tartaglia, who helped in so many ways this past year.
Looking forward to the new year, we have some exciting plans for CFA. Many of our committees have great ideas that they plan to implement in the year ahead. Some of them will be rolled out at the Annual meeting and we will be discussing them via our monthly newsletter and frequent CFA-News notices.
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Central Office Report
Allene Tartaglia
Executive Director
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The “face” of Central Office staff in Alliance Ohio has changed quite a bit since since the last time a photo was included in the Newsletter and an updated photo is below. Due to some recent personnel changes, our registration staff is doing double duty and we are aware of some delays in the registration area. Very shortly, we will be fully staffed resulting in quicker processing of registrations. We appreciate your patience while we train new staff.
The Annual Meeting is fast approaching and you know what means - deadlines are fast approaching too. Be sure to
place your meal reservations (awards dinner, Winn symposium, Breed Council breakfasts) by June 20, There is still time to
sponsor an award too,
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If you are interested in a shuttle back to the Syracuse airport from the Turning Stone Resort you can
sign up here, (click on the Sunday Morning Airport Shuttle link ). The cost is $20. A big thanks to the North Atlantic Region for organizing the shuttle service.
A newer and more up-to-date method of checking in delegates is being introduced this year. Thanks go to Sean Dobbins, the individual who works with clubs, for the idea. A personalized QR code for a club's delegate has been emailed to each delegate. A reminder, follow up email will be sent shortly before the Annual Meeting. An example code is below. The QR code will be scanned at delegate check in from either a printed version of the email that you bring, or directly from the email on your smartphone. If preferred, you can still check in as a delegate the old fashioned way by providing your name or the club's name.
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Already thinking about the CFA International Cat Show in October? You can make your hotel reservations at the Marriott now using
this link The show flyer will be available at the Annual Meeting and online starting in July.
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Sources of CFA Registrations
January‐May, 2019
(Analysis by Dick Kallmeyer)
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Greetings from the CFA Central Office in Alliance, Ohio location
Bottom row, l. to r.: Erica Minich, Judy Minich, Allene Tartaglia, Shirley Michaud-Dent
2nd row, l. to r.: Melissa Watson, Amber Goodright, Amanda Ganni, Mindy Lyons
3rd row, l. to r.: Cristal Oesch, Kay Chamberlain, Brian Buetel
4th row, l. to r.: Mariane Toth, Linda Kavalousky
Top row, l. to r.: James Simbro, Jordan Lampley, Sean Dobbins
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Meet the Central Office Staff
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by Geri Fellerman
Coming on board with CFA on October 15, 2012, shortly after the move to Alliance, James took the position of systems administrator, a position he retains to this day. The job is widely varied and includes trouble shooting, helping with logins, error messages and the like. In addition, he is tasked with running reports, maintaining hardware, managing the email server and interfacing with programmers and the Central Office staff.
A graduate of the University of Mount Union in Ohio, James received a B.S. in Information Systems. Prior to going back to school, he pursued one of his hobbies and worked in the bicycle industry. Originally from Columbus, Ohio, James has been an Ohio resident except for some years in the Washington, D.C., area while his wife pursued her doctorate.
The best part of his workday includes facing different challenges all the time. Least favorite times come with the stress of year-end activities.
At home, James is happy to share fun times with his two daughters aged 7 and 13 and with his wife who is a professor at a local university. Together, they all enjoy outdoor activities and travel time. Due to his wife’s work schedule, they are able to have some flexibility in their summer plans. Their household is shared with two Devon Rex kitties (chosen due to his wife’s allergies as well as their sweet personalities), one domestic shorthair rescue, and a house-trained white rabbit who, ears aside, blends nicely with the white domestic.
A visitor to the International show, James has also attended some local cat shows and is hoping to attend the International this year.
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Since 2012, the image of Garfield has been used to help promote CFA to the general public and that mission has been accomplished. Effective this July 1, all Garfield images will be discontinued in all new marketing materials and messages to include but not limited to show flyers, newsletters, websites, posters, etc. CFA has already started sending out show posters and ring signs without the Garfield image and online images on CFA’s website for use by shows are being updated.
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Shows that receive CFA sponsorship funds are required to use the CFA logo with the phrase "Proud Show Sponsor." This logo needs to appear on show flyers and catalog covers. Many clubs have the mistaken idea that they need to use this logo in addition to the traditional CFA logo. Not so. While the Show Rules require clubs to use the CFA logo, use of the Proud Show Sponsor logo on the flyer and catalog cover meets this requirement. Use just one logo, not both.
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CFA YEARBOOK & CAT TALK
SPECIAL ADVERTISING COMBO PACKAGE
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Place a full or half page ad in BOTH the 2020 Yearbook
and the August issue of Cat Talk for one low price.
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Full Page Color ad Yearbook/Cat Talk Combo........$350.00
Save $250!
Half Page Color ad Yearbook/Cat Talk Combo........$200.00
Save $165!
732-492-7216) if you have any further questions.
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Deadline for Special Combo Ad Offer
Thursday
June 20, 2019
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YEARBOOK ONLY ADS
DEADLINE AUGUST 22, 2019
Full Page Color ad $300.00
Full Page B&W ad $205.00
2 Full Page Color ads (1 Yearbook) $500.00
2 Full Page B&W ads (1 Yearbook) $385.00
3 Full Page Color ads (1 Yearbook) $730.00
4 Full Page Color ads (1 Yearbook) $960.00
Half Page Color ad $165.00
Half Page B&W ad $130.00
Quarter Page Color ad $120.00
Quarter Page B&W ad $ 90.00
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Shared Ad Prices
(Includes 2 Free Yearbooks)
Full Page Color shared ad $335.00
Full Page B&W shared ad $240.00
Half Page Color shared ad $200.00
Half Page B&W shared ad $160.00
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The CFA Marketing Team
Desiree Bobby, Kathy Black, Mike Altschul
On any given day, you can find Mike Altschul of the CFA Marketing Committee hard at work managing shows, donating his time to help promote shows on Facebook or strategizing to help clubs increase their gate. At this year’s annual, Mike will lead an informative meeting for everyone who would like to learn some of his tricks. Be sure to check the schedule!
Some of the things that will be covered in the meeting are:
Old advertising vs. new advertising, target audiences, sweat promotion, accepting credit cards, online ticketing, Groupon, digital media, gate management, progressive show activities and partnerships with local rescues.
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One of the topics that has not been spoken about too much, is partnering with local rescues and shelters. Many clubs have had great success when an area of their show hall is provided to local rescues for adoption events. You can read more about this in the current CatTalk issue.
CFA Cat Shows and Rescues – Partnering Benefits Both
(abridged from an "Social Media Smarts" article appearing in the June 2019 issue of Cat Talk)
Mike Altschul
For some reason many of the show producing clubs’ alliances across the USA with rescues seems to have slipped. While many clubs still maintain a good relationship with rescues, others have become disconnected.
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So why should a show producing club work with local rescue?
- It’s the right thing to do. “CFA Constitution states: “for the welfare of all cats” We need to be responsible for helping the homeless and the needy cats in each of our areas!
- They make great partners and need our exposure at shows even as we need them in many ways. It is a true symbiotic relationship. Placing them near the entrance takes pressure off our exhibitors to let people touch when they first arrive and get the cat touch fix.
- It helps insulate us from animal rights activists. I often get comments from activist how breeders are evil and the reason millions of cats are being put to sleep! The only cat anyone should consider is a rescue cat. I reply that we have the rescues attending the event and that I’m sure they could use some help. And it answers the elephant in the room question. Are these good people to visit – do I want to attend the show?
- It can greatly add to the attendance of the show. The larger rescues have large a Facebook following. This is a great natural audience
- They can be a good source of man power in a time that we have little man power. Whether it’s stewarding or even helping out with set-up and tear-down, we need all the help we can get. If we need to pay them to help, what a good cause to donate to.
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I hope if you have lost touch with the rescues (and shelters) in your market you will consider building a new healthy relationship. It will be beneficial to all of us!
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The June issue of Cat Talk began hitting mailboxes last week.
The theme for our June issue is "Pay It Forward" and we look at ways breeders and exhbitors can contribute to the cat fancy. Ann Strople continues her "Nature vs. Nurture" series, Jennifer Redding writes about dealing with ringworm outbreaks in a cattery. PLUS our regular features show us "What You Don't Know About Egyptian Maus," explain the "Fur-Name" of a kitten found in VERY questionable circumstances, Mollie Shutt and Susan Willett are together "Fur Ever," and Mike Altschuls "Social Media Smarts" column details the mutual advantages of cat shows and shelters/rescues partnering together.
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Remember that our August issue is our Year in Review issue. We're offering
special pricing on ads placed in both Cat Talk and the CFA Yearbook. Refer to the ad elsewhere in this newsletter for details!
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Special Pricing for Annual Meeting Attendees
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Save the cost of shipping on a CFA Yearbook(s) and take advantage of a limited time reduction in prices for past Yearbooks. If you are attending the Annual Meeting in Verona NY, you can prepay for a Yearbook and pick it up at the Annual. 2019 & 2018 Yearbooks are $45, 2017 is $35, 2016 and prior are $10 (there are some older volumes which are no longer available). Contact
Shelly Borawski if you are interested in pre-purchasing a Yearbook for pick up at the Annual.
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Jo Ann Miksa-Blackwell, Director of Development
Development is on the move as we explore creative ways to promote the CFA brand. One of our new initiatives this year is a CFA Pet Expo plan. We are already scheduled to participate in three pet expos during the next several months, engaging spectators with the CFA booth, promotional materials, and Interactive activities such as Feline Agility, Pet Me Cats, and Companion Cat World.
This fall, we kick off our pet expo participation at the Minnesota State Fair, August 22 through September 2, 2019. Jill Singer and Twin City Cat Fanciers’ members hosted the CFA Booth in 2018. This year, CFA will add support to the efforts of Twin City Cat Fanciers, attending the event and providing publications, brochures, banners, display items, and additional interactive opportunities for spectators.
The Pittsburgh Pet Expo on November 15-17, 2019, will feature a CFA Booth, Feline Agility, and Pet Me Cats. In addition, a CFA Cat Show will be held in conjunction with the Pet Expo. Great Lakes Regional Director, John Colilla, is managing the details of the cat show. Special thanks to Jim Flanik, Jill Archibald, and Niki Faniak for already committing to participate in the Pittsburgh Pet Expo.
The third event on the current Pet Expo schedule is the Super Pet Expo in Edison, New Jersey, February 7-9, 2020. Thanks to Brenda Flahault, and Garden State Cat Club members for all they did to ensure success and gain recognition for CFA at this expo in 2019. We look forward to another successful event in 2020.
Sponsorships are on the move too!
Our goal as we seek sponsorships is to produce high-quality deliverables and measurable results as we support CFA’s mission and the cats and people that are the heart of CFA.
We have two new sponsorship agreements with major supporters, Royal Canin, and NOURSE, and are actively working on securing a third.
Royal Canin has exclusive presenting rights at The CFA International Cat Show October 12 –13, 2019, and is also sponsoring the CFA Annual Meeting. Dr. Rick Kesler D.V.M., Royal Canin Senior Service Veterinarian, will be the Royal Canin presenter at the Annual Meeting and will host a Q & A session.
NOURSE, a Shanghai Chowsing Pet Products “Pet Nutrition Brand,” is now a CFA sponsor. We are pleased that Gary X Lee, NOURSE Director of Branding, will be presenting at the Annual Meeting in Verona, New York. Gary and other NOURSE representatives will be at events throughout the Annual, where attendees will have the opportunity to meet them and learn more about NOURSE products.
To secure sponsors like these it is important that we make it clear that the dollars companies invest in CFA will deliver a measurable return on investment. The proposals we present must communicate clearly the “value” of the programs we are asking them to sponsor.
To create a sponsorship proposal that meets this requirement, CFA Development often is involved to some extent in program development. Most recently we have focused our efforts on CFA Feline Agility competitions.
The popularity of agility continues to grow at cat shows around the world, engaging both participants and observers. Jill Archibald began working with CFA in 2004 to promote the Art of Agility. In recent years, Niki Faniak has joined Jill and both are now CFA Feline Agility Ringmasters. Together, these outstanding Agility Masters demonstrate their talents and compassion for cats as they bring CFA Feline Agility to venues around the USA and internationally.
To capitalize on the growing interest in agility competitions, we have recently updated the CFA Feline Agility logo and brochure and developed an Agility Sponsorship Proposal that a potential sponsor is now reviewing.
I very much look forward to working on additional sponsorship proposals for other CFA programs and products. We have created guidelines that outline what we need from your committee to be able to develop a sponsorship proposal for your area of interest.
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Karen Lane - Ambassador Cats Co-Chair
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SO many things currently are happening now in the CFA Ambassador Cat Program and we can't wait to unveil them all to you at the CFA Annual!!
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Carmen Lawrence - Committee Chair
We are a month and a half into the new season, and our youth have already been busy! Many are out showing their fancy felines, volunteering with rescues, and assisting with regional celebration preparations while also finishing out their school years! Some have already celebrated their achievements at their respective regional banquets, which will continue through the end of the month.
It is with great pride I present to you the Regional and National Age Division winners for the 2018-2019 season!
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Regional Winners
North Atlantic Region Winners
Evangeline Gulea – 1
st
Lions Division
Heather Wilde – 1
st
Cats Division
Angelica Whitney – 2
nd
Cats Division
Christopher Gulea – 3rd Cats Division
Amelia Egeler – 1
st
Seniors Division
Northwest Region Winners
Matilda Starbuck – 1
st
Lions Division
Zaden Moss – 2
nd
Lions Division
Adeline Moss – 1
st
Cats Division
Abby Berry – 2nd Cats Division
Gulf Shore Region
Isabel Pitts – 1st Seniors Division
Great Lakes Region
Edward Goatseay – 1
st
Lions Division
Audrey Akers – 2
nd
Lions Division
Sophia Barnard-DeCann – 3
rd
Lions Division
Skye Runzel – 1
st
Cats Division
Zoe Neumann - 2nd Cats Division
Gavin Akers - 3rd Cats Division
Rebecca Gibson – 1
st
Seniors Division
Participants: Nadyne Blose & Alex Akers
Southwest Region
Payton Gomez – 1
st
Cats Division
Midwest Region
Asha Weier – 1
st
Lions Division
Najeh Weier – 1
st
Cats Division
Southern Region
Abigail Vaughan – 1st Lions Division
Aaron Smith - 1st Cats Division
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National Division Winners
Lions
Edward Goatseay – 1st Place
Abigail Vaughan – 2nd Place
Matilda Starbuck – 3rd Place
Cats
Payton Gomez – 1st Place
Heather Wilde – 2nd Place
Angelica Whitney – 3rd Place
Seniors 16-18 yrs
Isabel Pitts – 1st Place
Amelia Egeler – 2nd Place
Rebecca Gibson – 3rd Place
Special recognition goes out to Rebecca Gibson who has now “graduated” from the program. We look forward to watching her continued growth, development and involvement in CFA!
The Overall Winners will be announced at the CFA Annual Meeting on Friday, June 28th.
The program thanks you for your continued support!
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Legislation – What’s Hot . . . . . . .
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By Sharon Coleman, CFA Legislative Legal Analyst
Kelly S. Crouch, CFA Legislative Information Liaison
Massachusetts House Bill 1444, Guardian Bill
- Muddying the Waters for Pet Owners
Massachusetts Representative Steven S. Howitt (R-Seekonk) presented
H. 1444 by petition - a short bill that on first glance doesn’t reveal its true purpose. As with H. 2290, an identical bill presented in 2017, a careful analysis exposes the intent behind the bill. The opening sentence of the bill does say, “An Act changing the legal status of "pets" from personal property to "companion animals"(emphasis added).” However, nothing in the actual language to be enacted mentions property, and the companion animal terminology has never been used for this purpose. Rather a trend of many years has been to draft special laws for “companion animals” with offense definitions, classifications and penalties different from those for livestock or other animals. This use was merely a way of differentiating different types of animals and was unrelated to the standard personal property status of all animals. A different petition bill for 2019,
H.1815, is titled “An Act known as the companion animal protection act of Massachusetts, deals with impounded animals and never defines or uses “companion animals” in the provisions to be enacted. In current state law, there is only one use of companion animal, in veterinary law, Chapter 112, Section 58A1/2: Dispensing of compounded drugs to companion animals by veterinarians. Thus, it is unlikely the use of this term would achieve the drafter’s purpose of elevating the legal status of pets, so there must be other clues.
The first clue to the drafter’s intent is the bill’s second paragraph to be enacted, “Caregivers of “companion animals” shall be considered “guardians”. The original 1999 “Guardian Campaign” of In Defense of Animals (IDA) founder, Dr. Elliot Katz, sought to elevate the status of animals by substituting guardian for owner as a step to eliminating the property status of animals. This would change the paradigm of ownership to a “fiduciary” relationship for care of animals. No detailed framework for a legal guardianship relationship was ever worked out to do this, and proponents had to settle for “guardian” as the legal equivalent and alternate usage for owner. With greater scrutiny, the realization that guardians only have obligations but no inherent rights, public skepticism increased. IDA has now revised their own terminology to “The Founder's Guardian Initiative” although Guardians remains one of their organization
campaigns. While the legislation fell out of favor, use of the term is always a red flag for determining drafter intention.
The second clue within the bill is less apparent to readers unfamiliar with criminal sentencing guidelines. In particular, the Federal criminal “sentencing guidelines” of mandatory minimum sentences for specific drug offenses, chiefly those involving small amounts of inexpensive but illegal drugs trafficked by low level offenders. The three offenses described in H. 1440 involve allowing “companion animals” to be outside in extreme weather “which poses an adverse risk to the health and safety of“ the animals. The bill then imposes mandatory minimum sentences of confinement. Unlike “guardian,” this is a new kind of red flag to watch for in animal laws.
Massachusetts has a long list of animal cruelty statutes, but none provide mandatory minimum sentencing. Nor does the 2016 Animal Cruelty And Protection Task Force report make any reference to this idea. Rather, each offense that includes confinement in the penalty, provides only that it be for “not more than” whatever period of years. At the state level, the Massachusetts Sentencing Commission has ”concluded that for certain mandatory offenses — e.g., OUI, firearms offenses — the mandatory minimum sentence was fair and proportionate. The Commission didn't reach the same conclusion upon its examination of mandatory drug offenses” and further noted, “Current research on mandatory minimum drug sentencing supports alternatives to mandatory sentences.” Use of mandatory minimum sentences for any animal offense would be a major policy departure for Massachusetts criminal
sentencing, so that offhand inclusion in H.1444 is a serious concern.
There are no precedents or obvious reasons for using mandatory minimum sentences in these low level animal offenses, except for a 2008 Comment in the Penn State Law Review., “Justice For Dusty: Implementing Mandatory Minimum Sentences For Animal
Abusers.” Similar to the hope that “guardian” would lead to better treatment of animals generally, this Comment, written by a law student, argues for creative use of mandatory minimum sentencing for animal abusers so that society takes these crimes more seriously.
The Massachusetts petition bill process probably facilitates aspirational bills that advance policy ideals rather than practical approaches, but sometimes political quirks lead to enactment of unlikely bills or copycats elsewhere. While these are challenging to identify, it is important to understand them.
Recent CFA Legislative Group Blog Posts:
1. Massachusetts: Senate Bill 114 Creating Breeder Licensing for Cat Fanciers and Rescue Regulations Proposed by MDAR. 5/16/2019
2. Docket No. APHIS-2017-0062 – Proposed Rule Comment Period Ends May 21, 2019. 5/19/2019
3. APHIS Extends Comment Period for Docket No. APHIS-2017-0062 – proposed Rule Comment Period Ends June 5, 2019. 5/21/2019
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Julie Legred - Executive Director, Winn Feline Foundation
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A list of our donors contributing $100 or more in May 2019 is available
here
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Winn Feline Foundation and the American Veterinary Medical Foundation (AVMF)
announce a scholarship opportunity for third- or fourth-year veterinary students enrolled in accredited veterinary colleges or schools in the United States or Canada. The $2,500 award is based upon academic achievement, financial need, leadership, and dedication to and excellence in the study of feline medicine, health, and welfare.
Applications are now being reviewed by our panel of 4 Winn Feline Foundation Board members. They are tasked with identifying the best application and the winner will be announced this month.
Winn Feline Foundation, TICA, CFA, and Dr. Elsey’s are co-sponsoring the WINNing Cats Feline Education
and Cats Show to be held June 21st – 23rd, 2019 at the Maryland State Fairgrounds in Timonium, MD. We would love for you to join us. Please register at
http://bit.ly/21865rr.
We would love your you to join us at the 41
st
Annual Winn Feline Foundation’s Annual Symposium
June 27
th
, 2019 in Verona, NY.
Click here
for more information.
Planned Giving by George Eigenhauser -
The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 raised the standard deduction for individuals and married couples. It also reduced, eliminated, or capped certain deductions. The amount you can take for charitable deductions increased. But unless you have enough other deductions you do better taking the standard deduction. If you do so you will not be able to deduct your charitable contributions. As a result you may need new strategies to maximize your tax benefits. If you are close to itemizing you can use timing to “bunch” donations. You can make donations intended for 2020 in 2019 to help overcome the threshold for itemizing. Another strategy is to donate appreciated securities (such as stocks or certain mutual funds). By donating appreciated assets you may avoid the costs of selling them yourself, as well as eliminating taxes on the gain. This works best with assets that have a low adjusted basis compared to current fair market value.
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Our friends at Motel 6 would like CFA to continue to receive the 10% discount at participating locations by using the new updated reservation code of CPOAPHHT. There is a dedicated reservation site for CFA at
www.motel6.com/en/cp/cfa.html
or you may call 800-466-8356.
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Code: 1000026977
or call 877-999-3223 and ask for the discount code CFA CAT FANCIERS ASSOCIATION
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Sharon Roy - Regional Director
Not a lot to report this month as we are getting ready for our Regional this past weekend and the Annual, in Verona NY in two more weeks.
We have a special hospitality night planned at the annual so hope you can all attend! It will be held in the Turquoise Tiger Nightclub at the Resort.
Right after the Annual, we have two outstanding shows coming up in the North Atlantic Region.
- July 13&14th One Fine Day, Lebanon PA
- July 20&21, Garden State Cat Club, Edison NJ.
Hope to see many of you at the annual and at our two July shows.
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Terri Zittel - Region 2 Secretary
The Northwest Regional Awards Show and Banquet is being held at the Cowlitz Regional Conference Center in Longview, WA. The date is June 22
nd
and we will have a six ring show at the Conference Center with the banquet in a separate hall. This is a new venue for the region so we are excited to see how it will be received.
There are lots of hotels in the area and many are pet friendly. Our judges are: Brian Moser, Mary Auth, Vicki Nye, Darrell Newkirk, Neil Quigley & Wendy Heidt doing specialty judging. The show closes on June 18
th
at noon so get those entries in. So far, we have a lot of new exhibitors that are entering the show. Great place to start with CFA.
The theme this year is “Purple Rain.” Unfortunately we couldn’t find a Prince impersonator to come to the show and banquet. However, I understand that Darrell Newkirk did a great impersonation of Elvis at the SW Regional show and banquet. Maybe?
As you can see, I don’t have a lot of news for this letter. I do want to thank Kathy Durdick, Tammy Roark, and Kendall Smith for all the organizational efforts that go into setting up an event such as this. Each and every year these members of our region work long and hard to insure that banquet, show, and presentations run smoothly.
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Leesa Altschul
WOW! What an exciting show season we have had this season. Many placements came down to wire, which always makes it interesting. Here are our Gulf Shore Region’s Best Cats in their category and those who made National Wins this season. We are so proud of our region.
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Our Best Kitten and a National Winner is a ruddy Abyssinian, GC, NW ASTECH'S INDIA SAVAGE owned by Sue Truesdell.
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Our Best Cat and the National Breed Winner is a cream European Burmese, GC, BWR, RW NOOSA HEADS LIGHT FOOT owned by Wendy Klamm
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Our Best Cat in Premiership and a National Winner is a Brown Mackerel Tabby and White Norwegian Forest Cat, CH, GP, NW RI-KAR KATTS AHARON OF ANGELFOREST owned by Leah & Dwight Dow.
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Our 2nd Best Cat in Premiership and a National Winner is a Red Tabby Exotic, GC, GP, NW PURR ELLI LIGHT EM UP owned by Laura Gregory, Jan Chambers, Tabatha Perkins, Mike Perkins.
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Our 3
rd
Best Cat in Premiership and a National Winner is a Chartreux, GC, GP, NW FOXYKATS LADY LIBERTY owned by Leah & Dwight Dow
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Our Best Household Pet is GH, HRW MOTO MOTO OF ALORACATS owned by Marlon Azada and Jennifer Simper.
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UPCOMING SHOWS:
Judges: Ammons(AB), Anger(AB), Bassett(AB), Griswold(AB), Godwin(AB), Newkirk(AB), Watson(AB), Owen (LH/SH), Pearson(LH/SH), Black(LH/SH).
·
July 06-07: TX, CONROE.
Lone Star Expo Center, 9055 AIRPORT ROAD.
Stars & Stripes Tabby & Tortie
. (Additional sponsor: Magnolia State Cat Club) 7AB, 3SP, HHP. (Back-to-Back)
Judges: Bassett(AB), Black(AB), Wood(AB), Rogers(AB), Ammons(AB), Jaeger(AB), Godwin(AB), Bennett(LH/SH), Newkirk(LH/SH), Pearson(LH/SH).
·
July 27: OK, NORMAN.
Cleveland City Fairgrounds, 615 EAST ROBINSON. Cow Hill Cat Club. 4AB, 2SP, HHP Judges: Ammons(AB), Janzen(AB), Black(AB), Rogers(AB), Bassett(LH/SH), Bennett(LH/SH).
·
August 31: LA, ALEXANDRIA
. Best Western Hotel and Conference Center, 2720 North Macarthur Drive. Cenla Cat Fanciers. 6AB, 4SP, HHP. (Back-to-Back)
Judges: Watson(AB), Black(AB), Godwin(AB), Owen(AB), Williams(AB), Ammons(AB), Rogers(LH/SH), Bassett(LH/SH), Jaeger(LH/SH), Pearson(LH/SH)
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John Colilla - Regional Director
Our region is very active in social media with a Facebook page as well being a member of Pinterest. Please stop by and check out what is going on in our region on our
Facebook and
Pinterest pages.
The Great Lakes Region Fundraising Committee is busy producing the 2020 CATS OF CFA CATENDAR which will be available late summer. The proceeds from the sale of the Catendar and other fundraisers helps offset expenses for things such as hospitality, entertainment, etc at the CFA Annual.
The 2022 CFA Annual will be held in Louisville, KY and the Great Lakes Region is looking forward to many of you joining us for this event!!
Be sure to mark your calendar with our upcoming shows:
- July 6-7 – Great Lakes Great Maines & Sternwheel Cat Fanciers – Columbus OH, 7AB 3SP, 10 HHP
- July 13-14 – Triple Crown Cat Fanciers – Lexington KY, 7AB 3SP 10HHP
- July 27 – Motor City Jazz Club – Taylor MI, 4AB 2SP 6HHP
- July 28 – Midwest Persian Tabby Fanciers – Taylor MI, 4AB 2SP 6HHP
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Howard Webster - Regional Director
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The Southwest Regional Show and Banquet was held June 8, 2019.
This was a great show! It was held at the Henderson Multigenerational Center , which is a wonderful venue that will be in use next year for the Las Vegas show in April 2020.
We had a special new exhibitor, Lena Bradshaw's 4 month old son. Lena will, hopefully, get him ready to steward in a few years and show as soon as possible!
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It was a fun show, and we all got out with enough time to make ourselves pretty for the Banquet to start on time.
The Las Vegas Cat Club put on the show and found the banquet hall. They did a wonderful job! Cyndi Yanez , Liz Armitage , Ellyn Honey, Rose Ann Wheeler and Elvis, aka, Darrel Newkirk, made the show and Banquet a time to remember!
The Banquet began with a cocktail hour, which included a wedding! Howard Webster and Thom Rowley held a brief ceremony, and, after 7 years, made honest men out of each other!
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Art Graafmans, Cyndi Byrd, and Andrea did their usual excellent job of slide shows, including the On The Road segment, the remembrance segment, and all of the award presentations. Our Show Presenter was none other than Elvis! He did a marvelous job. The King rules!
All in all, a good time was had by all! It was so well run by all of the people involved, that we were done by 8:00 pm! Thanks to Cyndi, Andrea and Diane Heinzen for prepping the hall and decorating!
It was great, and we look forward to another fun time next year!
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Mary Auth - Regional Director
The Midwest Region hosted its second in-conjunction show with ACFA in Fremont, Nebraska on May 19. The Lincoln Cat Club came out of retirement to license the show with a core group of exhibitors lending a hand. The show had a good gate and exhibitors managed to find their way around despite the tragic amount of flooding in the area.
The Midwest Region hosted its awards dinner and show in a new location this year. Bloomington Ill. had not had a cat show in somewhere around 12-14 years – so long ago that nobody could remember exactly when other than Kay Janosik was region director at the time. The city welcomed the show and exhibitors with open arms, with many spectators asking when we would be returning.
With the team efforts of many regional exhibitors, the banquet was a success. Just about everyone commented on the quality of the food and the efficiency of getting the presentations done by 9:30.
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The Sangamon County Animal Rescue group found homes for three of their four household pet entries in the show. This group always enters HHPs at the shows and are generally successful in finding homes because of how much time they spend with the cats during the show.
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Cary Plummer served as emcee for the presentations – succinctly carrying out his role to keep the program moving.
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Jack Nichols and Tom Lukken sparkled in the coordinated jackets at the awards dinner.
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Two of our newer exhibitors, who have really been bitten by the CFA bug and who took home a top 25 championship and top 25 kitten win, are Rod Kroemer (left) and Jim Wuersch (right). Thanks to Leann Rupy for getting this couple started with Havana Browns as well as two other families. Altogether, there were five Havanas represented in the top 25 wins.
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These lovely ladies posed during the Friday night hospitality, hosted by the region. Left to right: Lonnie Alitz, Luanne Loggan, Mars (who tagged along with Selma), Selman Kessler and Sharon Miller.
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Kenny Currle - Regional Director
The CFA Southern Region is proud to call Best Cat (
GC, BWR, NW I-CATCHERS ICLOUD ) as one of its own! Congratulations to breeder and owner Jane Lamas.
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We would also like to celebrate ALL 28 of its National Winning cats in the 2018-19 show season. That breaks down to:
- Championship – 5
- Kittens – 4
- Premiership – 3
- Household Pets – 7
- Agility – 9
Demonstrating the level of dedication which our regional people have to breeding, maintaining, and exhibiting their cats. Congratulations to ALL of our winning “Southern Stars.”
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We’ll be celebrating our cats and our people this upcoming weekend in Timonium, MD with our regional awards banquet and show. It’s not to late to enter this show – remember though that it closes TODAY
As a part of this exciting weekend, the Winn Feline Foundation will be presenting a day long symposium on Friday at the show hall. You can find out more information about it
here
Upcoming Shows
After our regional show this weekend, we have no shows in the Southern Region until August. At that time we’ll have shows on three consecutive weekends!
- August 3-4 – Ft. Myers – Platinum Coast Cat Fanciers
- August 11-12 – Timonium, MD – Hidden Peak Cat Club
- August 17-18 – Rebel Rouser Cat Club
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Michael Hans Schleissner
Regional Director
How fast time is running! The 2018 - 2019 CFA show season is over and we are ready to celebrate our winners. This time we have the honor to come together in the wonderful country of Italy for our awards banquet and regional show.
Once again we had a very competitive season with many fabulous cats. Some of them also ended up as national winning cats. Special congratulations to these National Winners:
- GC BW NW Lac Hong Nini Peau D'Chien , Bombay male, owned by Mireille Sicard from France
- GC BW NW Almeros Xtreme Sauvage Xemail, ruddy Abyssinian male, owned by Alice Rosol from Germany
- GC NW Boberan Alonzo of Khardashia, red Persian male, owned by Antonio Crespo Moreno from Spain
All in all, this was my first season as a Regional Director for Europe. What a new experience. There were many things to learn and I'm still in the learning process. But looking back, there were some real successful steps made in our regional development. First was the general agreement between the French government-associated registration LOOF and CFA, which I finally could finish after a long time, to both sides' satisfaction. The second was that CFA granted Europe a special budget which we can use to help the clubs in saving money on CFA judges' invitations.
After the loss of two established CFA clubs in our region - Cats N Cats in France and Cat Friends of Germany we can be proud to welcome a new club in Bulgaria - welcome Bulgaria's Cat Fanciers. Their first show was very well done this year and as a prior notice there are more clubs to come soon. We still have two wonderful persons from Europe as judges trainees, Teo Vargas and Oscar Silva, in the CFA judging program and I wish both of them the very best for the future.
Do you know that the highest concentration of cat registration in CFA comes from Russia; Spain, France, and Germany are next with equal numbers among them all, followed by Finland and Ukraine. Thanks to all the breeders who register their cats with our organization.
There is a new project I'm working on; I'm proud to announce that the board of directors granted a budget for translations of the breed standards and show rules into Russian and French. I have planed that this will be finished in October 2019.
Many thanks to the 44 Gatti Cat Club for hosting our 2018 - 2019 awards banquet. I know that Giulia Di Natale and her team spend hours on getting this very special event ready. I can not mention enough that this is a real hard job. Thank you so much. They did everything on their own and our regional budget was very carefully handled. This shows us, that it's possible to go new ways in having success. I do not point out any additional helping hands, because when you start telling names it's possible to forget somebody. So, I don't want to forget anyone - Thanks to all of you; it's you who make this region a region filled with live and activities.
Congratulations to all of our winners
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Cat-H-Art Show in Tarbes, France
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Submitted by Frederic Goedert
On May 18 & 19, the first CFA show of the new season happened in Tarbes in France, hold by Cat-H-Art. It is always a challenge to organize a show where no CFA activities have happened before.
Tarbes is an essential stop between the city of Lourdes and the prestigious sites of the Pyrenees mountain range, it reveals its charms as you wander its palm-lined streets and experience the authentic feel of South-West France.
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Michael Schleissner judging Bengals
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This CFA-sponsored event had six CFA judges coming from the USA of course but also from Thailand and Germany. They officiated with a wide diversity of breeds coming mostly from France, but also from Spain, Portugal, Italy, Norway and Finland.
Nowadays the shorthair breeds tends to become more and more popular and we were able to attract breeds like Bengal, Siamese, Oriental and Colorpoint Shorthair together with new comers in longhairs such as Turkish Angora or Norwegians.
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What a pleasure for all the cat fanciers to collect points in these all Super Specialty Rings in kittens and championship, supporting all the experienced breeders and exhibitors and many new bees to champion or grand their most beautiful cats.
However only 40 breeders found the time and availability to enter that show when most of us have babies or just recover from the past season. It was a great honor for Cat-H-Art to see the results of a hard work to involve new breeders from France, Catalonia and Spain.
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These intense promotional efforts were rewarded this time by 16 returning new bees entering the show, together with 15 regular CFA Breeders and some new local breeders : what a friendly team for all of us sharing this first high time of our new season !
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Kathy Black educating the audience
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This is how we can measure the results for Cat-H-Art in order to entertain the French Cat Fancy with regular shows in order to keep the local exhibitors and help them to show their cats with the higher standards of CFA.
All these news exhibitors are so grateful for holding such a show in that isolated area and so excited about this new way for them to collect several judgments at the same week-end.
Thanks to this campaigns co-licensed with another French CFA club - Jardin Des Korats, they offered 5 shows since December 2018 in the biggest cities of the south of France like Toulouse, Albi, Perpignan, Nice and now Tarbes ! We start receiving now a lot of requests for registrations, shows and new groups are looking for a development of CFA in their area.
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Dick Kallemyer
Congratulations to all the International Division NW and DW winners as well as Breed and Color winners, and Grand of Distinction, DMs, Grands and Catteries of Distinction!
The CFA International Division Awards Banquet 2019 will be held in Sentosa, Singapore on August 17, 2019 at the S.E.A. Aquarium. The host is the Feline Fanciers’ Society of Singapore cat club. For more information, see the “CFA International Division” Facebook page or send an email to
idbanquet2019@gmail.com.
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2019 Banquet venue at the
S.E.A. Aquarium Ocean Gallery Room with a display of cat food
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