Don’t forget to pay your 2018 membership dues. They must be paid by March 1st to remain a member in good standing. Go to the membership tab above, print a workorder, write the check to BLU, and mail to the address on the form. Thank you!!
Tag: membership
2017 membership dues
Don’t forget to pay your 2017 membership dues. They must be paid by March 1st to remain a member in good standing. Go to the membership tab above, print a workorder, write the check to BLU, and mail to the address on the form. Thank you!!
Don’t forget to register your 2014 lambs!
Annual Election Approaches
The BLU election is coming in November !
Deadline to submit resumes to run for President or 3 board positions is OCTOBER 25th ***
Send resume to BLU breed secretary at P.O. Box 2304 Frisco, TX 75034, or email to info@bflsheep.com
Timeline for Election:
October 25th – Last day to receive resumes for candidacies. Resumes will be posted on the BLU website during the election.
Nov. 1st – Election Supervisor will mail ballots to all BLU full members as of October 1, 2012. Please check membership list on this website to be certain that your membership has been recorded.
Dec. 1st – Deadline for ballots to be returned to Election Supervisor.
Dec. 5th – Election Supervisor will count ballots and report to BLU president.
Dec. 6th – President to contact all candidates with results, and post on website.
***Check by-laws for eligibility rules and position descriptions
Your $$$ at work
As the sheep show and fiber festival season draws to a close with a flurry of fall events, BLU would like to remind our members of the advertising dollars spent promoting the breed and the breeders during the year.
Since 3 of BLU’s stated goals are promotion related:
- To engage in the education and promotion of Bluefaced Leicester sheep,
- To provide interested people with information about Bluefaced Leicester sheep and their products,
- To promote interest in the Bluefaced Leicester breed of sheep wherever possible in order to attract new breeders for the propagation and well-being of the breed.
the board feels strongly that a large portion of the budget each year should be spent on promotion and advertising.
Here is a list of the shows and festivals where advertising dollars were spent in 2012. These events have traditionally been attended by BLU members, either showing sheep or BFL fiber, or as vendors in fiber shows.
Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival – $150.00
Vermont Sheep & Wool Festival – $60.00
Black Sheep Gathering – $50.00
Shepherd’s Harvest in Minnesota – $25.00
Wisconsin Sheep & Wool Festival – $55.00
Michigan Fiber Festival – $100.00
In addition, requests to advertise with the New Hampshire Sheep & Wool festival and the Garden State Sheep & Wool Festival (NJ) have recently been received from our members.
Besides promoting BFLs at shows, there are also ads placed in the major sheep magazines – The Shepherd, Sheep!, and Sheep Canada all have paid listings in the breed section of each magazine, at a total cost of $110.00 per year. The Banner magazine provides space for notes from breed associations at no cost – a great benefit!
The board would like to invite any member who attends a show or festival with their BFL sheep or fiber to submit a request to advertise at that show. We’d also like to remind you that BLU has banners available to borrow if you’d like to promote the breed registry at events. Besides banners, there are also promotional materials available to print here on the website. (click on “about BLU” and then on “Promotional Materials”)
Are you missing from our membership directory?
Just a quick reminder to our membership… if you see that you are “missing” from our online Membership Directory, please renew today and we’ll add you back in!
Your membership is vital to BLU, and your visibility here helps people locate BFL breeders in their area… so it means business for you!
Plus, you need to be a member in order to vote in or run for office in our upcoming election.
BLU Election Results
The board election results are finalized. As reported by our election chairperson, 31 ballots were returned. Vice President Margaret VanCamp won re-election, as did board member Jared Lloyd. Our new board member, replacing Becky Utecht, who did not seek re-election, is Heather Landin. Please join me in congratulating them. The board will be meeting by teleconference in mid-December. All BLU members are encouraged to contact any board member with questions or concerns to bring before the board.
Candidates for BLU Election
For Vice-President:
I’m Margaret Van Camp, and I an running for re-election as the Vice-President for the BLU board. I have been a partner in Pitchfork Ranch inSwartz Creek,Michigansince 1996, where Cindy Cieciwa and I have a flock of 30 ewes. The flock was 100% Romney until 2005, when I got a good close look at a BFL fleece. BFLs now comprise about a third of our ewe flock.
I am pleased with the progress BLU has made under its first board of directors. We have codified and standardized our operations in term of the bylaws, registry and treasury. We have selected a site for our third National Show to be held in the spring of 2012. We have a positive and modestly growing balance in our checking account, and, thanks to the magic of Skype and free teleconferencing, we have met regularly without costing BLU a dime. Registrations, transfers and membership numbers are increasing.
When I wrote my candidate statement for the previous election, I stated that BLU has a tremendous amount of potential as a unifying organization. This potential has, in my view, manifested itself in the conversations I have had with many different breeders and potential breeders in the last two years. Many of us are being approached by those seeking BFLs for a diverse set of uses: commercial production, meat sires, fiber flock, and, of course, for purebred breeding stock. I still feel that In spite of these diverse uses, the Registry should be the “big tent” under which we all can gather and share our enthusiasm for the breed. I am excited about the growing number of BFLs I see at shows, and the greater possibility of BFL breed shows at various venues.
If re-elected, I would like to work on capitalizing on the growing visibility of our breed by pushing for more breed shows, familiarizing more judges with our breed standard, and try to coordinate more joint advertising opportunities for our members with breeding stock and fiber products to sell. Say what you like about shows, but they are still the primary means by which the general public and the sheep community in particular are exposed to our relatively unfamiliar breed. I would also continue to in encouraging two-way communication between the board and the membership.
I would appreciate your vote.
2 Candidates for General Board Positions:
JARED LLOYD
JEHOVAH-JIREH SHEEP & CATTLE, COLORADO
“Radioactive” is a word that has been used to describe me. I am passionate about producing the best lamb and wool. I grew up in a flock where my neighbors and my family raised high quality Suffolk range sires and a few market lambs. I inherited copies of the sheep gene from both sides of my family. The Purdins herded bands of ewes from Wyoming to Idaho. The Johnsons summered two bands of Columbia ewes on the Buzzard and wintered them in Mesa, where I was born.
I produce my own Bluefaced Leicester crossing sires that I use to breed Mules from my Shetland flock.
I am very data oriented in my production philosophy with developed breeds. I have been involved in beef production since I was, well, prenatal. So I’ve highly valued EPDs (Expected Progeny Differences) as a tool for producing competitive performance stock across the board. My flock is the first American flock enrolled in National Sheep Improvement Program, and my ewes and lambs are the first Bluefaced Leicesters with objectively analyzed data. I am also an ASI certified wool classer.
I’m preparing to launch the Blue Alliance©. It’s a private consulting and marketing program for prime, grass finished lamb and a genetics company to provide cutting edge, high-indexing AI sires for production of the highest quality lamb and wool from white and natural-colored mule ewes.
I helped organize the BFL National Show 2008, held at the Estes Park Wool Market. It was a small event, after big plans, but we had a lot of fun visiting and promoting Blues.
My enthusiasm for this breed is well founded, and I feel that they have a role to play in the production of the best lamb that North America has to offer. I’m here to do the legwork to get them recognized for what they are and what they can be.
Heather Landin We have been working with BFL’s since 2006, when we purchased two ewes and a ram from LeeAnne Richert. My daughter wanted to do sheep breeding as a 4H project so I talked her into my favorite wool breed, hoping to have fleece for spinning. Little did I know than that we would soon be heading for a flock of 50 ewes and little time to pursue my fiber hobbies. We simply fell in love with the sheep for their sweet disposition and lovely looks. A bit of research and marketing experiments soon indicated their wool was a valuable commodity and their crossbreeding potential. We were off to starting a business to utilize our 150 acre farm, focused on fleece and Icelandic/BFL crossbreds. Then, to make sure I had no time at all for my hobbies, I took over the semen import that the BFL union members were organizing with a number of BFL breeders in the UK. We successfully imported 6 rams last fall and are working on another import this fall. In the process, I have gotten to know many of the BFL breeders in the US and the UK, the start of great friendships and and greater appreciation of my involvement with the breed and it’s potential as a crossing sire for the larger US meat industry. I have also become aware of the unpleasant issues surrounding epidemic CL and OPP in the US sheep flock and am doing all I can to spread the word on how we can avoid having these diseases, as well as others less threatening, hurt our breed and our flocks. I have also been a 4H poultry leader and active on the county 4H Breeding Livestock committee. I have given seminars on sheep and fiber, including a full day fiber workshop for the Indian Head Sheep Breeders Association.