March 30, 2020 announcement
To: Members and friends of the Irish Wolfhound Club of America
From: Tracey Luty – IWCA President
Re: 2021, 2022, 2023 National Specialties, 2020 Balloting, 2020 AGM
Following the difficult but necessary decision to cancel the 2020 National Specialty, the IWCA Board of Directors met on March 28, 2020 to discuss the specialties for future years.
2021 National Specialty - Ashland, NE - Knut Olav Wille
Because most of the arrangements made with the Eugene T. Mahoney State Park for the 2020 show were able to be transferred to 2021, the board voted to hold the 2021 specialty in Nebraska with Knut Olav Wille as specialty judge and Linda King as sweepstakes judge.
2022 National Specialty - Elkton, MD - Pauric Hand
Doug Marx and his specialty team will move their planned events to 2022. Pauric Hand will be the specialty judge in 2022. Glenn "Herbie" Myer has been selected as our sweepstakes judge.
2023 National Specialty - Lynn Simon - Specialty judge
The location has yet to be decided. We have received a bid for what would have been the 2022 Specialty. However, since we will be moving each location one year later, we will continue to accept additional bids for the 2023 Specialty until January 1, 2021. Preference will be given for locations in the central United States.
Balloting for 2020-2021 IWCA Board
We have been in contact with Simply Voting, the firm who handled our election last year. While they are able to provide us with the ballots and the electronic voting as they did in 2019, they cannot receive paper ballots and count them for us due to the pandemic shutdowns. To compensate for that, they will provide telephone voting for the 2020 election. This will be a one-time change in the process to allow us to complete the balloting within the designated time frame specified by our by-laws.
2020 Annual General Membership meeting - May 20, 2020
The annual general membership meeting (AGM) was scheduled to be held on May 20 this year during the National Specialty. To keep the schedule close to the original plan, we will hold the meeting on Wednesday afternoon/evening May 20. We will use an electronic service to allow you to view the meeting on the internet or via telephone. Details will follow.
Your support of the Board and the Specialty committees is greatly appreciated. The Board wishes all of you well and hopes this pandemic does not lay its awful hand at your door.