Hello all, I am sending this email via Newflink and to each of you individually.  So if you get this email twice, I apologize. If you did not get two, please let me know so we can verify your email is in Newflink. 
First thing, Ted please correct me if I am wrong, our Spring meeting will be Saturday, March 21 down in Owatonna. 
If you have something specific you would like to learn about at this meeting, please let me know. Things we have done in the past have been:-draft work-dry land water work-grooming seminar
Second thing: 
I have secured our judges for our Fall Regional Specialty.  The board agreed to pay to have a breeder judge come in, and the other judge is on the All Breed show judging panel. 
I have one Sweeps judge confirmed and am looking for another Sweeps judge.  
Third thing and probably the most important thing, the future of our Club. 
I have been the President for the last 4+ years, and have served on the board in all other positions for 10+ years. 
I have enjoyed organizing things for our meetings, specialty show, and other events for most of that time. But I am getting burnt out.  In order for our club to stay compliant with the Newfoundland Club of America and the AKC, we need to stick to our Bylaws. Currently, the board voted to temporarily bypass our bylaws and keep the current offices in as we did not have any member volunteer to fill them. 
Current officers agreed to stay on in their current capacity until volunteers have agreed to fill them. On a side note, when there have been no volunteers, the officers have just switched positions and were voted in at the annual meeting as such. 
I know our club members have been asking for things such as draft test, water tests, etc, as well as training for these things. 
I do not have the time, nor the energy, to organize these things any more.  I know there is a small group that has been communicating via a Facebook group chat for some draft and water work. What needs to happen is someone to chair our working dog committee, along with a couple of other volunteers to be committee members to help organize such trainings and communicate that with the membership (via email, FB page, FB messenger, etc).Right now, my current focus, and really only focus, has been keeping our Regional Specialty going each year.  If we lose that, it is a very hard and long process to get back. 
What I would like to happen before our March meeting is for some members to step up and volunteer to fill the positions of President, Vice-President, Treasurer, and Secretary. If we do not get any one to step up to help in these areas, we may have to thing long and hard about whether this club should exist. 

I know that other clubs are having troubles getting membership engagement as well, it is not just Northstar. 
It has just been a frustrating thing for me the last few years when the time spent to organize something, whether it be a quarterly meeting, parades we've entered, bell ringing or our specialty show, and there is no one showing up, supporting, or volunteering. This last year, I know part of that has been me getting the notices out not soon enough. 
As an FYI, our meetings are typically held on on the 3rd Saturday of March in Owatonna, the 3rd Saturday in June or the Saturday of the Summer Solstice Cluster Show in Cambridge, the 3rd Saturday in September in Annandale at the Manke house (this day could vary based on the Manke's plans), the December meeting has varied based on where we can hold the meeting.  All meetings allow well behaved dogs to join in. The December meeting may not allow dogs based on the location chosen. 
If you would like to volunteer to fill a position, please reach out to myself or to Ted. 
I apologize for this getting so long. Thank you for reading through and I look forward to seeing you all in March!
Missy Manke Tickle Bay NewfsPresident/Rescue Chair - Northstar Newfoundland ClubNewfoundland Ambassador - Newfoundland Club of America

HI allI just sent out a test email to the Newflink. Please respond to this email if you did not receive the test email.  It was brought to my attention that the Newflink email is meant to be a stand alone, and not to be used with multiple emails attached. So it was sent back to me as failed. 
Please also check your spam/junk folders for the Newflink email. If it appears there, please add it as a safe email or to your contacts. Again, if you still did not get a Newflink email, please respond to me alone on this email. 
Thank you for your patience on this. 
Missy Manke Tickle Bay NewfsPresident/Rescue Chair - Northstar Newfoundland ClubNewfoundland Ambassador - Newfoundland Club of America

On Friday, January 30, 2026 at 09:04:04 PM CST, Missy Manke <ticklebaynewfs@yahoo.com> wrote:  

Hello all, I am sending this email via Newflink and to each of you individually.  So if you get this email twice, I apologize. If you did not get two, please let me know so we can verify your email is in Newflink. 
First thing, Ted please correct me if I am wrong, our Spring meeting will be Saturday, March 21 down in Owatonna. 
If you have something specific you would like to learn about at this meeting, please let me know. Things we have done in the past have been:-draft work-dry land water work-grooming seminar
Second thing: 
I have secured our judges for our Fall Regional Specialty.  The board agreed to pay to have a breeder judge come in, and the other judge is on the All Breed show judging panel. 
I have one Sweeps judge confirmed and am looking for another Sweeps judge.  
Third thing and probably the most important thing, the future of our Club. 
I have been the President for the last 4+ years, and have served on the board in all other positions for 10+ years. 
I have enjoyed organizing things for our meetings, specialty show, and other events for most of that time. But I am getting burnt out.  In order for our club to stay compliant with the Newfoundland Club of America and the AKC, we need to stick to our Bylaws. Currently, the board voted to temporarily bypass our bylaws and keep the current offices in as we did not have any member volunteer to fill them. 
Current officers agreed to stay on in their current capacity until volunteers have agreed to fill them. On a side note, when there have been no volunteers, the officers have just switched positions and were voted in at the annual meeting as such. 
I know our club members have been asking for things such as draft test, water tests, etc, as well as training for these things. 
I do not have the time, nor the energy, to organize these things any more.  I know there is a small group that has been communicating via a Facebook group chat for some draft and water work. What needs to happen is someone to chair our working dog committee, along with a couple of other volunteers to be committee members to help organize such trainings and communicate that with the membership (via email, FB page, FB messenger, etc).Right now, my current focus, and really only focus, has been keeping our Regional Specialty going each year.  If we lose that, it is a very hard and long process to get back. 
What I would like to happen before our March meeting is for some members to step up and volunteer to fill the positions of President, Vice-President, Treasurer, and Secretary. If we do not get any one to step up to help in these areas, we may have to thing long and hard about whether this club should exist. 

I know that other clubs are having troubles getting membership engagement as well, it is not just Northstar. 
It has just been a frustrating thing for me the last few years when the time spent to organize something, whether it be a quarterly meeting, parades we've entered, bell ringing or our specialty show, and there is no one showing up, supporting, or volunteering. This last year, I know part of that has been me getting the notices out not soon enough. 
As an FYI, our meetings are typically held on on the 3rd Saturday of March in Owatonna, the 3rd Saturday in June or the Saturday of the Summer Solstice Cluster Show in Cambridge, the 3rd Saturday in September in Annandale at the Manke house (this day could vary based on the Manke's plans), the December meeting has varied based on where we can hold the meeting.  All meetings allow well behaved dogs to join in. The December meeting may not allow dogs based on the location chosen. 
If you would like to volunteer to fill a position, please reach out to myself or to Ted. 
I apologize for this getting so long. Thank you for reading through and I look forward to seeing you all in March!
Missy Manke Tickle Bay NewfsPresident/Rescue Chair - Northstar Newfoundland ClubNewfoundland Ambassador - Newfoundland Club of America