BCHC Mid Valley Unit President's Monthly Message

[Michael King, our president, with his best friend.]

Greetings everyone!

Although winter has been keeping the sky generally cloaked with gray clouds, it has also brought welcome rainstorms every few days. A day or two of sunshine comes along once in a while to tease us of spring. Across the road there is a newborn calf taking her first look at the world. And just this morning, while passing by my almond tree, I saw buds popping open and even a few flowers with their beautiful white petals. A few days of warm weather and that tree will be a breathtaking showcase of white. It will not take long for the bees to discover those blossoms and the tree will soon be humming.

This time of year has always been one of my favorites as the cycle of life starts over again, full of promise of what may come. That promise includes the Mid Valley Unit!

Though the Unit activity level at this time of year appears to be low, looks are deceiving! Rendezvous planning continues. People on the various committees are feverishly working behind the scenes to put together a full slate of activities for our members to enjoy and participate in this coming year. A fund-raising committee is being contemplated too. Someone out there might have a really good fundraising idea. If you have a brainstorm, let us know, we welcome everyone's ideas and input.

The Rides Committee has planned a full slate of exciting and interesting rides for this coming year. Rumor has it that the ride calendar will soon be posted on our website for your perusal. A calendar of the year's coming events is also in this newsletter. Be sure to look over the schedule carefully for rides that you want to attend and start planning early. Also under development is the Dutch oven schedule. Time is short but it is not too late to host a DOG (Dutch Oven Gathering) at your homestead, so call director Nancy Gross to be a host.

No point in dithering on DOGS however, and our first Dutch oven event is just around the corner. A combination workday and Dutch oven event is planned at Lloyd and Susan Erlandson's home in Hilmar on Saturday, February 20th, to clean, oil, mark and inventory the equipment owned by Mid Valley. We will need both cleaners and cookers. With many hands making fast progress, we will sit down after work to a delicious Dutch oven lunch. Come on out and join us, especially our newest members. We would be most pleased to see you there! This is a great way to get to know one another and, as always, it will be a lot of fun! The Erlandson's have a large yard and space is not a problem.

Switching gears here, we recently received a bit of disappointing news. Based on their year-end membership count, each BCHC unit is awarded delegates to the bi-annual State BCHC Board meetings. For every 100 members a Unit is awarded 1 delegate. For many years, with over 300 members, our unit had 3 delegates and thus a larger voice in BCHC issues. Membership in Backcountry Horsemen statewide has fallen off a bit during this economic downturn, and Mid Valley is no exception. Unfortunately our membership fell below the 300-count threshold on December 31st and as a consequence we lost one of our 3 state delegate slots.

With adversity though comes opportunity. We now have the challenge of rebuilding our membership numbers. It is important that we remain strong, and that requires as many members as we can attract. Due to the initiative of Karen Lopes, we have an event coming up that will seize the opportunity to do just that.

Karen has planned a "Mid Valley Campout and Ride" in early April to be held at the Rumsey's `Mother Lode Ranch' in Sonora. The event is open to anyone interested, especially those who are not yet members. This is a rare opportunity to ride on a beautiful private ranch and partake of a whole host of educational activities as well. There is a small fee to attend; however that will be waived if the person (or family) becomes a member of Mid Valley Unit. Membership is required to ride or be around livestock. It is very important to talk-up this event and encourage any and all prospective members to come and join in.

Details can also be found on our website.

Michael

(This is the current copy of the message our President writes every month for the newsletter.)

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