Wild West WinterFest
October 19, 2006 Minutes
(as Approved at the November 16, 2006 Meeting)
ATTENDANCE: Sue Shockley, Debbie Holwegner, Travis Burian, Al Lien, Harry Huntsinger, Todd Kesner, Sonja Berg, Dennis Farnham, Jim Boorman, Mary Atkins, Connie Garrett and Todd Saunders.
1. CALL TO ORDER: Travis called the meeting to order at 7:15 a.m.
2. APPROVAL OF MINUTES: Sue moved to approve the September 21, 2006 minutes as presented. Sonja seconded. Motion carried.
3. FINANCIALS: No report.
4. MARKETING: President’s Day weekend is huge for tourists at the ski hill establishments. Travis stated we would market WinterFest to ski areas by getting information to motels, ski lodges and guest ranches. Jim suggested getting mailing lists from the ski hills. We are also going to portrait the “Old West” as much as possible, wherever possible. We will try to get people and their animals to participate by dressing the part. Possibly offer awards to the best dressed?
5. PACKERS SCRAMBLE: Jim Boorman presented ideas for next year’s Packers Scramble. Moving this event to Friday evening around 7:00p.m. – 9:00p.m. will help bring in contestants. There will be amateur and professional classes that will be separated by the Elk Bugling Contest. It was suggested to do packing demonstrations prior to each class starting the contest. Possibly demonstrating different ways of packing. This would inform the audience as to what was going on in the contest. They would also inform the audience what the judges would be looking for. Jim asked for the following cash prizes for the Packers Scramble:
Professional Class: 1st - $300 Amateur Class: 1st - $200
2nd - $200 2nd - $125
3rd - $100 3rd - $ 75
Suggestions from Jim were to: organize the awards ceremony better; use a block of salt instead of wood; and move the obstacle course to the west side of the indoor arena. A dance is being planned in building #1 after this event. Jim will get four to five people to help with this. If Gary Taylor is not doing the Elk Bugling Contest, Jim will contact Yellowstone Gateway Sports to see if they would be interested in doing this.
6. PET TRICKS/DOG CONFORMATION: Connie reported she spoke with Nancy Tanner and Nancy is planning on doing the same things as last year. Connie is going to put together a short demonstration for the musical canine freestyle called “Pawparazzi” to promote this sport. This will be done just prior to the pet tricks.
7. DOG KEG PULL CONTEST: Connie reported they are willing to carry over the “Old West” theme. West Paw and Lehrkind’s (Coors) are sponsoring this event. Connie is checking with Bridger Feeds or Murdoch’s regarding sponsorships. They are considering changing the # of drinking tokens given out to contestants.
8. AG IN THE CLASSROOM: Todd said this would be the same time schedule as before. Al can get hayrides but needs to work out the logistics. `Todd reported the 4H newsletter did not bring any responses regarding interest in having a 4H Livestock Show. Todd approved Sue sending a letter to the livestock kids explaining what would be expected of them for this show. It would be more of a learning experience verses a competitive event. If there was not enough entries from Gallatin County, we would open it up to other counties.’
Todd has not has a chance to ask 4H Clubs about having a fundraising carnival for WinterFest. Sue suggested writing a letter to the 4H leaders. Todd stated he would put this in their next newsletter to see if any clubs would be interested in doing this. Sue will get this info to Todd.
9. RABBIT/POULTRY SHOWS: No report.
10. ALL STAR DOG EXPO: No report. This event is going to be on Saturday evening in the indoor arena.
11. 4H LIVESTOCK SHOW: Already covered under Todd’s report.
12. McLIEN’S FARM BARN: Al reported he has the map of livestock barn #1 and has begun signing stalls to animals that will be on display. Bill Ott is going to bring in one of his mama pigs with her babies. Will continue to find animals to fill this barn.
13. WORKING HORSE & DRIVER CONTEST: Al reported the equipment is already on the Fairgrounds. The harness horses will be in the Sheep Barn. We will need to advertise and offer some type of incentive to get these contestants here.
14. HORSE SALE/STALLION AUCTION: Sue needs to contact Gary France from Headwaters Livestock.
15. BATTLE OF THE BREEDS: Sue reported a meeting needs to be set up to discuss some changes that will have to be made and set some dates for preliminaries. Preliminaries will be prior to WinterFest and the finals will be on Sunday at WinterFest. Need to get information out on this soon.
16. TACK SWAP: Will try to have this in an exhibit building. Needs more planning.
17. HAY SHOW: Sue reported she has a judge lined up. Entry form and rules has been revised and a mailing can go out.
18. COWBOY CAMP: Do not know if Gary is going to do this or not. We have not heard anything from him. Sue will talk to Gary. If they aren’t going to have this, we will make other contacts ourselves to replace this. Buffalo Lodges or Montana Canvas are possible outdoor exhibitors.
19. CHILI COOK-OFF: Mary Atkins with The Moose, reported this will be their 16th year doing this event. Last year they received the most entries ever with a total of 23. They like the setup in building #4 but they are okay with doing this in building #1 as long as there is enough room. Mary said she would dress western to carry on the western theme and encourage her contestants to also dress western. The Moose will be responsible for their own prizes for the contestants. Mary suggested using the Bozeman High School students who won at HatchFest, to do some type of western history presentation.
20. KID’S BOZEMAN ROUNDUP RODEO: Travis reported he is currently working on this. We may have this event in the indoor arena prior to the miniature bull riding.
21. KIDS ACTIVITIES: Sue stated if we can’t find a group to take this over, we would do away with it. Maybe daycares would be interested in doing this.
22. BAHA HOCKEY TOURNAMENT: Good to go.
23. COWBOY GATHERING: Sue stated she would contact John Westbrook and discuss this with him. We might just have some scheduled cowboy poetry on and off in building #1 rather than have an actual “cowboy poetry”.
24. CHILDREN’S ART SHOW: No report.
25. QUILT SHOW: No report.
26. PHOTOGRAPHY SHOW: No report.
27. EXHIBITORS: Sue stated we are going to try to center around exhibitors that would be selling western merchandise. Need to take a look at our mailing list.
28. FOOD VENDORS: Need to get information out to potential vendors.
29. ENTERTAINMENT: Sue reported that all of our entertainment would be in inside of building #1. The band Nite Ride has been scheduled to play at the Bootlegger’s Ball on Saturday evening.
Travis stated he has been working with Red Bull and the park manager of Big Sky on hosting a Rail Jam. This is a contest using skies and snowboards and performing tricks on a “rail”. It’s a neat competition and will draw lots of people to this event.
Sue reported we are also checking into having a Miniature Bull Riding contest. These would be Jr. High students and they take care of all the entries. Maybe Mutton Bustin’ prior to this event would be good. This would be the very last event of Sunday evening around 6:00 p.m.
29. OTHER BUSINESS: Harry reported he is working on having a silent western art auction combined with a dinner theatre show. He has been talking with several valley artists. The Vigilante Theatre Company has been tentatively reserved to perform their act “Chapeau” which is an old west musical comedy. This would be great if we can get this to come together.
30. NEXT MEETING DATE & TIME: November 16th at 7:00 a.m. at the Ag Center meeting room.
31. ADJOURNMENT: Meeting adjourned at 8:25 a.m.
Respectfully Submitted,
| 
