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BBOA Column

BBOA
President Darren Batterson
17821 60th St. Ottumwa, IA 52501
641-680-0117
diggersblues@gmail.com[/email]

A HUGE thanks to Hancock County CHA, Tim Cecil, Jack McCaslin, Heath Howe, Butch Glass and all the ladies and gentlemen in the kitchen and working the grounds making the 2015 National Bluetick Days a huge success. The vendors were awesome and had everything a hunter would need. A special note of thanks to Anthony Sturgill from VA who has always assisted me in taking entries and to my wife and all the other members who helped take memberships and entries. There was not anyone who was asked to do something that did not immediately step up and get it done! That is what an association is all about.
There was no shortage on guides and everyone was drawn out and going to the woods in 30 minutes after deadline. The Bench Show Judges and Master of Hounds did very well both days. The show Friday had 32 dogs and 99 in the hunt. Saturday brought over 40 to the show counting duals and pairs and 87 in the hunt.

The local environment was something to see. Everyone greeted you and the food was great. I had an awesome breakfast at Julie’s café but I had to walk to far because someone took my up front parking space. The weather was perfect and smell of the wild flowers filled the air.

You as members have had the pleasure of having one of the most honest men I know of being your Sec/Tres for the past four years. Ron Behne has been awesome and I have had the pleasure of calling him my friend for many years. Please take the time to thank him for his work the last years. Your money could not have been safer. We swore in our new Sec/Tres Chad Ludwigson from Wisconsin. Chad has big shoes to fill but he is eager to get started doing his best. I have faith he will do an awesome job. Told him he is now on speed dial. Ron is working with him to get him up and rolling. As soon as he can get his bank set up we will be online for memberships, bluebook purchases and ads soon and hopefully also voting for all members online.

It was a special honor to have Todd Kellam and Corey Gruver from UKC on hand for pictures and to answer the many questions hunters had. Todd said they are working on online registrations soon. They also had some new ideas for trophies that UKC is looking at and we may follow suit. It was very fortunate that they were there as someone may have forgotten the paperwork for the hunt back in Iowa, but I will not mention Ron’s name.

There will be ballots in the mail soon for at least one by-law update. That is changing the language for high scoring dogs at the Grand American, Autumn Oaks, Winter Classic and World Hunt to meet UKC placement procedures. It will make it much easier as all we will have to do is check memberships with the list of winners that UKC gives us.
There is a committee out now being headed up by Robbie Brooks and one member from each zone to check on trophies. This is our biggest expense in the events. If you have any ideas please email or call Robbie, his number is in your bluebooks or on BBOA web page.

A big congrats goes out to our lifetime winners and hall of fame winners. I tried to make this a special event as I think they deserve it when you win an honor like that. It was a special moment. Having the winners present makes this a great ceremony. The members get to see who wins and put a face to the name and everyone gets to cheer on the winners give them the respect they worked so hard for. Congrats to the Queen/King of the show and hunt! Brad Henson, Gerald Black, Steve Carter and Roy and Timmy V. Clifton!!!! Please check out all the winners on bluetickbreedersofamerica.com or on UKC Coonhound page.

I only had half of the zones turn in their lifetime nominees and hall of fame nominees for next year. Please get those in soon. Our 2016 Horizon winner was on hand and even won his cast Friday night. Blake Lankford from VA was there assisting Wayne Hooker with handling chores.

Our new yearbook will be something special!! Our new editor is C&H Publishing in Illinois. They put out the American Coon and Full Cry magazines. I will be posting their email addresses on the web for you as well as in the article. If you have an ad please send it to: [email]ads@chpub.net. Please make sure you tell them it is for the BBOA book and tell them if you want color or black and white. Color ads will be $100. Black and white will be $80. If all the zones agree they will also be running color ads on all of their zone hunt results. The cost to each zone will raise from $50 a page to $70 for color. This will be a hard cover book and will be more like an encyclopedia. It will not be the soft cover of years past. Your board members are as excited about this as I am too. This will be a book that will be with you for some time. Let’s make the first one special and set a standard for the other books to match! The book is cheaper to the members with more ads and more members so make a pitch to sell ads and get your buddies signed up for memberships. Last year we raised our memberships by 200 members! Let’s keep that trend going.

The last two Bluetick events have had something I have not seen in a while. They had a who’s who list of the top dogs in the country at both events. Hunting over 40 Grand Nites and 80 Nite Champions at both from Florida, Oklahoma, Texas, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, New York, Virginia, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri, Kansas, Alabama and everywhere in between!! These are the top stud dogs and the top females out competing for fun. They have nothing to prove but love of the sport and the bluetick. The thing I saw and witnessed was first and foremost, the friendliness, sportsmanship and integrity shown by these hunters and what an honor it was to have these hunters bring out their best for us, the members to see. Thanks to you for being a Blueticker!

The locations for 2016 events were discussed and voted on at our executive meeting on Friday and then it was announced Saturday at the membership meeting that the 2016 Nationals will be held in Batesville, MS. That is the same location as the Winter Classic. The 2016 Reunion will be held in Sedalia, MO. The 2016 Youth Hunt will be held in Zone 1 at Fayette, MO.

On a sad note we lost two more fellow Bluetickers. Mr. Wayne Riley of Hartford, Ala. passed 5-23-15 after a long fight with Luekemia. Wayne was a good guy and loved the bluetick hound. We also lost Kevin Weller of Brasher Falls, OH. Wayne was an avid outdoorsman and loved to coon hunt.

Until next month keep them blue and on the wood!

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Digger's Blueticks

Bluetick Female 2013 Autumn Oaks
Gr.Ch.Gr.Nt.Ch. Digger's Blue Mable
Gr.Ch.Gr.Nt.Ch. Digger's Blue Spot
Gr.Ch.Gr.Nt.Ch. Digger's Blue Sadie
Gr.Ch.Gr.Nt.Ch. Digger's Blue Miss Classy
Spot Sadie and Classy are all daughters of Mable

Very good article. Next time you will have to learn to drive like those crazy southerners lol.

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Wayne Hooker

Good job Darren! I took the liberty of making it a little easier to read.

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If we're not suppose to eat animals, then why are they made out of meat?

Thanks Todd!

It does that every time I copy and paste

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Digger's Blueticks

Bluetick Female 2013 Autumn Oaks
Gr.Ch.Gr.Nt.Ch. Digger's Blue Mable
Gr.Ch.Gr.Nt.Ch. Digger's Blue Spot
Gr.Ch.Gr.Nt.Ch. Digger's Blue Sadie
Gr.Ch.Gr.Nt.Ch. Digger's Blue Miss Classy
Spot Sadie and Classy are all daughters of Mable