Hi Everyone!

Sorry for the delay, again. I was hoping to get this email out sooner but I’ve been extremely busy the last few weeks.  After giving it much consideration, I will go ahead with a Meetup for May and squeeze it in at the end of the month. The Meetup group now has over 180 members and it is getting increasingly more difficult for me to manage and organize the events.  I will be looking for more volunteers at this Meetup, please message me if you can help in any way. info@vancouvershiba.com

The date for the May Meetup:  Saturday, May 30th from 12pm – 2pm in the off-leash area at David Gray Park in Burnaby – McKay Avenue @ Rumble Street.  The event will be held rain or shine so dress accordingly.  Please follow the link below for the location and maps of the park.  Click on the Shiba icon on the first map, and it will give you directions to the park.  Parking is available on McKay Avenue, on either side of the street.  There is an entrance to the dog park right on McKay Avenue.  Directions

I haven’t quite decided if I’m going to have a 50/50 draw or another raffle for a gift basket at this Meetup.  I will make that decision closer to the date of the Meetup and inform the group.  Whatever I decide, the proceeds from the draw will be added to the money Vancouver Shiba has been collecting for the BC SPCA’s "Paws for a Cause" fundraiser.  More info to come.

A friend of the Meetup group very kindly donated a number of doggy outfits in various sizes and styles as a means for us to raise more money for the BC SPCA.  They will be for sale at this event for $10 each with 100% of the money raised going to "Paws for a Cause".  There are some kimonos available – how appropriate for a Japanese dog!

Dog cookies and treats for sale!!  It just wouldn’t be a proper Meetup without them.  A very big thanks to my volunteers who very graciously offer to bake fresh cookies for each event.  The sale of these dog treats helps offset the many costs associated with hosting the Meetups and the maintenance of our website.

    Areas I am looking for help in or volunteers:

• Someone to donate Dog treats/cookies
• Does anyone have a collapsible or portable table they could lend for this Meetup?
  
• Ticket sellers for the 50/50 draw or raffle
  
• Someone to help run the registration/sign-in table and cookie sales
  
• Maybe a "greeter" at the gate entrance encouraging people to sign-in and register…
  

Anyway that’s it for now.  Once I’ve got the final details ironed out, I will let everyone know.  Have a great long weekend!  See you all soon.

Jen, Koshi & Barkley

Hi Everyone,

Sorry for the late post regarding April’s Meetup! I’ve been under the weather the past week and I’m behind on everything. The Meetup was a much smaller event than our last one with at least 34 Shibas (which is still a pretty impressive number) and a few that may have forgotten to register at the table. I counted 9 new members at the event – Welcome to the Vancouver Shiba Inu Meetup Society!

A big thanks to everyone who bought tickets for the gift basket raffle; we raised $142. Thanks again to Jadine for putting the baskets together and selling the tickets! To date, we have raised almost $500 for the SPCA’s "Paws for a Cause" fundraiser. June 1, 2009 is the SPCA’s official kick off for their campaign. More info to come in future Vancouver Shiba posts. We will once again have a team of Shibas for "Paws for a Cause" and any interested parties can contact me if they’d like to join our team. We raised over $3000 in 2008 and hope to raise even more this year!

May is going to be a very busy month for me; I will do my best to squeeze in a Meetup. We will most likely have another raffle for a gift basket and I have some donated dog outfits that I would like to sell at the Meetup as well. All the money raised will be (of course!) going to the SPCA.

If you have any comments or suggestions on how we can improve our Meetups or fundraising ideas, please let us know! We would love to hear from you. To contact us or register with Vancouver Shiba, send us a message at info@vancouvershiba.com

Jen, Koshi & Barkley

Hi everyone,
 

Sorry for the delay in setting the date for the next Meetup.  I like to give at least 2 weeks notice but it’s been an exceptionally busy month for me!

The Meetup will be on Saturday, April 25th from 12pm – 2pm in the off-leash area at David Gray Park in Burnaby – McKay Avenue and Rumble Street.  The event will be held rain or shine so dress accordingly.  Please follow the link below for the location and maps of the park.  Click on the Shiba icon on the first map, and it will give you directions to the park.  Parking is available on McKay Avenue, on either side of the street.  There is an entrance to the dog park right on McKay Avenue.   Directions

We will be having a raffle for a gift basket at the April Meetup.  Jadine, one of Vancouver Shiba’s wonderful volunteers, is putting the basket together for us.  Tickets will be one for $2, three for $5 and a Shiba’s length (15 tickets) for $10.  All money raised will go to the SPCA’s "Paws for a Cause" fundraiser held this September.  The draw for the winning ticket will be held around 1:30pm.

There will be cookies for sale at this event as well – dog and human – provided by a couple of my volunteers.  The money raised from the sale of the cookies helps cover some of the costs associated with hosting the Meetups, annual website registration, printing costs for signs & business cards, supplies and prizes for raffles etc.

-= I thought I’d try something new at this Meetup to encourage new member registration and existing member sign-in at the table.  We can’t add you to the mailing list or keep track of the number of Shibas (and break any attendance records!) if we don’t know you’re here.  So at the end of the Meetup, I will draw a name out of all the attendance cards that signed in, and offer a small prize – a $5 gift card from Petsmart. =-

More info may be coming about the Meetup and photos of the gift basket closer to the date of the Meetup.  Hope to see you all there!

Jen, Koshi & Barkley