News from your DAPnet President…

Most of you probably don’t know I was recently voted President of DAPNet by the Board of Directors. Its quite an honor, as I feel so passionate about promoting the working draft animal and enjoy working with teamsters, farmers and loggers with the same passion. I have to say, though, the title is alittle intimidating to me and I feel somewhat unworthy to fill this role. I doubt I am the best choice as an ambassador to the world for Draft Animal Power, being a relatively inexperienced teamster. So I will need lots of help. We have a terrific new Board, who promise to bring alot of insight and energy to our emerging organization. You can peruse Bios, photos and contact info for the board members here.

I’m very proud of the progress made in the past year. The original Board of Directors…a dedicated, hard-working group of volunteers…worked tirelessly to bring Draft Animal Power Network out of Carl Russell and Lisa McCrory’s living room and into its own organizational status as a 501 (3)C NON-PROFIT. We have been able to acquire enough funding in the form of a grant to allow us to hire an extraordinary Administrator, our own Jean Cross. We organized and held two very successful events, the Northeast Animal-Power Field Days in conjunction with the NOFA Summer Conference in August and the First Annual DAPNet Gathering at Fairwinds Farm in September. Make sure you checkout the photo gallery. At the Annual Meeting, held during the weekend Gathering, we elected our first bonafide Board. In addition, we have published two outstanding Newsletters and are poised to send out our third any day now.

Where we take this organization from here is a work in progress. It is clear to me that we will need more than a board of 11 people to build on and sustain the work and vision originally created by Carl and Lisa. In fact, I doubt a hundred dedicated DAPNet members could fill their shoes adequately, but we will have to try.

We have alot of work to do, so I have started this thread as a place to report information about where the organization is going, thoughts and needs form the board as well as a place to illicit feedback when necessary. I will try my best to keep this content up to date and informative.

For right now, I have two pleas, as President of this awesome Network.

First, BECOME A MEMBER! Its easy, and inexpensive. http://www.draftanimalpowernetwork.org/membership.html It is a way to support the organization and there are perks (free classifieds online and in print, Newsletters). Infact, we are working out the details for more benefits, reduced entry fees to events, help organizing farm based events, and advertising benefits for members. Stay tuned.

Second, volunteer to serve on a committee. We have alot of work ahead of us and many hands makes light work. Over the next few days I will be posting descriptions of Committees, their chair (if there is one) and what our needs are. Most committee work is done by email or conference call, so you don’t have to be local.

Looking forward to hearing from some of you. Feedback, comments are always welcome. I will have more to share in the coming weeks.