Dear Suri Network Members,
We hope you and your family are enjoying the beautiful summer season. Birthing season is in full swing in many areas of the country, and it is so exciting to see the next generation of Suri alpacas come into the world.
The SN Board of Trustees recently held our latest regular monthly board meeting on June 22, 2020. With all the changes occurring in our environment, we want to communicate with our members to keep you current on our activities and solicit input about what is important to you. The Suri Network is more than an association. We are a community made up of Suri owners, like you, who are dedicated to preserving and advancing the Suri alpaca. We call ourselves a “Network” to emphasis the importance of us to be an interconnected group working for a common cause. Being interconnected in these times is especially important.
ALL Suri Fleece Show:
We are so excited about the upcoming 2020 Suri Network All Suri Fleece Show to be held on July 14-15th at New Era Fiber Mill. We have a record 234 fleeces entered, including international entries, with color champions by gender in all 6 color groups and a Mixed Combined! We expect a white cottage fleece championship as well. Thank you to all the Suri breeders for sending in your fleeces, making this once again the largest Suri fleece show around!
We want to give a special thank you and recognition to our Host/Royal Sponsor, New Era Fiber Mill and Long Hollow Suri Alpacas for providing our show venue. We also thank all our wonderful show sponsors for their financial support of the show:
Royal Sponsor: | Premium Sponsor: |
Alpacas of Spring Acres Big Timber Alpacas Impress Alpacas Memory M-Acres | 2 Point Farm Derwydd Alpacas |
Breeder Cup, Judges Choice and Color Champion Banners:
Akuna Matada Suri Alpacas Anderson Acres Alpacas Anonymous Donor BuzznHum Alpacas Hasselbring's Harmony Ranch Healing Springs Suris Heart and Soul Alpacas and Spinnery | Heritage Farm Suri Alpacas Pines Edge Suri Alpacas Raynay Alpaca Farm Sandollar Alpacas Superfleece Suri Alpacas Wild Rose Suri Alpacas |
Specialty Ribbons:
Macedo Mini Acres | Salt River Alpacas | Wings and A Prayer Alpacas |
Transport, First Time Fleece Entrant, Volunteer Appreciation:
Boulder Hill Alpacas | Daydream Alpacas | Healing Springs Suris |
Suri Network Symposium:
As we reported in our Spring Communication, there was a lot of enthusiasm for a new and improved Suri Network Symposium in February 2021 to be held in Las Vegas NV. The board has been closely monitoring the current COVID situation across the country. Based on the uncertainty we are currently seeing regarding travel, hotel venues and large gatherings and after much careful deliberation, the Board decided to revise our Symposium plan for February 2021 to convert to a what we are calling a Virtual Symposium Series. This series of Zoom seminars will focus on our “March to Marketing” theme and will feature special guest lecturers on a variety of marketing and other topics to help you advance your alpaca business. We expect each zoom seminar to be one to two hours that you can sign up for individually or as a series. We are also planning to incorporate smaller groups in a “table talk” format to allow for better networking and sharing of information after the seminars. The Symposium Committee is now refocused to developing the speaker topics and schedule for this Symposium Series to be offered starting next January thru February 2021.
We welcome your input for specific topics and speakers or if you would like to be on the planning committee (Zoom experts are welcome!). Please contact Sue King, Beth Sheets or Dale Davis if you are interested.
2020 Election:
The Suri Network Board of Trustees election is open for voting until July 15th. We have a great candidate slate. We also have a bylaw change on the ballot to better balance the board terms. For members that renewed their membership by the cutoff date, you should have received your ballot on or around June 19th. If you have not voted yet, please do so right away. We would love to have 100% participation! Election information is at https://surinetwork.org/page-1860238 under the Members Only tab. If you are having any issues with voting, please contact the office.
Product Development Committee:
The Product Development Committee (PDC), under the leadership of Joy Conwell, is taking the lead on planning the Suri Network On-Line Auction for fall 2020. In the past, we did this auction in conjunction with the Summer Symposium. This year we decided to move the auction to the fall to take advantage of holiday shopping. This is a great opportunity for members to showcase their alpaca or other products and services to the general public. We highlight all farms and/or individuals who donate products for the auction on the auction home page. Stay tuned for more information on the auction!
The PDC also recently completed a major update of the Suri Network Resource Directory that is now available at https://surinetwork.org/resources/Documents/Resource%20Directory-2020.pdf. The Directory is full of useful information related to all things Suri.
SHIP:
The Suri Herd Improvement Program (SHIP) is a great way to evaluate your herd and develop breeding goals for your farm. The SHIP database was recently updated to provide more effective reporting and it now allows members to publish their SHIP scores for the animals they choose. This provides a marketing opportunity to showcase your alpacas SHIP scores and to search for other animals with the positive traits you are interested in for improving your own herd. Here is the link for instructions on how to query and make your information public to other SN members: https://surinetwork.org/resources/Documents/SHIP%20Database%20Queries.pdf
If you are interested in SHIP for your farm, please contact the Suri Network office to schedule your SHIP assessment for next year.
Branding:
Our “Suri Simply Stunning” branding program is progressing well, with many farms signed up to use the mark. We are currently registering the mark with the US Trademark office. For more information on Suri Simply Stunning: https://surinetwork.org/Suri-Simply-Stunning
PurelySuri:
We previously reported that we are moving the PurelySuri publication to a publish date in January 2021 based on feedback from our members. This provides our members to access articles in a less busy time of the year and provides our advertisers an avenue to market their programs prior to the busy show and breeding season. We are currently working on articles for the next publication and welcome any input you have on article topics. We will be soliciting advertising for the magazine beginning in August. Placing an ad in PurelySuri is a sure way to effectively promote your Suri alpacas and products to a targeted audience.
Breed Standard:
We are pleased to report that the Suri Network Suri Breed Standard was recently adopted by the AOA members for use as their AOA breed standard.
Membership Renewal:
Our annual membership renewed on June 1, 2020. Thank you to all our members who have renewed their membership and continue to support the Suri Network. If you missed the renewal notices, please go to www.surinetwork.org to renew now. We appreciate our members support!
Warmest Regards, The Suri Network Board of Trustees: Beth Sheets sheets@ourheritagefarm.com Dale Davis dale@derwyddalpacas.com Deb Christner akunamatadasuri@gmail.com Liz Vahlkamp saltriveralpacas@yahoo.com | Margit Korsak boulderhillalpacas@yahoo.com Nancy Lindemood frankemood@aol.com Sue King sue@bigtimberalpacas.com |