Message from the President

Dear AMLA Members,

Happy spring! Spring is one of the best times on the farm. New crias being born, planning for next year’s spring crias and everything else coming back to life. Another great part of spring is the many llama activities that start back up again, like shows, parades and 4-H groups.

AMLA had a great spring kick-off at the Virginia Classic Llama and Alpaca Show in March. We had a wonderful Annual General Membership meeting where fellow AMLA members got together to discuss AMLA, the mini llama, and to just enjoy food and fellowship with each other. On Saturday many of the mini farms represented at the meeting competed in the ILR-SD mini halter classes in friendly competition.

As the weather gets nicer in everyone’s regions, I encourage everyone to get their minis out into the public. That could be done by participating in a local parade, llama show, fiber event, a school visit, etc. It is so satisfying to introduce minis to the general public that may not have ever been exposed to them before. Not only will you have fun, so will the people being introduced to a mini for the first time. If any of you participate in an event with your minis, please make sure to take some pictures and if you like to write, write up a short article for the Mini Newsletter.

I hope each and every one of you has a wonderful spring on your farm!

Sincerely,

Julie Sines
President

Heartland Llama Show

Remember, the Heartland Llama Show is April 24th and 25th at the Hamilton County Fairgrounds in Webster City, Iowa. We had a great time last year and enjoyed all those AMLA members who attended our show as part of your annual meeting. Your presence made our show even better. We look forward to seeing you again soon.

Karen Miller, Superintendent

2010 Committees

My name is Gladys Moritz and I am your History Committee Chairperson. I live in Blacksburg, Virginia with my husband Jim.

As your History Committee Chair I will be seeking out information from other animal groups that have developed or are developing miniatures. To name a few (but not limited to) miniature dog breeds, horses and cows.

I am looking forward to my role and invite any and all with ideas to share them with me. Or, better still why not volunteer to be a committee member?

My name is Phyllis Wilkerson and I am Membership Chairperson. My committees main responsibility is to welcome new members. So far in 2010 new members include:

Alan and Sherry Baldwin, Good Earth Llama Farm, Washington, MO
Marsha Borgmann, St. Charles, MO
Randy and Marcia Mayo, Cedar Ridge Farm, Rolla, MO
Jodi and Scott Taylor, Lliving 'n Lloving Llamas, Inman, KS
Thomas and Julie Tripp, Llama Lland, England

My name is Pam Fink and I am the Web site and Newsletter Chairperson. My committee is responsible for 1) to keeping the web site up to date, informative, attractive and fun and 2) produce our newsletter as close to monthly as possible. In other words my committee is the primary communication arm of AMLA. I am always looking for quality articles as well as information about what is going on in the llama community so please send me anything you would like to share with the group. Everything you send will find it's way to a newsletter or the web site or both!

My name is Darlene Awarski, I am the Public Relations Chairperson. In this committee we will be collecting and writing articles about miniature llamas for magazines, newspapers as well as this newsletter. We will also be trying to come up with advertising and marketing ideas. We need a couple more volunteers for this committee so if you are interested please let me know. Thanks, Darlene

My name is Julie Sines and I am the Show Committee Chairperson for 2010. The AMLA Show Committee exists to examine the current mini halter and performance guidelines for both ALSA and the ILR-SD to make sure they are as effective as possible. If you are interested in showing and would like to participate on this committee for the rest of the year, please contact me.

Virginia Classic

Congratulations to Phyllis Wilkerson. Her little guy DPDL Rocky Road took Mini Male Grand Champion.

Minutes of AMLA Annual
General Meeting
March 12, 2010
American Miniature Llama Association

President Julie Sines called the meeting to order at 7:00 PM.

Present were: Julie and Derrick Sines, Don and Cathy Schmieding, Pam Fink, Darlene Awarski, Pat Drury, Gayle Dumas, Laura Harrawood, Joanne Kohnen, Marsha Borgmann, Phyllis Wilkerson and Gladys Moritz.

Members introduced themselves and everyone enjoyed a tasty buffet.

2009 Minutes were approved.

Darlene Awarski gave Treasurers’ report for Pat Berhens (not able to attend). Account balance as of 12-24-08 $4076.56. Account balance as of 12-24-09 $4913.80. 2009 gross income from AMLA, Registrations, web site advertising, and membership fees $2964.00 2009 expenditures $2126.76 net income $ 837.24

Pat Drury asked if we could verify when we send out information that we could verify that people received it. Pam explained that anything that is sent out from her computer lets her know that a person received the information and tells her that you opened it or not.

Pam Fink addressed the Bylaws revisions explaining that these revisions were designed to better clarify who could be an AMLA member, what AMLA membership includes and what responsibilites come alonge with AMLA membership. She also explained that the current Bylaws can be found on the AMLA web site.

Julie explained current show height requirements: ALSA requirements all mini's to be 38” or under and the llama has to be AMLA Registered. ILR show requirements are: Adults 38” or under, 2 years 37" or under, Yearling 36” or under and Juveniles 35” or under, the llama has to be ILR regestered but not AMLA regestered.

Pat Drury wanted to know what happened with membership involvement with the height vote. Julie explained, they were two separate issues. In 2009 there was a vote taken to change the height requirements for AMLA Minis. The vote was to not change the height. The second issue was for the ILR Show Requirements. This was addressed by the AMLA Show Committee that ALL AMLA members were invited to be be members of. We had several proposals submitted to ILR on both height and fiber divisions and all were rejected. This last proposal is the one that was accepted. The Show Committee can resubmit to ILR annually any new proposals for their review.

Julie explained that there would be some concessions made for this show due to the Virginia Classic’s s Show Superintendent’s error of not posting the new 2010 ILR Show Requirements in a timely manner.

Pam will verify that the height requirements on our web site are correct.

Pat Drury wants to have a study by Veterinarians on height, Gayle Dumas wants a data base for height. Discussion took place that we had already discussed this at the 2009 AGM and that Merle Mann and Mindy Jorpland had created a form, Gladys Moritz has created a form as well. Joanne Kohnen volunteered to be on the Registration Committee.

Pam discussed the possibility of having a monthly newsletter. She promised to try but felt sure we could have at least 10 newsletters a year.

Julie explained what the 2010 Committees were and Pam talked about the importance of volunteering for Committees for the betterment of the AMLA. Pat Drury talked about promoting Llama fiber.

Gladys talked about researching miniatures in other areas such as dog, horse etc., and agreed to chair the History Committee.

Julie’s Mom suggested that we have a form to send out to new members to ask for them to give a little Bio on themselves which could be in the next newsletter. Just another way to get to know each other.

Laura Harrawood and Gayle Dumas said that they would be on the Fiber Committee. Some fiber discussion took place.

Pam Fink motioned to adjourn the meeting, Julie Sines seconded it at 8:35 PM.

Luminary Minis

We all have a story to tell, this is our story. We (Merle & Tami Mann) own a small farm just outside the city limits of Oskaloosa, Iowa. We raise Miniature Suri llamas and Miniature Silky Fainting Goats.

When we moved to the farm, we had a lot of work to complete. It took a couple of years to clear out the brush. We hauled fifteen pick-up loads of broken cement to the dump. We put all new fencing up by ourselves; I dug all of the fence post in by hand (45 totals). We even built our barn (garage), hay shed and we are currently building onto our hay shed.

Our house needed a lot work also. The house was a small square little structure with four small rooms (kitchen, living room and two bedrooms). We have added onto our house twice. We had to do all the remodeling to allow room for our 5 children. Our family grew almost overnight before our eyes. Our five children all have been adopted though the foster care system, (Robert-17, Kristi-15, Jon-14, Jerimiah-13 and Troy-5).

Suzy, our pet goat was our very first animal that started our venture of raising miniature animals. While looking up miniature animals on the internet, I found the AMLA web-site. I keep going back the AMLA web-site and knew that miniature llamas would work for us. We had already had several silkie fainting goats, before getting into the miniature llamas. Our first mini llama came from Blooming Valley Mini Llama farm. Julie Sines the owner of Blooming Valley Minis, has become my best llama friend. We email each other everyday. Since that first mini llama, we have come to love the Mini Suri llamas. One of my joys is showing our animals though out mid-west. Troy our youngest has been showing since he was 3 years old. My greatest joy was winning “Reserve Champion Mini Male” at the Heartland Llama Show.

Our farm has brought us a lot of joy. Our farm is not a show place but a place of sharing. We will host several parties though out the year for anybody to attend. By the time you read this article, we will have had an Easter egg hunt at the farm. This will allowing all those that attend to bottle feed some baby kids (goats), play with llamas, and go for an Easter egg hunt on the farm.

This Our Story
Merle and Tami Mann (Robert, Kristi, Jon, Jerimiah and Troy)
Luminary Minis “We the minis brighten the day”

Board Members
Julie Sines, President
Pam Fink, Vice President
Darlene Awarski, Secretary
Pat Behrens, Treasurer
Sue Morgan, Registrar

Membership
AMLA membership dues must be sent to ILR. ILR is responsible for maintaining our membership list. Dues are $25 per farm and membership runs the calendar year.

Registration
Individual llama registrations must be sent to ILR. You will receive a combined ILR-AMLA registration paper for each mini llama you register or upgraded.

Fees for AMLA registration are:
Initial Registration: $10
Immature to Mature Status$6 Checks should be made payable to AMLA and sent to PO Box 8, Kalispell, Mt 59903. If you have any questions email ILRA at amla@lamaregistry.com

Annual Web site Ads
All breeder ads, both photos and copy, should be emailed to Pam Fink and the appropriate fee should be made payable to ALMA and mailed to Pat Behrens, 1076 Harrods Creek Rd, Paris, Kentucky 40361
The cost is: $50 a year.

Annual Newsletter Ad
All newsletter business card ads should be emailed to Pam Fink and the appropriate fee should be made payable to ALMA and mailed to Pat Behrens, 1076 Harrods Creek Rd, Paris, Kentucky 40361
Business Card $40



Julie & Derek Sines
1132 W, Woodrow Rd.
Shelby, MI 49455
231-742-0931


Darlene & Ken Awarski
5265 Norris Run Rd.
Blacksburg, VA
540-808-8664

Pete & Joyce Barber
506 Jones Rd.
Mill Springs, NC 28756
828-625-4132


Sue & George Morgan
33693 Hibernia St.
Frontenac, MN 55026
651-380-2236


Tami & Merle Mann
2605 Luminary Lane
Oskaloosa, IA 52577
641-673-7740



Pam & Jerry Fink
65 Windy Valley Lane
Blue Ridge, GA 30513
706-258-2432

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