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L. A. F. F.
Email: laffadupre@yahoo.com
Website: laffnet.org
A Publication
of the Louisiana Association of Fairs and Festivals
Al Dupré, Jr., Editor
Convention 2007 Edition
In another of our “recovering events” in Louisiana. A note from
John LeBlanc of LA Fur & Life.
An update on this years La Fur and Wildlife Festival. The Fur
pageant will be held on Jan 6th at the Rosa Hart Theater in Lake
Charles Louisiana at 7:00pm.
This year’s LA. Fur and Wildlife Festival will be held in Cameron on Jan
12th and 13th.
QUEEN OF QUEEN’S HOSPITALITY
ATTENTION ALL FESTIVALS: we are looking for sweets and
other treats to be
put into the hospitality room for all the Queens. If
your festival can help please email either Linda Jennings @
cypress@bellsouth.net or Susan Sennet at grannysue12@yahoo.com. Thank
you in advance for your generous donations.
Thanks,
Linda Jennings
PRESIDENT’s MESSAGE:
Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New
Year.
I would like to thank everyone for giving me the
opportunity to serve as your 2006
LAFF President. This has truly been a great honor and
a privilege to serve you the hard working individuals of fairs and
festivals. The state of Louisiana is blessed to not only have so many
unique fairs and festivals but to have so many people who are dedicated to
making their events such successful ones.
To the board of Directors thank you, you have been an
amazing group to work with.
The LAFF organization has been around for many years,
and I hope that we can keep the strong tradition of supporting all of the
fairs and festivals involved in LAFF in the future.
Although my term is coming to an end, I will still
serve as Immediate Past President, so I am not leaving and I will continue
to provide assistance to any organization that needs my help.
I have had a great time traveling the state of
Louisiana, I traveled to towns and cities that I did not know even existed
and along the way I had the opportunity of meeting so many wonderful
people. I also had the opportunity to network with other state
representatives, by attending very informative workshops.
Last years convention was a success, with the theme
that I chose. I thought it only appropriate to honor all who have served
our great country, because of you who serve, we still remain the Land of the
Free.
I look forward to meeting with everyone during
convention, and again I was honored to serve all of you.
s/ Dennis Mouton
VICE-PRESIDENT’s MESSAGE:
Greetings LAFF Friends
I hope everyone is doing well and looking forward to
the holidays. I would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy
New Year.
All convention committees’ reports indicated that
convention plans are progressing very well. A special thanks to you all for
your hard work to help me make this convention a success.
With convention time drawing near, just a reminder, if
your event has any items that can be donated to the LAFF General Store,
please do so. Sales generated through the store go to support the LAFF
awards.
Hope to see you at convention.
In the spirit of LAFF, sincerely
s/ Paul Mcgee
TREASURER’s MESSAGE:
I sit here on Christmas night, thankful for the reason
for the season!
I surely hope that everyone had a great Christmas and
will have an
extremely Happy New Year!
On a personal note, I really enjoyed attending Al and
Mona Dupre's
son's wedding on November 24th in Amelia,
with the reception following in
Morgan City. It was a very classy affair and was
thoroughly enjoyed by all!
On December 10th, Neal and I had the great opportunity
to judge the
Cottonport Christmas on the Bayou Parade. It had over
100 entries and was
extremely entertaining. We also attended the Mayor's
Reception afterwards
-- thanks go out to all the committee chairpersons!
I am extremely honored to announce that I will run for
re-election for
LAFF Treasurer at the LAFF Convention in Baton Rouge,
which will be
held from February 1-4, 2007. Please get involved at
convention --
volunteer to serve on a committee, bring hospitality
food or drinks, bring
festival/fair items to have sold in the Country Store
in the Trade Show,
bring auction items, etc. I'm looking forward to
seeing all my old
friends and to meeting new friends.
I am very busy getting all the paperwork and deposits
for convention.
Let me know if I can assist your festival/fair in any
way.
s/ Barbara Horaist
SECRETARY’s REPORT:
We have quite a few events in with plenty delegates and
much interest in “extra” Friday and Saturday tickets. If you haven’t gotten
your ticket request in, now is the time…
Please make the information in the newsletter available
to your fair/festival members. If you wish anyone else in your event to
receive the newsletter via email, please either type or print very clearly
these email addresses and send to laffadupre@yahoo.com. Also, check the
website (www.laffnet.org)
for the newsletter, updates and other member information.
If you need any help with your fair or festival,
especially in judging a pageant or other type of contest or just needing
any assistance in general, please send an e-mail to: GOTOBUTTON BM_1_
laffadupre@yahoo.com or call me at: 985-447-4658 or write: 2402 Elizabeth
Street, Thibodaux, LA 70301
s/ Al Dupré
DISTRICT 3 DIRECTOR
I would like to extend the very best holiday greeting
to everyone. I hope everyone has a
Merry Christmas
and a very Happy New Year.
I have
received all the awards now and I am getting them ready for the judges.
There were
many entrees in
each division. Once they are all judged then I will have the plaques made.
I will try to
bring back as many of the photo albums back to each of the festivals that
entered
as soon as I
can. If you do not get yours back then I will have them at convention. Good
Luck
to all that
entered. Until we meet at convention have a safe and happy holiday.
I am again
asking for everyone’s support on my running for the office of vice –
president.
s/ Jim Meaux
DISTRICT 5 DIRECTOR
I hope everyone had a Happy Holiday and best wishes on
a successful year in 2007.
The past year seemed to fly by at a rapid pace. Well,
it's almost convention time once again and I believe "Welcome to Fabulous
LAFF Vegas" is sure to be one that you won't want to miss. Paul McGee and
the rest of the board have worked very hard to put on a great convention.
Equella and myself are working on the workshops and will appreciate any
input on topics. If you would like to moderate a discussion on a particular
topic, please let us know. A reminder for Queen's Door Decorations: We are
requesting that doors be decorated with banners. Banners can be a maximum
of 2.5 feet wide by 4 feet long and should be hung on doors. No nails can
be used.
I would like to announce that at the State Fair of
Louisiana Stephanie Hennigan was
crowned as Miss State Fair of Louisiana and she will be
at the Queen of Queens Pageant at the Annual Convention. I would like to
thank all of those that were involved in the pageant at the State Fair. It
could not have been done without your help. I will see you in February at
the convention.
s/ Chris Giordano
DISTRICT 6 DIRECTOR
On November, my
daughter, Courtney, and I traveled to the Louisiana State Fair. We rode
some rides and got some cotton candy. But, the best part of all is Chris,
District 5 Director & the State Fair's General Manager, got us tickets to
see Blake Shelton. We had a good time at the concert. We both just love his
music! Thanks Chris!
I also attended the Provencal Fall Fest pageant. They are one of the
newest members of LAFF. Their new queen is Mollie Jordan. Mollie will also
attend the Queen of Queens pageant representing Provencal. The Provencal
Fall Fest is held the weekend before Thanksgiving each year. Their festival
was not as big this year as it has been in the past. In Natchitoches, they
were having the official kick off of the Christmas Festival Lights. So,
that might have been a reason for the decline in attendance. They are
actually thinking of changing the date of their festival for next year due
to this. I wish them better luck next year! Welcome to LAFF!
The LA Pecan Festival held their annual festival the first weekend in
November. Many people came out and enjoyed the parade, food and
arts-n-crafts booths and music. I love the pecans, but the sausage
sandwiches at the festival are the best. I had a chance to get some of my
Christmas shopping done at the some of the booths. Congratulations to the
Pecan Festival Board for another successful festival!
The Sabine Free state Festival was also held the first weekend in
November. Leanna Phillips reigned as their 2007-07 Queen. The Free state
Festival had a good crowd. There were approximately 750 attending their
festival throughout the weekend. Everyone enjoyed the parade, music,
various contests, food and other booths.
The Many Christmas Festival & Parade held their first pageant on November
17th. They have been members of LAFF for several years, but have never sent
a Queen to compete for the Queen of Queens title. Their new queen is
Chelsea Sepulvado, who will travel to Baton Rouge for the Queen of Queens
pageant and LAFF convention. Their festival was the second weekend in
December. The Many Christmas parade was very nice. There were over 100
units in the parade this year. The Many Christmas Festival Queens float won
second place in the float competition. The fireworks show was very
entertaining. There were approximately 1,000-1,500 people who came out and
enjoyed the Christmas festivities.
I also attended the Natchitoches Christmas Festival. It is always held
the first Saturday in December. I had to decorate a float for the
Natchitoches Meat Pie Queens to ride on in the parade. Miss Meat Pie,
Autumn Burkett, and Teen Miss Meat Pie, Hanna Benoit, attended the Queen's
social the morning of the parade. There were many, many people attending
the festival. When I say many- I mean thousands and thousands!! I enjoyed
the festival, but the parade started late. I ran around all morning
finishing up with the Meat Pie float and the State Farm float thinking the
parade would roll at 1:00, but only to wait until a little after 2:00 before
we finally moved! Needless to say, it was a very long day! The fireworks
display and lights were awesome. I don't think I have ever been anywhere
that could even compare! Congratulations to the City of Natchitoches for a
successful festival. Every Saturday in December they have a fireworks
display. There will also be fireworks on New Year's Eve.
I have been so busy with Christmas, as well as everyone else I am sure.
Please, remember I am over the General Store at the LAFF Convention this
year. Please bring any items you would like to donate to be sold in the
store to convention with you. It will be greatly appreciated. If anyone in
my district needs my help in anyway, please let me know. Happy New Year!!
s/ Alisa N. Yelverton
DISTRICT 7 DIRECTOR
Well, I hope everyone had a safe and Happy New Year.
As we approach February, time draws short until the beginning of the 2007
Convention. I do hope you have made plans to attend and have made all your
reservations. The planning for this convention has been in full swing all
year and I assure you that this will again be a most informative and
entertaining event. The convention committee is still in need of volunteers
for many of the events so if you would like to help out, let a Board Member
know, and I’m sure that they can find a place for you to help.
I am still in need of items for the Ditty Bags, so,
if you have any ideas or vendors who would like to contribute please feel
free to contact them and get whatever you can. We are anticipating a large
turnout again this year so we would like to have approximately 500 pieces
for the Ditty Bags. We also have our annual auction and door prize
giveaways, so if you have or can solicit any door prizes or auction items,
we would appreciate anything, this helps to keep our organization funded for
all of our events.
I also want to wish all the Queen of Queen’s
contestants the very best, they are all beautiful and intelligent ladies who
represent their Fairs and Festivals well, and I know anyone of them would
represent LAFF well. The queens of the Fairs and Festivals are the jewels
in the crown of Louisiana tourism, and as such promote the revitalization of
Louisiana after our most tragic year in recorded history. I would like also
to thank the parents of our queens for allowing these beautiful young ladies
to represent our events and for the support they give the queens and in turn
their support of LAFF.
I look forward to another great year and only hope
that if any other Fair or Festival organization in your area is not a member
of LAFF that you would ask them to consider joining our great organization
and refer them to our website:
www.laffnet.org, for additional information and application process. I
also would like to again offer my services to any LAFF member or potential
member to assist them in anyway possible in their event. Contact me if I
may be of assistance through the website, or my personal e-mail,
laffpres04@cox.net. Looking forward to seeing you all in Baton
Rouge February 2,3,4, 2007 for a most informative and entertaining
convention.
s/ Warren
Deemer
SUPPLIER (ASSOCIATES) DIRECTOR
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone!
We're getting ready for the Trade Show for the LAFF
Convention on February 1-4, 2007. We have only 5 booths sent in already and
definitely need more. Please let me know ASAP if your business is
interested in having a booth in the Trade Show.
s/ Neal
Horaist
REQUESTS
The Louisiana Pageant Association has been asked to do
a workshop during the coming Louisiana Association of Fairs and Festivals
Convention in February. In order to offer you the information and topics
you feel you need, we are asking for your input on topics that you feel are
most important at this time or may be important to you in the near future.
Please e-mail your workshop requests to me at:
laffpres04@cox.net . Your requests will be evaluated and the topics
we receive will be incorporated into our presentation.
Warren Deemer - President, Pageant Association of
Louisiana
AND
From Paula
Cappiello <orangefestival@cmaaccess.com:
I am asking if any of
the Festivals have any extra Washington Mardi Gras Ball Tickets for
the Friday and/or Saturday night that the
Orange
Festival can purchase. If you do -- PLEASE – PLEASE please
email Paula at -
orangefestival@CMAaccess.com or call me at 504-656-7599 or (cell)
504-453-7308
Thank You! Paula…….
ELECTION GUIDELINES (2007 Convention)
SEQ CHAPTER \h \r 1ELECTION
GUIDELINES
1. Require that an individual MUST be or
have been a “board member, officer, staff person chairperson and presently a
member in good standing.” of their Fair or Festival in order to be nominated
for the LAFF officer or board election.
2. Once elected to a LAFF officer or
director position the individual may serve out their term.
3. Nominations MUST be made in writing by
a convention delegate (or a current officer) of your fair or festival (which
must be a paid up member of LAFF) to the nominating committee anytime prior
to the closing of the Friday business session of the annual meeting or
5 pm which ever is the latest.
4. Nominating committee shall present a
slate of candidates for all officer and board positions no later than the
Friday business session of the annual meeting.
5. Nominations from the floor may be made
ONLY by a voting Convention delegate (or a current officer) of the LAFF
member fair or festival.
6. Nominations from the floor will be done
ONLY at the Friday afternoon business session and nominations will close at
the closing of the Friday business session of the annual meeting or
5 pm which ever is the latest.
7. The Secretary will prepare a ballot for
the election of Officers. The Secretary will prepare a ballot for the
election of Directors, that will include the names of the Officers nominees
where more than one person is nominated.
8. Required that Directors be elected from
designated areas of the state.
9. Required that candidates for Treasurer
and Secretary be bondable.
10. Establish a definite make-up of the
nominating committee. By-laws requires that the president “appoint the
nominating committee for the election of officers and directors consisting
of not less than three (3) members but no more than five (5) members.
11. The State of Louisiana will be divided
in six (7) LAFF District for the election of board members.
2007
Elections will be held in District 3 & 4.
2008
Elections will be held in District 1 & 5.
2009
Elections will be held in District 2, 6 & 7
. District
elections will be held every three years in the same order as stated above.
Only members of the individual districts will be allowed to vote in these
districts.
POSTER CONTEST RULES
1. Subject of poster shall be: “My Fair/Festival”.
Name, location and date of event must be on
poster.
2. Any public, private, or parochial school student
may participate.
3. Poster will be judged in four categories:
A. Grades 1 - 3
B. Grades 4 - 6
C. Grades 7 - 9
D. Grades 10 - 12
4. Poster must be displayed on 14" X 22" white poster
paper. (½ sheet of standard
poster paper).
5. All work must be vertical. Nothing horizontal
will be judged.
6. All lettering must be free-hand. Do not use
Stencils.
7. Medium used shall be: Crayon; Water Color;
Acrylics, Felt-Tip Pen; or Oil.
No Cut-outs nor Collage.
8. First, Second, and Third place winners in each
category are eligible for state
competition.
Limit of Twelve (12) posters per event.
9. Posters will be judged and points awarded as
follows:
Originality 35%
Theme 25%
Neatness 25%
Spelling 15%
10. Poster Prizes:
Third Place $25.00
Second Place $50.00
First Place $75.00
One Best Overall $100.00
11. Information cards (5X7 index cards) should include
the following:
Name Address
Telephone Parents
Category Fair/Festival
This should be placed on the
left top corner of poster in such a way that it can be
flipped over from front to
back.
12. All posters must be presented by 5:00 PM on Friday
of the annual convention.
Chairman: Kaye Ladner
LAFF District IV Director
27280 R. F. Ball Road
Franklinton,
Louisiana 707438
985-848-5937
Fax 985-839-9164
Email: wpfairlady@yahoo.com
EVENTS TO ATTEND
With the recent
storms, information has been updated as available, always call before going;
especially this year!
January 6th
Rice Capital
Championship Gumbo Cook-off (3)
Crowley
January 12th
– 14th
LA Fur & Wildlife
Festival (2)
Convention 2007
“Welcome to LAFF Vegas”
Holiday Inn Select Baton Rouge
February
1, 2, 3 & 4, 2007
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