November, 2005 Newsletter

NOVEMBER 2005 Edition

The 10^th Annual Marketing Awards Program information will be going out soon. Be looking for it! Deadline to RECEIVE entries is December 15, 2005.

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Was your event hit hard by one of the hurricanes this year? For those events hard hit by either or both of the two hurricanes of 2005, the Officers/Board of Directors approved a program to assist those affected. The program is that those affected events would be allowed to have their annual membership be waived for 2006; (waive $55.00 membership fee for 2006) on a “by request” basis. The event making application must have been in a declared/designated disaster zone.

The event would need to submit a listing of damage. The event must have sustained severe damage from either storm or “lost” their event for this year.

Friday Night (at the convention) Costume Contest all “audience” members holding a Friday night ticket will be eligible for the contest. Officers/Board members will judge. Win a prize (more details later) by being judged –“best costumed depicting the convention theme”.

PRESIDENT’s MESSAGE:

Well, since last month our great state has been bracketed by Hurricanes.  Katrina on the east and Rita on the west.  Rita has taken

a toll on my home area and I came back to the large tree that used to be in my front yard now laying across my roof and into my

computer room.  We have removed the tree and the roof is covered.  All we need now is our insurance adjuster to come by and

give a repair estimate so we can begin our repairs.

After Rita, we now have a whole new group of Fairs & Festivals affected by the wrath of nature and would like those events that

Rita has devastated to let us know what we can do to help.  Please e-mail or call to let us know any changes or cancellations of your event.

Your LAFF Board will be meeting at The State Fair of Louisiana in Shreveport on October 29^th and are planning several things

that will assist those of you that have been affected.

We will post them on our website and will also announce them in the newsletter.  LAFF will also notify IAFE via letter, after our meeting

 and advise them of what is needed for Louisiana's fairs and festivals.  I am very sad to report that since our last newsletter, I have been

dodging hurricanes, evacuated to Kentucky for 11 days and have not been able to attend any of your events.  I had planned to begin again

with the Cattle Festival on October 21^st,22^nd and 23^rd but was again sidetracked by my grandson's motor scooter accident which had

 him in ICU over the weekend.  He is very sore but is expected to recover over the next few weeks.  Looks like I'm home schooling for

a while again.  But don't despair, our weekends will still be free and we will be traveling again beginning next weekend.  If you need any

help with your event, please call and we will be glad to help in any way possible.

Remember that the LAFF family is here to help and work with you. You can contact me or any member of the Board of Directors

through the LAFF website. My telephone is finally working again but I am still having Email problems. If you wish either myself or

any other member of your LAFF Board to help or attend your event, just call or Email and we will do our very best to be there.

s/Rob Piraro

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VICE-PRESIDENT’s MESSAGE:

My thoughts and prayers are with everyone who experienced the devastation of hurricane Rita.

The LAFF 2006 convention is still being held February 16^th-19^th in Baton Rouge. Packets have already been sent out.

If you have not received your packet please contact Mr. Al Dupré, secretary of LAFF.

Festival Directors we need to know if your queen is participating in the Queen of Queens pageant, we have 80 rooms reserved, about 1/4 of the queens have still not yet made reservations.

After December 15^th, if we do not have your queen’s name, we will remove the festival from our queen hotel room list so that rooms can become available for convention delegates. Hampton Inn is no longer available due to the hurricane “situation”.

We have secured two guest speakers for our Saturday afternoon workshops. I highly encourage all to try to attend the workshop sessions.

I know a lot of changes are being made. Festivals and pageants are being rescheduled and even some pageants and festivals are not being held this year due to the hurricanes. We are hoping that Louisiana can come together and benefit in spite of all of the devastation that we have encountered and make a better Louisiana through Fairs and Festivals.

I continue to travel throughout the state of Louisiana assisting anyway that I can. I enjoy working behind the scenes. If anyone needs to have their pageant (audit) put on computer; I am presently doing so for some pageants.

It’s nice to visit with friends at their events. Evangeline Oil and Gas pageant was very nice. Miss Abbeville, Teen Cattle, and Miss Cattle pageants are always Mooing......First Time experience at French Food Pageant, which was a great production, very entertaining. International Rice, I would like to thank Jean, Tracy, Roxie, and the rest of the festival board for a very wonderful and successful festival. Janet I hope that I was not too hard on your hips running into you as we worked together in the beer booth during the Rice Festival.

s/ Dennis Mouton

PAST-PRESIDENT’s MESSAGE

I hope this newsletter finds all our members in better shape than last month. My thoughts and prayers go out to all of you that were affected by the two catastrophic hurricanes that took aim on the southern Louisiana coastline. New Orleans looks more like Iraq after a car bombing, with one difference, there was no explosion. I was spared the full onslaught of water, but the wind did do its fair share on my property. The only thing worse than the Hurricane, was the looting that took place after the storm. My garage roof was blown off, and someone helped themselves to all my power tools, but left the food to rot in the freezer and refrigerator. Now that was a real need. No electricity, but they took all the power tools, go figure.

I hope that you will all keep our festival, fair members and organizations in your thoughts, as this has been a devastating blow to many in the southern half of our state. Many of us became complacent after 40 years of near misses. This year, two major hits in a row. I just hope our festival and fairs can overcome this devastating year and come back strong next year. I am but one person but, I am sure we can muster some troops to offer some assistance for our fair and festival organizations if you need us.

Unfortunately, with all the destruction around our state affecting our fairs and festivals, the never ending saga of pageant complaints still “rears its ugly head”. I would like to remind all those who constantly call and complain about the pageants, that we are the Louisiana Association of Fairs and Festivals we are not the pageant police. We do not make rules for pageants; we do not arbitrate conflicts in scoring, judging or decisions made on the individual pageant levels. There is no rule book on pageant etiquette or rules contrary to what many believe. It is hard enough for the District Directors and Officers to overcome the massiveness of the hurricane tragedy to our fellow LAFF members, much less to be asked to become referees in pageant disagreements. LAFF only sets rules for OUR Queen of Queen’s Pageant, and no other. Please refer any pageant complaints to the individual directors of the pageants as they set the rules for their own pageant. As this has been a devastating two months for all our members, I look forward to the coming convention; this would be a good time to let off some steam and recharge your efforts to making your event more successful. Our Convention Coordinator is working hard to make this event worthwhile and I can assure you, we will have a great convention with great workshops and great networking events. If you have not made plans to attend, I suggest you consider attending. You can network with the people who are the backbones of the fairs and festivals that make their events work with great success. Contact your District Director or any Board Member for further details about the convention.

If any festival or fair has not already provided our secretary, Al Dupré with the 2006 dates of their event, please do so NOW. It is hard to provide accurate information about your events without your input. Although our Secretary is good, he has not perfected reading minds, although “we just might think he does.” Please forward your information to Al, immediately so we can try to get our website updated for the coming year.

While on my evacuation excursion, I had the honor of meeting the Director of the Arizona State Fair. The state fair has massive fairgrounds along with an arena that once housed a NBA basketball team all this offers them the venue to hold concerts and other events throughout the year. He offered me the opportunity to tour the facility and I accepted and was awe struck with what he has and how small a paid staff he has. He also invited me to attend the State Fair but I respectfully declined the opportunity as I had to return home to see what was left. I wish for success to the Arizona State Fair and I thank them for the hospitality they offered while so busy planning their event around an evacuation shelter for Louisiana evacuees. The people of Arizona are to be commended on their efforts to make the evacuees feel welcome and for providing the amenities necessary for the long haul for many.

I would once again like to thank all of you who called and emailed me about the welfare of myself and my family and for offering your homes and anything else necessary to make us comfortable while unable to return home. To my good friend Byron Blanchard, thanks could never be conveyed for your assistance. Refrigerators were like hen’s teeth in the New Orleans area and he graciously secured a refrigerator for us and personally delivered it to our home. To all of you who offered assistance, God will bless you many times over and I will never forget the people who so graciously offered assistance. I would once again offer my assistance to the Fair and Festival family of LAFF as a judge, emcee or whatever you feel I could be of assistance to your group. I am as near as a phone (now that I have one again) or e-mail (now that I am back on-line). Call me at 504-328-5686 or e-mail me at wdeemer@cox.net or wjd11@hotmail.com.

Please accept our wishes to your family for a very Happy Thanksgiving. It seems that we have much to be thankful for this year and hope that you will remember those who have been devastated by the Hurricanes and our service men and women throughout the world who are protecting our right to celebrate Thanksgiving. Until next month, stay safe, stay dry and watch out for flying debris.

s/ Warren Deemer

TREASURER’s REPORT:

Here's hoping that everyone is recuperating from the damages caused by Katrina and Rita. On October 8, Linda Comeaux and I visited the Red River Arts Revel Festival in Shreveport and had a tremendous time until it started raining. Due to Hurricane Rita's influences, the Louisiana Cattle Festival was postponed 3 weeks from the first weekend in October to the 20th through the 23rd of October. Unfortunately we were unable to reschedule our Cattle Show, our Cooking Contest, and John Conlee. But everything else went well and we had record crowds, especially on the Saturday night.

Our newly crowned Miss Queen is Kayla LaVergne and our Ms. Queen is Nicky Lingo. They are anxious to travel, so please send invitations to: Queen Kayla LaVergne, 107 Azalea Dr., DeQuincy LA 70633 and to Queen Nicky Lingo, 103 Lantana Court, Broussard LA 70518.

Should any festival/fair need my assistance in judging a pageant, etc., please email me at bnhoraist@aol.com or call me at 337-893-6328.

s/ Barbara T. Horaist

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SECRETARY’s REPORT:

My personal thanks go to Mr. Sam Giordano (past LAFF President) and Chris Giordano (District 5 Director) for their great job in hosting the October LAFF Board meeting.

I also want to publicly thank Linda Jennings of the Patterson Cypress Sawmill Festival. She has printed the convention packets in the recent past on the copier owned by the Sawmill Festival (but recently donated to the State Museum in Patterson) however, due to Hurricane Rita, the museum was not open and Linda ended up printing all the convention packets on her personal computer printer. Thanks Linda!

If I can help you in any way; information, pageant judge, whatever; just Email (laffadupre@yahoo .com) or call 985-447-4658.

s/ Al Dupré

DISTRICT # 1 DIRECTOR

I have been in and out of the hospital since September and have not been able to travel very much. I did get a chance to attend the Shrimp & Petroleum Festival. Please note the information on the Essay Contest in the newsletter.

Thanks,

s/ David Bourdier

DISTRICT # 6 DIRECTOR

Greeting from District 6 - I had a great time attending the Natchitoches Meat Pie Festival in September. The food, music and fellowship were the best. It was good to be with friends again. Congratulation to Ms. Amanda Payne on being chosen the festival queen.

We held our board meeting on 29 October 2005 at the State Fair of Louisiana Office in Shreveport. We had a very productive meeting. Special thanks to Mr. Sam Giordano and Mr. Chris Giordano for hosting our meeting.

Hope to see many of you at convention.

In the spirit of LAFF, sincerely

s/ Paul McGee

SUPPLIER DIRECTOR

The Trade Show is being planned for Convention 2006 and will be a great one! We are extending the hours, so that everyone has the opportunity to visit with all the vendors. After reading the evaluations from convention 2005, we are working on satisfying everyone and improving areas that you were unhappy with.

If there is a particular type of vendor that you are interested in who did not attend this year’s convention, please inform me of your wishes. I am trying to get as wide a variety of vendors as possible.

Please contact me at 337-501-1342 or Email me at bnhoraist@aol.com if you have any input for the 2006 Trade Show.

s/ Neal Horaist

QUEEN of QUEENS

How motivating it was to begin traveling again following the tragedy and devastation from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita! Seeing the faces of queens, directors, and LAFF members who were in harm’s way of either hurricane gave me feelings of hope and faith that Louisiana and its citizens will rebuild and restore.

On October 1, I traveled to Chackbay for the Louisiana Gumbo Festival. A warm welcome was in store for my mother and me from Ms. Eloise Clement and the festival association. We left with plenty of gumbo and desserts. On October 8^th, I visited Crowley for the Rice Festival Ball, and on October 9^th I trekked over to Walker for the Louisiana Honey Bee Festival Pageant. I had the opportunity to speak with a representative from St. Jude’s Hospital and he was so happy to meet me and tell all about the festival as well as personal stories from the hospital.

On October 15^th, I attended the St. John Andouille Festival Pageant in Reserve, and the production was splendid! On October 16^th, I witnessed the crowning of the new Louisiana Cotton Festival Queen and I then took part in Ville Platte’s Tournoi parade and festival. The medieval theme intrigued me as I watched knights parade on horses. Following the Tournoi activities, I ended my weekend at the Louisiana Pecan Festival Pageant in Colfax, where I went “nuts” with excitement over the incoming royalty.

On October 21^st, I traveled to Abbeville for the Cattle Festival Pageant. It was a bittersweet night for me, as I said goodbye to my good friend, Jennifer Falgout, but I welcomed another friend, Kayla Lavergne, into the rhinestone sorority. The following morning, I milked a cow and had a “moovelous” time with Neil and Barbara Horaist at the reception and milking. From Abbeville, I visited Larose for the French Food Festival Pageant.

Lastly, on October 29^th, my family and I traveled to Shreveport for the LAFF Board Meeting and the State Fair. Mr. Chris Giordano displayed great hospitality to the Board members and I and he gladly showed us around the large festival.

Anxiously awaiting new adventures,

s/ Lana Meche

Tourism Report

(of October 20, 2005 meeting)

The overview of the devastation of the hurricanes and how the Office of Tourism responded to all of the (Office of Emergency Preparedness) requests - to come to the aid of visitors who were stranded in New Orleans area. The Office of Tourism Welcome Center’s staffs were outstanding in responding to this crisis. New Orleans businesses are bouncing back sooner than expected. In Louisiana, we have 78,000 hotel rooms with 38,000 in New Orleans. Red Cross is still paying for approximately 25,000 of those rooms. That means that while the hotel is getting paid by Corporate Lodging; however, the Red Cross organization does not pay any state, local or hospitality tax.

All through the state there is great fear and uncertainty of what is happening to business because our partners, the Convention and Business Bureaus; are losing revenues daily. This is a statewide issue, not a “regional” or “New Orleans” issue. Once a person (insurance adjuster or contractor) stays in a hotel room over 30 days, he/she no longer pays any tax, because by law he/she is now a resident of that community.

In the budget request for the Office of Tourism for fiscal year 2006-2007, there will be no new or expanded programs. If (tax) collections should go down this fiscal year, the department will do its best to operate on the projected budget.

From Hurricane Rita, Cameron Parish is devastated, but Shelly Johnson stated that they are going to rebuild with tourism in mind.

Mr. Langkopp (Hotel Motel Assoc.) gave a brief update on New Orleans hotel industry, stating that New Orleans is coming back more rapidly than people expected. Most of the properties have clean water, sewage and electricity. More rooms are becoming available on a daily basis.

Welcome Centers are open throughout most of the state.

The Office of Tourism hired a new advertising and marketing team that consisted of seven companies. On August 18^th they presented a plan that was shelved due to hurricanes and changing goals. They all have to regroup and now we have major objectives: 1) Opening the state to business, 2) Putting together a rapid response program. It is hoped that the whole state would be “up and running” by January-February.

s/Curtis J. Hue - Tourism Commission Member

LAFF GENERAL STORE

With convention time drawing near, just a reminder, it 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. You can bring your items to convention on Thursday or ship then to me before convention and I will deliver them.

Thanks in advance

Paul McGee

LAFF General Store Chairman

Ship items to:

Paul McGee

5805 Hiawatha Dr.

Alexandria, LA 71301

This year the Robeline Heritage Festival celebrated the history and culture of generations past at the fourteenth annual festival, held September 30^th thru October 1^st. Friday night was dedicated to the youngsters, with a wiener roast, games, hayride, and musical program. Saturday featured an all day musical stage program. Additionally, a log sawing contest was held.

ELECTION GUIDELINES

SEQ CHAPTER \h \r 1Requires 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.

Once elected to a LAFF officer or director position the individual may serve out their term.

Nominations MUST be made in writing by the Convention delegate (or a current officer) of the LAFF member fair or festival to the nominating committee anytime prior to the closing of the Friday business session of the annual meeting or 5 P.M. which ever is the latest.

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.

Nominations from the floor may be made ONLY by a voting Convention delegate (or a current officer) of the LAFF member fair or festival.

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 P.M. which ever is the latest. 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. It is required that Directors be elected from designated areas of the state. It is required that candidates for Treasurer and Secretary be bondable. 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. The State of Louisiana will be divided in seven (7) LAFF Districts for the election of board members. 2005 Elections will be held in District 1 & 5;2006 Elections will be held in District 2, 6 & 7; 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.

QUALIFICATIONS FOR MEMBERSHIP IN L.A.F.F. HALL OF FAME (Revised 7.05)

1. Must be a current or past member, living or deceased, of a fair/festival association which belongs to and is in good standing with L.A.F.F.

2. Must have contributed to L.A.F.F. in terms of (1) service, (2) making a tangible donation and/or (3) providing an unselfish act or deed benefiting L.A.F.F.

3. Must have belonged to an L.A.F.F. member fair /festival association for a minimum of ten (10) years.

4. Must be nominated by a current member fair/festival of L.A.F.F.

5. Unless superseded by the L.A.F.F. Board of Directors, only one new member of L.A.F.F. Hall of Fame will be inducted each year.

NOMINATING PROCEDURE FOR L.A.F.F. HALL OF FAME

1. State nominee's name and home address, including zip code.

2. State nominee's fair/festival affiliation (if associate, state business).

3. State nominee's length of membership in L.A.F.F.

4. List nominee's accomplishments in L.A.F.F.

5. List nominee's accomplishments with local fair/festival.

6. State, in 25 words or less, why nominee is a candidate for Hall of Fame honors.

7. State your name and address (including zip code) and telephone number (including area code).

8. If possible, include a photo of the nominee and some newspaper clippings of any events featuring the nominee in a fair/festival-related setting.

9. Send nominations to L.A.F.F. Secretary.

10. Entry Deadline: December 30th.

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. Neither 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 Rd.; Franklinton, La; 707438

(985)-848-5937; Fax 985-839-9164;

Email: wpfairlady@yahoo.com

ESSAY CONTEST

Theme: “What is the cost of Freedom”

Rules and Regulations:

1. Essay must contain between 500 and 800 words.

2. Name of contestant MUST NOT be written on the essay but must be written on a separate sheet and clipped, not stapled to the essay.

3. On a separate sheet, contestant should follow this format:

Name: Address: Grade: Phone: Parent’s Name: School Name: Fair/Festival Represented:

4. Essay may be handwritten or typed.

5. Spelling, grammar, phraseology, general interest, continuity and adherence to theme will be determining factors for selecting the winning essay.

6. The categories: A. Grades 6-8; B. Grades 9-12.

7. Information used from sources should be acknowledged in a bibliography.

8. Pictures or diagrams can be included within contest of essay or in appropriate appendix.

9. Essay must be in the hands of Chairman no later than January 6, 2006.

10. Criteria for judging:

Content (adherence to theme) ........... 40%

Grammar (punctuation, capitalization) .. 25%

Continuity (introduction, body, sentence structure, conclusion) .... 20%

Spelling ............................... 15%

11. Essay Prizes (State Level)*

1st. $150 2nd. $100 3rd. $50

*All fairs should use this theme on the local level for elimination purposes; only the top three winners should be submitted on state level.

12. All essays become the property of LAFF. The first place winners will be published in a collection by groups.

Chairman: DAVID BOURDIER

P. O. Box 762

Patterson, LA 70392

985-395-3720

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EVENTS TO ATTEND

With the recent storms, information has been updated as available, always call before going; especially this year!

November 2 – 5; 10 - 13

State Fair of Louisiana

Shreveport

November 4 – 6

LA Pecan Festival

Colfax

November 4 – 6

Sabine Free State Festival

Anacoco

November 4 – 6

LA Swine Festival

Basile

November 5

Bastrop Fall Arts & Crafts Show

November 5 – 6, 12 – 13, 19 – 20, 25 - 27

LA Renaissance Festival

Hammond

November 5

Southdown Marketplace

Houma

November 5 - 6

Abbeville’s Giant Omelet Celebration

November 10 – 13

Port Barre Cracklin Festival

November 11 - 13

Westwego Fest

November 11 - 13

Cut-Off Youth Fair

November 12

Thibodeauxville Fall Fest

November 12 - 13

Destrehan Plantation Fall Festival

November 17 – 19

Moss Bluff Harvest Fest

November 19 - 20

Golden Meadow Firemen’s Family Fishing Rodeo

November 19 - 20

Madisonville Wooden Boat Festival

November 26

Claiborne Parish Christmas Festival

“Freedom Rings with LAFF”

Holiday Inn Select – host hotel

With the Embassy Suites

Baton Rouge

February 16^th – 19^th 2006

Be sure to bring your red, white & blue!