Volume III -- Issue 4

Greetings to all of you. Sorry for the delay in getting this newsletter to all of you. We have been busy with the rodeo and then getting in the groove to move forward. As many of you know or will learn, some things have changed. We wanted to get a brief newsletter out to you just to let you know that we are moving forward. We will be back next month with some more events and information.

A rundown of what is included here:
A letter from the President, Jeff
A note from our Volunteer Coordinator, Chris
Some Membership News
A "Howdy" from Ernie
A little bit about myself in "Coming Aboard"
Pride Events
Upcoming Elections
August Trailride
July Birthdays

From the desk of the President, Jeff

Howdy,
I would like to take a moment a reintroduce myself to all the members. My name is Jeff Bolognese and I have been involved with the LGRA for over 2 ½ years. Over this time I’ve held the positions of joint membership chair, Vice President, and now, with the resignation of our founding President, I proudly put on that hat of President. The last year has been an incredible time for LGRA with the success of Philly’s first gay rodeo the “Liberty Stampede“. I would personally would like to thank all of our volunteers for their dedication and effort that made this rodeo a success and also to the fans for attending and enjoying the show, not to mention the incredible dance floor at the Loew’s hotel. It was a beautiful site.

Now on to the future of LGRA and the development of the Liberty Stampede 2009. We are asking for our members help. We have a few board positions that have opened up and would like to extend an invite to anyone that has an interest in LGRA to attend a meeting or contact us. If a board position isn't your thing then we would love for you to help out at any of our pride booths or fundraising events. As a volunteer association we need your help.

I would like thank all of you again for helping making LGRA and the Liberty Stampede a success in the city of brotherly love.

Any questions you may have can be emailed to me at jbolognese@libertygra.org

Jeff Bolognese
President
LGRA

From the Volunteer Coordinator, Chris

Wow, as fast as Liberty Stampede came it also went. The weather
wasn't the best but we still had a great turnout. I want to take this
time to personally thank all our volunteers, including the
coordinators. Everybody did an outstanding job! The success of
Liberty Stampede 2008 was not accomplished without each and every
volunteer! To demonstrate the hard work, dedication, and
responsibility of our volunteers I'm going to use the Rodeo Trash
folks as an example. The go-cart they were using kept getting a flat
tire and they had to inflate it every 10-15 minutes. There was not
one overflowing trash receptacle and not one complaint from any of
them! These guys just kept picking up the trash, putting air in the
tires, and showing their smiling faces. This attitude was
demonstrated by EVERY volunteer in every area. So if it hasn't been
said enough already - THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! - I look
forward to working with you all again next year at Liberty Stampede
2009!!!!

Chris Maurizio
Volunteer Coordinator Liberty Stampede 2008

From Chris again, this time concerning memberships...

Howdy Again -

You may have heard that we've had several board members resign. One of them was Aubrey Davis, our membership chairperson. We want to wish him a fond fairwell and thank him for the work he has done for the LGRA. In the mean time I have taken on the role of the membership chairperson until we get a replacement for him (soon I hope). That being said I wanted to remind everyone to look at your membership card and see if your membership has expired. If so, please renew your membership by visiting our website by clicking the link below and download a copy of the membership form. Remember, memberships expire on the quarter-end now, not month-end.

Thanks,
Chris Maurizio

From Ernie Bowers, LGRA Trustee

Well, the first Liberty Stampede is through, and I would like to thank everyone who volunteered or attended for their support. It was a wet 'n' wild arena, and a lot of people really stepped up to the plate to make our first rodeo a success.

Now that the rodeo is over, our real work (and fun) begins. The first is building on our successes to make LGRA better and stronger. To do this, we really need your help. If you've considered becoming more involved with LGRA, I would love to see you at one of our board meetings (it is usually the second Wednesday of each month and posted on our website www.libertygra.org). It's a great start-off point to get involved, meet people, and something good for the community. And, it's more than just the rodeo. Dances, fundraisers, trailrides and other activities are coming up, and we'd really appreciate your input. This association relies on its members (the board included) to help make LGRA evolve with the changes over the past month.

Also, with my "other hat" as a board member of IGRA (the International Gay Rodeo Association), I am also the chairman of the IGRA dance committee. I am responsible for coordinating the IGRA Dance Competition at Las Vegas in February of 2009. Philadelphia has always had such a strong dance community (in fact, it's how I became involved with rodeo in the first place), and I 'm honored to be given the task. I would love to hear your ideas, input, eve questions if you ever thought of competing, please contact me at ebowers@libertygra.org. Thank you so very much.

Coming Aboard -- Stephen J. Watrobski, Newsletter Chairperson

Greetings to all you cowboys and cowgirls. Happy summer to each and every one of you.
Just to introduce myself, I am Stephen Watrobski. I was recently voted aboard as Newsletter Chairperson to fill the boots of our last Chairperson, Jade. I reside in the small community of Birdsboro, PA, just outside of Reading with my partner Mark. He is the person who introduced me to LGRA and I am grateful. I grew up in Upstate NY, an hour from the Adirondack Mountains and about an hour from the state capital of Albany. It was a country setting but believe me, nothing like the rodeo scene. While there, I was involved in a community theatre organization called The Galway Players. I was mainly a backstage person. I started out prompting, moved to set decoration, construction, set design, lighting, stage manager, technical director, director and producer. I thoroughly enjoy the rodeo scene even though I don't compete, I leave that part up to Mark. I am the "backstage person" to the rodeos and started getting involved this past May at the Liberty as Contestant Registration Coordinator. I am very happy to have been voted in for this position as I would like to contribute whatever I can to this association and to future rodeos to help make both of them very successful. I look forward to bringing you all the exciting news and up to date information concerning the happenings of Liberty Gay Rodeo Association.
At that, I again wish all of you a safe, happy and healthy summer and will be back next month to bring you more news.

Upcoming Pride Events

Just a reminder to everyone of the area Pride events that are scheduled for this month. We will be at these with our tent of information and membership applications. If there is anyone out there that knows of someone who would like to become a member, bring them along or stop by to pick up an application for them. As you know we are always looking for new members to join us and have some fun.

This is very short notice but, we will be at the Reading Pride on this coming Sunday, July 20th.

We will also be at the following locations:
July 26th in Harrisburg.
August 17th at Allentown

If anyone is interested in volunteering at any of these locations or if you would like further information on them, please send an email to Stephen at swatrobski@libertygra.org

We hope to see alot of people out there and stop by and even just say HI.

Upcoming Elections

Just to let you all know that there will be elections held for the offices of President, Vice President and Treasurer. The exact dates and more information on these will be forthcoming in future newsletters. If you have any questions, check the by laws or email one of the Board Members.

August Trailride

The next trail ride will be Sunday, August 7, 2008 at 11:00AM. We will be riding once again at Sheeder Mill Farm, 12 Sheeder Mill Rd, Spring City, PA 19475. For more information about their farm, visit their web site at http://www.smfhorses.com/. For reservations or information concerning this, please visit our Events page.

July Birthdays - - - HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ONE AND ALL!!!!

Tony Salerno
Mark Whiting
Roy Stoutamyer
Bart Forbes
Jamarr Burkert Jr.
Frank Sullivan
William D.
Matt Pauselious
Annie M.
Rod Corriveau
Bob Dreher
Cindy Brendle
Eric Zeigler
Kim Coleman
Thomas Conway
Jeff Bologenese
Chris Ackley

As you can see, there have been some changes in the association. We all apologize for not getting this newsletter to you sooner but, we were trying to get re-organized and it has taken a little bit of time. We are on our way to working toward an eventful summer and getting things underway to bring you a great rodeo in 2009.