[Dailydrool] 2016 Daily Drool Calendar shipping update and the story behind the calendar.

[Pam Farris via Dailydrool]

I was able to sneak in the "0" zip code packages on the Saturday pickup. This weekend I boxed up 108 orders (zip codes, 1,2,4,5 and 6) for pick up on Monday. Zip code "7" will be shipped Tuesday and Zip code "3" will be shipped on Wednesday and since those are local to me, everyone should have their orders before Friday. I expect most of the "8"s and "9"s will be delivered Monday or Tuesday. 
When you receive your package, please immediately open it and check to make sure your order is correct. If it is not, please email me at dailydrool at bassetrescueflorida.com quickly so I can make your order correct. 
When you open the calendar and look at your calendar page(s), please know that we did the very best we could and we did it with love and appreciation for the love you have for your hounds. We were all deeply in awe over the depth of feelings each of you expressed. As hard as we all tried, we are human and we may have made a mistake here or there. If we did, please let us know and accept our apologies. The cover is stunning and a work of art itself. Enjoy!
I am asking each person who bought a calendar date to drop me an email (please put your calendar date in the subject line) and tell me all about your picture (kind of like the story behind the picture). I will be happy to post those on your date so that everyone can know all about your basset. I will post it on both the email list and the Facebook page. 
Kind constructive suggestions for possible changes for next year's calendar are very welcome at the above email address. We got very close to exactly what we wanted to give you, although there are changes we already know we plan to make next year to make it even better. Due to some time constraints so that we could fulfill our promise to you and have the calendar in the mail in plenty of time for holiday mailing, we let some things go. 
Now for the behind the scenes people that made this calendar possible. 
First I have to thank Nancy Gallagher for starting the Daily Drool and allowing us basset crazy people to get together first by the email list and now by Facebook. 
Next I have to thank all of those brave souls who have coordinated the calendar in years past. It is a job of immense proportions that you can't fully understand and appreciate until you do it. I wanted to continue the calendar tradition because I think we are losing all our traditions and I think that is a shame so I'm glad we did it, I'll be more glad when the shipping is complete and I know people are happy with the job we did.
When we took over the calendar, we knew we were going to make some changes, we just weren't going to make them the first year. We knew we were going to take over the design of the calendar, replacing the graphic artist that had done it for the last couple of years. We had planned to make that change NEXT year to give Yvonne Morgan, a very talented person with an artistic eye and a deep love of bassets, a full year to learn how to do the design. 
We got the first draft of the calendar at the end of September and it was a disaster. Yvonne then created some examples of what we wanted and we sent them to the graphic artist and the next draft wasn't much better - she wasn't going to follow our design requests. As the graphic artist worked on the third draft, Yvonne starting creating her version of the calendar. She worked night and day for a week. Thankfully she did because we could not get a satisfactory draft from the person that was getting paid. Yvonne is the person who created this lovely calendar and made sure it was ready for the printer in time to meet the commitment we had made to you. Thanks also to Yvonne's husband, Matt Welty, for being the proof reader. I hear there were some tears shed over the emotion people showed for their bassets. 
Along the way, Kathy Nali, gave us an independent person's input on our work and anyone that knows Kathy, knows she pulls no punches. That was just what we wanted and we thank her! 
During that time, a friend of mine who is not even a basset person, volunteered to help where she could. She runs a media company and provided invaluable help. She is a beagle and lab person but if your business ever needs a media company, Jen Ford of Blue Daisy Media is super!
Lastly but most importantly, THANK YOU for continuing to support the Daily Drool calendar through the years. Unfortunately we didn't sell quite as many calendars this year but hopefully once everyone sees the quality of the calendar as well as knowing that we do what it takes to get it to you in time for holiday gift giving, sale will go up next year. It takes the actual sale of the calendars to make money, the sale of the dates are what gives it character and soul, but to make money we need to sell calendars.
After everyone has checked their packages, I may have a few calendars for sale in about a week. I'll announce it if I do. If you need a calendar base, they are still available but I now have to charge shipping since the calendars have already been mailed out.
I'll be announcing the donations to the senior rescues in about two weeks, once I have a final, final total on sales.
For the overseas and Canada people, I sent you an invoice for the additional postage. Some have paid them, some have not. Please do pay them. 
For calendar matters, I can be reached at dailydrool at bassetrescueflorida.com If you haven't received your calendar by Monday, November 7th, please email me and I'll track it for you. If anything arrives damaged, let me know about that as well. Insurance is part of the postage.
We truly hope you enjoy the calendar as much as we enjoyed creating it for you.  Pam Farris  Basset Rescue of Florida, Inc.  www.BassetRescueFlorida.com     
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