WE'VE GROWN!!!!

As announced at our October 8, 2025 virtual club meeting, we are now . . .

English Setter Club of the Carolinas!

Formed, circa 1999 as The Central Carolina English Setter Club and sanctioned in 2007, we were the first AKC recognized English Setter regional club under the English Setter Association of America (ESAA) in the Carolinas and Tennessee. While retaining many of our founding members, our roster has expanded to also include folks from Florida, Georgia, Alabama, and Virginia. In the Fall of 2025, based on the number and addresses of our current members, AKC formally expanded our region and renamed our club. We are now able to pursue event sites within 100 aerial miles of both NC and SC borders. In the past, we have offered events near Charlotte and Raleigh, N.C. and in Greenville, S.C. As of this writing, we have been notified, the former Carolina Cluster in Greenville has dissolved. We continue to seek new venues in response to our growing club and as such, have formed a Specialties Venue Assessment Committee to assist us in determining the site for our 2026 Specialties. WE ANTICIPATE EXPERIENCING NORMAL GROWING PAINS in this process and as we strive to further expand our AKC recognized region. As such, we want to provide the following updates to our members and the greater English Setter Community.

1. New Name Change means new LOGO! Our Board Member At-Large, Cheryl Pfeiffer and her husband Jim have graciously offered to incur the cost to work with a graphic artist to update our logo, with full Board approval. We anticipate the new logo will be rolled out in time to share with our English Setter Community at the ESAA specialties in December. We want to spread the good news and that seems to be an appropriate venue to do so.

2. Our website is undergoing textual changes and will proudly display the new logo once it is finalized. Our new website address is: englishsetterclub.org This new domain name was chosen with future regional club expansion anticipated. This domain name will not need to change when the club territory grows. Our current domain name - ccesc.net already points to the new domain, to assist our members and others in managing the transition. This will expire in April, 2027.

3. Our thanks to Martin Sondey who will continue to steward management of our two Facebook pages. We have created a Social Media Committee to ensure consistency in social media content, which consists of myself (Patty McBride, webmaster), Cheryl Pfeiffer, Board Representative, Deb Hallock and Martin. Feel free to forward brags, wags and news to Martin or myself for posting. We LOVE sharing news of our members stories, adventures and successes, (PHOTOS too)!!

4. Our Specialties Venue Assessment Committee has been hard at work and has created an objective process by which to evaluate potential sites for our upcoming specialties. Member input has been garnered from our two most recent club meetings. Our committee consists of Rob McBride, Committee Chair, Cheryl Pfeiffer, Board Member representative, Jim Pfeiffer, Lynda Chase and Haylee Lamey. They are finalizing the analytical assessment process and will have their recommendation to the board soon. Then will come the fun process of determining Specialty Chair, Specialty Secretary and the work for next year will begin in earnest. The committee's extensive research has included multiple conversations and correspondence with input from AKC, ESAA, Regional Specialty Chairs and others.