The MDSA Executive Board’s goal is to oversee and assist where needed in the advancement of the sport of canine musical freestyle. Every member who serves on the Board contributes to our mission by willingly giving of their time and talents. Although we hold elections every fall, it is sometimes necessary to fill a position before the end of its term. For this reason, we want to take a few minutes to thank those members who are leaving the Board and those who are joining it.

The position of President of MDSA was recently occupied by Carolyn Pfrank. She served us very well during her tenure. We are also very grateful to Carolyn for being instrumental in designing and creating the new website. Unfortunately, for personal reasons, she needed to step down. We all understand that sometimes our personal lives become full of other things we also need to attend to. Thank you, Carolyn, for your service to MDSA as a Board member and President.

The new President of MDSA is Barbara Walls. She is a long-time member of the organization and supports our mission in many ways. She was our Vice President for many years and now brings all of her canine freestyle, training and organizational skills to this very important position. Thank you, Barbara, for being our new “leader”.

Stepping into Barbara’s previous VP position is Bridget Spence. Bridget is our web mistress extraordinaire. Bridget is also an experienced freestyle participant and enthusiastic member of MDSA. We will continue to benefit from her computer knowledge, for which we are most grateful, while she assumes her new duties.

Welcome back, Ilona. Yes, Ilona Wright is with us again, this time it’s to fill the slot Bridget formerly occupied on the Board. We all know Ilona and say “It’s about time!” Representing the Land of Oz, she is very involved with MDSA and continues to share her training knowledge with the rest of the membership. G’day, Ilona.

Susan Cooper found it necessary to leave the Board for family reasons. We are sorry to see her go, but she’ll remain with MDSA so we can continue to benefit from her participation. Susan’s position now belongs to Marilyn Orillion. Marilyn has been performing canine freestyle for nearly eight years and was in at the beginning of the Houston freestyle group led by Emily Pyle.

Amy Podojil also recently resigned from the Board for family reasons. She was very sorry to do so, and she will definitely be missed. However, Amy will remain an MDSA member so she can contribute her skills as often as possible. Taking Amy’s place is former Board member, Susanna (Suz) Pathak. Welcome back, Suz! Thank you for stepping up and stepping in.

Please join us as we thank all the former Board members and welcome the new ones. With their leadership, we are confident MDSA will bring new ideas, continue with its mission, help support and encourage its membership while we all enjoy and advance the sport of canine musical freestyle.

Contact information for all Executive Board members can be found on the “About” page.

Special Note from MDSA President, Barbara Walls:

I would like to take a moment to say thank you to Carolyn Pfrank. She has been MDSA’s President since 2011. She has done a wonderful job not only serving as our President, but also as a judge for MDSA, and helping to create our wonderful new website. These duties take a lot of time and effort that no one can ever truly understand unless they have done it themselves. We all understand how our lives can become overwhelming when we take on too many tasks. Well Carolyn has stepped down as our President to take care of things and we wish her all the best.

Carolyn, thank you for all you have done for MDSA and all you will continue to do in the future. I hope to see you and the terriers dancing again soon.

While this changing of the guards has occurred, the handling of MDSA business has not stopped. We are in the process of finalizing our judge’s handbook which has been a work in progress. The Executive Board will also revisit our Performance Guidelines to update them as we do every year or so. The Executive Board’s main goal is to keep the spirit and dream of MDSA alive and to give the members of MDSA the best we can offer.

Barbara Walls,

MDSA President