by Vicki Winston, President, NHPA Hall of Fame Committee

Winter has started early in many parts of the nation and I hope you have stayed safe and have had an enjoyable holiday season with your family and/or friends.

The coming of the New Year brings the HOF Committee closer to beginning our very important work. The deadline for submitting nominations to be considered in the 2017 voting is January 31st. When I get the voting materials and copies of new nominations ready, I will be mailing them out to all committee members about the middle of February.

I want to welcome Bill MacIntyre of New Jersey as the newest member of the HOF committee. NHPA President, Stuart Sipma, appointed him recently to fill the vacancy created by the resignation of Jerry Schneider last summer. Jerry served as a member of the HOF committee for long period of time. After Bill was appointed, I mailed him a packet containing all of the bios of current HOF nominees, so he has reading material to keep him occupied during the cold winter and he will have a head start on what he needs to know as he takes part for the first time in the HOF voting process.

There have been a few new nominations that have been approved by the HOF screening committee that are not yet on the NHPA website as of this writing. I will be sending an updated list to the Webmaster shortly after submitting this article to Newsline. You will be able to view the names of all nominees to be considered during the 2017 voting. If more nominations are received before the deadline, I will try to make sure the website is updated again. I do thank all persons who have taken the time to submit nominations. Without the help of these individuals, there would never be any new candidates on the ballot.

I think that’s about it for Hall of Fame committee news at this time. I would like to take this opportunity to wish all of you a very Happy and Healthy New Year. May you continue to enjoy your association with and your participation in the sport of horseshoe pitching for many more years to come.