The first organizational meeting was called on October 23, 1995 by Zona Tooke. There were 10 attendees. Present day members Barbara Handler and Amy Galperin were there. There were 12 at the second meeting, November 13, 1995, including Tracy Smith. The club was incorporated as High Altitude Denver Dog Agility Club at the third meeting on December 13, 1995, by Zona Tooke, the first President of the club. The attendance sheet showed 17 people. Officers voted in for 1996 were: Zona Tooke, Pres., Doris Gaffney, VP, Susan Mulhally-Souza, Secretary, and Mary Bird, Treasurer. Board members were Bob Eckhart, Barbara Handler, and Debby Robb.

​

Attendance was pretty good early in 1996, but started to drop off as the year went on - Jan. had 19 present, Feb. 17, Mar. 19, Apr.13, no May mtg, down to 10 in June, July 11, Aug. 10, no record in
Sept., and 9 in October plus one new member, Shirley Nelson. The membership list in October listed 27 members, including present members Barbara Handler, Beth Godwin, Amy Galperin, Susan Mulhally-Souza, Roxie Pipho, and Tracy Smith. There's a gap in the history/minutes from 10/96 to 5/97. My memory of the November meeting where we voted on officers was 5 people were present, with just a few more for the Christmas party in December.

​

1997 officers were: Zona Tooke, Pres.,Tracy Smith VP, Susan Mulhally-Souza?, Secretary, and Mary Bird, Treasurer. According to Zona's notes, we had 18 at the 1/97 meeting and 18 at the 2/97 meeting, but I don't have attendance records or minutes. January 27-28, 1996 the club held it's first seminar. Elizabeth Hezeau from Texas was the speaker, and it was held at the Jefferson County Fairgrounds.

Feb. 7, 1997 we had a fun match where Cindy Macklin was the judge. Cindy joined the club in early 1997. At the May 97 meeting, Zona resigned as president, moving VP Tracy Smith up into the position. Sybil Winfield was voted in as VP, Julia Hunt, Secretary, Eileen Girvan, Tres., and Cindy Macklin as our single Board member. Kim Gillaspie and Julia Hunt joined the club at that meeting. The first newsletter also came out May 1997, written by Roxie Pipho. July's meeting had 6 attendees, Aug. 5, but the membership list had 17 members, including Tracy, Roxie, Julia, Karen Schimmels, Cindy, Ramona Bajorek, Kim and Amy. Attendence slowly came up from 6 in Sept., as we added 3 new members, one of which was Gale Terry, in October (7 at meeting). We also had to vote in a new VP, Karen Schimmels, since Sybil resigned. Our business focussed on having a USDAA fun match in Feb. so we could hold our first trial in May. We also instituted the policy where if you join the club late in the year (Oct-Dec) your membership is good for the upcoming year as well. In November we had 10 folks at the meeting, and Kate Erickson joined the club. The Christmas party in 1997 will always be to me where we came together as a club. It was our first gift exchange, we had 8 people there, and we finally seemed to be "on track". Carol Curlee joined the club, which we voted to rename "Front Range Agility Team", and we had a whopping $74 in our bank account.

​

During the first two years of existence the club held five fun matches at various parks around the Denver area: 5/11/96, 9/21/96, 1/18/96, 6/14/97, and 9/13/97. These were held primarily to promote
the sport of agility to the public and to provide practice for the club's members.

​

On December 15, 1997, the club completely reorganized and changed the name to Front Range Agility Team, with all new officers. Voted in for 1998 were: President, Tracy Smith, VP Karen Schimmels, Secretary, Kim Gillaspie, Treasurer Cindy Macklin, and Board Member Stephanie Bonney. January's meeting was attended by 12 people, and we had a bank balance of $244, $200 of which was a loan from Cindy Macklin.

​

On December 15, 1997, the club completely reorganized and changed the name to Front Range Agility Team, with all new officers. Voted in for 1998 were: President, Tracy Smith, VP Karen Schimmels, Secretary, Kim Gillaspie, Treasurer Cindy Macklin, and Board Member Stephanie Bonney. January's meeting was attended by 12 people, and we had a bank balance of $244, $200 of which was a loan from Cindy Macklin.

The club held a USDAA "B" match on 2/7/98 at the Jefferson County Fairgrounds in Golden, CO. Judges were Kent Mahan and Karen Schimmels, Chairman was Kim Gillaspie, secretary was Tracy Smith, Trophies was Julia Hunt and Chief Ring Steward was Amy Galperin. A membership list from Feb. showed 22 full members and 4 newsletter members. We added 6 new members, including Bob Mitchell and Sandy Chiavelli. Attendance was 12 in Feb., Mar.14, then dropped to 6 in April and 8 in May.

​

FRAT's first official agility trial was held on the weekend of May 30-31, 1998 at the Schaeffer athletic Complex in Lakewood, CO. This was a USDAA trial. Judge was Patty Drom, Chair was Kim Gillaspie, Secretary Tracy Smith, Trophies Julia Hunt, Chief Ring Steward Amy Galperin, and Chief Course Builder Cindy Macklin. Karen Schimmels was Site Coordinator. Over 65 dogs were entered, and we rented Kent Mahan's equipment.

​

In June 5 were at the meeting, plus new member LeAnn Joswick joined the club. In July we went to all meetings on the second Wednesday of the month (we had been swapping between Wed. and Mon. nights). A membership list showed 35 members, 9 newsletter and 26 regular, and we had 14 at the meeting. In August we bought the EZ-Ups for our second USDAA trial on August 29-30, 1998, at Maple Grove Park in Golden, CO. Judge was Tim Laubach, Chair was Cindy Macklin, secretary was Tracy Smith, Trophies Julia Hunt, Chief Ring Steward was Karen Schimmels, Chief Course Builder was Kim Gillaspie, and Gale Terry was in charge of renting the equipment from Kent Mahan. The
August meeting had 11 participants, and we added two new members. Our membership was slowly growing, we were averaging 10 members at meetings, Jim and Susie DeKieffer joined in October, and our membership list showed 40 members, 9 of which were newsletter. Roxie Pipho hosted the Christmas party, and 13 of us celebrated a busy year of one fun match and two trials.

​

Officers voted in for 1999 were: President, Tracy Smith, Vice President, Karen Schimmels, Secretary Kim Gillaspie, Treasurer Cindy Macklin, and Board Member Julia Hunt. Unfortunately, Karen moved to Virginia, and in January, Julia was voted in as VP, with LeAnn Joswick becoming our Board Member at Large at the January meeting, attended by 10. We had 22 paid regular members as of February, and 4 newsletter. We held our AKC "A" match on Feb. 6, 1999 with judge Beth Godwin. Trial chair was Sheri Beattie, secretary Sandy Chiavelli, chief Ring steward Julia Hunt, Chief Course Builder Cindy Macklin and Ribbons, Kim Gillaspie. It was held at Jefferson County Fairgrounds. We
had been denied AKC club status back in 1997, but we were on track to become an AKC club again in 1999