04/20/2026
I’m posting here to warn other vendors of working with the Silken Windhound Association of the Rocky Mountains(SWARM).
I was hired by the event planner unaffiliated with the club for the specialty show in May. All communication and planning and confirmation I have received about anything regarding the show so far has been with this planner. This person is headlining the event in their efforts to coordinate everything.
I saw another exhibitor offering a raffle to benefit the show and the club, and thought that I could also get folks to contribute with a similar fundraiser, but with the prize being a photography package from me. Their fundraiser is still posted in the same spaces mine was and still hasn’t received a singular complaint. I can’t post screenshots given the rules of that group, but as of 8:08PM CST it was still up.
I asked this planner on Thursday if I could host a raffle that would benefit SWARM, the club planning the event. 100% of the proceeds were to be donated to the club directly. I was told yes(Picture 1), so I made my flyer(Picture 2) and posted it to this page, and shared to a couple groups(Picture 3)—the original post is still up, and you can look at the edit history to see the changes I made throughout the duration of this. I also confirmed with another planner that my usage of the show logo was approved, and they enthusiastically confirmed and provided me the PNG’s(Picture 4).
I then receive a message from the planner on Friday that SWARM’s president, Autumn Lynn, is upset at the raffle I have posted because they are illegal in Utah(where the specialty is being hosted)—mind you, legally, both myself and my LLC are registered in Ohio still, and I’M hosting the raffle. This is still a moot point because raffles are illegal in Ohio as well, not that they really put much thought into their ire. I did not know that raffles were illegal, in fact, Autumn advertised a raffle that benefitted the medical needs of the club Secretary(who comes into play)‘s dog just a year or two ago. It’s a raffle. And mine was for a value of less than $200. I don’t think the FBI would hunt me down, but nonetheless, if the club was uncomfortable with the legality of the fundraiser, I wouldn’t expect them to be forced into it.
But we’re making mountains out of molehills because it was never really about the legality, it was about their personal qualms with me that they can’t keep separate from their professional roles, especially in such leadership positions. Evidenced further by the complete disregard for the still active raffle for the club/event. I had to hear about their complaints from the event planner versus them directly like this is middle school—their excuse is that because I have blocked them on personal platforms, they didn’t bother trying to contact me despite referencing a screenshot from my photography page meaning that whomever sent them the screenshot(probably the Secretary as neither WERE blocked from this page until now because they want to make an argument, and I have better things to do with my time) could have reached out to me directly.
I did some research and found that a sweepstakes IS legal as long as it is free to enter, and also offered optional additional entries depending on if someone donated to the club/how much. I did not consult an attorney to get a 100% answer on this, I admit(nor did they to support their claims that I’m doing something illegal), but again, I felt confident enough based on what I was reading. It’s a raffle. So, I changed the verbiage on the advertisement to it being a sweepstakes instead, and also removed any mention of SWARM on the promotional flyer beyond having their PayPal email linked as the beneficiary for the fundraiser.
This still wasn’t good enough, so eventually, I discussed with the planner, who discussed with other organizers as well, who confirmed we could just switch to a different beneficiary altogether and go to a club that is based in a state that doesn’t have any laws on raffles. Immediately done, though I didn’t specifically name the beneficiary club either(Picture 5, 6). I provided the planner with my professional email, advised them that any additional qualms could be taken up with me directly and to not send me any more communication from them, which they respected.
The next set of pictures is our email exchange from there, where I eventually tell Autumn that I will only discuss it further with other specific members of the board, or the planner, because they were being disrespectful. They immediately ignored this boundary, so I turned off my notifications for them, and then shortly after, the Secretary began harassing me as well, and I turned off notifications for them as well without engaging further.
Because I didn’t IMMEDIATELY comply with their unreasonable requests, as their end goal was to get me removed from the event in totality—nevermind the fact that the board members I named to contact me, never did, nor the planner, with additional concerns—Autumn and Sol made the decision for the club to remove me from the event.
I received confirmation from event planners that they were satisfied with the sweepstakes as is, but SWARM has now announced that I didn’t have permission, I wouldn’t participate, they had no other choice, I simply had to be fired. SWARM does NOT own the rights to the artwork for the event or the phrase “Windhound Hoedown”.
This is gross behavior from someone in leadership positions for a club, especially for a vendor. I am remiss to have to publicize such an experience, but want to make sure everyone has the full story versus the narrative they are pushing.
