February 2020
To the Award recipients you’ve yet to receive their trophies
Dear friends of the Ullmann Award !
to start with I need to personally apologize for the silence of the past 2 years and I want to explain the reasons for this silence.
First, on our family side: unfortunately we were battered in this period by members of our close family suffering for many months, in one case well over a year, serious illnesses and we’d to accept the loss of two persons in our family in the timeframe.
The subsequent turmoil was not only a psychological issue for all of us, but also a practical one with having to empty two houses, in one case we were 10 people working for 2 weeks in a row until we’d the matter taken care of.
Wounds heal over time, we’re all coming out of this dark period.My wife and I turned 65 last year and for the two previous years we were in serious debates with our CPA, on one side, and lawyers on the other, in finding the best way to pass on our company to our children. The decisions were implemented at the end of the first quarter in 2019. It was a very stressful time before and after, to these days.
With the decision to look at „everything“ from a fiscal standpoint we also looked, as a family, into the „Family Foundation“ that was started in 1995 and had been in process for charitable status application for the past 8 (!) years, as the German IRS is extremely resilient in granting charitable status’s. In the end, again after many months of discussions, lawyers, etc. we decided that the best German tax way forward is that the „Ullmann Award Foundation“ is taken over by our family’s company, Ullmannglass GmbH, who’ll pay for all expenses and will invoice new Award recipients, with the, IRS approved, process of donating the net proceeds of these Award sales to approved charitable entities (e. g. Museums, Wildlife Projects, etc.) (Please keep in mind that the Foundation has donated over 250.000 €uros, since it was started, for European wildlife projects).
As you also know we at Ullmannglass are decorators of crystal ware. We
source what we call „blanks“ and then cut and engrave them to their final shape and look. As to be expected with „our luck“ over the past 3 years, the glass factory that produced all the blanks for us for 25 years closed down, overnight, w/o previous information, and with a large P.O. from us, with them since months, that they never produced…
So, long story short: I looked for some months for a quality blanks supplier and we, finally, found one, in November 2019, and the samples were approved last month and we’re now in the process of producing these pieces and are starting delivery of all overdue award shipments starting next week and look forward on having had all overdue awards shipped out before the end of March 2020.
As in the past the awards will be delivered by us to an „Art Forwarder“, who will pack these up professionally, get in touch with you over the details of the shipment and then ship these awards out to you according to your instructions.
Needless to say…and as to be expected with our „good luck“ of the past 24 months, our art-forwarder for the past 20 years, Leistl Art Forwarder, from Munich, closed his business down…but we’ve found a very professional new partner for these shipments!
Next turmoil was with the venue of our „Annual Gala Hunt Dinner“. Unfortunately the „Palarikovo Hunting Museum“, where we held our „European Gala“ every year for the past 20 years is not willing to invest into upgrading the property and rooms. Our plan is therefore to go to the 6-star Castle-Hotel Bela, also in Slovakia, owned by the Baroness of Ullmann, and hold our „European Gala Event“ there. For the moment
block your calendars from Thursday, December 3rd, to Sunday, December 6th, 2020.
We’re also planning to organize an annual „Gala Lunch and Awards Ceremony“ in the USA, as we’ve so many US-Americans being part of our Award program. Our old time friends of the „Central Texas Wildlife Legacy“ organize an annual fundraising dinner, and we want to hook onto their event in Austin, Texas, every year in the second half of February with an „Ullmann Award“ gathering. Details about these plans during the course of summer this year.
If you have any questions to the above do not hesitate to contact me. Congratulations on your European hunting achievements !
Best personal regards,
The Ullmann Family