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BCSA
Board of Directors |
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I first want to thank you for the
opportunity to serve on the Board for Border Collie Society of America.
I am truly honored as this organization is one that I have a great
passion and believe in the good it does for the breed.
My name is Linda Ramas. For the past seven years I have worked for Sears Holdings Corporation as a discovery paralegal. I work with insured matters and provide assistance to outside counsel during the discovery phase of the litigation. My current caseload is about 650 cases, so I do keep busy at work which I love.
When I am not working I am working with my dogs. I work my dogs in agility, obedience, conformation and now herding. I guess you can say that our dogs are spoiled. We bought a five acre farmette to get sheep for the dogs to herd. So now our household consists of my husband and I, five dogs, five ducklings and 10 sheep! And we LOVE IT! We also are foster parents for Midwest Border Collie Rescue and have fostered about 6 dogs since we became a foster family. We also volunteer for the rescue at different outings when we can. I also help teach puppy classes for two different training facilities. Although I do not get paid, it gives me an education in understanding all kinds of breed of dogs and gives me a good perspective on all kinds of training. I am also a member of Forest City Dog Training Center where I take Score for agility.
As I said, I have five dogs - I have two am staff terriers, Bella and Alphie and three Border Collies, Score, Spree and Gia Marie. Working with my Am Staff Bella in agility, we were surrounded by Border Collies and they also fascinated me. Their intelligence was amazing and their crazy quirks intrigued me. Four years ago I entered the world of a Border Collie owner. My husband surprised me with my first Border Collie, Score. The best birthday gift I have ever received. That’s when our world changed. We added Spree to the fold and just last year, I got little Gia Marie.
My first experience with BCSA was in 2006. A friend of mine was attending the Specialty at Purina. I came down for the weekend and was just amazed of all of the activities going on. I was a lot of fun and it was good to see so many people involved. I knew that was going to be one of my goals for the following year to enter my BCs in something. I ended up co-chairing Rally for BCSA and have done so every year after to the present. I am also the BCSA Rescue Committee Chair.
I think it is vitally important that the Society try to get as much information as they can to individuals and organizations about owning a Border Collie. Working with rescue I see so many dogs being relinquished because the owner didn’t do their homework or they didn’t have the commitment to work with the dog. I think it is also important that the breed be preserved for what it is intended purpose of being an excellent herding dog. I also believe in breeding for the betterment of the breed. Being fairly new to the breeding aspect of Border Collies, I fully understand the importance for good genetic breed lines.
As in all organizations, there are going to be ups and downs. I think that members should feel like their voices are heard and their opinions matter. I think that there is such a flood gate of possible new members through our rescue organizations and this could be achieved by letting this organizations know that their dogs are just as important as dogs that come from breeders. I had a situation as BCSA Rescue chair that I had to contact a few rescues and one rescue had nothing but bad things to say about the BCSA. That really surprised me. I asked this rescue the reasons why they were so negative, and the response was that our organization lets bad breeders be part of the club. This just showed me that a lot of people are really misinformed about the organization. I am fairly new to the organization and I have met a lot of great people, but you do hear things that others get upset about. There is also the old thinking that the organization doesn’t care about their members and decisions are made by a select few. I would like to see a more open membership and possibly more frequent communications between the Board and the membership. Maybe monthly email shout outs about the good things the organization is doing. More involvement with the rescues. I was thinking of creating a yearly award for the rescue dogs with the best achievements throughout the year. This could be an award presented at the Specialty. Even maybe an award to the person who accomplishments in working with rescues could be created. This could get more rescue owners interested in BCSA.
I am excited as the prospect of being the Recording Secretary for the BCSA. I know that some people say that I can’t say “no” which is true but I love being involved and I don’t bite off more than I can chew. I love challenges and I guess you can see that because I entered the crazy world of Border Collies!
Page Updated 04.30.2012