BOARD MEETING MINUTES
February 14, 2002

Members present: 
Nancy Little, Vice President •  Marit Marino, Treasurer •  Sharon Ferguson, Secretary •  Joyce Herie, Past President •  Board Members Emily Czapek •  Janet Lewis

Call to order: 
5:10pm PST by President Denise Teal.

Change in officers due to Fran Hoffman's resignation as President, Denise Teal became President. This left the position of Vice President vacant. Marit moved that Nancy Little be appointed Vice President. Motion was seconded and unanimously approved. This appointment created a vacancy on the Board. Marit also moved that Janet Lewis be appointed to the Board and Nancy seconded. The vote was unanimous.

1.  SECRETARY'S REPORT-Sharon Ferguson

1.1  Minutes
 Approval of minutes of previous board meeting (December 6th, 2001) December Board Meeting minutes-changes add under ROM program.

Honorary ROM and ROMF is tabled for further discussion. Emily moved that the minutes be approved with these changes, Nancy seconded. Motion was unanimously approved.

1.2  Minutes
 Approval of minutes of the "Town Hall Meeting" held during the 2001 National Specialty. Because there was no quorum, and therefore no official business was conducted, it will not be referred to as the Annual General Meeting. The minutes were unanimously approved (Sharon moved, seconded by Emily)

1.3  Other

1.31  Correspondence from Purina about partnership program
 Denise sent in forms. A post was put on BC-Announce notifying members. To participate as an individual must breed one litter a year or be feeding 5 dogs at once. Members who don't meet these requirements can send in their weight circles to Denise.

1.3.2  Correspondence from AnneMarie Silverton
 The Board received a letter from George Hartmann, AnneMarie Silverton's attorney, demanding a retraction from BCSA and apology from Ruth Deming based on comments she made in an article appearing in Borderlines. The letter stated that the article contained libelous and defamatory statements. After discussing this, the Board felt that there was insufficient proof for these accusations and wrote a reply to Mr. Hartmann stating that BCSA has no intention of printing a retraction. The Board also received a copy of a letter written by Ruth's attorney to Mr. Hartmann stating that there will be neither a retraction nor an apology from Ruth Deming.

1.3.3  AKC parent club conference Oct 25-27 2002
 Deadline for submitting attendees is March 15 . Denise will attend and possibly Marit.

2.TREASURER'S REPORT - Marit Marino

2.1 Interim Financial Report

$43,333.74 Checking
$ 1,339.47 Savings - Restricted Health
$ 6,463.95 Savings - Restricted Rescue
$ 1,014.34 Regular Savings
----------------
$52,151.50

2.2.1 Liability insurance, Delegate expenses, and Borderlines costs since last meeting have all been paid. Marit reports that the Tax forms have been completed by Wayne Koutsky. 501c3 tax status Marit and Bylaws co-Chair Dr. Kim Green are working on this. Marit has provided Kim with bylaws from another parent club which recently obtained this status and Kim has found a pro bono attorney to assist with IRS paperwork.

2.2.2 The Board discussed a possible series of articles in BL explaining the workings of BCSA and parent clubs in general (ie the purpose of a parent club and what we are doing, the direction we are going etc.), to give members a better idea of how the club's budget is done and how any profits are used.

2.2.3 Wayne Koutsky reported that he has completed a review of the 2001 financials for the BCSA. Upon reviewing the bank statements, deposits and invoices for 2001 he found that the accounts accurately present the financial picture for the BCSA for 2001. Another review of the financials should be done in July of 2002. After a very successful National Speciality in 2001 the BCSA appears to be in solid financial shapen for the upcoming year.

2.2.4 Denise has signed the bank papers so Marit can now add her name as a signatory.

2.2.5 Specialty - 2002 Budget Specialty Budget projects income of $55,370 and expenses of $49,301. The Specialty Budget was unanimously approved by the Board.

2.2.6 Emily moved/Nancy seconded that we moved $20,000 from checking to savings in the event of a lawsuit and also for the possibility of accruing interest. Unanimously approved.

3.  INTERIM BUSINESS TRANSACTED BY US MAIL

3.1 New members approved-Sharon Ferguson

The following new members were approved

3.3.1 Consent agenda Denise will prepare a list of items that can be voted on at each Board meeting as a block. These are items that are ready for a vote and for which there is no opposition.

4.COMMITTEE BUSINESS-Nancy Little

4.1  Affiliate clubs
 Ruth Deming is asking for input from the Board on developing a program for General Education utilizing the Affiliate Clubs. Emily, in particular, being on the General Education committee, could provide information on what might be available for use in school visits, fairs or anything that draws the public. Ruth has also talked to Joyce Herie regarding Affiliate Clubs participating in Judges' Education as well.

4.1.1 Correspondence between Kelly Whiteman and Ruth Deming. The Board received copies of correspondence concerning the Affiliate Club committee.

4.2.1  BCSA_Announce
 Nancy Little will contact April to get a list of non-renewals . As of February 7, 2002, there are 242 subscribers to BCSA_Announce. Next month Nancy will go through all the e-mail addresses on the list and determine who each e-mail address belongs to and whether that member has renewed membership. The Board unanimously approved the BCSA_Announce policy as proposed by Nancy.

4.2.2  BCSA Suggestion Box
 There have been 8 messages/suggestions sent to this e-mail box, since its creation just after the 2001 National in mid October.

4.3  Breed Standard
 The Board will hold a special teleconference meeting with Susane Hoffman, Chair, scheduled for March 14, 2002 at 530 pm PST. Susane has submitted to the Board a draft of the re-worked standard and requested comments and any suggestions for changes.

4.4  BCSA Website
 The Board unanimously agreed to 9 year extension on the domain name and unanimously approved Lisa Ochoa as webmaster. Marit Marino just brought up a new page for this year's specialty and recently changed the Officers' page to reflect new officers.

4.5  By laws
 Kim Green/Lois Rifner report that in September of 2001 they wrote to the AKC asking for approval of the proposed amendments to the BCSA Constitution and By-laws. In November we received their reply. Overall, they were very favorable. They corrected a typo in Article I, Section 4, where we had that a membership is considered lapsed after 45 days. It should be 30.

The AKC did request a few changes and clarifications which are being addressed. After a final review by the Board, they will be sent to the membership.

The next big task for this committee is to look into policies and procedures. In order to do this effectively, Kim and Lois will need anyone who has policies or procedures from the Club's past to forward those to us for review and consideration.

4.6  Fundraising-Nancie Mages

4.6.1  Store $1,300 was made from the BCSA store before Xmas. We need to pursue new ideas so as to make the $4,000 projected in our operating budget for this year. Nancie also reports that store sales were excellent when the Border Recorder and Janet Larson's "Versatile Border Collie" were offered as a combination deal for $45.00. Nancie and Helen Phillips will have a Beanie Photo and Humor Contest for the next issue of Borderlines.

4.7 General Education
 Lisa Ochoa is working on a draft of the General Education website with the help of the committee members.

4.8 Other

4.8.1  Health
 Debbie Brooks, Chair. Marit wrote letters to two veterinarians in the St Louis area asking that they do microchipping and a CERF test at this year's specialty and also informed Debbie that OFA has announced a new health database which would be a repository of all of a dog's health clearances. The parent club would decide which tests are to be admitted into the database, and the owners of the dogs will decide whether they want the info on a particular dog released on request, or held confidential. Debbie published a health survey in the new Jan/Feb Borderlines for the membership to complete and return to her.

4.8.2
 The UC Davis School of Vet Medicine just appointed Marit to the planning committee for their annual Companion Animal Health Day in October.

4.8.3
 Information about the Purina Parent Club Partnership program was received by Debbie. Denise filled out the forms and returned them to Purina. Purina Pro Club members can earn dollars for the parent club's health funds at CHF by sending in kibble bag weight circles.

4.8.4  Letter from AKC re coat/hair study
 Secretary Sharon Ferguson received a letter from Texas A & M University College of Veterinary Medicine requesting that BCSA participate in a study on the genetics of coat in dogs. Each Parent club has been contacted and hair samples from different dogs and bitches are needed for the study. The Board decided this project should be turned over to BCSA Health Chair Debbie Brooks so Sharon forwarded the information on to her.

4.9  Health and Rescue Foundation-Richard Whorton, Chair
 The Board approved an additional $500 for total of $1,000 from Restricted Funds for the start up costs for the Foundation.

4.10  Herding Advisory Committee-Claudia Frank, Chair (Technically the Herding Advisory Committee, of which Claudia was the representative, is no longer in existence, however, they have stayed in contact regarding matters that effect our parent clubs and AKC Herding).
Claudia reports that at this time there is a controversy over how the first places in the Herding Championship are earned. The AKC has changed its interpretation of the "First" placings that are required to be won. Claudia has shared correspondence between the AKC and the HAC secretary with Janet Lewis, BCSA, Delegate to AKC and BCSA Prs. Denise Teal. They are currently waiting to see if the AKC will establish a statement of their new interpretation or how this will be handled.

The AKC has outlined a Herding Instinct Test that will go into effect June 1st, 2002. If this in fact happens the BCSA can decide whether the BCSA wishes to keep its own evaluation forms and certificates or go with the AKC set up. The AKC requires two passing evaluations. When the new program goes into effect Claudia will have it published in Borderlines.

4.11  Judges Education
 Joyce Herie reports that last year the JEC had official seminars at the National Specialty, the Los Angeles Dog Judges Educational Association and the Judges Education Association of Washington. So far in 2002, a seminar is being held in Association with the International Kennel Club in Chicago in February and of course, at the BCSA National in October. Others may be scheduled depending on requests received.

The current committee members are Nancie Mages, Art Sorkin and Caroline Herbel. The JEC would like to work with any regional club that may be interesting in doing JE presentations. It is difficult and expensive to send just a few club representatives to many parts of the country for the smaller seminars. This is where the local clubs can help. We will be working with the Affiliate Club Chair, Ruth Deming, in this regard members should feel free to contact either committee. The JEC is also going to attempt to put together a network of breed mentors. These will be people willing to take a potential Border Collie judge under their wing and teach them the BC from a breeders perspective. If you would be interested in being a breed mentor in your area and would like to know what it entails, please contact the JEC.

4.12  Judges Selection committee
 Nancie Mages is contemplating the Judges Selection Procedure, and should have something in about two weeks. What she would like to propose to the Board is that we go ahead with next year's judges selection because time is of the essence. An agility person and a herding person need to be included in the judges selection procedure.

4.13  Membership-April Quist
 Members that have not renewed as of 2/113 clubs out of 7, 10 lifetime, 94 individual out of 415.

4.13.1  Update on Renewals
 April will send postcards to remind members to renew. For members that have questions as to why dues are increased, hopefully the series of articles in BL will help explain.

4.14  Nominating Committee
 The following committee was approved by the Board Linda Baron, Chair Nancie Mages April Quist Sandra Lindenmuth Janet Lewis

4.15  ROM-Nancy Keller
 The ROM (Register Of Merit), ROMX (Register of Merit Excellent) and the ROMF (Register Of Merit Foundation) titles were approved at the last board meeting.

Nancy Keller submitted a proposal for the ROMF (Register Of Merit Foundation) and the HonROM (Honorary Register Of Merit) for the Board's approval. Nancy Little made a motion to approve the ROMF proposal and Sharon Ferguson seconded it. The proposal passed unanimously.

There was a discussion on the HonROM and it was decided that the proposal needed to be reworked to provide a better definition of the requirements for these dogs and the approval process. Nancy Little will contact Nancy Keller and ask her to add this to her proposal for the HonROM.

4.16  Border Recorder
 Nancy Keller reports that Nancie Mages is in the process of researching printing costs to produce the Border Recorder. With the advances in software since 1998 in all likelihood they will be able to provide the Recorder to the printer in an electronic form so they will not have to scan pictures. This will enable a higher quality publication than in the past. As soon as the print costing is complete they can provide ad rates to the members so they can start taking their contributions. Also, they will provide more information regarding content in the next committee report and will be asking the members for input. Nancy reported that she had a donor for printing costs above and beyond whatever income the Border Recorder generated itself, so what was needed was basically to up front the printing costs. Joyce moved and Emily seconded to approve funding up front for the printing costs (that Nancy Keller had put in her budget for last year.). Marit opposed and the rest of the Board approved. Motion carried.

4.17  Stud Book/Increase Registration Committee-Richard Whorton, and Claudia Frank
 The AKC has increased the Open Registration fee to $50 from $30 without notification to the BCSA in any form. Claudia has contacted the AKC to find out who to contact and how we can get the fee lowered to the prior (still high) $30 fee.

4.18  Versatility/Awards

4.18.1  Awards given
 Tracy Sengupta reports that in 2001, BCSA gave out 25 Versatility Awards (V and VX). This is a decrease from 2000, in which 38 awards were given. However, the majority of the awards given in 2000 were under the old criteria, which were easier. (Included the Canine Good Citizen Test in the point system). In January 2002, BCSA gave its 4th Versatility Champion Award to Peggy Timm and "Floyd" from Illinois. Tracy also reports that she has received 2 more applications (V and VX) just recently and is waiting for an electronic signature (or a real one to scan) from Denise to be used on the certificates.

4.18.2  Janet Larson Memorial Award
 Tracy suggested to the board that use the "Versatility at the Specialty Award" as the Janet Larson Trophy. She heard only favorable feedback about this idea from the board members. Emily Czapek will help on revising the criteria for the award with help from the Board. It was proposed to use the form from last year with the following changes count only the highest score for each event because of the many herding and agility classes offered. (Emily/Joyce moved ,all approved) and add tracking (2 points for TD/5 for TDX).

4.19  Advisory Committees
 A group of advisory committee chairs are needed to address issues or advise on issues pertaining to different events. Janet Lewis has volunteered to chair an Obedience Advisory Committee and Lisa Pruka has volunteered to serve as the Tracking chair. Other chairs are needed for agility and conformation.

4.20  Breeder Referral Committee
 Janet Legg reports that she received one phone call from an individual seeking a "puppy" from Pennsylvania, but had no referrals. The Board also discussed a procedure for informing AKC about changes we want made to their website.

5. OLD BUSINESS

5.1  Eukanuba Classic
 Sandra Lindenmuth sent the Board a report of this show and Denise will ask her if she would send it to Helen for Borderlines.

5.2  National Specialties

5.2.1 2002  National Specialty status report from Linda Koutsky
 AKC paperwork is being filed for those venues where judges are under contract. The rest will be filed just as soon as we get the contracts back. Linda is currently looking into our Hospitality and Banquet events along with getting Vendors and working on putting together an Agility seminar. Focus will shift shortly to the creation of the Premium list.

5.2.3 2003  National Specialty
 Chair needed for this position, as well as for 2004/2005/2006.

6.  NEW BUSINESS

6.1  Change in officers
 Sharon notified AKC. The current officers are President: Denise Teal, katiebc@sprintmail.com Vice President: Nancy Gagliardi Little, EndzoneDogs@frontiernet.net Treasurer: Marit Marino, marit.marino@ucop.edu Secretary: Sharon Ferguson, sferguson11@juno.com Board Member & AKC Delegate: Janet Lewis, lewis@juniata.edu Board Member: Emily Czapek, ECZAPEK@earthlink.net Past President: Joyce Herie, joyce@relaypoint.net

6.2  Borderlines
 A notice of the Annual General Meeting will be published in the May/June issue. This will save the cost of mailing a separate postcard to the membership.

7.  DATE OF NEXT MEETING. Thursday, April 11, 530PST

8.  Adjournment motion:
 Nancy/Joyce moved. Meeting adjourned at 7:30 PST.

Respectfully Submitted, Sharon Ferguson, Secretary

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Page Updated 08.02.2007