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ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING MINUTES Go to: Committee Reports |
I. Quorum:
- Needed 109 members for 20% quorum required by bylaws to hold annual meeting.
- There was no quorum, so “town hall” style meeting was conducted instead.
II. For the Good of the Order: thanks to all who have contributed to making the 2005 National Specialty a success!!!
III. Introductions to 2005-06 Board of Directors
- President: Michelle Olsen
- Vice President: Joyce Norris
- Corresponding Secretary: Kelly Lee Hagstrand (not in attendance)
- Recording Secretary: Laura Wright (not in attendance)
- Treasurer: Wayne Koutsky
- Board Member at Large: Beth Bartholomew (not in attendance)
- Board Member at Large: Sally Davis
- Past President: Denise Teal
- New AKC Delegate: Claudia Frank (pending credential approval) (not in attendance)
- Thank you to past Delegate Janet Lewis, who had to resign recently. (not in attendance)
IV. Corresponding Secretary’s Report (not in attendance)
V. Recording Secretary’s Report (not in attendance)
VI. Treasurer’s Report
- Wayne Koutsky didn’t have the account balances handy due to being busy with specialty goings-on; referred everyone to regular board minutes for actual balances.
VII. President’s Report: Highlights from the Past Year
- AKC approval of our request for permanent acceptability of all the domestic herding registries: ABCA, NASDA, AIBC, and CBCA! (This is in addition to the normally accepted all-breed foreign registries and ISDS). This is wonderful news for keeping our stud book diverse and healthy. Thanks to Denise Teal & Michelle Olsen for their research & work on the proposal, and to Emily Czapek and Gerianne Darnell for eagle-eye editing.
- Abolish Canine Epilepsy “ACE” project
- $6,000 donated to Dr. Patterson’s study so far
- T-shirts sold as a fundraiser and to raise awareness
- 26 new samples have been submitted to the study since last year (43 samples, 11 affected 1 year ago; now 69 samples, 17 affected)
- Technical conference-style ACE informational poster submitted to AKC Canine Health Foundation conference
- Continued financial support for B course trials and Kentucky Bluegrass ISDS trial
- Website was up to almost 8,500 hits per month in August, serves as an information clearinghouse for our breed and club. Special thanks to Ann Shaw, our Webmaster.
- Health & Rescue Foundation: we have a new chair who has made fast progress on bringing this project to fruition. Thanks to Dawn Antoniak-Mitchell.
- First draft of a new health survey is complete, revisions under way, slated for the end of the year. Thanks to Yvonne Anderson.
- Rescue funding: have approved several grant requests for help for rescue groups, but we still have more money that is allocated for this purpose.
- Juniors program under way—recognizing Junior members in Borderlines, activity planned for Juniors at the national. Thanks to Mary Beth Overmyer & Linda Follis.
- Color list updated on BC registration slips to accurately list all possible colors and combinations. Thanks to Sandra Lindenmuth for all her research.
- ROM History posted on website, great pictorial and historical work. Thanks to Lisa Pruka and Nancy Keller.
- Judge suggestion list now posted on the website. New committee formed to review judge selection process—contact chair Robin Penland if you have ideas.
- Specialty host hotel research: Denise Teal did a comprehensive comparison shopping exercise last year to compare hotels in the area. We are back at the Best Western because of price, dog-friendliness and availability of conference rooms—no other nearby hotels could compare on all three counts.
- We have a BCSA representative attending the AKC Parent Club Health Conference in St. Louis next weekend (Dawn Antoniak-Mitchell, HRF chair)
- BCSA Sponsored all-breed agility trial in February—this year was first one, was a great success, so will be repeated in 2006. Thanks to Karen Herceg and Denise Teal for their work on this.
VIII. Committee Reports (click here to view year-end committee reports)
- Nineteen new committee positions filled this year- thanks to all who volunteered!
- Club Advertising Manager: Colleen Backus (not in attendance)
- AKC Gazette Columnist: Gerianne Darnell (not in attendance)
- Stud Book Committee: Denise Teal – no report since committee’s job is complete.
- BCSA Announce/Suggestion Box: Nancy Gagliardi-Little (not in attendance)
- BCSA Store & Fundraising: Nancie Mages – no report.
- Border Recorder: Kim Sykes (not in attendance)
- Borderlines: Lisa Ochoa (not in attendance)
- Breeder Referral: Karen Herceg (not in attendance)
- Color Committee: Sandra Lindenmuth – completed color list for registration form, no working on looking at the color divisions for conformation classes.
- Finance Committee: Beth Bartholomew (not in attendance)
- General Education Committee: Donna Mallory (not in attendance)
- Futurity Committee: Chair needed
- Health Committee: Lisa Pruka. Had good response for health clinics at the specialty this year, hope to have even more next year.
- Health & Rescue Foundation; Dawn Antoniak-Mitchell (not in attendance)
- Herding: Claudia Frank (not in attendance)
- Historian: Karen Herceg (not in attendance)
- Juniors: Mary Beth Overmyer & Linda Follis (not in attendance)
- Judges Education: Carolyn Herbel -- Held several judges education seminars over the past year, working on a new presentation.
- Judges Selection Procedure: Robin Penland – Committee was just formed mid-year, has started researching how other clubs do judge selection.
- Membership: Kathy Sours (not in attendance)
- 2005 National Specialty: Denise Teal & Linda Koutsky – nothing to report.
- 2006 National Specialty: Lisa Pruka & Kat Ferruzza – almost all judge selection is complete, now seeking committee chairs.
- Recruitment: Kim Baumgart (not in attendance)
- ROM Committee: Nancy Keller (not in attendance)
- Rescue: Sarah Ruckleshaus (not in attendance)
- Versatility & Awards: Tashia Lund (not in attendance)
- Website: Ann Shaw (not in attendance)
IX. Old Business: none from previous Annual Meeting
X. New Business: no topics were formally submitted by the 10/1 deadline.
- Blue Comment Cards: these were passed out for members to submit comments, suggestions, complaints etc. Judge suggestions require a member name, but any other suggestion does not. Two were received, both signed by Susane Hoffman. The first was judge suggestions (Nancy Lee Obermark, Robin Penland, Kent & Lori Herbel)—all of these judges are already on our list on the website. The other was to involve Carolyn Herbel in judge selection for conformation judges; this comment has been passed on to the judge selection committee.
2005 YEAR END COMMITTEE REPORTS
GENERAL EDUCATION COMMITTEE
Members: Donna Mallory, Chair - Laura Donaldson, Tashia Lund, Kathy Williford.
Sally Davis and Joyce Norris, Board Liaisons
In the spring of 2005, Sally Davis passed the
chairmanship of the General Education Committee to Donna Mallory. Since then,
the committee has been reviewing and updating some of the information available
to members and prospective Border Collie owners.
At the August board meeting, the committee presented a
new brochure written by committee member Laura Donaldson entitled “Should You
Buy or Adopt a Border Collie?” The Board accepted and approved publication of
the brochure, which is now available on the BCSA web site. The committee would
encourage all members to print the brochure and offer it to anyone considering
the Border Collie. It also will be a nice handout for use at Meet the Breed and
other kennel club educational functions.
Currently, the committee is working on a companion
piece that offers potential owners a list of considerations and questions to
answer before acquiring a puppy. This will be a general piece that would apply
to any purchase or rescue of a dog.
As always, the general education committee welcomes any
suggestions or recommendations from members concerning educational materials or
information they would like to have available or see on the web site. You may
contact Donna Mallory by e-mail at
wimzical@charter.net or by phone at 304-342-2515 or 304-552-1555
Respectfully submitted,
Donna Mallory, Chair - General Education Committee
VERSATILITY COMMITTEE
The Versatility
Committee has seen some changes this year. Tracy Sengupta has turned the
committee over to me (Tashia Lund). I just got started in the Border Collie
Society of America last year when I got my first show able Border Collie. I then
decided that the best way to learn more about this wonderful breed was to join a
committee; hence I became the Chairperson of the Versatility Committee.
This year the Versatility Committee has awarded:
1 – Versatility Champion
7 – Versatility Excellent
13 – Versatility
3 – Champion Excellent
For a total of 24 Awards this year.
Tashia L. Lund
BCSA ANNOUNCE -
BCSA_Announce-owner@yahoogroups.com
Here were my goals for 2005:
There are currently 289 subscribers to BCSA_Announce.
We have 453 members at this time, so the percentage of subscribers is 64%. My
goal this year is to get 70% of members on BCSA_Announce.
At the last annual meeting in 2004, I reported that
there were 269 subscribers from 470 voting members and 4 affiliates. As of
September 30th, 2005 there are 333 subscribers to BCSA_Announce from
approximately 472 voting members and 4 affiliates. That means that we have 70.5%
members subscribed to BCSA_Announce.
My goal for 2005 is to get 72% of our membership
subscribed to BCSA_Announce.
BCSA SUGGESTION BOX
In my last annual report in
2004 there were 23 messages sent to the BCSASuggestionBox@hotmail.com address.
As of September 30th, 2005 there have been 16 messages sent to the
BCSASuggestionBox@hotmail.com address.
NATIONAL SPECIALTY LIST
BCSA_2005_National-owner@yahoogroups.com
I have created and maintained the 2005 National
Specialty lists for the show chair and committee chairs.
Nancy Gagliardi Little - Yvonne Anderson (backup)
HERDING COMMITTEE - Claudia Frank, Chair
Herding Instinct
Certification Information
While the HIC Program provides a
wonderful way for people to become introduced to herding with their Border
Collie it in fact tells little about the dogs’ natural instincts and ability to
be trained to become a useful stock handler.
Guidelines for the BCSA Herding Instinct Certification Program and the
evaluation form are available on the BCSA web site under BCSA Programs and then
Herding Central. The address is
http://www.bordercolliesociety.com/index_herd.htm
Change: Herding
Instinct Certification By Video - The board
voted to discontinue the herding instinct certification by video program.
Reasons cited were lack of use and increase in local herding evaluators and
instinct tests.
Herding Statistics
1. The statistics for the AKC Trial Program Advanced Class (from AKC AWARDS
BOOK) are published in each issue of the “Borderlines”. A volunteer is needed to
produce the stats for the lower classes to appear in the “Borderlines”.
2. All the past HIT winners of National Specialties will be published in
the National Specialty Catalog and are now listed on the BCSA web site.
3. A list of Triple Champions was received from the AKC and they have been
printed in the "Borderlines" magazine and posted on the BCSA web site.
4. The percentages of Border Collie participation in each class of the AKC
Herding Program was published in the “Borderlines” and posted on the BCSA web
site. These stats were also shared with Gordon Hildebrant, AKC Field
Representative and Gerard Baudet, Chairman of the AKC Herding-Earthdog-Courseing
Committee.
2006 AKC Herding Advisory Committee
The AKC (Gordon Hildebrant) was contacted to find out about the next
Herding Advisory Committee. Gordon stated that the structure would be the same
as the last HAC. This would give all the AKC breeds, that are allowed to
participate in the AKC Herding Program, the same vote. Since that structure was
a real snafoo previously the BCSA needs to encourage the HAC to have more
structure and to try to set up a voting system based on the breeds that
participate and by how much of a percentage of the breeds are involved.
Herding Information
Articles which provide herding information are periodically added to the
BCSA web site under BCSA Programs – Herding Central.
New Award Requested from Board
An award is being looked at that would honor dogs which have earned their
AKC Herding Champion, either a AHBA Champion or an ASCA WCH and also have at
least 5 cumulative USBCHA Sanctioned Open trial points. The owner would provide
verification and apply for the award. The award would have a substantial value
and the winner would be featured in the “Borderlines” magazine. The membership
will be asked their opinion of such an award and to offer names for this award
as well as what type of award would be given.
Another Possible Form of Recognition
As ABCA will "deregister" Border Collies which earn AKC breed
championships perhaps there could be something to acknowledge Border Collies
which have good conformation but do not wish to endanger their ABCA
registration. Example: earn 2 majors and 10 points at AKC breed shows. The Board
felt this would impact very few people and that the majority of those that show
in conformation don’t care if their dogs are de-registered.
Yearly Top Winners
The BCSA recognizes the first place winners of the AKC herding Top 10
Overall, Top 10 Course B, Top 10 Ducks, and Top 10 Cattle for each year.
Currently other than publication in “Borderlines” and on the BCSA web site there
isn’t any other recognition for these honors. Opinions from the Membership would
be appreciated as to whether these honors should receive more recognition. The
Board would prefer a recognition of top working dogs that isn’t solely related
to the number of times the dog is in competition.
Committee Goal
The aim of this Committee is to keep the membership and Board focused
on the fact that the Border Collies superior stock handling abilities is what
defines the breed as different from other breeds. These bred in superb abilities
also make them wonderful in other sports and ventures as well. The Border
Collies is THE BEST STOCKDOG breed but many other breeds compete well in other
doggie sports as well.
AKC Delegate
Claudia Frank will be taking on the position of AKC Delegate as soon as
approved by the AKC. In this position she will represent the BCSA at four yearly
Delegate meetings and join the AKC Herding-Earthdog- Coursing Committee.
RECRUITMENT COMMITTEE - Plans for 2006
“Embrace the Old and Welcome the New” will be the focus of our recruitment
campaign for 2006. Our existing membership is the foundation for the direction
of our club. Our recruitment strategy will be to solidify and strengthen our
existing clubs while we sponsor and grown new clubs throughout the country.
Our greatest asset is our wonderful dedicated members. From Coast to Coast,
our current members will become the spring board to sponsor new clubs throughout
the US. We are developing training packages that are two fold, addressing both
growing existing clubs and new club sponsorship. The first part of the package
will include information on recruiting new members and strengthening an existing
club. The second part of the package will be a sponsorship package that will
include the tools necessary to help form and support a new club in a neighboring
area.
We will be concentrating on the “Power of One”. Every member can make a
difference. One member can be the catalyst to bring a new member to an existing
club. One member can be the catalyst to spark interest in a new area to form a
club. Each member of the organization is important and valuable. Education is
the key. Members will be given the tools to talk to others about the
organization and the benefits of joining.
Being new to the organization and new to the position of Recruitment Chair,
I will be looking to the experienced members for their support and input as we
move forward. I can be contacted at any time via e-mail
recruitment@bordercolliesociety.com or contacted by phone at 716-474-6273. I
am looking for members to volunteer to assist me in the North West, South West,
Mid West, North East and South East. By breaking up the country into zones, we
can better monitor our growth and progress. Support is going to be a key issue.
Volunteers will generally spend about 2 hours per month and the rewards will be
endless. Be part of the action. Make a decision to volunteer today.
MEMBERSHIP COMMITTEE
Membership renewal went smoothly last year with
only a few not rejoining. The offer of an incentive seemed to influence some to
renew early and with this in mind, we are offering a different incentive this
year and looking for the same or better response. Placing notices in Announce
also contributed to timely renewals. The incentive and notices should lessen the
number of Due Bills sent out in December and postcards in January.
Kathy Sours, BCSA Membership Chairman
COLOR COMMITTEE
Hi Joyce,
Let's see, the color committee is busy collecting info to use to develop
information on the colors for the BCSA website. We are also receiving pictures
of dogs of color and with different markings, etc. to use on the website. Also
working on a question forum for the membership concerning color divisions for
the Open (only)conformation classes. It is in our original agreement with AKC
and we can offer division of color.
Summary of accomplishments for the book at the Specialty: Evaluated the
selection of colors available on AKC registration slips. Made some additions to
the selection available and was implemented by AKC.
Thanks - Sandra Lindenmuth, Chair
JUNIORS PROGRAM
There is going to be a junior recognition at the parade of champions
this year at the Specialty. There will be a gift for each junior attending and
they will also be featured in the catalog. WE only had two get their
registration in on time and one that was just a day late so I sent it in and
then three came really late so they were supposed to send it directly to
Claudia. I have not gotten word as to whether they got to her in time to put in
the catalog or not yet.
There has been a junior featured in the Border lines for the last few
issues but we are not getting many sent in so I don't think that there is going
to be one in the next issue.
We are still looking for ideas about what we should do for the juniors. It
would be great to set up a scholarship fund but as of yet, we don't have any
donors for that. It would also be great if we found someone that did not have a
junior to work on this committee (or head it up) so that no one feels that
anyone junior is getting special treatment.
Thanks - , Mary Beth Overmyer, Chair
Breeder Referral Committee
Along with adding members that want to be listed
in the Breeder Referral Directory, I have been fielding and replying to requests
for breeder inquiries from potential border collie buyers. I can appreciate the
time that the breeders listed spend either on line or on the phone with buyers,
because over time, I have received some pretty strange requests. Of those
breeders listed in the Directory, please remember that this would be your
opportunity to try to educate someone that is interested in border collies.
Historian
A list of all previous winners of the past
National Specialty, including herding (HIT), Janet Larson Memorial Trophy,
conformation (BOB), obedience (HIT, HC), Obedience Invitational Winner, and
agility (all first placements) has been compiled and sent to Claudia Frank for
inclusion in the National catalog.
BCSA Agility Trial
A BCSA-sponsored all-breed agility trial has been
approved by the AKC.
This trial will be held indoors in Edinboro, PA, at Countryside Agility Training
Center on Feb. 18 and 19, 2006. The judge for this event will be Uli Weinrich.
Karen Herceg
Web Site Committee
This has been a year of changes for the web site. I
began helping Michelle Olsen with the web site the latter part of last year and
took the entire site over this year. One of the major things we needed to change
was the site's hosting firm. It didn't go as smoothly as we would have liked,
but was successful and we're spending almost the same amount for three years as
we used to for one year. I gave the site a new look and added automatic as well
as printable forms to make it easy for folks to send information to various
committees. The new look and ease of navigation has received a lot of positive
input. Almost every section of the site has been updated and/or enhanced. I
welcome your comments and suggestion for continuing to improve the BCSA web
site.
Respectfully submitted, Ann Shaw
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Page Updated 10.22.2007