2006 Spring GWPCA Board Meeting Minutes

Present at this meeting: Mark Sargent, Laura Reeves, Sue Mueller, Barb Tucker, Mal Decker, Charlie Kissinger, Mike Hemphill, Liz Dixon, Sara Herz and Ray Calkins

Treasury report $9,393.59 checking

Rescue $8654.82 (See actual report in News Letter)

Financial report for 2005 Nationals not finalized, but should be soon.

Secretary’s Report
Letter from AKC regarding new rules for tracking collars. A letter to be sent to Mr. Rabidu at AKC from the GWPCA suggesting all judges and should sent a letter explaining the changes and also be sent an updated copy of all new Field Trial and Hunt test rule changes. As of the middle of December Mr. Rabidu is no longer in that position. Mr .Bill Speck has once again resumed the position of Vice President of Performance Events

Committee Reports

Standard Review Committee What to do about the proposed change and the present standard? There was much discussion on this issue. The vote has been taken and a simple majority win was the result of the voting with the liver and white to be a part of the new standard and black would be a disqualification. There was a very long discussion; with much emphasis on the vote and that this was not the final vote. At a later date another vote will be sent to all members of the GWPCA and each portion of the standard will be voted on individually. The membership will have to decide if they want the new version or to leave that portion as it is now. When the final vote is taken each section must win by a 2/3rd majority of those voting in order for it to be a part of the Standard

Motion was then made by Mark that the membership votes on each section of the Standard independently. The Standard Committee and the Board will then review the results and if there is a conflict or lack of continuity between sections, then the Standard Committee and the Board will develop a final version on which the membership will then vote.

Since the Board meeting we have learned that it is not an easy task to change the standard after the vote, even is it is a minor change. AKC has given the proposed standard a preliminary review and feel that even if only some sections are changed the Standard would still be acceptable with a combination of the old Standard and the new changed section

Rescue The Board reviewed comments received from Laura Myles concerning the rescue committee. Laura is asking for an increase in the financial cap that is allowed for any dog. She has also asked for an increase for advertising and marketing. Also, will Mary Murray be willing to work with the GWPCA, and can we help financially. The Board decided to give Laura $3000.00 as an annual budget for Rescue to be used as she sees fit. This in turn will help out Mary Murray in her rescue operation so that they can work together in the GWPCA rescue attempt. Motion made by Laura and 2nd by Mal to give Laura Myles a beginning budget of $3000 to be used at her discretion per year and to be increased if necessary upon evaluation of the board, up to the amount of funds available in the rescue, and not depleting the rescue funds. Board approved. Motion carried.

At this point it was unanimous to adjourn the meeting and the Board decided that it would be concluded on December 27, 2005 at 8:30pm.
Meeting adjourned at 11:30PM

December 27, 2005
Board meeting resumed at 8:30 PM Present at this meeting: Mark, Laura, Liz, Charlie, Barb, Sarah with Ray joining later. Mal, Mike and Sue were absent

FEAC AKC is asking our input into the time/course field trials... After some discussion it was decided to send this to Doug and the FEAC committee for them to discuss and to vote on with the best interest of the GWPCA in mind. Also a letter was received from the AKC regarding choosing 2 representatives to represent the GWPCA at a National Hunt test Committee meeting. This is something that the FEAC will be asked for their input and directions for individuals to represent the GWPCA.

SEAC As of this date we have not heard any more from Judy Cheshire regarding the process that she touched on at the National meeting. Laura said that she would follow up with Judy to see what this process will be and hopefully it will be published in the Wire News.

Constitution discussed the constitution and some of the language changes that are needed. The present Constitution has a lot of references to he/she and dates for turn around times that are needed to be up dated. Hopefully after we get the Standard Review completed then we can begin working on the Constitution and the By-Laws.

Judges Education – The Committee now has a budget and now the committee needs to think about where and on what to spend the money. Judy would like to do an illustrated standard but not until finalization of the new standard .This budget will now enable the committee to do more Judges Education presentations. The GWPCA Secretary received a letter from the Monroe, MI Kennel Club to have a Judges Education seminar at their October Cluster. Laura said she would take care of responding and would do this seminar. The Board agreed

Breeder Referral The Board feels that Bernee is doing a really good job and we need to keep in mind that we all get calls and make referrals to people with pups that we know are good dogs and maybe they are not members of the GWPCA.

Web site The entire Board feels that Dan is doing a good job. In order to get the word out about the vote on the Standard changes regarding colorMark will write a short note about the outcome of the vote regarding the Standard changes in the color section and the elections and post it on the website so that membership will be able to find out the results.

Versatility Testing Greg DuBois is taking the lead. After many false starts, we hopefully will again renew our efforts to get this award put in place. Charlie to be board liaison to the committee. How will the committee be formed? Discussion followed. It was agreed on that several names will be nominated, just as they were for the Standard Committee, then the board will review these names and then decide on who will best represent the GWPCA, then those names will be sent to Greg. We need a balance of individuals that are active in each venue, Hunt tests, NAVHDA, Field Trials, Show, and other performance events.

The Board discussed the requirement for hips being OFA’d as was also proposed in an earlier proposal for the Versatility. Motion made by Mark that for the betterment of the breed we add health requirements to the awarding of all GWPCA Awards which will be phased in over the next 3 years. That we require OFA or Penn Hip tests be done in order to receive any of the awards given by the GWPCA, ie Top Show Dog, Top Field Dog etc This was seconded by Barb, motion passed.

Breeders Education Nikki Litwin now is Chair of this committee. Laura to discuss transition with her and find out what her plans are for the committee.

Canine Health Foundation The Board d supporting one of the CHF grants, that has been received by Barb, one is for Melanoma the other for Lymphoma. After much discussion, the Board agreed to send CHF at least $1000.00 to support the research. Ray is to work with Sherry Jackson to decide which grant the GWPCA will support. All board members supported this request. The 2 proposals that have been received from the CHF are Proposals 634 and 632. stated that we should give the CHF money every year for some type of research project. We as a club get money back from Purina yearly and this could be targeted to go towards health research.

Merchandise Nothing new at this time.

Wire news Discussion regarding giving Jodi some compensation. We need to find out what are the costs for making calls, paper for printing, and her time spent doing the leg work and anything else that is needed to help Jodi get the job done. We need to check with her about her out of pocket expenses? We all feel that she is doing an exceptional job!

Show Futurity and Field Futurity The Board discussed an e-mail received from Aloysia reviewing changes in the Show Futurity which documented changes the Board decided on at the National Board meeting when Aloysia was present. Ray said that in the past when he chaired the Field Futurity he always went by the post mark on the envelope of the nominations instead of when it was received. Do we want to penalize with a financial penalty, or do we want a Drop dead deadline. We do need to consider the financial problems and help support these 2 venues financially. Mark made a motion that the GWPCA provide a $200.00 safety net to cover both Futurities (Show and Field) each if necessary and given only if there are inadequate entries to cover costs, and that those committees develop specific deadlines for each. This will be sent to both FEAC and SEAC for their review.

Regional Directors Reports

Eastern – Mal Decker (Mal was absent) so Charlie discussed that the Darby’s are trying to get a club organized in South Carolina. He was advised to contact Meg Eden for assistance in getting a club started. As recently she and several others in the Central Oregon area went through the process of starting a new club in Central Oregon

Midwest – Liz Dixon nothing new. All seemed to be doing well.

Western – Hemphill The new Central Oregon GWP Club is now approved by AKC to hold Hunt Tests.

Old Business

National 2006 is to be hosted by the Southern CA GWPC. Ellis Herz joined the meeting at this point. The Board asked Ellis to submit a General budget to the Board. Ellis addressed this and stated that they are doing a lot of different things and that he would guarantee that they would not lose money! However, the bottom line is that the Board needs to see a basic budget, and it should be sent to the Board as soon as possible.

National 2007 There was discussion about holding the 2007 Nationals in Michigan. Also there has been some discussion regarding NE holding it or possibly holding it in 2008, but, they do not feel they are ready to host it in 2007. Twin Cities is willing to organize the field portion, and the Del Valley club will organize the show portion if it could be held in Michigan at the Ionia Field Trial Grounds. discussed the fact that at the Ionia FT grounds we can not bump another local club out of their normal date within a 5 year time frame, thus we would not be able to get a weekend date. Therefore it would not be feasible to hold it in 2007 in MI. Motion made by Laura based on information regarding not being able to get the Ionia FT grounds in 2007 that we revisit the issue at the next Board meeting. Charlie to check with Del Valley regarding hosting the Nationals and Laura to check with NE regarding hosting them also.

Awards John Prescott had suggested earlier in the year that an award be given for dogs that have a NAVHDA Utility title and an AKC Conformation title. It was decided that this would be discussed further at the next Board meeting.

Laura Reeves discussed the idea of a Top Sire andTop Dam award to be given yearly. This type of award is given at the Ft. Detroit GWPC yearly. Therefore Laura will get the outline of criteria needed to be eligible for this award and then be discussed at the next Board meeting.

New Business

New members was some discussion on how to get new members more involved in the club, both at the and National level. One of the ideas was that most members are not interested in the competitive events and got their GWP just to hunt with or to be a companion. One of the ideas was for each local club to hold some hunts at local Hunt clubs, more training days and more fun days to teach the new members about basic household obedience, and field obedience.

There being no further business meeting was adjourned at 12:10AM.

Respectfully submitted,

Barb Tucker
Secretary GWPCA

Next Board meeting in Jan. or February 2006