BCSA Annual Meeting Agenda

 

I.                     Quorum:

a.       Need a 20% quorum required by bylaws to hold annual meeting. If no quorum is reached, then this meeting becomes a “town hall” style meeting, where no official business or votes may be conducted.

II.                    For the Good of the Order: thanks to all who have contributed to making the 2008 National Specialty a success!!!

III.                  Introductions to 2007-2008 Board of Directors

a.       President: Michelle Olsen (not in attendance)

b.       Vice President: Lisa Pruka (not in attendance)

c.        Corresponding Secretary: Terri Clingerman (not in attendance)

d.       Recording Secretary: Jo Roach (not in attendance)

e.       Treasurer: Wayne Koutsky--presiding over the meeting

f.         Board Member at Large: Kelly Hagstrand (not in attendance)

g.       Board Member at Large: Sally Davis (not in attendance)

h.       AKC Delegate: Claudia Frank (not in attendance)

IV.                 Corresponding Secretary’s Report: refer to minutes from year

V.                   Recording Secretary’s Report: refer to minutes from year

VI.                 Treasurer’s Report:

VII.                President’s Report: Highlights from the Past Year

a.       Roadmap: We’ve developed a long term roadmap of what our club’s mission and goals are, to guide our future progress.

b.       Borderlines: it’s been a long road of discovery, trying to balance the fact that it’s tough to find volunteers who have the time and skill for such a big job, and trying to find affordable services to handle the rest. The Forsyths (Paper & Ink Company) have helped us greatly in learning the ropes and making the transition to less volunteer-driven and more paid professional work. We’ve trying a new publisher, Bear & Associates, who publish several other parent club publications. Their first issue, created with our volunteer editor Donna Brooks-Brisbin, is out and so far we’re pleased with the quality and affordability. 

c.        Health:

1.       Completed enrollment in the CHIC Program

2.       Completed Health Survey which drove our enrollment in CHIC & gave us information on where we should be focusing our immediate attention and resources

3.       Lori Mauger attended the AKC Canine Health Conference last fall, and shared her notes with the membership.

4.       Gave AKC CHF grant money to a Border Collie-specific noise phobia study, and an epilepsy study on Border Collies and Staffordshire Bull Terriers.

5.       Border Collie Health Foundation – working on their 501(c)3 status; BCSA is still helping them financially. This organization has been more than a decade in the making, but setting up non-profits is a big task, we have high hopes that they are 99% there, and will soon hit the ground running as an organization that can benefit our breed and cross all political lines.

d.       Judges Education: we’ve sent copies of our presentation to all approved judges, and have gotten many positive comments back on how helpful it was. We’ve built up our mentor list and hosted many JE seminars in the past year. Our message is very well received by most judges who want to learn.

e.       Judge Selection Process: though it’s been a challenging job to organize this into a formal procedure, we’ve finally got it down on paper and in use.

1.       This is offloading the burden of the board and specialty chairs having to spend many months “arguing over” judge choices and shifting responsibility to the membership and a transparent method of choosing.

2.       Voter turnout last year was weak when the process was new, but this year it has improved greatly.

3.       We had some controversy when the process was first rolled out, the membership didn’t feel they’d had adequate input, so we did a second round of review and made more modifications to address members’ concerns.

4.        We’ve identified a lot of “holes” in our original process and make continual improvements to it, but it is starting to come together as a streamlined model we can count on for the future.

f.         National Specialty Planning: we’ve developed a “bid form” for potential host groups to use when proposing a site and plan for hosting the national. This helps the board evaluate proposals. We now have chairs in place for the next three years’ specialties: 2009 (Wisconsin) 2010 (Purina) and 2011 (Oregon).

g.       Versatility Program: we’ve updated the titles several times to accommodate new titles in several venues. We’ve improved the certificate quality.

h.       AKC ILP/PAL Program: many rescue dog owners have requested help from us in evaluating their dog to assess whether it is a purebred-looking Border Collie which would be eligible for PAL registration. We’ve recommended many to be accepted, which is a boon to enthused dog owners who are excited to participate in AKC events. Even when we’ve had to reject an application, it gives the owner some satisfaction that their application was fairly reviewed by our board.

i.         Budgeting: mostly due to the increasing costs of our newsletter, our budget has become imbalanced over time. We’ve analyzed our options, surveyed the membership on their priorities, and have taken corrective action to realign the club’s spending habits with our current modest income.

j.         Herding Support:

·          Created a Stockdog of Distinction Excellent award to further recognition of dogs and owners who excel in the open field herding venue.

·          Sponsored several “B Course” and open field trials where we feel our breed is best tested for the ability for which it was bred.

k.        Conformation Supported Entries: BCSA has hosted several throughout the year via organization by local members, this encourages participation at the local level.

l.         Public education: hosted a “meet the breeds” booth at the Invitational, also provided materials for several other local events, and a herding demo in Detroit.

m.     Website: this continues to be a source of information for the public; search engines drive thousands of visits per month to our site.

n.       Futurity: already have an abbreviated version in place for the 2009 event, are putting the final touches on the proposal for a full futurity program to be approved starting in 2009.

o.       Rescue grants: paid out one grant this last year- always looking for more applicants!

p.       AKC Gazette column: Gerianne Darnell is “retiring” from this job after four years; Terri Clingerman will head it up next and be seeking guest columnists in the future.

q.       2009-2010 Elections: ballots are in and being counted, news will be posted soon on results. Thanks to all who served in this last term and all who volunteered to serve in the upcoming term.

r.         Juniors: developed and approved a new scholarship program, which will begin in 2009. We have a new and enthusiastic chair, Caitlin Kane, who is working on many new ideas for the project.

s.       All-breed Agility Trials: we held two weekends of these, thanks to local volunteers, one was profitable, and the other one unfortunately was not this year. We are going to consolidate into one 3-day all-breed trial next year in hopes that this one will perform well.

t.         Affiliate Clubs: we continue to make good progress on growing affiliate clubs, with several new ones already formed, and more in the works.

 

VIII.              Committee Reports

a.       We have 27 committees, only 1 of which is looking for a chair—but all of them always welcome more committee volunteers! So, we are doing well on filling the important jobs to keep the club running.

b.       Please check out our website for volunteer positions needing help.

c.        Each committee chair may stand and summarize their accomplishments this year, if they are in attendance.