2013 AWDF August 13, 2013 Meeting Minutes
Meeting began 8:10 pm EDT
Attendance:
President: Al Govednik(Late), Vice President: Bill Bimrose, Secretary: Michelle Testa, Executive Delegates at large, Dyan Harper and Dan Williams (Late)
Absent: Treasurer Chantal Young , Executive Delegate Vera Reeves
United Doberman Club - Wendy Schmidt, May Jacobson
Working Riesenschnauzer Federation – Tim Nyx
United Schutzhund Clubs of America – Jim Alloway
American Working Malinois Association – Anne Camper, Christopher Smith
Federation American Bulldog – Paige Shriver
United States Mondioring Association – Lisa Geller, Aida Flick
United States Rottweiler Club – Chuck Wilson
Working Black Russian Terrier Club of America – Patty Bartley
LV/DVG America – Carole Patterson
United States Boxer Association – Mark Chase
Cane Corso Assoc. of America (Guest status) – Annie Wildmoser
American Herding Breed Assoc. (Guest status) – Linda Rorem
Absent
North American Working Bouvier Association
Working Dutch Shepherd Association
Working Pit Bull Terrier Club of America
Vice president began the meeting with roll call.
President Report - No report
Vice President Report – No report
Secretary Report – 2013 annual meeting minutes
Dyan Harper made the motion to accept the minutes from the annual board meeting held on May 16, 2013. Bill Bimrose seconded the motion. Call attendees were in favor; none opposed. Annual meeting minutes accepted into record.
Treasurer Report – No report
Old Business
2013 AWDF FCI IPO team
The president updated the call attendees about the FCI IPO team. He has been informed that the hosting organization is a great group and the event should be very nice. Al is excited about the team we have representing the United States/ AWDF. He thanked the AWDF Secretary for putting the uniforms together and getting the entry forms in on time. He will bring the flag, anthem and trophy for the team.
Reciprocity of club sanctions
The following draft policy was reviewed:
All AWDF member clubs will respect and honor sanctions against individual members in each other's organizations, subject to the following conditions: (1) the sanction was achieved through an established process (e.g., Board of Inquiry hearing, proven violation of an existing policy), and (2) a summary of that process and the specific findings are made available to the AWDF secretary for distribution to the member clubs.
After receipt of the information on the sanction from the AWDF secretary, AWDF member clubs may then initiate their own investigation as needed before upholding a sanction. If a club chooses to not uphold a sanction, the rationale for the decision must be provided in writing to the AWDF secretary. In these cases, the AWDF BOI will be charged with arbitrating the decision.
A committee had developed this draft in 2011. This policy was not voted in as a regulation. UScA delegate Jim Alloway spoke to the call attendees about a situation that had occurred 2 weeks prior to this call about honoring a sanction imposed by another AWDF club against an individual. USRC Chuck Wilson asked about the notification process to the AWDF member clubs and the AWDF Secretary gave out the information on the process. There was discussion on passing the present drafted policy. UScA made a point that the draft had too much ambiguity; that it needed work to avoid potential pitfalls. AWDF DAL Dan Williams asked if there should be a division between the sport and breed club in the development of this policy. Al Govednik stated that he thought this was not necessary. WRSF delegate Tim Nyx stated that there are certainly things/ situations that are unacceptable to all member clubs. The AWDF Secretary suggested that the committee be reformed to further research and draft a more conclusive policy (this committee was Bill Bimrose, Anne Camper and the AWDF Secretary). Bill Bimrose asked all clubs to send their questions and suggestions to the committee. UScA president Jim Alloway will send in his suggestions and questions.
Membership dues proposal
The Secretary had presented the following to the Federation at the annual meeting as a suggestion to accommodate an equalization of dues and keeping the 1 vote per club.
Policy change in regards to Membership dues:
At the present time our AWDF Membership dues are $300.00 plus 75 cents per member. The proposed change is to omit the .75 cents per member and increase the base dues by $200.00. The member clubs would then only pay $500.
This provides a scenario that all clubs pay equally and all have equal representation.
AWMA delegate Anne Camper suggested that the actual amount of the dues could be adjusted downward if the AWDF had a reasonable budget and alternative sources of revenue to work with. Options for other resources for revenue need to be explored. Discussion ensued with comments that no individual club should have more than one vote so that the Federation is not dominated by one organization. Some felt that the dues structure is fine the way it is and there should be no change. Lisa Geller of USMRA stated the majority of the budget is going to the AWDF Championship. This is chiefly being supported by a small handful of the clubs in the AWDF. She did not feel a change in dues would be helpful to those clubs under the AWDF that are not IPO oriented but are all breed supportive. Bill B. feels an increase will cause hardship to some of the small club. Mark Chase of USA BOX stated that many years ago the dues structure was just $500.00 per club. He also mentioned that most of the breed clubs already have an attachment in Europe for example USA BOX has AntiBox. Mark suggested creating separate commissions or departments within the AWDF for different activities. He also asked if Al knew what the actual cost is to become and be contract partners with the FCI. Other sources of revenue were discussed. Mark suggested researching as to how the FCI processes its fees for events. Christopher Smith of AWMA suggested a small fee to be taxed on all entries of trials under the AWDF. Bill Bimrose suggested a fee be set for acquiring an FCI judge through AWDF similar to the SV process. Jim Alloway of UScA stated that his preference would be equitable payment for everyone.
The AWDF Secretary suggested that each breed club identify the members who have that particular breed and have their club dues based on those members. For example, UScA would only pay for members with German Shepherds.
To help determine the best solution for dues structure and revenue generation, it was suggested that the AWDF look at reviewing the Federation’s primary mission.
Related discussion on revenue
Exec. DAL Dan Williams spoke briefly on marketing product and services techniques. Also he mentioned working with the USA tourism divisions to generate revenue. The AWDF President made the suggestion that the AWDF itself hosts the Championship. He felt that by omitting a host club this could benefit the AWDF financially.
Other suggestions:
> Upgrading and adding paid advertising to the AWDF website.
>Increase entry fees for the Championship
>Fee established for club to pay per entry.
A committee was formed to review and list recommendations of sources of income and financials. AWDF President Al Govednik will chair the committee, and members are Mark Chase, Wendy Schmidt, Tim Nyx, Aida Flick, and Frank Phillips. A report will be presented at the next conference call
2014 AWDF Championship
Purina Farms has been contacted for our 2014 event by Dyan Harper. They are willing to have us there. Dyan Harper submitted a report to the Executive board on July 25th. Acquiring tracking is the next step. Dyan told Al that there are farm bureaus to contact for access to tracking. She will give Al those phone numbers.
Non AWDF member clubs scorebook acceptance at AWDF member trials
There needs to be consistency about accepting non AWDF member score books at AWDF member club trials. For example, UScA now accepts score books from WDA (a non AWDF member organization) and LV/DVG has all along accepted WDA score books because the VDH recognizes all titles from all organizations. Another example is that NARA is a former member of AWDF; can they use the AWDF Score books or not? It was noted that NARA does have an affiliation with France. There was a suggestion made to have a list of accepted organizations/scorebooks on the AWDF website. The correct wording for the website needs to be developed. Mark Chase will research for more information on the type of written language already out there on European websites.
Fall FH Championship
Having a Fall FH Championship has been suggested. It is felt that by separating this event from the IPO Championship in the spring that entries would increase for this event and free up the IPO championship event, therefore allowing more opportunity to acquire tracking. Mark Chase has offered to host this event. Details need to be worked out.
NEW Business
Member club applications from the following organizations have been submitted. Rick Furrow was on the call to provide information about his organization NADF to the call attendees.
North American Dogsport Federation
Hovawart club of North America
An E-Ballot will be sent out for voting.
The meeting was adjourned at 10:03 EDT