ARAB HORSE SOCIETY
Minutes of the Council Meeting held at
Bromsgrove Golf Centre, Stratford Road, Bromsgrove. B60 1LD on
Saturday 13th February 2016 at 11.00 a.m.
Present: Mrs. A. Dixon (Chairman) Miss Katie Gore
Mrs. J. Armstrong Mrs. Carolyn Kokta
Mrs. Anne Brown Mrs N. Meredith
Mrs. Joanna WhiteMrs D. Whittome
Mr A.R. Mcleod (Treasurer)
The meeting commenced at 11.15 a.m.
1. Apologies for absence. Mrs. Joanne Lowe
2.Minutes of the previous meeting.
Minutes had been circulated and agreed electronically by Council. One amendment was made in 10.1.1. Line 8.Change ‘an’ to ‘and’. The Chairman signed the minutes as a true record of the meeting
3.Matters arising from the minutes not an agenda item.
9. Welfare: Mrs. Kokta requested an update on a current welfare case and Mrs. Meredith explained that as the case was going to appeal in June 2016, there was no current update. The relationship with the RSPCA had improved; they are being helpful and we are awaiting further information on this case.
4.Correspondence
4.1Aletter had been received and answered by Mrs. Dixon regarding the sale of Windsor Houseand the purchase of Agriculture House.
4.2An email had been received from the Welfare Officer informing us of the bad behaviour of a regular exhibitor which she had been told about. As the threat had been made personally to an individual in the first instance this should be taken to the police. All complaints must come by letter to the Chair of Council within 14 days of the incident as stated in the Complaints Procedure. DC’s continue to be aware of the person concerned.
4.3 After the agenda was circulated a request had been received to bring forward voting for the WAHO Trophy from the April meeting to this one. Council agreed to make it an item today under Any Other Business.
5.Use of electronic discussion and decisions for Items 6 to 10 removing need for December meeting
It was agreed that the use of email had been successful and cost/time saving. It was confirmed that an official motion for approval should be presented and must be responded to by a majority of Council Members for a decision to be carried. It was agreed that electronic decisions, including any financial agreements, must be ratified subsequently at the next Council Meeting.
6.Windsor House proceeds and Agriculture House:
The investments, the survey, and the purchase were all agreed by Council.
7.Budgets.
All agreed by email
8.Report & Accounts: Agreed by email. Mrs Dixon thanked Mr. McLeod for all his work.
9.Shows &Events: Mrs. White had sent round the list of the successful ridden Finalists and Council had approved their acceptance to the Judges List by email.
10.Bye laws:
The updated version had been electronically agreed. A further punctuation error was corrected and a final amendment agreed. The document was then ratified.
11.Staff
Mrs. Phizacklea is leaving and moving to Cornwall and an advertisement has been placed in the local paper and in the Job Centre on line for a replacement. There have been 26 applicants and interviews will be arranged shortly for the 9 shortlisted applicants. Mrs. Whittome, Mrs. Meredith and Mrs. Dixon will conduct the interviews with Mrs. Phizacklea in attendance. Should an internal applicant be successful and a further vacancy arise Mr. McLeod suggested flexibility in recruitment that would allow either a four day or a five day a week position, the fifth day being for general office duties. Mr. McLeod and Mrs Dixon had worked out and recommended a salary.
12. Finance Report
12.1Mr. McLeod handed out the Budgets for 2016 with some small amendments from the previously agreed Budget and these were approved. A break-even for 2016 may be difficult to achieve due to a fall in income especially in SB and R. Within PR and M, there was no money to be made from promotions illustrated by the need to write off £380 of stock this year.For the Centenary Year PR & M may need some promotional items but these must be costed well in advance. Mrs Brown stated they will be self-funding. An ebay shop was suggested as another method of selling old stock. This will be set up by PR&M.
12.2There will be a saving in Support Costs in 2016 now we are at Agriculture House. TheAuditors recommend we use some of the money from our Restricted Funds and a proposal has been put forward (see Shows and Events) to give three Bursaries of £250 for two years. The budget was amended to accommodate this.
12.4Mr. McLeod presented the Report and Accounts for 2015 which had been electronically approved by Council. The operating loss is shown as £44,440. However, this does include £31,557 relocation charges (which included the costs of the Library furniture being installed and repaired, moving of all the office equipment and reinstallation of computers and phone systems etc. and £13,681 in commission on the sale of Windsor House) which are required to be included as part of the trading figures. In reality, there is a trading surplus of £798.00. There has been prudent management on expenditureand Mr. McLeod said that while in the past losses of £10,000 on average had been made from 2010 until 2013 we were now making a small surplus. Council has turned the finances around to now cover the operating costs. He explained that Windsor House sold for £850,000, and after the purchase of Agriculture House, the Society assets have increased by £530,000 as reported in the Accounts for the year ending 2015. The proceeds had been invested in five Triple A rated institutions to spread the risks in medium and longer term fixed term investments.
12.5 Ratification ofthe Report and Accounts were proposed by Mrs. Armstrong and seconded by Mrs. Brown. Council thanked both Mr. McLeod and Mrs. Nicholson for their hard work in preparing these.
13.2016 AGM
The AGM will be held at The Fold, Bransford, Nr. Worcester on Saturday 16th April 2016 at 1.30 p.m. As Linda Nicholson is unable to attend this year, members attending the AGM will be logged by Katie Gore and Joanna White.
The printing of the mail-out to members was already under way in preparation for the 15 March deadline. Committee Chairmen were asked if they needed any information documents to be included and to make sure they were at the office as soon as possible.
Mrs Dixon had also booked the room for the morning for the use of PR&M who are arranging a talk by the veterinary surgeon, Simon Constable.
14.Elections
All nominations for Council and Direct Elect positions were approved. One non-compliant application was unable to be accepted. Mrs Dixon had updated and clarified the Application Form in readiness for next year. More suggestions were made and would be incorporated. Mrs. Barbara Cary stands unopposed for the position President Elect for 2017.
15.Welfare Report
Mrs. Meredith is in constant touch with Mrs. Green. There are several ongoing welfare cases that Mrs. Green is in the process of dealing with and a further update will be forthcoming for the next meeting. One recent case via the RSPCA had involved two horses in such bad condition that they were euthanized on veterinary advice, Mrs. Green had managed to rehome three others. It was agreed that a log should be kept and sent to Agriculture House so that there is a clear record.
16.Shows and Events Committee Report
16.1Mrs. White briefly went through the Minutes of 17th November and 9th February and they were ratified by Council. Preparations for Malvern are well under way and all the Judges are in place and have been posted on Facebook with good feedback received. Mrs. Armstrong is dealing with all the promotion and advertising and the Show is presently being dealt with by the Committee. Mrs Armstrong and Mrs. White offered to accept the appointment of joint Show Director for 2016. Council welcomed the offer and it was agreed that they should both continue this role, whether or not they were still on Council, in order to provide continuity. Mrs. Meredith proposed and Mrs. Kokta seconded.
16.2Mrs. Meredith asked whether the mark for Type could be taken out for the Racehorse to Riding Horse Classes as it could be restricting some entries. Mrs. White would take the suggestion to Committee.
16.3 Rules for Showing
Rules for 2016 have been finalised and published.
16.4The forthcoming Judges Seminar was being publicised and 42 people had currently reserved places. Good speakers have been booked. Mrs. Atkinson, for S&E, has updated the AHS Judges Training and Assessment process for Potential Judges. Many judges appear not to have done any additional training since they joined the Panel. Rules and circumstances change so rapidly it has become necessary that Judges should attend a Judges Seminar every three years instead of the current five.
16.5Judges from other Panels are to be invited to judge Anglo and Part Bred Arabs without taking AHS training. However if they will not be eligible to judge Pure Breds without first passing an examination
16.6Judges Return Forms are very slow being returned and will be sent out electronically in future. Paper copies will still be available if anyone wishes to have them.
16.7HOYS. The AHS has been invited to apply for a stand at HOYS. S&E offered to co-ordinate the event as a joint venture with PR&M. It is a good PR exercise providing opportunity to promote the breed to the public. There would be enough volunteers from within the Society to man the stand. S&E would find the horse and anything to do with the horse and PR&M would deal with the manning of the stand. A Welfare Collection Box could be on the stand. £170 from each committee would be the liability.
The 2016 contract is almost ready to be signed. Mrs. Dixon reported that there was a good relationship with HOYS again after she and Mrs Armstrong had attended several meetings with them. More entries at qualifying shows are needed for HOYS to continue to offer us a slot at their show. The possibility of returning to more classes depends on entries. The new initiative of rewarding entrants at qualifying shows with awards and prizes based on points gained throughout the season was being positively publicised and should increase entries across the qualifying shows.
The fee charged by Grandstand Media to the AHS is £9600.00, the cost of which will be covered by sponsorship, card sales, and a minimal amount from the special HOYS reserve.
16.8 Performance horse Awards will be announced at the AGM and awarded at Malvern. Mrs. Brown has notified all the winners. Mrs. Philips, the Sponsor for 2015, would like to present the prizes at Malvern although it was usual for the current AHS Hon President to undertake this. A solution would be for them both to do it.
16.9A leaflet was handed around which gives information of a new bursary incentive. This will be included in the mail-out to members. There will be no charge for entries.
16.10A suggestion of a booklet was put forward for production in the Centenary Year recognising past members and horses over the last 100 years. A sub-committee would be formed to deal with Centenary Celebrations. The Treasurer would need funding proposals from Committees as soon as possible.
17.Stud Book and Registration Committee Report
17.1There has not been an SB & R Meeting so no Minutes are brought to this Council meeting. Mrs. Meredith updated Council that the EU Regulation 262 has not yet been finalised although compliance is still required but there is no legal enforcement possible at the moment. A letter will be written to the EU to query a couple of Regulations for the Passport legislation. Currently, along with several other PIO’s the AHS is not issuing passports. We are still awaiting the next draft of the Zootechnics Regulations which we understand has been received by some overseas Registries and will report more fully at the next meeting.
A discussion took place on the options of a new stud book program. Mrs. Meredith stated that this does need to be progressed however she has had no time recently to report fully on this. The concerns are that a bespoke system from Weatherbys may be too expensive with the reduction in registrations. When the time comes other programs will be considered, but before any further work is done, final information is needed on the mandatory Central Equine Database and what will be required for each PIO to comply with for data uploads .
Miss. Gore had received queries about the cost of Entry for Breeding and wished to have clarification. It was explained that this fee contributes towards the cost of administration for the breeding life of a stallion or mare. i.e. covering certificates. A conversation took place on the costs of registration which the members ask about. Mrs. Brown suggested an article in the News
18.Public Relations and Marketing Committee Report. From Minutes dated 10thNovember 2015.
18.1PR& M is happy with the Facebook feeds. Mrs. Armstrong and Mrs. Kokta are dealing with the posts.
18.2Mrs. Armstrong suggested that the 2017 AHS Calendar should include both in hand and under saddle horses.
18.3A copy of colour footage from Kempton Shows 1959-1962 is available which would be interesting to include as part of history if a DVD is made for the Centenary.
18.4Mr. McLeod offered to write something to explain the membership structure for the Summer Magazine. Agreed.
18.5A proposal that the AHS Logo be changed was turned down. An additional logo could be designed for the Centenary Year.
18.6Mrs. Brown asked for help with co-ordinating Show Reports and thought Show Organisers could have responsibility for this. Mrs. Armstrong explained it was usual for the Editor to appoint writers as it would be too difficult to run both the show and find writers. Everyone could help by providing a list of contacts for PR&M but it is their responsibility to make contact.
18.7It was hoped that the SEIB AHS Members Leaflet would be ready for the mail-out of the voting papers and the Report & Accounts which was due to go out a month before the AGM. Mrs. Brown would chase this up.
18.8It was clarified that there is no charge for people to access the Library at Agriculture House.
18.9Mrs. Brown reported that there might be six Arabians appearing in the next New Year’s Day Parade.
18.10The Open Day at Agriculture House was postponedas there is still some more clearing to be done.
18.11Mrs. Brown reported that there is a PR exercise in conjunction with ARO due in April at Chelmsford Racecourse where Arab Racing is taking place for the first time. This is to promote the ridden Arabian to the Middle East.
19.ECAHO
Mrs. Dixon will attend the AGM and other meetings to be held on 5, 6 and 7 March.
20.Diamond Quest Limited proposition. (Mrs Armstrong, Miss Gore andMrs. Dixon left the room.)
20.1Diamond Quest proposed holding the Auction and classes at Malvern and had sent a contract for that purpose. The contract (emailed to all Council Members) had been amended by Mr. McLeod who had investigated public liability insurance which will need to be arranged and paid for by Diamond Quest. The amended contract had been submitted and had been agreed in principle by Sue Jones, Chairman of Diamond Quest. It was agreed that the contract would be reviewed annually. DQ had also added the Sterling Class which will bring in a small amount of additional income. Mrs. White confirmed that there is a three Judge system for these classes.
It was agreed that the Friday night members’ event was to be organised, publicised and paid for by DiamondQuest who would take full responsibility. Council agreed to proceed, subject to minor amendments.
21.Strategic Planning
Mrs. Dixon asked Council to consider whether there was need for a strategic plan and how such document would be any different to the Minutes which already record what we have done on each ongoing project and outline and report on future projects. Mrs. Kokta thought that a whole raft of different aims should be outlined and said that changes of governance can be partly responsible for a lack of cohesive governing principles that shape the future. Members of Council doubted whether in practice it would be possible to put together a document to take the AHS through the next five years as incoming council members can change previously agreed plans.
Mrs. Brown added that we need to take a bigger view as to how we stand with other Breed Societies, with other Ridden competitions, with activities which are going on within the equestrian world and with Overseas topics .
Mrs. Kokta said she would work towards a strategic plan for the PR&M Committee which would also assist with setting the budgets. She would bring her plan for Councilto see. Mrs. Armstrong felt there was not the time to spend on such a plan and Mrs. Meredith said that the most important thing for PR&M to concentrate on currently was promoting the Arabian horse into the public eye which was not happening. Council agreed it would see such a plan and thanked Mrs. Kokta.