MINUTES OF THE
GENERAL BOARD MEETING OF THE
AMERICAN WORKING MALINOIS ASSOCIATION
November 15, 2013
AWMA BOARD:Anne Camper, Glenn Stephenson, and Waine Singleton
VIA TELEPHONE:Cynthia Zimmerman, Christopher Smith, Terry Miller, Paul Konschak, and
Donna McGinnis
DELEGATES:John Bochenek, Metro Detroit Schutzhund and Police K9; Ivan Balabanov, Spirit Working Dog Club; Hardy Ernsting, Podium Belgian Shepherd Working Dog Club; Deb Stephenson, Three Mountains Working Dog Club; and Angie Stark, Midwest Working Dog Association
GUESTS:Mario Gomes, Natalie Balabanov, John Holiday, Dre Hastings, Linda Guidry, Jim Engel, Michelle Kutelis
1.Call to Order and Introductions
Ms. Camper called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. Rollcall and introductions commenced accordingly. Prior to proceeding, the newly appointed northeastern Regional Director Waine Singleton confirmed events were held by Metro DetroitSchutzhund and Police K9 thereby eliminating the need for an event waiver for their presence as a delegate.
2.Reading of the Previous Meeting Minutes
Ms. Camper dispensed with the reading of the previous meeting minutes as they had been posted for a period of time and were approved by the board.
3.Officer Reports
President’s Report: Ms. Camper noted she would provide updates to the various topics as the meeting progressed.
Vice President’s Report: No report.
Secretary’s Report:
Greetings AWMA members. Thank you to all the AWMA clubs and members who have been supportive of the organization during the past year, and for your cooperation in responding to my requests as secretary.
The AWMA has continued to make a strong showing in national events, as follows:
The 2012 AWMA National Championship hosted by Motor City Working Dogs in Bowling Green, Kentucky on November 9-11, 2012 included 22 entries ( 16 IP03; 2 IP02; and 1 IP01, and 3 BH )
In the 2013 AWDF Championship hosted by Kentucky Hundesport Klub in Lucas, Kentucky on May 15-19, 2013, the AWMA provided a team of 21 entries ( 17 IP03 and 4 IP01 )
The full member clubs of AWMA collectively held 6 trials this year, as follows:
December 2, 2012, Midwest Working Dog Association — 7 entries
January 26, 2013, Spirit Working Dog Club — 5 entries
May 11, 2013, Midwest Working Dog Association — 10 entries
May 26, 2013, Cache Valley Working Dogs — 7 entries
August 30, 2013, Midwest Working Dog Association — 15 entries
October 6, 2013, Three Mountains Working Dog Club — 4 entries
Thank you to all the clubs that have provided trial opportunities for our members.
Donna McGinnis, AWMA Secretary
Ms. Camper added that in order for the organization to grow, we should encourage clubs, albeit dual organizations, to host AWMA events. ShethankedMidwest Working Dog Association for hosting three trials this year (half of the total events of the organization were hosted by this club). She further commented that while our entries in the AWDFmay not appear substantial, in comparison to other AWDF clubs the AWMA has the highest percentage of membership participating in national events.
Treasurer’s Report:
AWMA Treasurer's Report as of November 04, 2013.
1.) Treasury Update:
Current Balance: $20,689.90 ($22,969.41 in accounts, $2,279.51 pending checks)
Please see 2013 AWMA Financial Statement, Profit & Loss Statement, and Sales Summary for detailed breakdown of income and expenses. Please note that the numbers are based on when checks were received and deposited by Treasurer, not necessarily when submissions were made to individual officers so membership/club/scorebook totals may be different than other officer reports.
2.Two notes about this past year's finances. Most of our surplus this year came from having only 2 participants at the FMBB Championship. Still waiting on Shari to submit their uniform expenses, but it is expected to only be about $200. Judge's Program budget this year went to Cynthia Zimmerman's trip to the FCI Judge's Meeting.
3.2013-2014 Budget: Additions to the budget throughout the year voted on by Board included increasing Nationals budget to $2000, $250 for zooza membership database, $200 for officer bond insurance, and allotting $300 to each AWMA team member of the FMBB and FCI Championships (reimbursed after event). A one time website repair order of $200 approved by President Camper.
4.We have a $380 credit with IRS for overpayment of 2011 taxes that they double billed us for and never applied to the 2012 taxes. This will be applied to the 2013's taxes due in March, 2014.
5.I apologize for not being able to make it this year as I'm 9 months pregnant and baby will be here this week. Good luck to all the competitors! I'd like to take this time to also thank the rest of the board for all their time and hard work.
Warmly Submitted,Kristina Carmody, AWMA Treasurer
The financial statement, profit and loss statement, and sales summary werethen passed to those in attendance for further review.
Membership Chair’s Report: Membership Chair Report/Newsletter/Website Committee Reports:Membership numbers for this year are again on the rise as they have been the last several years I've done this position. We had 169 Single Memberships and 30 Family Memberships). We moved our system from the paper/binder method and invested this year in a new database software called Zooza. Several other breed clubs have used this software and the cost is approximately $200/year which was significantly cheaper than the other database alternatives. Members may still send in a check but can no longer use Paypal directly, they must use it through Zooza which then automatically puts them in our database system and ensures every member will be processed. The last few years since instituting Paypal we have had issues because there was no way to mark whether an application had been processed so some members were skipped over and there were delays in processing. Zooza has streamlined the process significantly, although there were some delays since this was our first year and we had to get all the initial data entered and set up. We hope to get all of our stuff on Zooza and eliminate all our paypal buttons this year since that has been a repeated issue with the coding on them breaking on the website. Overall Zooza has been a very positive step in our organization and will hopefully increase our membership numbers and make the membership chair position significantly easier which will make processing times much faster.
Dana McMahan, Membership Chair
Scorebook Report: Prior to reading the report, Ms. Camper presented the revised AWDF scorebook policy. Shethen noted the AWMA is the only club providingthe opportunity for a non-FCI recognized registered Malinois to be listed as a Malinois in an AWMA scorebook via our Working Privilege Listing application.
Scorebook Policy Change
Score book policy: Motion passed May 16, 2013 (annual AWDF meeting)
1. Effective immediately, AWDF member clubs can issue scorebooks to any breed of dog owned by their members and list the dog’s breed on the score book provided that proof of FCI recognized registration accompanies the application. Score book application processes used by each member club will be followed.
a. Dogs for whichno FCI recognized registration is submitted can receive a scorebook from any AWDF organization but the dog will be listed as a mix.
b. Breeds not recognized by the FCI (for example, American Bulldog) must have their scorebooks issued by their breed organization or the dog will be listed as a mix.
c. Clubs that offer the opportunity to have a non-FCI registered dog’s breed listed in the scorebook via a working privilege listing (for example Malinois with the AWMA) must have the scorebook issued by that club.
2. Effective March 21, 2013, USCA eliminated the requirement for scorebooks to be certified by USCA, thus also removing scorebook certification fees. USCA will accept scorebooks from all AWDF, WUSV, or FCI organizations.
3. Effective with the 2014 AWDF Championship, the requirement to use an AWDF scorebook is removed. This was done to accommodate the use of foreign scorebooks issued by FCI organizations and therefore complies with the FCI regulation of one scorebook per dog.
Scorebook Sales
2013: 79 Scorebooks as of November 4 2013
MIX – 2
Rott - 3
GSD – 3
Beuceron – 1
AWMA WPL’s - 5
Belgian’s other than Mal - 6
2012: 64 Scorebooks
MIX - 1
AWMA WPL’s - 4
Belgian’s other than Mal - 2
2011: 85
2010: 61 Scorebooks
2009: 48 Scorebooks
2008: 39 Scorebooks
2007: 24 Scorebooks
2006: 35 Scorebooks
2005: 21 Scorebooks
Terry Miller, Scorebook Chair
Concern was raised that scorebooks for Malinois would be obtained from other organizations, yet it wasfairly clear from the report that the AWMA has also provided scorebooks to other breeds as well.
World Championship National Events Chair: No report.
Judge’s Committee Report:
The judge’s committee has actively contacted some members to inquire about their interest in becoming an AWMA judge apprentice. Although many were interested, for the most part they stated this just was not quite the time yet for them to do so. We will continue this to grow our pool of judge apprentices and encourage other members to do so as well. We welcome speaking with anyone about the process at any time.
We worked with the hosting club to secure judges for this year’s AWMA Nationals. Through this year’s process we learned we needed to re-word and add some things into the contract for this event, which we did so that going forward into next year the process will be easier for all concerned.
Currently we have two AWMA judges, Glenn Stephenson and myself. We have one AWMA judge apprentice at this time, Waine Singleton. We congratulate him for his decision and I look forward to working with him as he goes through the program. Dana Miller had no movement within the program, so per our by-laws we had to remove her name from the website and she is no longer an AWMA judge apprentice at this time. We hope that in the future she will revisit the time commitment it takes and consider entering the program again.
Cynthia Zimmerman, Director of Judges
Ms. Camper then made a personal request that if anyone is interested in becoming an AWMA judge, or if someone is known to be interested if they were approached, please let us know.
Website Report: [Dana McMahan stepped down as primary website coordinator and Katie Finlay and Tracy Klopp volunteered to assist with this position. Ms. Camper thanked John Wiitanen for his time and assistance in managing the Facebook page.]
Our website and forum have had quite the year with multiple hacking attempts that left us offline and in need of professional website coding services. We have since got everything online and re-secured our website but this may be an ongoing issue in the future that we will need professional website services for. I personally need to step down as the primary website person and have found two volunteers who are willing to help with website updates - Katie Finley and Tracey Klopp. Mohawk John has been very helpful in keeping the Facebook page up to date and Anne Camper has been incredible in keeping things updated on the website, forum and Facebook page.
For banner sponsorships we are down to 3 Banner Sponsorships this year -- Kustom Krates, Working-Dog.eu and Canine Training Systems. We need dedicated individuals on our sponsorship committee to help contact companies to get dog-related companies signed up to do Banner Sponsorships. I have a letter prototype and list of companies to contact if anyone is interested in helping secure new sponsorships. These sponsorship funds have been very helpful in adding a buffer to our treasury so if anyone can volunteer that would be great.
For the newsletter committee I have decided not to continue with the position. We have changed the newsletter from a quarterly to a yearly format with quarterly President's report but it is simply too much work to keep up with.
Dana McMahan, Website Chairman
Discussion then commenced regarding the quarterly newsletterwhich has evolved into a quarterly President’s report. The question was asked if there really was any interest in receiving newsletters because they require a tremendous amount of work to generate,which is unnecessary if no one reads them. Mr. Singleton believes everyone enjoys reading the results and personal stories of people in the organization and that it is essential if we are going to become acquainted with people across the country. Ms. Camper replied that the difficulty comeswhen we ask for articles and we receive nothing, but we could again call for volunteers. Mr. Singleton and Mr. Engle offered to assist.
4.Elections
Standing committee elections:
Judges Committee (nominees Carol Karchnak and Waine Singleton).
World Championship/National Events Committee (nominees Nicole Kelly and Kim Yeager).
Nominations Committee (nominees Britney Bradshaw, Michelle Kutelis and Deb Stephenson).
Ms. Camper thanked Mrs. Stephenson for her assistance in cultivating nominees for these positions. Ms. Camper pointed out if there are no other nominees, the election could proceed by acclamation. All were in favor, no opposition, the motion carried.
Ad-hoc Committee: Samie Jones has agreed to be the website chair. This is an appointed position and not subject to election. Ms. Camper asked if anyone else wished to volunteer for the position and Mr. Engle volunteered to assist as needed.
5.Old Business
AWDF Information. Ms. Camper acknowledged posting AWDF information on the website as it is received. She asked if there were any questions, concerns, or discussion regarding our membership in the AWDF. Discussion commenced regarding the date of the AWDF Championship and the need to respect the date of the FMBB World Championship. Ms. Camper reaffirmed her request that it is not held within a three-week window of the FMBB. Spirited discussion ensued regarding the conflicted scheduling of national IPO events in relation to the FMBB Championship. Ms. Camper reminded everyone that elections would proceed this year and further encouraged AWMA involvement via representation on the AWDF board. It was suggested that the AWMA boycott the AWDF entirely. Mr. Smith suggested that the AWMA could also host the event, giving the AWMA the ability to schedule the event as desired. Ms. Camper disclosed the AWDF is currently hosting their own event and then securing a club to assist them. Mr. Stephenson recommended AWMA participation on the AWDF board as the proper method of achieving fair representation. Mr. Balabanov suggested that the AWDF not be held after April 30th; then they could arrange their national events as appropriate because national events should not trump world championships. Mr. Engle commented on the historical significance of the GSD being promoted to a greater degree and recommended that the Malinois worldwide needs to do more to project their image. After further historical commentary, Ms. Camper asked that wereturn to the issue at hand. Mrs. Stephenson reiterated the need for AWMA representation on the AWDF board.
After much discussion, Ms. Camper acknowledged that the issue could not be resolved in this meeting and again strongly encouraged AWMA participation via forthcoming AWDF elections. She further invited everyone to contact her directly or take the issue to our Facebook page, in addition to the use of private email exchanges. Mr. Balabanov suggested that the issue needed to be addressed by the AWMA as opposed to individuals. Mr. Stephensonthen suggested forming a committee to address a solution. Mr. Balabanov, Mr. Doud, and Mr. Smith volunteered to serve to address AWMA’s representation within the AWDF (AWDF Strategy Committee).
Ms. Zimmerman then asked for clarification on the new hosting protocol, i.e., that the AWDF is hosting their own event. Ms. Camper confirmed the decision was made by the AWDF executive board. Mr. Stephenson asked if it was for this year only and Ms. Camper replied that was not known at the present time.
FCI and FMBB Updates. Ms. Zimmerman acknowledged additional new rules being rolled out in 2014. She has requested the slides that were presented at the FCI judges meeting by Frans Jensen and they will be added to the AWMA website.
Discussion then commenced regarding the qualifying requirements for the FCI team, that being the undisclosed potential of the top 6-7 placements of the AWDF Championship forming the team and how this decision came to be. Mr. Stephenson and Ms. Camper both stated there were a number of valid reasons for the decision, even though it was not reached via the best practice. Questions were asked on how one trial could be the best practice. Mr. Stephenson again acknowledged there were valid arguments for reaching this decision. Ms. Camper confirmed she was not offered the opportunity to bring the issue to the membership, as the decision was reached by the AWDF executive board.
The FMBB Championship date has been set and a Facebook page established for updated information. Ms. Camper asked everyone to bear in mind the strict regulations regarding training aids in foreign countries,that in some countries a violation of these regulations could equate to more than disqualification andcould include imprisonment.