Mastiff Club of America, Inc.

*February 28, 2012*

Approved Board Meeting Minutes

  1. Roll Call – This meeting was held via conference call. Below is the list of Board members and checked are those in attendance to this meeting:

x / President – Toni Hyland / Board of Directors:
x / Vice President – Dr. Bill Newman / x / Mary De Lisa
x / Recording Secretary – Linda Cain / x / Anna May
x / Cor. Secretary – Jennifer Lambden / x / Kelly Meyer
x / Treasurer – Becky Campbell / x / Patti Wilkinson
  1. Minutes of Previous Meeting – November 16, 2011 and February 1, 2012 Minutes were approved for November 16, 2011 and February 1, 2012. Becky made the motion to approveboth sets of minutes. Kelly seconded the motion.
  2. Ayes – Dr. Newman, Linda, Jennifer, Becky, Mary, Anna, Kelly, and Patti
  3. Nays – None
  4. Abstain – None
  5. Motion Carried.
  6. All voted no opposed. Motion carried. Will be posted to the Yahoo site and draft copies deleted.
  1. Officer Reports
  2. President – Toni has been in touch with Margaret Murphy. Toni has also been in touch with Chuck and his topics will be discussed at the March 21st meeting.
  3. Recording Secretary –The voting cards have been purchased for the general membership meeting. The recording secretary stated she was working on hiring a Court Reporter for the upcoming specialty. It was determined that a hard copy PDF file and a word file for editing would be requested from the court reporter. Historically people could go back to see the actual transcript.
  4. Corresponding Secretary – Nominating Slate received by the board. No nominations from the floor as of this date. Two known nominationsare comingin from the floor. Biography needed by all slate members.
  5. Treasurer – No financials from our last meeting. The next quarter’s report will be sent in for the next meeting. Money is coming in for the upcoming specialty. The money from the rooms has not been accounted for yet. March meeting will have additional fund information.
  1. Committee Reports
  2. AKC Delegate – No meetings recently.
  3. Board elections coming up mid-March for AKC.
  4. Pat Laurins has withdrawn the request to make the second major for reserve winners at Nationals.
  5. Superintendents and some of the judges are very upset about the group realignments. This will be voted on in March as well. Dr. Newman will vote “yes” for this as requested by the MCOA BOD.
  6. National Specialty Advisor – Mary DeLisa working with Chuck. REMC has a potential bid in Reno possible. The hotel that they are looking at will provide ground floor easy access to outside for dogs. Toni to meet with them to discuss costs. Sponsors for upcoming nationals are needed. Working on judges for 2013. Also looking at Colorado and Utah for national sites.
  7. Health –We have been collecting buccal cheek swab samples from Mastiffs at
    dog shows and sending them to Dr. Mark Neff at Van Andel Institute. He needs
    random DNA samples to compare to the samples he is studying for various health
    research projects he's working on.
  8. Old Business

Code of Ethics Revision Ballot – Jennifer sent out to the BOD. Only positive statements received. Jennifer is looking at a company does a tally report for estimated reports. An estimate of $150 to tally and count ballots was received. This printer will also do the election ballots. The estimated cost will be $973.00 including envelopes, postage to be an extra .40 cents per envelope.Note from Dr. Newman: AKC would rather have a second party independent agency involved. Jennifer will wait for the revision committee’s responses before submitting this document to the printer. Linda Cain made the motion to allow Jennifer to send out the code of ethics revision ballot as soon as the COE committee has approved it. Dr. Bill seconded the motion

  • Ayes – Dr. Newman, Linda, Jennifer, Becky, Mary, Anna, Kelly, and Patti
  • Nays – None
  • Abstain – None
  • Motion Carried.

Breeder Referral Packet Revision – MaryDeLisa and Kelly Meyer have been working on this revision. Kelly stated it needs to have the National Specialty information included. Anna had two issues to be mailed to Mary and Kelly. Mary DeLisa will revise and send out for final revision to the BOD for their final review. Mary DeLisa has a cover page ready.

AKC Flyer Revision – Only received changes from Toni and removed the pedigree program from it. The BOD agreed that the flier shouldn’t be recommending diets and the diet paragraphs will be removed from the flyer.

MCOA Member Handbook Revision – In discussing the handbook, it was discussed that it was actually a policy and procedure document and that the title should be changed as indicated. Additionally, a work break down schedule listing or time-lineof items or schedule of when things are due should be included in this procedure document. Linda and Toni will work on building an annual schedule for the BOD and committee jobs. Information on the health committee needs to be updated with the resignation of Jenny Zinn-Boyce from this committee and the health chair committee. Trish Dahlman has volunteered to be the sub-committee chair to the cancer committee. Anna has appointed Trish to sub-chair this position.

Email Communications – Jennifer has researched a company called Constant Contact. If we sign up by end of February they will design email like our web-page for letterhead plus provide a 2 month free membership. One year membership is $252.00. Links to PDFs are allowed using this company. The company will provide bounced email addresses. The business will also keep track of emails that were opened. Mary DeLisa requested that a dedicated person to maintain the email list may be needed. It will be key to keep the email lists up to date. This task would be a corresponding secretary job. Jennifer and Jody would have to track emails closely. Anna makes the motion to purchase the subscription to Constant Contacts. Mary DeLisa seconded the motion. Jennifer will pay for the subscription so that we can take advantage of the special and will be reimbursed by MCOA. There was discussion of the Castle Keeper being sent via the Constant Contact Company.

  • Ayes – Dr. Newman, Linda, Jennifer, Becky, Mary, Anna, Kelly, and Patti
  • Nays – None
  • Abstain – None
  • Motion Carried.

Ohio Mastiff Club – MCOA has been waiting on the Ohio Mastiff Club since November. There is something in the COE that doesn’t align with the MCOA so the Ohio Mastiff Club will revise their COE to bring it in line with the MCOA COE. It was determined by the BOD that when their COE changes made and submitted to us, the BOD will do an email vote to accept them as a MCOA sanctioned club sponsored club.The clubs time, effort and resources have shown that they are a working club. It was determined that once the COE changes are received, an email can be sent to the BOD for an emergency vote.

  1. New Business

JE Mentor Application – Margo Lauritsen submitted her mentor application. Jennifer has received the paper work. The Judges Education members have approved this application. Jennifer made the motion to accept Margo Lauritsen as a mentor. Anna seconded the motion.

  • Ayes – Dr. Newman, Linda, Jennifer, Becky, Mary, Anna, Kelly, and Patti
  • Nays – None
  • Abstain – None
  • Motion Carried.

ESMF Supported Entry/Sweepstakes – September 29, 2012 – all paper work is in order. Dr. Newman made the motion for ESMF to hold a supported entry and sweepstakes. Jennifer seconded the motion.

  • Ayes – Dr. Newman, Linda, Jennifer, Becky, Mary, Anna, Kelly, and Patti
  • Nays – None
  • Abstain – None
  • Motion Carried.

Crufts Invitations – MCOA received an emailfrom Cruftsthat our National winners (BOB BOS, WD, WB, AOMs and Selects) are to receivequalifying certificates for CRUFTSMarch 2013 and March 2014. Jennifer will send email to Neil. Crufts certificates to be handed out during the Nationals 2012 with trophies. (After the National) Jennifer asked that she be reminded to complete this task after BOB.

Annual Report Booklets – The booklets were very expensive last year because of printing costs. Printing estimate is $2.00 per booklet. ( 42 pages) B&W stapled, 8x11 booklet that included the agenda, minutes from last meeting, all committee reports, regional club reports, and motions from the floor). Last year the regional club reports went out in the Journal. It was requested that the Committee reports and regional club reports go out in the Castle keeper. Possible post the committee reports and the regional club reports to the website. It was requested that the following be included in the annual report booklets for the national general meeting,the agenda, motions from floor, last year’s minutes and Treasurers report. The cover page will contain dedications from this year’s national. There was a suggestion that an explanation page also be included that the additional information would be sent out through Constant Contacts and that would introduce the new service to membership. This will save money and time.Jennifer will get an estimate on printing costs and bring back to BOD. She will look into having the document as a large booklet with larger font. Jennifer will get another set of estimates. 8 ½ x 11 booklet. It was recommended that the booklets be provided at the Welcome table be signed off as they are picked up. It was stated that the annual meeting booklet contents is not covered in the by-laws. Membership listing and the second copy of the membership sign-in (cross-referenced) at the general meeting entry table. Printing was completed after entries closed based on the number of welcome name tags requested.

Reinstatement after Lapsed Membership – We had two people that needed to be reinstated. The constitution does not allow for this. All will need to re-apply. Jennifer will email Jody and reference the constitution and by-laws.

JudgesEd Mastiff Seminar to be held at the American Dog Show Judges Advanced Institute & Budget Expenditure Request – The judge’s education committee has requested approval to hold a Judges Seminar and requested budget expenditure to cover booklets, hotel and airfare in the amount of $1310.00 scheduled to be held in August 2012. Linda Cain made the motion to approve the seminar request and the forAugust 13-17 2012 not to exceed $1310.00 and it will come out of the already approved FY 11/12 JE budget. Jennifer seconded.Jennifer to email them to let them know it is go, asking that airfare and car rental are paid in advance and it will come out of their FY 2012 funds.

  • Ayes – Dr. Newman, Linda, Jennifer, Becky, Mary, Anna, Kelly, and Patti
  • Nays – None
  • Abstain – None
  • Motion Carried.

An additional letter was received from Dr. Joe Penta asking National clubs for money donations. The Mastiffs seminars are held during even years.

Texas update – There is a possibility of having 6 majors during the summer Houston cluster of shows. Six shows in five days. (working dog group Wed/Thurs morning / Thursday afternoonregional /supported entry Fri/Sat/Sun. Mid July 2012.

Next meeting to be held March 21st.

Anna made the motion to adjourn. Jennifer seconded the motion. Meeting was adjourned at 8:34 (CST).

  • Ayes – Dr. Newman, Linda, Jennifer, Becky, Mary, Anna, Kelly, and Patti
  • Nays – None
  • Abstain – None
  • Motion Carried.