Minutes of the Executive Committee Meeting
Of the WBFSH
Date & Venue: September 8th, 2003, FN Office, Warendorf.
Present: Rudi Eerdekens, Klaus Miesner, Dermot Ryan, Helen O’Toole, Xavier Guibert, Johan Knaap, Breido Graf Zu Rautzau, Jan Pedersen, and Karina Christiansen
Agenda
1. Approval of the Minutes of the Executive Committe meeting on
May, 14-15.
2. Agenda for the General Assembly and seminar
3. Invitation of guests, journalists etc. for the General Assembly
4. Annual Plan for the coming year
5 General Assembly 2004 (Mexico?)
6. Web-site (see appl.horses.nl/wbfsh)
7. Conferences on dressage and jumping 2003
8. Rankings
9. Trophies (for Breeders of the Young Horse Championships and for
the Young Breeders competition)
10. Wildcards for Zangersheide
11. Engagement of a full time secretary for the WBFSH
12. Briefing from Department Development
13. Briefing from Department Finance
14. Briefing from Department Cooperation
15. Briefing from Department Breeding
16. AOB
1. Approval of the Minutes of the Executive Committe meeting on May, 14-15.
The minutes were agreed.
2. Agenda for the General Assembly and seminar.
2.1. General Assembly:
The agenda is attached. D Ryan will make a presentation on the horse industry in Ireland.
Elections: The sequence of elections is as follows:
Year. / Seat for Election.2000 / Germany (Breido Graf Zu Rautzau elected) and NL (Theo van den Broek elected).
2001 / Denmark (Jan Pedersen elected) and Belgium (Rick van Miert elected).
2002 / Ireland (Jim Flanagan elected) and France (Paul Hubert elected). Mr JEM van Campen was elected to the seat of Theo van den Broek who resigned.
2003 / Germany (Breido Graf Zu Rautzau) and NL (Mr JEM van Campen). Both will go forward for election.
The Audit Committee will have to be elected annually; the Disciplinary Committee and Board of appeal will not have to be elected until the GA 2004. The WBFSH secretary’s Office will ask the Audit Committee if they are willing to be reelected.
The termination of the membership of the Holsteiner Society of Australia will be dealt with if appropriate under item 12 of the agenda of the GA . However, this matter will be referred to the Disciplinary Committee, and depending on their advice, it may be possible for the Board to deal with it without referral to the GA.
According to the statutes (p. 12, article 22, 3a) any member can request the Board to add one or more items to the agenda within 10 days after receiving the provisional agenda. The members should be informed of this. By doing this the members also have the possibility to come up with some motions.
2.2. Seminar:
The revised draft programme is attached.
Session 1(Interstallion): The interstallion group may have a meeting in Dublin in conjunction with the Seminar and the GA. Karina Christiansen will check this.
Session 3 (Practical identification methods all over the world):In relation to session 3 of the seminar, Klaus Miesner will send a questionnaire to the studbooks in relation to branding and microchipping, and present the findings to the seminar (see also under AOB).
Session 4: It was agreed to replace the proposed session (4) on nutrition and vaccination with the topic “FEI Database, Data Exchange”. Klaus Mienser will contact Bo Helander and Muriel Fienza.
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3. Invitation of guests, journalists etc. for the General Assembly.
The journalists Xavier Liebbrecht, Jörg Savelsberg and Eric Bruger will be invited but they have to pay their own travel and accommodation costs. They will not be required to pay for meals (cost for WBFSH).
The invited guests will be required to pay for their travel, but the WBFSH will pay for their accommodation. Mr J Bartels will be invited as a guest and will be made an honorary member. Mr Gert van Muijen will be a guest in his capacity as chairman of the Juridical Committee.
4. Annual Plan for the coming year.
The annual plan should include 2-3 items that can be achieved relatively quickly. It is accepted that many of the WBFSH projects can take a number of years; however, some new projects should be presented at the General Assembly.
The members of the Executive Committee should within 14 days before the meeting in Dublin send their suggestions to Karina Christiansen. The proposed plan for 2004 will then be finalised in advance of the GA.
5 General Assembly 2004 (Mexico?)
There is an invitation from Mexico for the 2004 GA and this will be recommended to the Board. Two invitations have been received in relation to 2005, viz., South Africa and Belgium (to mark the 50th anniversary of the BWP). The invitation from the BWP will be recommended to the Board.
6. Web-site (see appl.horses.nl/wbfsh)
A number of changes were suggested to the new web site., which will become “live” as soon as the changes are made. It will be possible to view the site during the coffee break at the Seminar.
7. Conferences on dressage and jumping 2003.
Details of the seminar (3-5/11/03, at Warendorf) in conjunction with the FEI on training and judging young dressage horses have already been circulated.
Details of the conference on training and judging young jumping horses that will be organised by the Swedish Warmblood Society will be circulated later. The FEI are not involved.
8 Rankings
The Department Communication has sent data to every studbook with the request to full in the missing pedigrees before October 1. Some of the studbooks already gave this information to BCM, but it was not possible to incorporate it into the new FEI database. Therefore the studbooks have to do the work again.
Muriel Firenza from FEI will start working on the rankings on October 1, with or without the pedigree information.
9. Trophies (for Breeders of the Young Horse Championships and for
the Young Breeders competition)
It was suggested that the WBFSH should present trophies to the breeders of the winning horses at the above. It was accepted that the breeders might not be present at the finals. If it is decided to pursue this proposal, an appropriate notice should be included in the Schedule for Lanaken for 2004.
10. Wildcards for Zangersheide
Concern was expressed at clause 2.3 under “wildcards”, which states, “The OC in accordance with the FEI, has the right to adjust the number of quota-----”.
11. Engagement of a full time secretary for the WBFSH:
This discussion arose out of concern with the slow rate of progress in implementing the UELN and the new arrangements for the rankings etc. It was pointed out that the DWB is subsidising the costs of running the secretariat, and so are the other studbooks that are running the individual departments. It was pointed out that employing a full time secretary would not necessarily improve the situation.
12. Briefing from Department Development.
A briefing document was circulated.
Application forms have been sent to three studbooks, viz., the Swedish Warmblood Association of North America, the Brazilian Lusitano Association, and the Association Argentina de Fomento Equino.
The application from the Association Argentina de Fomento Equino has been processed. It was pointed out that they are eligible for Membership status, but that they have applied for “Associate” status. The Executive Committee will recommend to the Board that the association should be given associate status. (Note: It has been clarified that the Association Argentina de Fomento Equino issues covering certificates).
13. Briefing from Department Finance.
The updated budget for 2003 was circulated. A sum of €31.590 in membership fees for 2003 is not yet paid. The “Interstallion” project does not require the €15,000 that has been allocated, and they have requested that a portion of it be transferred to the next financial year.
14. Briefing from Department Cooperation.
Klaus Miesner briefed the meeting in relation to the proposed changes to EU legislation in relation to the territory of operation of studbooks, and identification.
15. Briefing from Department Breeding.
Xavier Guibert briefed the meeting in relation to the maintenance of the UELN database, and the XML project. It is hoped to commence the latter in late 2003.
16. AOB.
Ø Young Breeders Competition: Rudy Eerdekens pointed out the Young Breeders Competition that was held in Belgium in 2003 was very successful, and it will take place in Denmark in 2004.
Ø International Stallion Directory: X. Libbrecht suggested that the WBFSH should support the International Stallion Directory. It was decided that this should be a matter for each individual Society.
Ø Young Horse Championships: There may be a proposal from France at the GA that the National Anthem in respect of the country of birth of the winning horses at the Young Horse Championships should be played in addition to the National Anthem of the rider’s country.
Ø EU Legislation/Connemara Ponies: In relation to the Connemaras, it was noted that ponies that are imported into Germany may be reinspected. Also, the view of the German Ministry is that it is inappropriate to register purebred Connemaras in a supplementary section of a studbook, and that they should be included in the lowest section of the studbook. Such ponies may be excluded from the breeding programme, and can by given distinctive papers.
Ø Identification: In relation to microchipping, it was noted that Germany is not willing to introduce microchipping or smart cards in conjunction with the passport, having introduced the passport already (in conjunction with branding). It was pointed out that microchipping will be compulsory in the NL (branding is prohibited) in 2004 (KWPN foals are not currently microchipped). With regard to DNA testing, at present 12% of the foals are tested in Germany. The cost of DNA testing is €20, and microchipping costs €10. Sweden banned branding and allowed microchipping. In France, there is a charge of €20 to cover the costs of providing the microchip, to insert it and to manage the database. It was decided to have another meeting in the Executive Committee to discuss this problem.
Ø Startinglists: The abbreviations on the startinglists can be very difficult to understand for foreign people (ex: D.B.= dark brown). There should be some international standards and it could be a task for the WBFSH to work on.
Ø Sponsorship: The Department communication has got a contact to a potential sponsor. The plan is to offer the company a 5 years contract where the name of the company will be at the WBFSH rankings. The studbooks should not be allowed to print the rankings without mentioning the name of the company. It could also be possible to selling links from the web-site to various companies.
September, 18 2003
Dermot Ryan and Karina Christiansen
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