Minutes of 2006 Executive and General Board Meetings
October 20, 2006 in Martinsburg, WVExecutive Board MeetingAWMA
Martinsburg, WV
October 20, 2006
In attendance:
At the request of Hardy and the rest of the board, Cynthia Zimmerman attended the meeting to present the treasurer's report. A general audit was done for $60 by an accountant who evaluated the membership numbers, the income and expenses. Questions posed by the auditor were why the club had increased expenses in the form of Board and Officers insurance and why there was an increase in the amount spent on helpers for the Nationals. A review of the taxes paid showed no problems. The current balance is $3599.82. Upcoming dates to remember are corporate taxes due on March 15 and an April 1 filing fee in Arizona. AWDF dues are to be paid in December; last year's fees were $275. Another topic discussed with Cynthia was the pursuit of 501c status. Christopher Smith, Warren Jones, Glenn Stephenson, Hardy Ernsting and Cynthia all pursued this. Estimates were high and nothing was accomplished. Cynthia suggested that the best approach may be to dissolve the organization and re-create it with tax-free status in place from the beginning because the costs were largely due to the financial audits necessary to prove tax-free operations. Cynthia was thanked for her service and she left the meeting.
Discussion turned to the message received from Shari Lipski about the AWMA and agility. Hardy provided information on why the agility trial scheduled to take place at the Nationals was cancelled. There was no written permission obtained from the AKC to have a trial within a 175 mile radius of an existing club. Discussion was held about how agility would fit with the AWMA, especially because we hold the card for a team at the FMBB. There was concern about diluting present activities with agility and how the organization would change if there was a large influx of members solely interested in agility. The suggestion was made to take this under advisement and discuss it with Jim Moses of the ABMC and Shari Lipski. One suggestion was to charter the trial to ABMC and charge a fee. Discussion was held on how this might be accomplished so that the AWMA would still have some control over the event and the team chosen to represent us at world events. A similar situation with Mondio ring was brought up but it was decided not to pursue this.
Warren Jones and Christopher Smith were elected to new two year terms.
Discussion was held on modifications to the agenda for the general board meeting.
The meeting was adjourned.
General Board MeetingAWMA
Martinsburg, WV
October 20, 2006
In attendance:
Member club delegates –
The meeting was called to order at 7:15 p.m. by Hardy Ernsting. He read the agenda, which was accepted.
The minutes of the previous meeting were read by Anne Camper. Warren Jones moved to accept them as read, second by Jason Scobbie. Motion carried.
Officer Reports:President (Hardy Ernsting). Hardy commented that Jona Decker resigned in June 2006, and he took over from being Vice-president. He stated that this is a young organization with much work to be done, especially in regards to better communication between the board and members. He also wants to see more involvement of the members and more clubs. He will not seek reelection because he didn't feel he has the time.
Vice-president (Anne Camper) Anne was elected vice-president when Hardy assumed the presidency. She was the previous membership chair.
Secretary (Desiree' Shaw absent). Warren Jones reported that he communicated with Desiree' and that she had scorebooks in stock.
Treasurer – ex-treasurer Cynthia Zimmerman reported that she will post a full treasurer's report.
Membership chair (David Dembouski) reported that the club had 123 members.
Director of Judges (Glenn Stephenson) – absent, no report
Committee Reports:Helper Committee. Mike Baker suggested that a four member committee was too large. Nathaniel Roque and Les Flores couldn't contribute very much this year. Ivan Balabanov and Mike suggest that there be one person in charge of helper selections, and that USA rules be adopted until a chair person is put in place. Discussion to dissolve the committee was moved to new business.
National Events/World Championship Committee. Dana Miller reported that the selection criteria for the world team was now out. An improved version is planned for 2008.
Website Committee. Dana Miller has plans to improve the site. She has ideas on how to generate more hits with search engines. Mechanisms for enabling more service for the Paypal service was discussed, especially for paying dues.
Sponsorship Committee. Christopher Smith said that nothing was done because of the lack of 501c status.
By-Laws Committee. Warren Jones will cover the proposed revisions in new business. He commented that the revisions were still "band-aids" and that further revisions will be needed and some content moved to a policies and procedures manual.
Breed Advisory Committee. Hardy Ernsting had nothing to report except that the overall goals need to be reconsidered.
Board of Inquiry. Dana Miller said there was nothing to report.
Judges Committee. Cynthia Zimmerman reported that current judges are Glenn Stephenson and Nathaniel Roque. Apprentice Judges (active) are Tami McLeod and Ivan Balabanov. There is nothing much to do until the program advances.
Elections:The membership decided to use open ballots.
Christopher Smith presented several nominations and nominations were also taken from the floor.
OFFICERS and BOARD MEMBERS
President – Anne Camper nominated by Ivan Balabanov. Elected.
Vice-president – Christopher Smith nominated by Mike Baker. Elected.
Treasurer
- Marina Shukh nominated by Christopher Smith
- Cele Danner nominated by Tami McLeod (withdrawn)
Marina Shukh elected.
Membership chair - Cele Danner nominated by David Dembouski - Paula Daigle nominated by Christopher Smith Cele Danner elected.
Secretary – Desiree' Shaw nominated by Warren Jones. Elected.
Directors at Large – Mike Baker and Ivan Balabanov nominated by Warren Jones. Elected.
COMMITTEESWC/NE Events Committee. This committee was unofficially combined this last year. Jason Scobbie moved that elections be deferred until after the by-laws revisions were discussed. Seconded by Mike Baker and carried.
Auditing Committee. Greg Doud nominated by David Dembouski, Melissa Mason nominated by Jason Scobbie, Warren Jones nominated by Dana Miller. All were elected.
Judges Committee. Nathaniel Roque nominated by Anne Camper, Christopher Smith nominated by Dana Miller. Both were elected.
Breed Advisory Committee. Warren Jones moved that this be tabled until after the by-laws revisions were discussed. Seconded by Christopher Smith and passed.
Old Business:Revised bylaws consistent with the above will be circulated to the Executive Board for confirmation prior to final posting on the Web site.
New Business:
Martinsburg, WV
October 20, 2006
In attendance:
- Hardy Ernsting, President
- Anne Camper, Vice President
- David Dembouski, Membership Chair
- Board members – Warren Jones, Christopher Smith, Mike Baker
- Guest – Cynthia Zimmerman, ex-treasurer
At the request of Hardy and the rest of the board, Cynthia Zimmerman attended the meeting to present the treasurer's report. A general audit was done for $60 by an accountant who evaluated the membership numbers, the income and expenses. Questions posed by the auditor were why the club had increased expenses in the form of Board and Officers insurance and why there was an increase in the amount spent on helpers for the Nationals. A review of the taxes paid showed no problems. The current balance is $3599.82. Upcoming dates to remember are corporate taxes due on March 15 and an April 1 filing fee in Arizona. AWDF dues are to be paid in December; last year's fees were $275. Another topic discussed with Cynthia was the pursuit of 501c status. Christopher Smith, Warren Jones, Glenn Stephenson, Hardy Ernsting and Cynthia all pursued this. Estimates were high and nothing was accomplished. Cynthia suggested that the best approach may be to dissolve the organization and re-create it with tax-free status in place from the beginning because the costs were largely due to the financial audits necessary to prove tax-free operations. Cynthia was thanked for her service and she left the meeting.
Discussion turned to the message received from Shari Lipski about the AWMA and agility. Hardy provided information on why the agility trial scheduled to take place at the Nationals was cancelled. There was no written permission obtained from the AKC to have a trial within a 175 mile radius of an existing club. Discussion was held about how agility would fit with the AWMA, especially because we hold the card for a team at the FMBB. There was concern about diluting present activities with agility and how the organization would change if there was a large influx of members solely interested in agility. The suggestion was made to take this under advisement and discuss it with Jim Moses of the ABMC and Shari Lipski. One suggestion was to charter the trial to ABMC and charge a fee. Discussion was held on how this might be accomplished so that the AWMA would still have some control over the event and the team chosen to represent us at world events. A similar situation with Mondio ring was brought up but it was decided not to pursue this.
Warren Jones and Christopher Smith were elected to new two year terms.
Discussion was held on modifications to the agenda for the general board meeting.
The meeting was adjourned.
General Board MeetingAWMA
Martinsburg, WV
October 20, 2006
In attendance:
- Hardy Ernsting, President
- Anne Camper, Vice president
- David Dembouski, Membership
- Board members – Warren Jones, Christopher Smith, Mike Baker
- Absent – Desiree' Shaw (secretary), Ivan Balabanov (board member)
Member club delegates –
- Cascade – no delegate
- Podium – Paul Konschak
- Spirit – Greg Doud
- CTC – Cynthia Zimmerman
- Southern Arizona – Dana Miller
- Atlanta – Jason Scobbie
The meeting was called to order at 7:15 p.m. by Hardy Ernsting. He read the agenda, which was accepted.
The minutes of the previous meeting were read by Anne Camper. Warren Jones moved to accept them as read, second by Jason Scobbie. Motion carried.
Officer Reports:President (Hardy Ernsting). Hardy commented that Jona Decker resigned in June 2006, and he took over from being Vice-president. He stated that this is a young organization with much work to be done, especially in regards to better communication between the board and members. He also wants to see more involvement of the members and more clubs. He will not seek reelection because he didn't feel he has the time.
Vice-president (Anne Camper) Anne was elected vice-president when Hardy assumed the presidency. She was the previous membership chair.
Secretary (Desiree' Shaw absent). Warren Jones reported that he communicated with Desiree' and that she had scorebooks in stock.
Treasurer – ex-treasurer Cynthia Zimmerman reported that she will post a full treasurer's report.
Membership chair (David Dembouski) reported that the club had 123 members.
Director of Judges (Glenn Stephenson) – absent, no report
Committee Reports:Helper Committee. Mike Baker suggested that a four member committee was too large. Nathaniel Roque and Les Flores couldn't contribute very much this year. Ivan Balabanov and Mike suggest that there be one person in charge of helper selections, and that USA rules be adopted until a chair person is put in place. Discussion to dissolve the committee was moved to new business.
National Events/World Championship Committee. Dana Miller reported that the selection criteria for the world team was now out. An improved version is planned for 2008.
Website Committee. Dana Miller has plans to improve the site. She has ideas on how to generate more hits with search engines. Mechanisms for enabling more service for the Paypal service was discussed, especially for paying dues.
Sponsorship Committee. Christopher Smith said that nothing was done because of the lack of 501c status.
By-Laws Committee. Warren Jones will cover the proposed revisions in new business. He commented that the revisions were still "band-aids" and that further revisions will be needed and some content moved to a policies and procedures manual.
Breed Advisory Committee. Hardy Ernsting had nothing to report except that the overall goals need to be reconsidered.
Board of Inquiry. Dana Miller said there was nothing to report.
Judges Committee. Cynthia Zimmerman reported that current judges are Glenn Stephenson and Nathaniel Roque. Apprentice Judges (active) are Tami McLeod and Ivan Balabanov. There is nothing much to do until the program advances.
Elections:The membership decided to use open ballots.
Christopher Smith presented several nominations and nominations were also taken from the floor.
OFFICERS and BOARD MEMBERS
President – Anne Camper nominated by Ivan Balabanov. Elected.
Vice-president – Christopher Smith nominated by Mike Baker. Elected.
Treasurer
- Marina Shukh nominated by Christopher Smith
- Cele Danner nominated by Tami McLeod (withdrawn)
Marina Shukh elected.
Membership chair - Cele Danner nominated by David Dembouski - Paula Daigle nominated by Christopher Smith Cele Danner elected.
Secretary – Desiree' Shaw nominated by Warren Jones. Elected.
Directors at Large – Mike Baker and Ivan Balabanov nominated by Warren Jones. Elected.
COMMITTEESWC/NE Events Committee. This committee was unofficially combined this last year. Jason Scobbie moved that elections be deferred until after the by-laws revisions were discussed. Seconded by Mike Baker and carried.
Auditing Committee. Greg Doud nominated by David Dembouski, Melissa Mason nominated by Jason Scobbie, Warren Jones nominated by Dana Miller. All were elected.
Judges Committee. Nathaniel Roque nominated by Anne Camper, Christopher Smith nominated by Dana Miller. Both were elected.
Breed Advisory Committee. Warren Jones moved that this be tabled until after the by-laws revisions were discussed. Seconded by Christopher Smith and passed.
Old Business:Revised bylaws consistent with the above will be circulated to the Executive Board for confirmation prior to final posting on the Web site.
- Dues structure. Changes to dues to reward those who pay on time were discussed, as was the option to pay electronically. Also mentioned was the addition of a non-arbitration clause to the application. Cele Danner will work with an ad-hoc committee as needed to implement changes.
- 501c status. This was covered earlier. Costs of $1500 were mentioned.
- By-laws revisions. Warren Jones distributed copies of proposed bylaws revisions as previously posted on the Discussion Board and made available by e-mail through the americanworkingmalinois Yahoo group. Revisions and amendments were then discussed on an article by article basis, with the following outcomes.
- Article I: single amendment accepted unanimously as submitted.
- Article II: extensive revisions, including deleting reference to breed survey, registry, conformation shows. Accepted with a single dissenting vote (Jason).
- Article III: Revisions similar to Article II; accepted unanimously.
- Article IV: Revisions accepted unanimously, with amendments from the floor as follows:
- Section 3 (b) change "fifteen (15)" to "thirty (30)"
- Section 3 (c ) change "fifteen (15)" to "thirty (30)"
- Section 3 (d) change "fifteen (15)" to "thirty (30)" (3rd line of that paragraph)
- Section 3 (e) change "fifteen (15)" to "thirty (30)".
- Article V: Revisions accepted unanimously, with amendments from the floor as follows:
- Section 3 (b) change "fifteen (15)" to "thirty (30)"
- Section 3 (c ) change "fifteen (15)" to "thirty (30)"
- Section 3 (d) change "fifteen (15)" to "thirty (30)" (3rd line of that paragraph)
- Section 3 (e) change "fifteen (15)" to "thirty (30)".
- Section 3(g) add to the end of the sentence "to the Executive Board". After some discussion about the appearance of detailed possible outcomes in this section (compared to none in Article IV). Jason moved (Dana seconded) that subparagraphs (i) and (ii) of Section 3(g) be deleted from the bylaws. Accepted unanimously.
- Article VI. Proposed Revisions approved unanimously.
- Article VII. No amendments were proposed; article accepted by acclimation (no vote).
- Article VIII. No amendments were proposed; article accepted by acclimation (no vote).
- Article IX. No amendments were proposed; article accepted by acclimation (no vote).
- Article X. Amendments and revisions accepted unanimously as submitted, with one revision from the floor: Section 1 (c )(viii). Replace "selected by the Executive Board" with "elected by the General Board".
- Article XI. punctuation changes accepted as submitted, and a new paragraph (c ) was added: "(c ) A special process for amendment of these bylaws can be conducted by email between General Board meetings."
- Elections based on by-laws revisions.
- Board of Inquiry. Robert Miller, Dana Miller, and Greg Doud were elected. Jason Scobbie and Deb Krsnich were elected as standing alternates.
- WC/NE combined committee: Cele Danner, Dana Miller, Tami McLeod and Greg Doud were elected.
- Helper committee replaced with helper chair. Mike Baker was elected.
New Business:
- Bids for 2007 Nationals. One submitted by Belleville Dog Sports Assoc. in Michigan (Detroit area) by John Wiitanen. Suggested date was Labor Day weekend. An announcement will be posted on the website taking other bids for 30 days.
- Need to notify AWDF of new officers. Two delegates are needed for AWDF meetings, to be selected by the president.
- Appoint delegate to FMBB meeting based on who will be attending.
- Executive board votes to replace Christopher Smith (new vice-president). David Dembouski was elected.