Annual Meeting of Members Minutes
Wednesday September 30, 2020 Via Teleconferencing
1. Meeting Called to Order by Jim Andrew: 5:34 pm MT
- Alberta Field Trial Club (West Alberta) - Dan Danforth
- Alberta Retriever Clubs Association (West Alberta) - Doug Shepherd
- BC Amateur Field Trial Club (West BC) - Jane Spearing
- Club du Chien Rapporteur de Quebec (East Quebec) - Thierry Lafrancois
- Eastern Flyway Hunting Retriever Club (East PEI Nova Scotia) - Mike Zelman
- Eastern Ontario Retriever Club (East Ontario) - Jim Ling
- Labrador Retriever Club of Central Ontario (East Ontario) - Darlene Broomhead
- Niagara Peninsula Retriever Training Club (East Ontario) - Darlene Broomhead
- North Bay & District Retriever Training Club (East Northern Ontario) - Jim Andrew
- Northern Ontario Retriever Association (East Northern Ontario) - Richard Dresser
- Ottawa Retriever Club (East Ontario) - Jim Ling
- Pine Ridge Retriever Club (East Ontario) - Jim Ling
- Red Deer Retriever Club (West Alberta) - Doug Shepherd
- Rocky Mountain Sporting Dog Club (West Alberta) - Dan Danforth
- South Western Ontario Retriever Training Club (East Ontario) - Connie Swanson
- Stampede City Retriever Club (West Alberta) - Marg Murray
- Sunpoke Hunting Retriever Club (East New Brunswick) - Dan Yeomans
- Wild Rose Retriever Club (West Alberta) - Doug Shepherd
Meeting notes recorded by Laura Danforth. Quorum (NRCC Bylaws Section 4.03: 40% of members entitled to vote at the meeting). 18/37 = 49%
Jim Andrew reminded the attendees to follow the Roberts' Rules of Order and to be careful how communicate.
Motion by Dan Danforth to adopt Meeting Agenda/seconded by Connie Swanson. All in favour. Motion carried
3. Annual Meeting of Members Minutes
- September 7, 2019 "Minutes of the Annual General Meeting"
- Posted on NRCC website: Minutes tab under Official Business tab "Saturday September 7, 2019"
Jim Ling described the history of the name of the NRCC's annual meeting, "Annual Meeting of Members" (AMM). When the bylaws were last revised, "Annual Meeting of
Members" was the name of the annual meeting in the template that was used to revise the bylaws, it was considered more accurate and the name of the meeting was adopted.
Motion by Dan Yeomans to accept the Meeting Minutes/seconded by Ken Crosby. All in favour. Motion carried
a. Treasurer's Report - Laura Danforth
- YE 2019 Financial Statements (approved June 23, 2020)
- Financial Statements as of August 31, 2020
- Refer to financial statements in Meeting Support Documents below
Discussion on interest being reinvested into the investment account.
- The reinvested money is not being utilized, or budgeted for anything
- Concern that income from investment account will trigger tax implications (NRCC is considered a non-profit organization and should not be making money)
- By reinvesting the interest there is a continued opportunity for the investments to grow
- Interest amount is not material and is too small to be concerned
NOTE: NRCC is a "Not for profit Canada Corporation"
ACTION ITEM: Dan Danforth to contact Bruce MacDonald regarding his work done with regards to NRCC becoming a not for profit organization.
Motioned by Ken Crosby to accept Treasurer's Report/seconded by Mike Zelman, All in favour. Motion carried
b. Enhancement and Improvement of the Field Trial Sport Task Force Report - Richard Dresser
- Refer to 2020-08-24 Task Force Proposal in Meeting Support Documents below
- From September 10, 2020 Board of Directors Meeting o ACTION ITEM: Create a Website/FB improvement committee. Team to comprise of NRCC executive (Jim, Jim L, Dan D), Richard, Dona (Website administrator) and Karen (FB coordinator). Dan D to lead committee
- Executive to meet with Dona and Karen to discuss Website/FB improvement plan and ask them to participate
c. 2021 National Amateur Report - Richard Dresser
- National Amateur Retriever Championship - Northern Ontario Retriever Association, Iron Bridge ON
- Planning is in "good shape"
- Banquet July 17, 2021 and National Amateur July 18-24, 2021
d. 2021 National Report - Charlie Ross
- National Retriever Championship - Manitoba Gun Dog Association, Balmoral MB
- Planning is "going good"
- National is second week of September - to be confirmed
e. National Sponsors Report - Jim Andrew, Jim Ling, Dan Danforth
- Dan Danforth communicated with sponsors. Due to unstable times, sponsor ask to call back at later time
- Jim Ling - in communication with Bill Kennedy/Puring
- Overall a difficult time to ask for sponsorship
a. 2021 National Amateur Judge Replacement Selection - Medie Robinson
a. Election of Directors for 3-year term October 2020 to September 2023
- Thank retiring Directors; Dawne McKenzie (Manitoba) and Marg Murray (Alberta)
- Welcome newly elected Directors; Colette Prefontaine (Alberta) and James Oake (Manitoba)
- Thank the following Directors who were elected for another term; Darlene Broomhead (Ontario), Ken Crosby (Ontario), Richard Dresser (Northern Ontario), Thierry Lefrancois (Quebec), John McDonald (Saskatchewan) and Susan Shearer (BC)
- ACTION ITEM: Richard Dresser's Director's Nomination and Acceptance yet to come
Motion by Connie Swanson to continue with the current honorariums for 2021/seconded by Dawne McKenzie . All in favour. Motion carried
Motion by Dan Yeomans to pass on conducting a financial audit for 2020/seconded by Connie Swanson. All in favour. Motion carried
d. National Host Club Schedule - to be confirmed
- 2022 - Long Point Retriever Training Club (to be confirmed) = East Zone
- 2023 West Zone
- 2024 East Zone
- 2025 West Zone
- 2026 East Zone
- Track individuals interested in judging a National
- Submit potential National Judges names to Secretary for tracking
f. 2019 National Questionnaire Results and Vote
Recap from the June 23, 2020 Board of Directors (BOD) Meeting:
- The BOD voted to accept the 2019 survey results
- The BOD, based on 2019 survey results, voted that the NRCC to hold 1 National each year
- Based on 2019 survey results, "should the National be an Open or Amateur or Combined Open/Amateur?", the results were very close between Open and Combined Open/Amateur thus the BOD voted that this decision should be voted on by the Member Clubs at the 2020 Annual Meeting of Members.
- The BOD's recommendation to the Members is the National be an Open.
There was expressed confusion from a few Directors on the decided process of voting for "a National Open or a National Combined Open/Amateur" at this meeting, as well as, concern that there was not sufficient communication with their assigned Member Clubs with regards to this vote item and the decided process of . As a result, there was discussion on how to achieve a clear line of sight to completing this vote in a timely manner.
Motion: To table the vote on "a National Open or a National Combined Open/Amateur" till 2021 AGM
Motioned by Northern Ontario Retriever Association - Richard Dresser, Seconded by Eastern Flyway Hunting Retriever Club - Dan Yeomans
Motion Amended: To table the vote on "a National Open or a National Combined Open/Amateur".
Motioned by Eastern Flyway Hunting Retriever Club - Mike Zelman, Seconded by Alberta Field Trial Club - Dan Danforth
- Alberta Field Trial Club
- Alberta Retriever Clubs Association
- BC Amateur Field Trial Club
- Club du Chien Rapporteur de Quebec
- Eastern Flyway Hunting Retriever Club
- Eastern Ontario Retriever Club
- Labrador Retriever Club of Central Ontario
- Niagara Peninsula Retriever Training Club
- North Bay & District Retriever Training Club
- Northern Ontario Retriever Association
- Ottawa Retriever Club
- Pine Ridge Retriever Club
- Red Deer Retriever Club
- Rocky Mountain Sporting Dog Club
- South Western Ontario Retriever Training Club
- Stampede City Retriever Club
- Sunpoke Hunting Retriever Club
- Wild Rose Retriever Club
- Not in favour: none
- Motion carried.
8. Meeting Adjourned at 6.58 pm MT
- Identify yourself before speaking.
- Follow Roberts' Rules of Order.
- The role of Directors at Board meetings.
- Arrive on time and stay for the duration of the meeting
- o Read the material prior to the meeting so you are prepared
- Be respectful of others who are speaking and avoid interrupting or side conversations
- Have an open mind when listening to discussion and opposing perspectives
- If a question is raised related to a committee that you are a member of or position that you are responsible for, the meeting chairperson may ask you to respond
- Volunteer to help with items that require action and follow up on action items identified during the meeting
2020-08-24 TASK FORCE PROPOSAL
First, I would like to thank the task force members for taking the time to respond to the questionnaire.The response was very interesting. It was clear that we need to do more to encourage participation and get the word out about our sport. This needs to come from the National Club.
We ask our member clubs to pay dues and what do we give them in return.The opportunity to qualify dogs at their event and to host a national that the majority of clubs in the country cannot hope to participate in because of lack of members or properties.
There was also recommended rule changes for the minor stakes to make the game more inviting to newcomers that had merit.
At this point, I feel it is more important to create a promotional campaign first and pass the recommended rule change ideas on to the retriever council.
I recommend the following proposals based on information received from the task and discussions with people in the sport this year.
1. An upgrade and redesign of the web page to make it more user friendly. These upgrades should include easier navigation through the web site based on the ability of a complete novice in our sport that has no understanding of a field trial.
2. There should be information on every member club in the country, club web site info or telephone, email address of club contact.There should also be application to allow clubs that do not have their own web site to post upcoming events other than licensed trials.
3. A description of our sport via short video stream included in the web page may also be worthy.
4. There should be area to post up to date training or medical articles that pertained to retrievers. I am sure there is more info that an expert on web page design can suggest.
5. The national club undertake a promotional campaign including printed material describing the benefits of our sport guiding people to the national web site for more info. The printed material could be in the form of posters to be put up in vet offices, feed and outfitter stores.
6. We should create a pamphlet to be distributed to retriever breeders to hand out to puppy buyers perhaps and partner with a dog food producer on this endeavour.
7. I feel there is also merit in advertising magazines such Ontario outdoors , Delta Waterfowl, Ducks Unlimited to name just a few.
8. The national club should encourage member clubs to host picnic trials maybe by offering some kind of incentive to do so also encouraging puppy stake at field trials ,in Ontario many years ago it happened quite often and was a great incentive to get new people involved.
9. In talking to people this year there was discussion on finding a way to partner more with the hunt test game to make it more inviting to transition from hunt test to field trials.This can be discussed at a later date, but I do feel this is where the future of our game lies.
Now the big question how much is this investment in our sports future going to cost us?
I have spoken to two web designers and they both indicated that it could cost as much as 5,000.00 for the web site upgrade, I would suggest that we send out a tender and ask people to quote.
On the printed advertising ,on speaking with Howard Simson he suggested 1,000to 1,200 might do it. My suggestion would be that picking someone that is involved in our game to do the web page and print work would be a great asset in a assuring this campaign is a success.
In closing I would just like to say that we need to look back and remember what it was that hooked us on this sport the love of our dogs of course, the love to hunt in some case yes, for some it is the love to compete, but in all these cases it involves someone that made the effort took the time and gave us the encouragement to carry on.
Looking forward to more constructive dialogue on this subject
