B/D Meeting,
B/D CONFERENCE CALL, MARCH 8, 2004

B/D CONFERENCE CALL, MARCH 8, 2004

 

Directors on the call:  John Doyle, Suzy McCallister, Barb Ross, Leo Woodbury, Gary Westbrook, Dale Kuhrt, Red Oliver, Susan Carpenter, Jim Martin, Lena Bailey, Beverly Lambert, Wayne Parker, Bruce Smart, Kate Broadbent, Bob Stephens, Stormy Winters, Kent Kuykendall, Sandra Milberg, Pete Carmichael
Directors not on call:  Dal Kratzer, Gene Sheninger, Steve Clendenin, Barry Moyer
Guest on call:  Julie Williams representing the Cattle Rules Committee.
Officers on call:  Mike Canaday, Dan Gill 

  1. Meeting was called to order at 7 pm Central Time.
  2. Kent Kuykendall moved and Sandra Milberg seconded the acceptance of the minutes of the previous meeting. Passed unanimously.
  3. Mike Canaday reported that there is $28,380.66 in the savings account, $26,621.45 in the checking account and $3,075 in the livestock fund. Dale Kuhrt moved and Gary Westbrook seconded the acceptance of the treasurers report.
  4. Mike Canaday asked if Beverly Lambert would present the proposals from her committee regarding the sheepdog finals.  Beverly presented her proposal.  Sandra asked to review each item one at a time.

A.        Entries are due on August 1. No refunds or filling of vacancies after September 1st. 
Gary Westbrook asked if this date could change if the finals was again in November.  Generally agreed that the date could change if it needed to.  Mike Canaday said that the down side of this is that when the new system passed it was not unanimously passed.  Kent Kuykendall said that Eileen Stein had told him that this would be ok to make this rule change but it could be challenged in court.  Barb Ross said this wasn't really an effort to cut dogs but an effort to close the book work.  Bruce Smart said he has always supported having the maximum number of people run at the finals but he thought that this was a very fair compromise as everyone still gets to enter the finals.  Beverly Lambert said that this did not exclude running an alternate if it has enough points and the substitution needs to be made after September 1.  Beverly Lambert moved that entries are due on August 1st and no refunds or filling of vacancies after September 1, and Bruce Smart second.   Passed unanimous.

B        That on the first go round there be a shed.  That the outrun should not normally exceed 450 yards.  Susan Carpenter moved on the first go round there should be a shed and the outrun should not normally exceed 450 yards, second by Dale Kuhrt.     Passed unanimously.

There was considerable discussion of whether or not the shed should be called or not.  Lena Bailey said that she had no problem with not calling the shed as if the judge did not accept it he could tell the handler to do it again.  If it is after the pen the judge should call it as time is then a factor.  Red Oliver said that when the judge gives his authority to the handler it is tough for him to psychologically take his authority back.  Mike Canaday said we need to move on.

C.     Beverly Lambert moved that on the semi-final round the top 40 dogs should run. The outrun should not normally exceed 500 yards.  There be a marked shed (not called by the judge), pen and a marked single (called by the high point getting judge) - (There be five sheep, two ribboned, any two non-ribboned sheep to be shed and any one ribboned sheep to be singled), second by Stormy Winters. Motion passed, two opposed votes, Sandra Milberg and Pete Carmichael.

D.       That 17 dogs go through to the Finals . Beverly. Lambert said the thought behind this is that there isn't enough daylight to run 20 dogs when all do well. Beverly moved that 17 dogs go through to the finals, second by Bob Stephens.  Passed unanimously.  

Beverly Lambert reported that she and Kent didn’t feel they had come up with the best possible scenario for the judges. Thought the Directors might want to send back to the committee.  What we have now is the following.

 We hire four judges.  However we think that if we have more time to work on this we might be able to come up with something better.  Beverly moved two (2) to judge the Nursery and the semi-Final and two to judge the Preliminary round and the Final.  I would further propose that instead of selecting the judges on the basis of a total number of points awarded that people vote for judges either for the open or the nursery.  That way people could vote for judges that they might feel were very competent to judge a regular trial but that they maybe felt didn't have the expertise to judge a Double Lift, second by Kent Kuykendall.  Motion passed, two no votes – Bob Stephens, Jim Martin.  Kent voted Dal Kratzer and Gene Sheninger’s proxies as yes.

  1. Leo Woodbury asked if we pay the judges on days they don't judge.  Mike Canaday said the North American judge get $1,000 plus $150 plus hotel plus flight.
  2. Barb Ross asked if we accepted the Sturgis dates of September 18th thru 26th.  Beverly Lambert said we decided to run back fewer nursery dogs and start the open on Tuesday afternoon and we don't need to start the Nursery on Saturday.  Leo said they could have some demonstrations or educational clinics Saturday afternoon.  Kent moved to start nursery on 19th, second by Stormy Winters.  Passed unanimously.
  3. Gary Westbrook said he was asked to see if we could set the dates earlier for the Finals.  Leo said that they could. Suzy McCallister said that we should try to work around the International so we aren't running at the same time.
  4. Mike Canaday asked Leo if he had anything else to report from Sturgis.  Leo said we were going to have the big electric score board this year.  Local committee would like some clarifications about where their obligations end and the trial committees begin.  Kent said that he had talked to Jo Woodbury and she was wanting to work with someone on the HA Board about defining what the responsibilities were of the host and local committees.  Kent said he told Jo he would work on this with her.
  5. Kent Kuykendall proposed:  Add to Section 5: USBCHA Open and Nursery Finals of the Sheepdog Rules a new subsection L, as follows:

L.  Eligibility to run in the USBCHA Open and Nursery Sheepdog Finals is limited to citizens of the United States and/or Canada, and to non-citizens who have been physically present in the United States and /or Canada for at least nine months of the qualifying year for the Finals they seek to enter, and who have not run in the National sheepdog or Cattledog trial of any other country during the same calendar year as the Finals they seek to enter, second by Lena Bailey.  Motion passed,  1 no vote by Stormy Winters.

  1. Dan Gill reported on the revised rule changes of the cattle dog rule committee.  The rules have been clarified and cleaned up and made simpler to read.  Beverly moved and Stormy Winters second that the new rules be accepted.  Kent asked if it included Mandy Harley’s suggestion.  Dan said they were going to do it again later.  Sandra Milberg said it was a wonderful job but would like Mandy’s suggestion included.  Kent said he had one more thing to address before the vote.  He said he had a letter from Amy Coapman, he read part of it to the board in which she said she would like to make this for 2004 Cattledog Finals only.  Susan asked exactly what the motion was.  Red said the revised Cattledog Guidelines as printed.  Motion passed,  one no vote – John Doyle.
  2. Mike then asked for amendments to the rules. Julie Williams was on the call as the person who had done much of the work on straightening the rules out.  Red Oliver said that Mandy Harley suggested this and everyone on the committee liked it too.  Julie read Mandy's proposal.  A dog who rings the cattle for any reason on the lift be penalized 4-9 pts., this to appear in phase 2.  Red said that the rules committee proposed a slightly different change. Dog rings cattle showing weakness 4-8.  Discussion followed.  Beverly Lambert said this was not the forum for revising the cattle rules. It needs to come to the B/D in a complete formal report from the committee.  There was general agreement.  The guidelines stand as they were written up.
  3. Red. Oliver proposed a new rule that Cattle qualifying trials must have a minimum of 10 open dogs and nursery 5 dogs, second by Story Winters.
  4. Kate Broadbent said that the furor over the Soldier’s Hollow trial has shown that we need to clarify our definition of an open trial and she proposed the following wording developed by Gene Sheninger who could not be on the call.

1)  Kate moved any trial if designed to exclude specific people or regions, is not eligible for USBCHA points. Or, conversely, any trial that is designed to INCLUDE only a specific set of people or a specific region cannot be awarded USBCHA points, second by Jim Martin. Passed unanimously.

2) Any trial designed with a "Finals" runoff, if that runoff is limited to a subset of the people entered in the qualifying rounds, will only have USBCHA points awarded for the qualifying rounds, those rounds "open" to all who enter. Mike said we already had a rule on the books that covered the second part of the proposal. 

  1. Kent Kuykendall proposal:  Add to SECTION 12: AMENDING RULES of the Sheepdog Rules, and to SECTION 11: AMENDING RULES of the Cattledog Rules, a new subsection B, as follows:

B. Any proposed addition, or proposed alteration to the Rules shall be circulated to the directors in writing at least five (5) days prior to the BOD meeting at which it is to be considered.  If the proposal is amended during the course of the meeting, the final wording of the amended proposal shall be read to the directors before it is voted upon, and if it is passed, it shall promptly after the meeting be submitted to the directors via email for confirmation, and shall become effective only after a majority of the directors have voted in favor of it by email ballot.

 Kent Kuykendall said the purpose is to save conference call time.  Mike asked why we would need to vote on everything again once it was passed.  Red said that meetings were better organized than they used to be in the old days when the discussion had to be deciphered by Francis and put into a rule.  Barb said she really like this too but not the part about needing to revote on it after it has passed.  Beverly too said that she really like the first part of it but didn't like the part about voting again by email.  Kent withdrew his motion and take back to the table.  Kent invited any input from the Directors on this proposal.

  1. Francis came on line to inform Mike that Kent Kuykendall also had Barry Moyer’s proxy.
  2. Kent moved to adjourn at 8:15pm central time, seconded by Stormy.

 Francis Raley,  March 8, 2004