Mastiff Club of America, Inc.

*February 1, 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
Recording Secretary – vacant / x / Anna May
x / Cor. Secretary – Jennifer Lambden / x / Kelly Meyer
x / Treasurer – Becky Campbell / x / Linda Cain
  1. Minutes of Previous Meeting – The minutes were documented and in rough draft. The November 16th meeting minutes will be reviewed and presented to the BOD at the next BOD meeting
  1. Officer Reports
  • President – Board Norms – to be discussed in old business.
  • Recording Secretary – None – This position is vacant.
  • Action: Toni will contact Margaret Murphy to request that all of the recording secretary items be sent to Linda Cain. Margaret will be reimbursed for mailing costs.
  • Corresponding Secretary – Jennifer reviewed a list of upcoming corresponding secretary tasks. They include:
  • Annual meeting notices to be mailed to membership
  • Nominating committee documents to be collected and mailed to membership
  • Regional club annual reports are upcoming
  • Committee annual reports are upcoming
  • The annual meeting minutes from last year have not been drafted.
  • Action: Becky to send transcript to Jennifer. Once drafted, unapproved minutes will be posted as ‘draft’ to MCOA website, until approved at the annual meeting.
  • Treasurer (Includes budget approval) –
  • The budget was presented and revisions made.
  • The first quarter of FY 2012 shows:
  • 1st QTR income of $5,449.00
  • 1st QTR Expenses $5,591.00
  • 1st QTR shows a loss of $142.00
  • The second quarter of FY 2012 will be presented at the next board meeting.
  • The balances are:
  • General account $141,760.00;
  • Rescue - $69,208.00 for a total of $188.968.00.
  • Budget Issue #1: The proposed budget dated January 17, 2012 was discussed. The motion was made by Mary DeLisa to approve the financial budget report with the following exceptions to be addressed by the Treasurer. Linda Cain seconded the motion.
  • The Bulletin budget costs will be reduced by $1800 because the last two issues were not created
  • The postage costs will be reviewed, updated and formatted like the bulletin budgets costs above this was part of the motion to accept the budget and updated in the budget to include postage for code of ethics changes and the elections mailings

  • Treasurer’s Report – Mary DeLisa made the motion to accept the Treasurer’s report. Jennifer seconded the motion.
  • Ayes – Mary, Linda, Kelly, Dr. Newman, Becky, Anna, Jennifer
  • Nays – None
  • Abstain – None
  • Motion Carried.
  1. Committee Reports
  • AKC Delegate – Dr. Newman stated that AKC will begin to review actions of parent clubs. The Tibetan Mastiff standard was disapproved. AKC is working on new changes for judging applications and requirements for judging. AKC will be holding their election of new officers.
  • National Specialty Advisor – The president stated that Mary Speer had been in contact with her. The national preparation is well under way and no problems have surfaced.

An email was received from Chuck Cuthbert asking for volunteers from the BOD to chair various show committees. (Regular Sweepstakes, Title of Parade Holders, Tournament and Breeders Cup). If any member of the BOD would like to help, they are to contact Chuck directly.

Mary DeLisa mentioned that there are issues in finding hotels to host our upcoming nationals for 2014 and 2015. She is currently looking at the Red Lion in Sacramentonear the airport. There was discussion regarding whether the show could be held outdoors or only indoors. The cost of renting tents is very high. She is also looking into Denver and Utah. The initial problem is that the hotels are not willing to compromise of the number of hotel rooms that have to be guaranteed.

Dr. Newman mentioned a parent club website that discussed National show hotels. Also there was some discussion regarding how many of the clubs are now holding their nationals in conjunction with all breed shows. This works especially well with smaller numbers of entries. They are also cutting their nationals from 7 days to 3-4 days.

  • Health – Anna May submitted the following report:
  • The researchers at the Program for Canine Health and Performance (PCHP) at VARI/TGEN have received enough DNA samples from severely shy Mastiffs that are afraid to leave their homes and from controls with stable temperaments to run SNP chips to perform genetic studies. They are hoping the genetic information obtained from these Mastiffs will lead to better diagnostic, preventative and treatment options for the dogs and hopefully humans that have severe anxiety type behavioral disorders like agoraphobia. They were also very pleased to report they have received additional DNA samples from Mastiffs with Wobblers and Osteosarcoma (bone cancer). They asked us to remind those that ordered DNA saliva kits to collect and send in the samples or to return the unused kits. They also want to thank everyone that submitted DNA samples from their dogs and to encourage others to send in more samples.
  1. Old Business
  • Code of Ethics Committee Proposal – The board discussed the review of the Code of Ethics and determined that the choice should be up to the general membership. The President asked Jennifer to create a simplified document listing each item to be voted on so that the general membership will be able to clearly discern the changes and what is being voted on. Linda Cain stated she would assist Jennifer if she needed it. Anna reminded everyone that the COE Revisions Committee needs a copy of the BOD’s suggested changes in case they would like to implement any of the suggestions. The board would like to review the voting card once it is ready to be sent to membership for their votes, and it will be sent to the COE committee as well. Becky Campbell made the motion to put together the current changes in a spreadsheet and that the board may review the changes before sending to the general membership. Jennifer seconded the motion.
  • Ayes – Mary, Linda, Kelly, Dr. Newman, Becky, Anna, Jennifer
  • Nays – None
  • Abstain – None
  • Motion Carried
  • Board Norms The President addressed the BOD asking them to make sure when responding the BOD emails that the emails are:
  • The BOD respond as a board, not individually
  • All correspondence be sent out through the corresponding secretary (and it will be from group consensus)
  • If you chose to reply to the BOD emails as an individual that you state that you are replying as an individual, not the BOD, and that it is your personal opinion.
  • Additionally meeting rules were discussed:
  • Be respectful to each other,
  • No bullying,
  • No ambushing each other
  • Only one person talk at a time so that everyone’s opinion can be heard and so the recording secretary can capture the conversation
  • No verbal abuse
  1. New Business

Nominating Committee – Linda Cain submitted a listing of possible committee members. Mary DeLisa stated we need committee members from each time zone, and suggested that one of the two Texas potentials be replaced with a member from the Mountain Time zone, which was done. Anna May made the motion to accept the Nominating Committee as updated. Jennifer Lambden seconded the motion. Following the meeting another revision took place to reduce the committee size to five (5).

Those to sit on the nominating committee are:

  • Chair: Linda Cain (MO), Bruce Roventini (TX), Jessica Bahlman (VA), Diane Collings (CA), Tina Woods(UT). Alternates areAnita Sanders (WA) and Susan Wheeler (IN
  • Ayes – Linda, Dr. Newman, Kelly, Anna, Becky, Jennifer and Mary
  • Nays – None
  • Abstained – None
  • Motion Carried.

  • Recording Secretary Replacement – There was discussion regarding the email vote for this position. It was determined by the board that the email votes and motion for this topic would be null and void, instead discussing the topic during our regular meeting tonight, in accordance with our by-laws. Dr. Newman made the motion to accept Linda Cain as the new Recording Secretary. Anna May seconded the motion. Motion carried.
  • Ayes – Linda, Dr. Newman, Kelly, Anna, Becky, and Mary
  • Nays – None
  • Abstained – None
  • Motion Carried.
  • BOD replacement for Linda Cain – With the move of Linda Cain into the Recording Secretary position, the board needed to replace her board position. Linda Cain made the motion to select Patti Wilkinson to replace her board position. Dr. Newman seconded the motion.

There was discussion among the BOD that a former member had expressed interest in coming back to the board. The member has experience and knowledge with the MCOA By-Laws, Robert’s Rules and past precedent practices. -

  • Ayes – Linda, Dr. Newman, Kelly, Anna, Jennifer
  • Nays –Becky, Mary
  • Abstained - None
  • Motion Carried.
  • Bulletin Editor Replacement – With the resignation of Margaret Murphy from the CastleKeeper bulletin, the need for a replacement as discussed. There was discussion about whether this was a stand-alone position or a recording secretary duty. It has been a stand alone position for a while. There was discussion regarding back up of the documents in case of hard-drive crashes. The editors will ensure that the CastleKeeper Bulletin will be backed up and stored on the MCOA_BOD Yahoo Group by the Corresponding or Recording Secretary. The CastleKeeper will also be sent to Dolly Moore to be posted to the MCOA website for members to view. Dr. Newman made the motion to have Teresa Hudspeth become the editor of the bulletin with the recording secretary’s assistance. Linda Cain seconded the motion.
  • Ayes – Kelly, Jennifer, Dr. Newman, Linda, Anna, Mary and Becky
  • Nays – None
  • Abstains – None
  • Motion Carried.
  • Court Reporter for Specialty – Becky Campbell stated that the court reporter for the General Membership meeting held at the 2012 National in WI needs to be retained. Becky will get with Linda Cain to discuss how to accomplish this task. Linda Cain will contract the court reporters association and retain services for the National. Linda Cain will also correspond with the President and Mary Speer(National Chair) to provide court reporter information.
  • Regional Specialty Pilot Program - – President reported back on the progress for the Regional Specialty pilot program that we are trying with LSMF at the Houston Reliant show in July, 2012. Approval of the pilot was contingent on financial containment (MCOA will pay for filing fee, but all other costs are responsibility of LSMF), liability (MCOA must be covered by insurance – LSMF to ensure this is covered by cluster insurance or pay the additional fee), and paperwork (LSMF is responsible for submitting all required paperwork to Corresponding Secretary in a timely manner). President has been working with Bonnie Blink. Jackie Spiars will be the Show Chair and plans are underway. LSMF will coordinate with President and Mary Speer to ensure that National Specialty fundraising is not impacted.
  1. Additional topics for discussion:
  • Individual board members provided names for consideration for nominating committee (Paula Lange, Cynthia Stewart and Chuck Cuthbert)
  • The MCOA Handbook needs to be reviewed and approved by the current board. .Mary DeLisa will resend this document to all board members via conventional email not just the MCOA BOD site.

The Handbook Revisions were ready for approval in the spring of 2011 and the previous BOD decided to hand it over to the new BOD to review and approve.

  • There was a request to hold mentorship programs at the nationals that would allow additional mentors and speakers for the Judges Education.
  • Linda Cain mentioned that it should become a policy that the JE budget includes enough funds to ensure that the MCOA presentation could be presented by approved presenters at various club events. It was explained that JE submitted a budget that included expenses to have presentations and it was approved. It was also discussed that a motion was made at the annual meeting to encourage Regional Clubs to have mentors at their supported shows.
  • The AKC Puppy handout that is supplied with AKC registration paperwork needs to be reviewed updated and resubmitted to AKC so that the information is current. Mary will resend to the BOD for input within a week and the BOD will need to send their suggested revisions back to Mary within the next two weeks.
  • The BOD needs to revisit the Ohio Mastiff Club motion. Jennifer requested that possibly we could do a one-time motion to allow them to become a MCOA sanctioned club instead of unilaterally changing the requirements. We are waiting on input from the Ohio club regarding their code of ethics. Jennifer will contact the club for status report. The outstanding issue becomes length of time as a club (the MCOA requirement is 5 years) and the club must have a code of ethics that is in alignment with the MCOA’s code of ethics.
  1. Motion to adjourn submitted by Becky and seconded by Jennifer. Meeting ended at 7:32 Pacific time.