News From The February 2009 GCCF Council Meeting

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News From The February 2009 GCCF Council Meeting

Written by Administrator

Thursday, 19 February 2009

Many thanks to Jen Lacey for her personal observation and recollection of the February 2009 GCCF Council delegates meeting.

A report on the Council meeting yesterday for those interested. It's
my personal recollection and comment, written last night in answer to
a query on UKcats, and therefore will not cover every topic and
others may wish to give additional information, or another viewpoint.

I expect most people want to know about Our Cats, the GCCF Official
Journal, and the future publication of judge critiques. GCCF had
received nothing from Axis Cook until late Tuesday evening when the
Chairman had an email. The bottom line was AC couldn't continue
publishing unless GCCF paid money for the insertion of judge reports
(at a price to be negotiated). No delegate that I could see wanted to
take that route. They wanted to part company with Mr Illingworth and
AC ASAP, despite the loss of an official journal.

However, there has to be certain amount of caution about this. The
last thing GCCF wants is any legal battle. The unpicking of the
contract has to be done with the solicitor's advice, and carefully.
Now Council's intention not to offer any support is crystal clear the
work to do this can begin. At the same time various suggestions on
ways to provide reports (mostly web based) will be considered, and the
most practical way worked out. Watch the GCCF website for
announcements. I'm sure there will be information when all contractual
obligations have been dealt with - hopefully not too long.

Nick Mays gave a statement during the tea interval. He described his
own dealing with Mr Illingworth and how it became obvious to him that
there were problems. It's doubtful that even the deal with Our Dogs
over the title was concluded. Nick said he so much wanted OC to be a
success, continuing to build on 120 years of history, but he had been
mistaken, and gave a personal apology to those present and to all
clubs and individuals who had lost money.

Further discussion on the Supreme also took a fair amount of time. The
total loss this year was about £48k with £21k of this actual rather
than office expense. The intention is to cut out the actual in 2009-10
and work to reduce further expenditure in the medium term.

The finances didn't make happy reading. It's not good to have
particular problems like the Supreme expense compounded by the effects
of a recession. Don't think that nobody takes notice. Discussions are
ongoing both on the Supreme Show Committee and the Finance Committee.
Plans and projections of financial costs will be given, and minutes of
committees published. It was spelled out by the Chairman that to gain
support from the wider fancy exhibitors have to know what is
happening. The specific proposal to make the Supreme Committee
annually electable in Council was lost as the majority were of the
opinion that a team with the right experience and cohesion couldn't be
put together that way. However, the discussion was not without acerbic
comment!

It was good to know that EC members have been making a great deal of
individual effort. A number have been going into the office, both to
work and train new staff. I was interested at the new remit the
Genetics Committee has. It's reactivated and looking at subjects like
DNA testing, preparing to work with DEFRA on its 'Welfare Advice', and
looking at ways to pre-empt any attack on pedigree cat breeding and
showing such as took the dog world by storm in the TV programme a
few months back.

The 'housekeeping' matters such as revised reg pols , SOPs and judge
promotions were all approved. Not a lot of time was given to the
revised philosophy, rules and forms for the training of judges &
stewards, which was perhaps a fair indication that those who had
worked on it had done a good job in their revision , dealing with what
was most needed. The only change that was made to the proposals was
that assessments will still be able to be carried out at seminars.

Other points of interest included:
it was the revised version of the rule change that included vet nurses
at vetting-in, rather than students, that went through.
on-line payments are still being investigated, particularly re the
cost and logistics of setting up the system in the office, the legal
aspect of the absence of a written signature, security, and the best
system. There should shortly be a visit to the Kennel Club as it was
thought theirs was closest to what GCCF wants,
the plight Scottish Wild Cat had a mention in AOB - something not to
be forgotten

There was quite a lively discussion on valid reasons for show
abandonment at the end as I had to leave to catch my train. It seemed
to be concluding on impossibility to use the show hall - so waist high
water yes, wintry weather no. Possibly further clarification will be
forthcoming.

Jen

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