President Ola Jeanne McCollough called the meeting to order at 8:08 p.m. (EST). Present were Ola Jeanne McCollough, Joyce Fletcher, Lynda Bradley, Richard Nix, Dane LaJoye, Marby Kelly (AKC Delegate), Maureen Blackwood, Sharon Stoll, and Carolyn Gastley. Dick Wiest, Peggy Jackson, and Linda Jett, were absent.

Selection of Judges for National Specialty
Carl Gomes joined the first part of the meeting to discuss his proposal for the Selection of Judges at the BTCA National Specialty. He referred to the outlined proposal with conditions he previously submitted to the Board. He emphasized discussions he has held with other parent clubs (Bulldog, Doberman, German Shepherd, and Welsh Corgi), who all define this type of judge’s assignment as one of the most important. With no bias against All-Breed judges, Gomes feels breeder judges should be selected exclusively for National judging assignments. Many on the Board were in agreement. Ken Roux is the expected judge for 2011; therefore Gomes would like the proposal to become effective 2012. He firmly is unshakable regarding retaining breeder judges for the National Specialty. By doing this, the club is rewarding those eligible as there is no greater honor than judging a National Specialty. One of the requirements stipulated is to be a member in good standing of the BTCA. The over-all purpose is to encourage breeders to become judges and for the BTCA to show appreciation for the hard work made by certain individuals and their outstanding job in promoting the breed.

McCollough wondered how many breeder judges might be available, and Gomes answered with his estimate of approximately a dozen. Also mentioned was if voting runs on a 5-year cycle, plenty judges will be available with more becoming prominent over time.

Gomes feels that while the membership became involved in previous voting, it should be in the hands of the Board, as they have the authority to set a precedent by selecting qualified names. Ten or twelve judges would be selected based on recommendations and then the general membership to vote on the names.

There was some concern that judges for the Specialty had previously been presented to the membership and were voted upon, securing a slate for the next ten years. The dilemma is what should be done with those judges already selected. Would a re-vote from the membership be an acceptable answer? Yet, Fletcher reminded the Board that many of these judges have not been officially asked to judge the National.

Blackwood thought the existing list of judges selected should be reviewed, along with the wording or phrasing in the original motion. She cautioned the Board to be sensitive of the perception membership might have on changing protocol without input. A short discussion resulted in the realization there was a discrepancy in the list provided by McCollough, as decided upon March 2004, and what is understood today. Several judges were noted to no longer be judging or to have passed away, thereby eliminating several eligible candidates. <Stoll joined the meeting 8:27 PM >

Gomes reiterated his proposal’s premise which sets forth that the Board should control the selection process of judges, with the Board providing approximately ten names, rather than sending inquires to the membership, which he feels would dilute the process. It was felt this topic would require further discussion and a Special Meeting held to complete the decision process.<Gomes left the meeting at 8:29 pm>

Motion by Fletcher to hold a Special Meeting to discuss Gomes’s proposal, facts and list of judges should be on October 20, 2009 at 8:00 EST. Gastley seconded. Motion approved unanimously.

Board Reports

President – McCollough welcomed new members to the Board of Directors.

Vice President – No report.

McCollough requested the meeting enter Executive Session and left the meeting at 8:33 pm. Motion by LaJoye to approve Executive Session Special Meeting Minutes of June 22, 2009 as corrected, seconded by Stoll. Motion approved unanimously.

Motion to return to the regular session of the Board meeting made by Blackwood, seconded by Gastley. Motion approved unanimously,

McCollough rejoined the meeting at 8:50 pm.

Recording Secretary – Motion by Nix to approve the minutes of 4-19-09 as corrected, seconded by Blackwood. Motion carried. Bradley reports she mailed the historical Meeting Minutes binder to Deana Jones to Archive. Melany Anaya has turned over all materials and is acting as advisor to Bradley.

Corresponding Secretary – LaJoye stated he received a letter in May from AKC inviting the BTCA to participate in a Meet the Breed function located in New York this October. Carl Gomes will be leading this function. LaJoye sent Gomes’ name and contact information to AKC and they have contacted Gomes regarding this event. Fletcher has sent Gomes the Meet the Breed air box, which he has received.

LaJoye sent a letter to Melany Anaya, thanking her for all her hard work after serving two terms as Recording Secretary to the Board. LaJoye also reported he sent a letter to AKC to approve all affiliate clubs’ specialties for 2010, and AKC has acknowledged receipt. He has mailed many Breed plaques to various affiliate clubs.

LaJoye sent letters to judges Michael Staley and Jean Craig, inviting them to judge the BTCA Specialty, and they both have acknowledged receipt. Michael Staley sent back his letter to LaJoye and Craig stated she will forward her letter within a couple of days. Staley’s fee is $3 per entry, two nights in a hotel, and .55 a mile for the round trip from his home to Atlanta. 

Treasurer’s Report – Nix provided a year-end report with a breakdown of monies in each category, and the balance being $78,445.33. He did inquire about the BT of the Year being a self-supporting committee and no funding was required by the BTCA, yet reports a loss of approximately $1058.35. The Board agreed that this discrepancy needs to be clarified and will ask the Liaison, Peggy Jackson, to request a detailed report from the head of the committee, Ken Roux.

LaJoye suggested that serving the hors d'oeuvres at the event might have made a difference in the cost calculations, and should this fee be debited to the National Specialty instead of the BT of the Year. Otherwise, Nix reported there was a loss of $450 on the National Specialty overall, with Blackwood commenting there usually is a profit of $10,000. Fletcher inquired as to the reason for difference in revenue. LaJoye offered that the hotel was more expensive – the ballroom rental itself was three times that of 2008 – and using MB-F as a Superintendent was more costly as well. Additionally, the Health Committee and BTCA Silent Auctions did not receive as much income as in the past. Lastly, LaJoye stated that the show brought in forty less dogs and less RV spaces were rented as well.

Nix will file necessary paperwork with the Commonwealth of Massachusetts due November 15, 2009.

Nix made a motion to donate $1,637.02 to the Canine Health Foundation, seconded by Fletcher. Motion carried unanimously.

2010 National Specialty – LaJoye has a signed contract from the Holiday Inn Select in Atlanta and the charges are less than in Connecticut. Reservations were opened July 15, 2009 and the cost per room is $79, with one complementary room for every forty room nights booked. The host club will also receive a free Hospitality suite and one other complimentary room in addition to those for the forty nights.

The Host club will have two shows – one on Monday, which will be Sweeps and Regular classes and on Tuesday, Regular classes without Sweeps. LaJoye is currently working on finalizing the schedule of events and asked Gastley if she preferred the morning or afternoon for her performance events. She stated she preferred to do her off-site Agility in the morning and then have Rally and Obedience in the afternoon, mainly due to weather concerns and equipment set up.  Julie Haddy is the trial secretary this year. Gastley has two judges in mind and will make contact with each. Fletcher asked of the typical response to this event, in which Gastley responded that approximately twenty two dogs is average, and the fees are $30 and $15 to run a dog in two classes, which is a typical entry. Gastley asked LaJoye to check with the Host club as to what time would be an acceptable start time for performance events on the Tuesday afternoon

Wednesday the BTCA will have Sweeps at 8:00 am, the Futurity after lunch, and the BT of the Year at 6:30 pm. The Judges Seminar will occur the same morning as Sweeps. Thursday will have Regular classes and Annual Meeting that evening, with Best of Breed on Friday and finishing with the Awards Banquet that evening.

LaJoye has sent the show application to AKC a couple weeks previous and has been in contact/waiting for paperwork from  MB-F. He feels that even being more expensive than previous superintendents; MB-F is the best choice overall.

Marcia Terry will act as Assistant Show Chair and LaJoye reported to have most of his committee positions filled, but will be changing the representative in charge of Silent Action. Marby Kelly will act as Show Secretary and Sharon Stoll the vocalist.

Brook Berth is working on a logo for the show with a take-off on the Coca-Cola theme – “Things Go Better with Bostons”

Fletcher offered to assist Jason Shuckhart with the Banquet – taking reservations and working with the host committee. Currently, one task is finding a buffet for approximately $35 per person rather than $55 per person.

Fletcher made a motion to table the discussion of: AKC Sportsmanship Award Chair/proposal, Report on 2009 Boston Terrier of the Year, and Progress Report on 2010 Futurity to the next meeting when the Liaison, Peggy Jackson would be present to discuss. Seconded by Stoll. Motion approved unanimously.

AKC Delegate Report - Kelly stated she is looking into the situation of the dog whose ILP testing resulted in it being listed as a Boston. She reports the situation is being investigated, with AKC judges reviewing the dog to see if it should be qualified as a Boston Terrier. Several members thought breed clubs should have input in the decision process and Gastley offered to be contact for any questions and/or concerns. Mixed Breeds have their own category for performance competition; therefore the ILP category is designed for purebred dogs.

Not much progress has been made regarding the AKC realignment of groups, despite the confusion and frustration over the Poodle being considered in the Companion rather than the Sporting or Working groups, which would be a more appropriate choice. Kelly will be attending the AKC Delegate’s meeting in New Jersey in September 15, 2009 and will report any new findings on the realignment.

Fletcher asked of the reasoning for the Bred by Exhibitor being required to remain on a dog through the Winners class. Kelly explained the desire and reasoning is for the individual breeder to show a specific dog through the entire process and to its championship.

McCollough brought the idea of advocating members staying in the host hotel at the National to support the club, and Fletcher suggested making this part of her message in the next issue of the Coast to Coast. Fletcher also reminded everyone to register puppies for the Futurity by 4 months of age.

Proposed New Members - LaJoye brought the attention of the Board to the ballots he mailed, complete with return address and postage, and to return responses to him within 10 days of this meeting. All prospective members have signed the club’s Code of Ethics.

Unfinished Business

William J. Degan Trophy for Winner’s Dog – Fletcher asked the Board to refer to the extensive research provided by Deana Jones in order to establish if Sarah Kennedy is eligible to receive and retire the Winner’s Dog Challenge Trophy. She won Winner’s Dog in 1999, 2002, and 2009 and according to how the rules were stated in the 2009 Specialty catalog and if AKC had to make a decision based on information provided; Kennedy is eligible for the trophy. Fletcher made a motion to send Sarah Kennedy the Winner’s Dog Trophy, seconded by LaJoye. Motion approved unanimously.

Moving forward, wording in the 2010 premium list will need to be corrected and clarified. LaJoye to send a letter to Jones to request she forward the trophy to Kennedy. He will also send a letter to Kennedy, directly informing her of the Board’s decision.

Towels Left Over from National – Fletcher stated that according to Jackson, the club had left over towels from the Specialty, and wanted Board recommendation of what to do with the items. LaJoye suggested making the leftover towels saleable items through Ways-N-Means in Atlanta, seconded by Gastley. Motion approved unanimously. She also suggested that if leftover items become available at the next Specialty, the decision would be made at the show, since acting timely is key.

New Business

Voting for new Members – covered in Proposed New Members report above.

Health Committee Survey – Blackwood presented an updated Health Committee Survey, which requests the status of health problems with the breed to help determine priorities in addressing problems. This survey is distributed once every ten years and it not limited to show dogs, since the committee is interested in the status of the breed as a whole.

A new program by The Canine Health Institute, will offer to post the survey free of charge on the Orthopedic Foundation of America (OFA) website, www.offa.org. To find results, it would be placed under the “Breed Club Surveys” which will list many different breeds’ results. Because everything is computerized, using this method will yield immediate results.

People will be offered two ways to complete the survey, either by paper copy or online, both being anonymous and confidential. For those that want to complete the survey by hard copy, the survey will be posted on the OFA website or mailed upon request. OFA could not provide a timeline or guarantee when the survey will be posted, due to OFA time constraints of data entry.

LaJoye suggested submitting a note informing membership of the survey in the Coast to Coast. Blackwood stated she needs Board Approval to move forward with this project before distributing the information to the membership. LaJoye made a motion for Board approval of the survey and to place an explanation letter in the C2C and link to OFA on the website so the membership can participate, seconded by Fletcher. Motion approved unanimously.

Breed Standard (letter from Norm Randall) – McCollough stated that every member of the Board should have received a  letter from Norm Randal, asking the Board to move forward on the motion for revising the breed standard. This motion had been discussed at the Annual meeting and the motion failed.  The original Breed Standard Committee was dissolved more than 2 years ago. If anything further is to be done in the future relative to the breed standard, a new committee will be formed.  LaJoye to send letter a letter to Norm Randall explaining that the Breed Standard committee was dissolved over two years ago and he will reiterate the verbiage as written in the draft Minutes of the 2009 Annual Meeting minutes.

Trophies for 2010 National – Kelly has been approached regarding expressed disappointment with trophies at the National this year and she felt the presentation was lackluster. Nix would like items other than towels or crate pads to be offered, which are often presented at past BTCA and other shows. LaJoye as the trophy chair is open to ideas for other items to be offered. The budget has traditionally been set at $1500 per year. Stoll volunteered to assist with the trophy table.

Blackwood wondered if the trophy budget of $1500 reflects the monies collected for trophy sponsorship, to which LaJoye stated it did not. She also thought last minute changing of trophy sponsorships and not feeling the value of the prize matches the donation, can often lead to less than positive feelings on the part of the contributor/exhibitor.

It was suggested to push catalog advertising, specifically the ¼ page ads, which will create additional funds. Targeting affiliate clubs to submit these ads would give them a chance at more exposure.

C2C - Nix brought his concerns to the Board regarding the growing expenses associated with the publishing and mailing of the C2C club newsletter. This last issue incurred a loss of $2700, due to costs of $2500 for printing and $1200 for postage, while only receiving $1022.

As the liaison, Fletcher feels there is a couple factors for the size and thereby cost of the magazine. Committee reports are included and the club doesn’t send separate mailings for show packets or the annual meeting announcement.  She feels the C2C is one benefit every member of the BTCA receives and is also very well received.

To help offset expenses a suggestion was made to possibly sell the front cover space, but Fletcher was opposed, as it would push the publication from a newsletter to the status of “magazine”. Nix voiced that he feels the C2C is already a magazine.

Limiting one copy per household was another idea or to not send via First Class. Nix reminded the Board however, that membership was promised only first class mailings with a $5 increase in dues. Since the printer does the mailing, it is difficult to limit the number of copies per household. The C2C is currently printed with the least expensive paper Fletcher commented, asked the Board for any further suggestions to cut costs without cutting quality, to contact her.

Some other suggestions by Fletcher were proposed:

• Remove all instructional forms and directions for: Futurity, BTCA Top Boston, Membership and any other forms that may be included. All this information can be found on the website and a link can be provided in the C2C.
• Affiliate clubs -Accept only one-page advertisements and charge for any additional. Limit affiliate club show results to one page including photos
• To reduce the number of pages, remove “filler pages” and limit pictures when necessary.

<Nix left the meeting at 10:05 PM>

Health Committee Grant proposals – Blackwood presented several health grant proposals that the Health Committee feels will benefit Boston Terriers and if approved, the Canine Health Foundation will match BTCA donations. Blackwood reminded the group that there is adequate money in the donor advised fund, has already been put aside for this type of cause, and will in no way affect the BTCA Treasury. She is requesting Board approval to inform the Canine Health Foundation the BTCA will participate in these grants. The total requested is $5500 for the following grants:

• Grant #1105 - “Understanding the Dynamics of Canine Influenza Virus: Transmission in Dog Populations and Intervention Strategies for Reducing Transmission” - the results of this study will provide valuable information to dog show organizers responsible for the health of dogs, and others in group settings. The Health Committee is requesting a $2500 donation to participate in this grant
• Grant # 1204 – “Development of a Diagnostic Method for Canine Atopic Dermatitis” – the proposal is to develop a simple blood test to tell if a particular dog is hyper-reactive to certain items. A $1500 donation
• Grant #1188A – “Capacity for Respiratory-based Thermoregulation in Brachycephalic breeds – to investigate how brachycephalic breeds can tolerate air travel. Researchers would like to have perimeters outlined so owners and airlines know safe temperature ranges for these breeds. Asking for a $1500 donation.

Fletcher made a motion to approve the funding of these proposals as outlined and release money for these grants, seconded by Stoll. Motion passed.

The 2009 AKC Canine Health Foundation National Parent club Canine Health Conference This conference is a 2-day seminar, previously held two years ago, with world class speakers on canine health. The request for reimbursement was rushed to Nix for the $200 application fee for this course.  Sonya Baird, who works for the University of Mississippi, has agreed to be the BTCA representative and attend the seminar in October. Last time she attended, she made DVDs on the seminars she attended and presented a poster of information to the Health Committee. Sonya will be able to absorb the information presented, collect literature and gain up-to-date knowledge on different health issue in canines. Fletcher suggested to Blackwood, Sonya could report back to the Board on her findings and outcomes. Information can be placed on the website and links to the correct resources. Suggestions that a DVD created from the seminars could be for sale, or at least a link of where to find further information. In some years past, Blackwood commented that hard copies of the material were often provided.

New Members - Donna Berman (VA), Dennis Dean (NV) Sheila Patterson Helton (NC), Kyle J. Homan (OH), Barbara Kelly (WI), Pamela Kruse (WY), Terry Lindsey (NY), Linda Mitcham (CA), Cathryn Murray (TX), Barbara Naas (CO), Sherry Pender (CO), Sterling Rabalais (LA), Linda Ryan (KY), Gayle Smith (AL), Mary Ann Staehle (OH) – Welcome!

A motion was made by LaJoye to adjourn, seconded by Fletcher. Meeting adjourned at 10:26 p.m. (EST).

Respectfully submitted,
Lynda Bradley
BTCA Recording Secretary