Summarised Report of the General Council Meeting held on 11th August 2010
The President, Dave Herring opened the meeting and welcomed the members present and said that he hoped that it would be a good and fruitful meeting.
The Chairman reiterated the President’s welcome and thanked everyone for giving up their valuable time to attend. He thanked those members that had responded to his requests for items to be discussed at General Council meetings and assured those that had written in but whose items were not on the agenda today, that they would be on some future agenda.
Finally he asked that all business be conducted for the benefit of the society and its members and through the chair.
Apologies for absence were received from Dave Hislop who had work commitments and Gordon Grist who had been ill only very recently.
The Minutes of the GC meeting held on 8th May 2010 had been slightly amended in response to correspondence received about them and were accepted.
Matters arising
Enforcing the Guidelines – a notice re this statement was included in the July/August issue of the magazine and it was also included in the letter to all members of the Judges panels following a decision taken at the May meeting of the General Council.
Blue Cube - The Secretary and Roger Carr gave a brief outline of progress to date with the problems with the damp in the offices and in relation to “Blue Cube”, a neighbouring property. The council supported the action taken to date and also approved the plans that are in hand for having the problem rectified.
Plastic rings - The Secretary informed the meeting that the matter was still ongoing and that he hoped to have samples of the correct specification available for the next meeting in November.
Vet at The Club Show update – The Chairman informed the meeting that despite numerous approaches to veterinary practices, it had not been possible to secure the services of a Vet to sign the necessary paperwork at the Club Show to allow birds to be taken out of the country, adding that this would not prevent exhibitors from Ireland bringing birds to the show, but they would have to make their own arrangements to get documents signed to take them back home.
The services of a vet had been secured to be on call for the duration of the show so that it can be held within the requirements of the DEFRA licence.
Minutes of NCA meetings re AGM and Management meeting in June
These minutes have been circulated for information and a brief discussion took place regarding the attempts by the NCA to meet with the IOA in order to form a federation and become part of COM.
Eire BS update
The Chairman advised the meeting that the situation with Eire BS remains unchanged and until such time as the ownership of the society is proved the suspension of the Associate membership of Eire BS remains in place.
Convention 2010
The Chairman gave a brief report on the success of the Convention and thanked those members who had worked so hard to ensure its success adding that many letters had been received congratulating the society on the Convention and some with the hope that the next one would again be held at the same venue; but of course, that is a decision for this General Council sometime in the future.
New General Council – The Way Ahead
A number of letters had been received in response to the Chairman’s request for ideas for taking the society forward and it was decided to split the members into two groups to discuss various topics and come back into the meeting with some proposals.
A number of ideas and proposals were suggested on putting incentives into place to attract new members and also retain existing ones, on promoting the society outside of the fancy and communications with both members and Area/Associated societies.
It was decided that a couple of members from each group would go away and discuss the various ideas and suggestions and come back to the November meeting with some firm proposal for the General Council to discuss.
Following on from these discussions, it was agreed to send a summarised report to all Area Societies following General Council meetings.
Rules amendments
The Secretary advised the meeting that the original rules had been up-dated and will appear on the society website in the very near future.
A number of rules require up-dating following the reduction in size of the general Council and the Secretary agreed to bring these to the nest meeting.
Woking 2011
Roger Carr gave a brief update on the ideas that he and Fred Wright have in mind for this event that will include lectures, show, sales day and the Society Annual General Meeting.
More details of the event will be published when speakers and judges etc have been confirmed.
Best Practice Guidelines
Copies of these Guidelines had been circulated and a number of minor amendments suggested including the title of the documents which will now read Advisory notes for Show Managers, Secretaries and Stewards; when these have been approved, they will be made available on the society website and on request from the society office.
Chairman / Secretary referrals
FA1 DVD Mick Freakley and Ian Ainley have donated £1 to the Society for each copy of their FA1 DVD and have indicated that they would like the proceeds to be used to promote the Budgerigar Society possibly in the form of a promotional DVD.
Dave Whittaker has made contact with the producers of the FA1 DVD and will be meeting with them later to discuss a promotional DVD in more detail.
Website Blog
Mick Freakley has suggested that the Society consider adding a Blog to The Budgerigar Society website. The Chairman outlined the idea and added that it would require someone that is prepared to commit a considerable amount of time to maintain such a blog to ensure that it is up to date and kept to the form it is intended. After some discussion it was felt that the best way forward at present would be to bring the website more user friendly and up to date and also use it to promote the Society more and also add more news, features and articles. Dave Herring offered to help with this.
Archive material
Gren Norris informed the meeting that he had quite a lot of material that could be used by the Society that would help form an in depth history of the Society. It was agreed that a note would appear in the magazine inviting anyone with such material to donate it to the society if they so wished.
Date of future meetings
The General Council will meet again on Saturday 13th November 2010, Saturday 5th February 2011 and Saturday 16th April 2011. The Annual General Meeting will be held in conjunction with “The Woking Event” on Saturday 7th May 2011. A Judges Panel meeting will be held at the Budgerigar Society’s offices on Sunday 17th April 2011