U.S. Complete Shooting Dog Association
July 19, 2008

The U.S. Complete Shooting Dog Association held its annual meeting at the Masonic Lodge in Punxsutawney, PA.  The President, Carl Bishop, called the meeting to order at 1:10 pm.  Voting members then signed in with a check on the Proxies that members held.  All present introduced themselves and the meeting began with the reading of the minutes.  Jerry Murray made a motion that the minutes be approved as read and Jim Bush seconded the motion.  Next the treasurer report was read and accepted by all. 

Rich Warters then took the floor to update everyone on our sponsor Precise.  The agreement is much the same as last year; however they will want a membership list and a poll to find out how many of our members are feeding their product.  Strong reminder to have our sponsor mentioned in the articles and banners in the pictures. Rich has agreed to stay on as the liaison with Precise.

Next on the agenda was the change in the bylaws.  Rich made a motion we make the change on the Article 4 Section 1.  Art seconded the motion and all approved.  Then Art made a motion we accept the change to Article 7 section 1 with Rich seconding the motion and all approved. The Board of Directors will be the National Officers. Club presidents will be voting members of US Complete.

Art Mourino then took the floor to cover his proposal for the Amateur Invitational.  It will be held at Buckeye Plantation from 12/5 to 12/7/08. Questions were then raised regarding paying the entry fee three months in advance and the format of 12 dogs.  Jerry Murray brought up using 16 dogs.  After a lengthy discussion is was decided to go with the 12 dog format.  15 votes for 16 dogs and 25 votes for the 12 dog format. 

Then the discussion turned to whether we had to name a mandatory champion at the Amateur Invitational Championship.  After a discussion, a vote was called for and 11 voted yeah and 29 voted no. 

Next the wording in the rule book for the Amateur Invitational was discussed and again after a lengthy discussion it was agreed that the first sentence of that section be changed to “This Championship will be held annually.”  All agreed.   It was also agreed that the entry fee did not need to be paid 3 months in advance.  All other aspects of Art’s proposal were agreed to. For clarification, a call back may be conducted on the third day, but is not mandatory.

Discussion then turned to Regions and Regional Championships.  First it was unanimously agreed to accept the West Coast Region as California, Nevada, Oregon, Idaho and Washington with Mike Spies as the Regional President.  In addition the Northeast Region would remain the same with the addition of NJ.  Then Delmarva region would become the Mid Atlantic Region and include PA with Meredith Jones being the Regional President.  Due to the lack of participation by the International Region it would remain the same and is currently not eligible for a Championship.  The Southeast Region would now include NC, SC, TN, AL, GA, FL with Phil Culbreth currently the Regional President.  Great Lakes would include OH, Michigan, and WV with Ed Teiga Regional President.  Mid West Region would be Iowa, Missouri, Kansas & Nebraska.  North Central consisting of Minnesota, ND, SD & Wisconsin with Scott Berg the Regional President.  New York, Ontario, Quebec are to be a Region with Vince Principato the Regional President.  These regions can change as the regions grow and it makes sense. IL, IN and KY will stay the same with Frank Masko as Regional President. All regions need to submit their proposed region names, presidents, and championship dates as soon as possible.

The following Regions qualify for Championships in 2008-2009 trial year: Mid Atlantic, Southeast, IL/IN, Northeast, Great Lakes, North Central.

The president gave a strong reminder to all members that a Region must have 5 active clubs with each holding at least 1 trial a year.  Beginning this year, the President will send a list of Championships to the American Field so that everyone knows what will be held each year and the dates. Championships will not conflict with each other. No weekend trials will conflict with the National Championships.

The location for the National Open was then discussed.  Two sites were suggested, one being Cooper Black in Patrick, South Carolina with Phillip Culbreth chairing the event or Dick Cross, in Boydton, VA and Mid Atlantic Region hosting.  It was decided that the Championship would be held at Cooper Black 3/11-3/17/09 and the Futurity would follow at Dick Cross in Virginia from 3/19 to 3/22/09.

Bobby Phillips said there was no change in the display at the hall fame without money committed for the project.

Futurity Report was short with the changing of officers to include Meredith and Judy Jones as President and Vice President of the Futurity with Yvonne continuing the secretarial duties this year.

It was agreed by all to keep the Ad Refunds at $75.00 this year.

Discussion then turned to the Website and Newsletter.  Due to the current trouble with the website, it was agreed to begin using Newsletters this year to keep members informed, until the website can be reconstructed and restarted.  After a short discussion of the problem and a report from Randy Hopkins, it was agreed to pay Boyte Enterprise the $800.00 that they have asked for reimbursement, with a request that we can keep our domain name.

A brief discussion then ensued regarding the Precise Top Dog Award with nothing being finalized.

This ended the old business and Rich Warters standing in for Tony Bingham, who was unable to attend, nominated the following slate of Officers for election:

                        President                     Jim Bush
1st Vice President        Ashby Morgan
2nd Vice president       Phillip Culbreth
3rd Vice President        Carl Bishop
Secretary/Treasurer     Yvonne McKeag

Art Mourino made a motion to accept the slate of officers and Jim Jones seconded the motion.  All approved.

The meeting was then turned over to our New President Jim Bush.  All members present then took time to thank Carl Bishop for all of his hard work the previous year.

First on the Agenda was Insurance, and our Not for Profit Status.  With our growth, it is time to look into a more formal insurance policy for the association and look at our filing status.  Jim Bush will work on this.

Jim asked Ashby Morgan to be the new Vice President of Marketing and Gary Ansell agreed to turn over to Ashby all the contacts of our current sponsors.  Phillip Culbreth then made a motion to have the Dog of the Year winners back in the American Field as our budget should allow this and it is good for our sponsors.  Rich Warters then seconded the motion and all approved. 

Rick Hamilton also requested copies of the pictures of the winners for their website.

Discussion then turned to Regional Presidents needing to approve the grounds and judges for the Regional Championships.  The National President needs to approve the National Championships grounds and judges.  Approved.

The message board was then discussed and consensus was that the chat room moderator would remove any reference to the U.S. Complete from the message board and it becomes a walking dog chat room. Gary Ansell has for action.

Phil Culbreth then made a motion to have the website professionally done and Carl seconded that motion and it was approved. Jim Bush has for action.

With the growth of the association, discussion then turned to the Win Certificates.  It was agreed with the changes expected in the website that the win certificates would no longer be issued automatically, but only when requested by the winner.  All present approved.

It was agreed upon to have the association purchase a laptop computer for the secretary.   

Next we discussed the membership. Jerry Murray brought up charging $10.00 per member and selling the membership as a Raffle to win something.  Instead it was agreed that a free membership with the trial chairpersons having a sign up form at the trial to be submitted to the secretary with the essential data forms.  Jim Jones made the motion to include an area for a do not release info clause and Ashby Morgan seconded it.  Additionally it was agreed to separately hold a raffle and Jerry Murray would be in charge of it.

A brief discussion was held on the minimum number of dogs to be entered for a championship.  No support was shown for requiring a minimum number and the discussion quickly changed to setting up a Rule book committee to handle rule changes and presenting them at meetings with the correct wording to assist in speeding up the meetings.  Art Mourino, Jerry Murray, and Phillip Culbreth agreed to sitting on this committee.

Use of electronic communication devices at a trial was discussed, acknowledging that AFTCA has already addressed this issue and we follow their rules.

Discussion then turned to the request of recognizing Gun Dog Stakes.  General consensus was that we need to see a set of standards and rules for Gun Dog Stakes before the members could vote on it.  Jerry will assist in putting this together.

Jim Bush will work on calling all the Regional Presidents to put together a list of the Regional Championships.

Rich Warters requested that the minutes reflect the Association’s appreciation of Bobby Phillips’ and Mike Traxler;s time and hard work serving as Vice Presidents.

And the meeting was adjourned at 5:30 pm

Respectfully submitted

Yvonne McKeag