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NPGA Board of
Directors Meeting
Shreveport, Louisiana
June 10-11, 2004
Thursday, June 10, 2004
President Aaron Esterline called the
meeting to order at 8:02 AM.
Present were President Aaron
Esterline, Vice President Ray Hoyt, Secretary Mark Adkins,
Treasurer Linda Henwood, Directors Lynda Gredin, Mary-Beth
Guenther, Joyce Hubbard, Red Mertens, John Murray, Andy
Nash, Scott Noffsinger, Cheryl Rogers, Sue Seiler, and
Business Manager Dori Lowell. Absent were Bill Granger,
Carol Shea-Hepner, and Theresa McPhedran.
Pres. Esterline welcomed new Directors
Scott Noffsinger and Cheryl Rogers to the Board.
Vice President’s Report
Vice President Hoyt had nothing new to report at this time.
Secretary’s Report
Secretary Adkins had distributed his report. Read into the
record were two motions voted on after the Jan. Board
Meeting. These were the approval of the minutes and the
By-Law change of the term limits of Vacancy Replacement
Directors under Article IV Directors and Officers, Section
4.2 Vacancy Replacement Directors. The change approved by
the Board reduces the Vacancy Replacement Director term from
six years to two years.
Treasurer’s Report
Treasurer Henwood reported that as of April 2004 NPGA
has a loss of approximately $7000. Most of the loss is due
to the cost of MEMO.
Central Office Report
• Handout distributed to Board members with the latest
figures through May 6th.
• The office was a bit slow for the early part of spring
with an increase in workload starting in April.
• We are slightly behind last year in the number of
registrations processed, but anticipating that will be
caught up by summer.
• The only foreseeable large expense would be for another
filing cabinet for additional items that will be stored at
Central Office.
• A bid was received for the programming required to add a
National Champion designation on the certificates. Donna
Kohler has done our programming in the past and has
indicated that it should only take 4-5 hours work to add and
test the programming. This would run in the neighborhood of
$150 - $200.
• I have not yet obtained the skeleton from Ellen Kritzman.
The Skeleton is currently in the custody of Peggy Madonia.
Moving the Skeleton from convention to convention would
require significant planning and possible cost. I would like
to discuss with the new JTC chair if this is something they
would like to have before taking possession of it and then
we would have to store it.
• Historically, we have prepared the annual roster as of
March 1st every year. At least that was in place when I took
over the office. Spring is the busiest time for the office,
so I would like to propose that the 2005 Roster be cut as of
February 1st instead. This will give me more time to
organize files and collect data in preparation for the
roster. This will be after the January meeting so the
officers and any committee changes would be in place by
then.
• The report was accepted.
Organization Study Committee Report
The committee has continued to discuss the structure of
the organization, and recommended the following changes
(attached as Exhibit A) to standing committees and
departments of NPGA. In addition, these changes implement a
formal “chain of command” for all positions, which the Board
has implemented (either by employment, appointment, or
contract).
In addition to the following changes
to the Rules and Regulations, we have also completed updates
to the Job Descriptions. We request that the Board implement
these changes now, and then the person that each position
reports to work with the head of each committee/department
and the coordinators to define goals and verify that the job
descriptions are as accurate as possible prior to the
January 2005 Board Meeting.
Motion # 2004 – 16 Passed
Proposed By Seiler/Hubbard
The Organization Study Committee report be adopted,
including the Mission Statement, Organization
Objectives, Committees (deleting Section H regarding the
Certification Committee and renumbering the subsequent
item) Coordinators and Departments. The recommendations
regarding the judges replaces Sections 8 with the
exception that Section A 3 be changed to reflect that
the written test need not be repeated for two additional
JTS’s held at regularly scheduled Conventions. The fees
for the written test are increased to $25. The
Arbitration Committee will be made up of a Committee
Chairperson and three members of the Board.
All Rules and Regulations and Show Rules changes be
amended to reflect the changes proposed by the
Organization Study Report.
Yes: Adkins, Gredin, Guenther, Henwood, Hoyt, Hubbard,
Mertens, Murray, Nash, Noffsinger, Rogers and Seiler.
No: None Absent: Granger, Hepner and McPhedran.
Champion Challenge Report
The committee worked to develop a Champion Challenge
class, which would have given wethers with 12 “Best Wether”
awards an alternative in which to show instead of continuing
to show in their regular part of the shows. The Board had no
appetite to pursue this at this time. The following motion
was made instead.
Motion # 2004 – 15 Passed
Proposed By Gredin/Henwood
Modify Show Rule D 7 to read: After receiving 12 “Best
Wether” recordings a wether is no longer eligible to
compete for “Best Wether”. Effective January 1st 2005
Yes: Adkins, Gredin, Henwood, Hoyt, Hubbard, Mertens,
Murray, Noffsinger and Seiler. No: Guenther, Nash and
Rogers. Absent: Granger, Hepner and McPhedran.
Affiliated Clubs Report
Affiliated Clubs report was approved.
Arbitration Committee Report
Vice-President Hoyt advised that there is one
arbitration case pending. The report was approved.
Breed Standard Committee Report
• The committee finished the changes to the Breed
Standard as well as updating the Guidelines for Judging
Pygmy Goats.
• There have been no inquiries from members so far this
year.
President Esterline will inform the Chair that the color
chart needs to be done by January 2005.
The report was accepted.
Certification Committee Report
No animals have been reviewed this period.
Progeny Division: We have received eleven new progeny
applications since January 1st, 2004. This brings the
current total of applications to 197 since June 1990. This
is a significant increase over last year when we had 11
applicants for the entire year. We have had one goat
complete the process and have been approved this year.
The report was accepted.
H.E.R. Committee Report
The Board acknowledged receipt of the report.
Judges Training Committee Report
• The Showmanship Manual has been approved and is now
available.
• I worked with the Webmaster to set up and maintain an
online “portal” for judges. Each judge has a unique user
name and password to logon to the portal and has been it is
his/her responsibility to regularly check the portal.
• I have notified all judges that communications will
normally be sent via email, with important items also posted
on and accessible from the judge’s portal. Judges have been
advised in a timely manner of Board actions.
• I’ve started writing procedures for JTC activities,
including written tests and Judges Training Seminar (JTS).
The procedures will include basic requirements but also be
flexible for conditions, especially at the JTS. This working
guideline for the JTC Chairperson and JTC members should
make future transitions much smoother. My goal is to have
that manual completed by the end of this year.
• All judges were provided a list of suggested questions and
requested to submit a personal information article to MEMO
• The JTC is reviewing and updating the Judges Training
Handbook. When we are done we will send the handbook to all
judges for comments before submitting the handbook to the
Publications Committee for review. The goal is to have a
revised handbook ready for Board approval at the January
Board Meeting.
• Once the handbook has been updated, the written test will
be revised to reflect the updated information as well as the
Show Rules and Breed Standard changes made in the past
several years. The revised written test will be used for the
2005 candidates for judges license (See Motion 2004-17).
• The Champion measurements (height/cannon) were added to
the Report of Awards in 1992 to help with a HER Committee
study to verify that our Breed Standard measurements were
accurate and still appropriate for our breed. That study is
long completed and there is no current use for those
measurements. Pursuant to faults in the Guidelines for
Judging Pygmy Goats, judges will continue to take
measurements in the age class if an individual goat appears
too tall/short or its cannon appears too long/short for its
age and disqualify goats as applicable from their age
classes. Therefore, we are proposing that the current
requirement to measure the Grand Champion and Reserve Grand
Champion be discontinued and the Report of Awards revised
accordingly.
• There have been rules made over the years by the JTC
and/or Board that apply to judges and candidates.
Unfortunately, these rules are not compiled together in one
place that is readily available to judges, candidates, and
the Board. Since the R&R are included in the annual
Membership Roster and available on the NPGA website, all
rules for judges and candidates should be combined and
included in one section of the R&R.
Closed Session:
Linda Carpenter was appointed as the new JTC Chair.
The Board has directed that all judges will get one new
Showmanship Manual free; each additional Manual will be
$10.00.
Motion # 2004-17 Passed
Proposed By Adkins/Mertens
Judge no longer measure the wither height and cannon
bone length of Champion animals. Effective June 10th
2004.
B.2.d. be modified to remove “and the wither height and
cannon length measurement are taken”
B.2.e. be modified to remove “and /or taking
measurements”
Yes: Adkins, Gredin, Guenther, Henwood, Hoyt, Hubbard,
Mertens, Murray, Nash, Noffsinger, Rogers and Seiler.
No: None Absent: Granger, Hepner, and McPhedran.
Nominations Committee Report
• An accept/decline letter has been mailed to the six
automatic nomination candidates to ascertain whether they
intend to run for the next election.
• A form will be placed in MEMO for members to nominate
people from their Region.
Report accepted.
Public Relations Committee Report
• Our committee has been working on getting camera-ready
ads in place for our advertising campaign to begin. We will
have three different ad layouts to work with, and will be
made available in color and black &white formats. We
currently have two ad exchange offers in the works. One with
Kim Dewitt with Goat Magazine, and another with the Pygora
Breeders Association. With the final changes being made to
our ads everything will be in place by 5-12-04. I have been
working with the ad people with Hobby Farms magazine,
working out details in getting our ads in their
publications. Our committee will be in contact with other
publications to further pursue our advertising campaign.
• Our committee will be in contact with the Shreveport
Convention and Visitors Bureau to help promote our
convention in June.
• We would like to join with the Affiliated Clubs committee
in searching for local clubs who have the financial means to
join together in supplying the newly revised Showmanship
Manual to local 4-H and FFA clubs. This will better prepare
the children involved in these organizations for the local
fairs and increase their knowledge of the Pygmy Goat.
It was suggested that the tri-fold information sheet be
added to the website. The Report was approved.
Publications Committee Report
• As directed by the Board, the committee has continued
to review articles prior to publication in MEMO.
• We have continued to review the goat pictures before they
are added to the banner on the website.
• We reviewed the Showmanship Manual after the judges’
review and prior to the manual being sent to the Board for
final approval.
The report was approved.
Show Committee Report
• Show listings are being sent to the MEMO, United
Caprine News (that is a monthly newspaper) and to the Goat
Magazine (which is a bi-monthly magazine).
• 6 wethers have earned the Platinum Certificate, 12 have
earned the Silver and 67 have earned the Bronze Certificate.
• The Chapman’s will continue to make our National Champion
trophies.
• The discrepancies that were noted in the last report have
been corrected. We had three bucks that we could not
determine a date or judge for one of their wins and have put
unknown in the records. There were another 38 bucks with
only 3 wins because of the requirements before 1986 and we
have noted the win date to be 1/1/86 and in the judge column
it is noted “before 1986”. Problem corrected.
Jewel Floch resigned as Show Committee Chair. Karen Lynch
has been appointed as interim Chair. Report accepted.
Motion # 2004-20 Passed
Proposed By Hubbard/Nash
Show Rule 6. 8. b read: The recorded Grand Champion of a
restricted show shall record 1/3 credit toward a Grand
Champion win. 3 credits shall equal a full Grand
Champion win and the animal is no longer eligible to
compete at a restricted show. Any junior animal
receiving 1 full Grand Champion will not be eligible to
compete until age requirements are met.
B.2.f the judge will also note if the win is at a
restricted show.
Yes: Adkins, Gredin, Guenther, Henwood, Hoyt, Hubbard,
Mertens, Murray, Nash, Noffsinger, Rogers and Seiler.
No: None. Absent: Granger, Hepner and McPhedran.
Youth Committee Report
• From the Youth Section of MEMO, the ‘Why I Love
Pygmies’ contest has completed and winning entries in all
ages are being notified this week and final results and
articles will be sent to the MEMO before the June 1, 2004,
deadline for the next issue. The winners in each age group
will be presented a gift certificate from NPGA.
• May 1st, 2004, was the deadline for the youth scholarship
forms to be postmarked. I have received four and Fran Bishop
is sending me some that came to her. I am waiting a week or
so to make sure all mail is in. These entries will be sent
to all NPGA Youth Committee members and 2 scholarships for
$250.00 will be given to the most deserving entries.
• Darren Conerly has been great working with me to make sure
we have something for the youth in each issue. Even without
a contest, by advertising for information, pictures and
little notes are starting to come in from youth all over the
country.
• There was also a ‘Name the Easter Kids” contest that came
out in the last issue and I have been receiving names in the
mail this last week. Those will also go out to the committee
for judging in the next few weeks.
• I have submitted an article and pictures about some of our
new Alaska youth members that should appear in the next
MEMO. I would like to do a representation from each region
starting in next years MEMO’s if possible.
• If we can get some kind of schedule going so people know
ahead of time what we are putting in that issue, I think we
can get them excited about sending in information and
reading that section also. I would like to see many of these
articles and pictures appear in the youth section of the
website.
Report approved.
Memo Report
• Show results continue to be sent in without being
typed up on the templates. There are less than 10% that are
actually typed up on the proper templates. Of the ones that
are typed-up, over half are on the old templates (Jan’s) or
are makeshift templates meant to look like the one that is
freely provided. I’m still getting a steady increase in the
number of people submitting their photos on disc. It’s still
not a huge number but it does help. (President Esterline
will advise the MEMO editor to return Show results that are
not typed on the proper template).
• Advertising still remains hit or miss. It usually goes in
spurts and the cover ads are still relatively hard to get. I
have received a list of potential advertisers from Ray Hoyt
to which I have contacted. I received mixed responses mainly
due to many of the companies have a set budget for
advertising and it would have to wait until their next
fiscal year before they could even consider it. On the
inside, advertising has remained pretty consistent except
for the number of people in the breeder’s directory.
• Articles have been coming in small numbers. It has
increased over the same time as last year yet still lacks
the volume needed. There have been some very good articles
submitted and I’m hoping people will see the benefits of
this and start sending in their own. Now that I’m receiving
other goat publications, I will be actively looking for
articles that may apply to our NPGA members. Regional
Reflections have been very spares and usually come from the
same people.
• There are some great new ideas being implemented into MEMO
that will help introduce to our members our judges. Linda
Carpenter has brought back this idea so that all of our
members can get to know a little more about who’s going to
be judging your goats. I would still like to do the same
thing with our Directors. Even though the Bios are in MEMO
when you are running for election, it is brief and doesn’t
cover a lot. I believe the people would love to know more
about their representatives. The Youth Chair also has many
great new ideas that are getting everything back on track
and should spur a lot of excitement amongst the youth. The
report was approved.
Motion # 2004 – 18 Passed
Proposed By Mertens/Murray
Reduce the number of issues of MEMO to 4 instead of the
6 per year that we receive now. This will reduce cost
significantly. The MEMO will still retain its color
covers.
Yes: Adkins, Gredin, Guenther, Henwood, Hoyt, Hubbard,
Mertens, Murray, Noffsinger, Rogers and Seiler.
No: Nash. Absent: Granger, Hepner and McPhedran.
Meeting Adjourned at 5:10 PM.
June 11th 2004
Meeting called to order by President
Esterline at 8:13 AM. All the Directors were present except
Bill Granger, Carol Hepner and Theresa McPhedran.
Convention Bid Presentation
The Keystone Pygmy Goat Club made a presentation to host
the 2005 National Convention.
Closed Session:
Convention 2005 was awarded to the
Keystone Pygmy Goat Club, to be held in Hagerstown Maryland,
June 16th – 22nd, 2005.
Webmaster Report
• The breeder listing is updated in a timely manner (99
requests ytd.). The information displayed on the Breeders
List has been updated as the Board directed in January.
• A special section has been created for judges, which
allows them to login and see all communications that have
been sent. It also has links to helpful resources
(contracts, copies of report of awards, etc), and a form to
submit contact information changes to the JTC Chair, MEMO
Editor, Central Office and myself.
• Section titled “In Remembrance” was added to the website.
Three members who have recently passed away are listed.
• Merchandise and memberships continue to sell very well on
the website. Over $8000 has been collected through PayPal
and 85 members have joined since January 1st.
• More people are visiting the site. Last year the average
was +/- 5700 visitors per month. So far this year the
average is +/- 7600 visitors per month.
Discussion of placing ads on the website. Classified ad’s:
animals for sale need to have a registration number and the
person advertising needs to be a member of NPGA.
Report accepted.
Merchandise Report
• We started this year with a bang! We are over
$2,000.00 better than at this time last year. I really
appreciate your promoting our merchandise.
• We have 4 new items for sale: Windbreakers in Forest
Green, Hooded Sweatshirts in Royal Blue, Child T-Shirt in
Light Blue and Pocket Knives.
New ideas for shirts were discussed.
The report was accepted.
Old Business
A. Examination of Bites at Shows. After some discussion
this was withdrawn.
B. Establishing guidelines/video for JTS training. 2-3 hours
of film time would be needed to edit down to a quality
30-minute video. The video should cover confirmation and
training, it should be edited and dubbed with a voice over
from a script written by the JTC. Linda Carpenter, Judy
Starbuck and Mark Adkins will look into doing this. The cost
would be between $2-5 thousand.
C. Adding a symbol for national champions to the
registration and herd book. The symbol will be NATL.
D. Lowering the age of Senior Does to 18 months. This was a
50-50 issue with the membership. After some discussion this
was withdrawn.
E. Trophy Top (Riser). Discussion was about NPGA offering a
trophy top for sale. Andy Nash will get more details and
price up $200 for a clay cast.
New Business
A. Reimbursement of JTC travel expenses. Discussion on
how the 5 JTC members are picked for reimbursement for
attending the annual JTS, which resulted in motion #
2004-19.
Motion # 2004-19 Passed
Proposed By Adkins/Noffsinger
Rules and Regulations 4. L. 1b read JTC travel expense
will be handled as follows: Up to 5 JTC member’s and the
Chairperson will be reimbursed in full for
transportation to the annual JTC training seminars. JTC
members will notify the Chairperson 90 days prior to the
annual JTS of their total travel expense. The five
members with the lowest travel expense will be
reimbursed. Up to $100 may be reimbursed for travel to
and from departure and destination airports, to include
airport-parking charges, utilizing the least expensive
mode of transportation to be included in the total
expense for attending. Car expense to be reimbursed at
cents per mile pursuant to Federal Mileage Rate
Reimbursement Chart, not to exceed lowest airfare
verified from your area. Travel expense will include
airline tickets obtained with “airline mileage award”
credits with reimbursement not to exceed lowest verified
airfare from your area.
Yes: Adkins, Gredin, Guenther, Henwood, Hoyt, Hubbard,
Mertens, Murray, Nash, Noffsinger, Rogers and Seiler.
No: None. Absent: Granger, Hepner and McPhedran.
B. Increase membership dues by $5.00
for all categories except youth, senior and business. This
was withdrawn.
C. The illegal use of NPGA’s logo was discussed. It is up to
the Directors and members of NPGA to keep an eye out for
this illegal use of our logo and to report it to NPGA’s
President.
Closed Session:
President Esterline brought up the
fact that in 2006 NPGA will celebrate its 30th anniversary
and asked that we all think of ways to celebrate it.
The meeting was adjourned for the day
at 12:49 PM.
Respectfully Submitted
Mark Adkins
Secretary NPGA
Exhibit A
Organization Study
Approved by the NPGA Board of Directors
June 2004
Organization Mission
To support the Pygmy Goat in the United States by collecting
and disseminating information, protecting the breed
standard, and recording their lineage through our registry.
Organization Objectives
• Facilitate communication and cooperation among breeders
and researchers;
• Encourage the breeding and registering of characteristic
Pygmy Goats;
• Establish regional affiliate clubs;
• Gather and disseminate practical and theoretical knowledge
of the Pygmy Goat;
• Promote and popularize the breed by exposure and through
publications; and
• Facilitate the registration of certified Pygmy Goat seed
stock and their offspring.
Organization Chart
 Committees / Departments /
Coordinators
Several standing committees have been removed, and instead
the jobs will be done by a coordinator. These committees
are: Affiliated Clubs, Nominations, and Shows. The
Certification/Progeny committee is now a task included in
the Business Manager’s contract vs. a standing committee.
The Webmaster position is a member of the Publications
committee with a separate job description instead of its own
department. Details of these changes can be found in the
updated Rules and Regulations, sections 6, 7, and 8.
Arbitration / Compliance
The Arbitration Procedure has been overhauled. Section 9 of
the updated Rules and Regulations details the process of
filing a complaint and how that complaint will be handled.
The arbitration committee is composed of a chairperson and
three members of the Board of Directors chosen by the
chairperson each year.
The Board has also started the process
of amending the By-Laws to reflect the change in the job
description/title of the Arbitration Committee. This shall
require By-Laws section 2.5.c to be changed as follows:
“Expulsion: A membership may be terminated by expulsion.
Expulsion shall be made when the Board of Directors (by 2/3
vote) determines that such action is warranted by a
complaint filed through the Compliance Procedure.”
At the same time the By-Laws are
updated, the words “Arbitration Committee” will be replaced
with “Compliance Committee” throughout the “COMPLIANCE
PROCEDURE” section of the Rules and Regulations
Judges
The requirements for earning a judges license,
renewing/maintaining a license, and discipline of judges
were covered in more detail in section 10 of the updated
Rules and Regulations.
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