Soft Coated Wheaten Terrier Club
Of Southern California
General Meeting
July 29, 2012
The meeting was held at the home of Chuck and Bonney Snyder in conjunction with both our annual Pot Luck and the B-Match.
The meeting was called to order at 10:40 a.m. Connie thanked Chuck and Bonney for welcoming the club to their home. Connie also thanked Jeanine for presiding as the judge for the B-Match.
Roll Call:
A quorum was present. Attending was Rose Clime, Jeanine Flavell, Myrna Flavell, Merrillee Ford, Vickie Gosnell, Joan Johnson, Miriam Kahan, Mary Lindquist, Cecily Skinner, Jill Steging, Steve Steging, and Beverly Streicher, (all regular members): Nancy Graves and Laura Virant (associate members).
Minutes of the April meeting:
Approved as amended, after the correction with regard to Beverly’s retirement as rescue chair.
Report of the President:
One of the requirements to judge Great Western weekend is to present a critique after completing the assignment. The Judge’s critiques for Great Western are now due. Doreen Gordin has submitted hers; the others are on the way.
Report of the Secretary:
The Kitten Rodwell’s CD Rom of Great Western winners has been sent to Molly O’Connor for inclusion in Benchmarks. I received a card from Ilze Barron thanking the Club for co-dedicating Great Western to Bernie Barron’s memory.
Report of the Treasurer:
The Great Western raffle realized $2,393.00 this year.
| Category | Beginning Balance | Income | Expenses | Ending Balance |
| Rescue | 27,188.01 | 1,082.00 | 585.00 | $27,685.01 |
| General Fund | 8,942.04 | 868.00 | 1,772.58 | $8,037.46 |
| Cash Box | 250.00 | $250.00 | ||
| Total | 36,380.05 | 1,950.00 | 2,357.58 | $35,972.47 |
Rescue Report:
There have been four rescues. Anna Marzolino handled the rescue of Koa, now Buddy. SCWTCSC members Peter and Barbara Bowman adopted Alfie. Melissa Rosen, a daughter of club member Richard Rosen, adopted Matt. Bob, whose family relocated to Asia and had to leave him behind, has been taken to Bergit Kabel and subsequently adopted by Paul Birchall. There was one abort, an adoption that was scheduled to take place, but the surrendering family cancelled at the very last moment.
Unfinished Business SCWTCSC Taxes
H & R Block filed an extension for our club in March. Because of our 501c7 status, there are certain limitations and requirements, of which we must be mindful. One of these is that no more than 35% of our total club income may come from donations from outside sources. We are categorized as essentially a social and recreational entity, so the benefits are assumed to flow primarily to our members. SCWTCA is also a 501c7. Connie suggested that we offer a one-year associate membership to our rescue families to assure that the SCWTCSC satisfy the US government’s income balance requirements. This inclusion would have the highly desirable additional affect of introducing the new owner of rescued Wheatens to the SCWTCSC.
A motion was made, seconded, and passed to offer gratis, an associate membership of one year to individuals or families who adopt our rescued Wheatens. As 2012 is already half over, for the first year the membership will cover the remainder of 2012 and all of 2013.
Website
Jon Apogee reported that our club website averages 200 visits a day. There have been an astonishing 41,000 hits so far this year. The breeders and rescue sections are the two areas most visited.
Getting everything up online for the Great Western Specialty presented great challenges. However, getting the website infrastructure ready for Great Western boosted the website closer to completion in other areas. The website is now ready for shopping at the online boutique, a timely advantage to the club with the beginning of holiday shopping fast approaching. It is now possible to renew club membership online at only an addition charge of .51 cents. Jon is currently developing an App to take credit card payments from smart phones.
Jon sent out a survey to those who made use of the online options this year, soliciting their opinion of the changes that had come into effect. The survey was limited to ten questions, and had a very high percentage of responses. The results will be posted online soon.
Connie suggested adding an additional $40. to the postcard budget for next year to purchase a larger sized postcard, such as that used by Northern California for their specialty. The larger format would allow space for larger print and a bolder, easier to read design.
The “back door” into the website has been closed. Now that the website is secure, the minutes of the General Meetings will be posted once more, as will financial information, and the 2012 Membership Directory.
Membership
There are two new associate members.
Richard and Ellen Huberman, new associate members, have said that they are not receiving the SCWTCSC emails. Jeanine confirmed that they have been added to the SCWTCSC email group using the email address listed for them in the Membership Directory. She suggested that they check their spam box, and or reset their spam or junk mail filter.
Ways and Means Committee:
The hand towels, salt and peppershakers, mugs, and spoon rests are ready to be sold online, and at the Montgomery County shows in October. An order for the first vests has been placed. The towels will be approximately $16.00, and the vests $40.00.
Greeting Cards:
Four cards have been sent out. To Ilze Barron, for the death of her Wheaten, Rachel, a get well card to Beth Verner via Betty Chapman, a get well card to Lee Hurd, as well as for the death of his son, and a get well card to Jill Steging.
The SCWTCSC received a thank you card from Anna Marzolino thanking us for doing the Roving National Specialty.
Report from the Specialty Co-Chair
Merrillee thought that everything went smoothly. She thought the decorations were exceptional, the Raffle looked great as usual, and was pleased by the overall quality of the catered food.
Insurance
The premiums are due later in the summer, so Connie, Bonney, and Vickie have been actively researching our options. Bonney brought R.V. Nuccio to our attention because he covers the Los Encinos Club, and he specializes in non-profits. The coverage is from the Fireman’s Fund, and would cover liability, directors and officers, and medical up to $50,000. Based on Bonney and Connie’s conversations with Mr. Nuccio it is reasonable to estimate that $665.00 would cover all of our needs, which are substantially less than Los Encinos’s insurance requirements because we do not stage an all-breed show. This was very promising, but the catch is that rescue is not covered at all.
Our difficulty with Equisure has been that their coverage of rescue was nebulous and vague, lacking an explicit mention of rescue. When Jackie Whitham pursued the issue with Equisure’s representative, that individual stated that rescue was included in the term “club events”. Neither Jackie, Connie, nor the members of the previous board felt confident our club was adequately covered with that ambiguity. However, when Connie recently revisited Equisure’s website, there was a significant change. This year the website lists coverage for shows, club events, field events, workshops, and now separately and explicitly, rescue. Equisure would now cover us for everything. Some areas of coverage are much higher with Equisure than that which is offered through Mr. Nuccio. Therefore, Connie, Bonney, and Vickie will continue to analyze our options, including splitting our coverage and purchasing part of our coverage from the two companies. In the meantime, Vickie has sent Equisure a check.
The insurance team discovered an old policy from Traveler’s. There is no copy of the policy in our records, and we have been unable to discover what the policy covers, even after calling the company to inquire. It’s possible it is an orphan policy left from the Grooming Seminar held years ago at the home of Ann and Sam Leigh in Bell Canyon. The board plans to terminate this policy.
August General Meeting
There will be no General Club Meeting in August.
September General Meeting
Ann Leigh suggested holding the September General Meeting in Riverside, at the historic Mission Inn. A brunch and meeting will be scheduled for Sunday, September 23, 2012.
Fun Day
There was a discussion of Fun Day among the members who were present initiated by our awareness that fewer and fewer people are attending it. The cost of renting space at a park averages $400.00. A suggestion was made to host the event only in alternate years. Jill Steging instead encouraged us to consider brainstorming ways to improve Fun Day, making it more viable.
Suggestions which were made, and which the members decided to put into effect are; increase the element of human contact in ramping up for the event, talk about participation to all members and Wheaten owners, breeders to make a great effort to contact all their puppy people by phone, not just by a quick email, and encourage them to attend, rework the flyer, have a pot luck lunch to cut down attendance costs, eliminate providing a breakfast, and begin the events latter in the day so that people are not required to arrive early in the morning. This year the games will start at 11:00 a.m. instead of 10:00 a.m.
Beverly volunteered to chair Fun Day; Nancy Graves volunteered to be Beverly’s co-chair.
New Business
Great Western Raffle 2013
Jeanine Flavell and Myrna Flavell are stepping down after fifteen years chairing the raffle. Connie will chair the raffle next year with Beverly as her co-chair.
The Edward Keller Memorial Trophy
This trophy is awarded annually to the breeder of Winners Bitch at the National Specialty in Montgomery County, PA. The National Board has transferred the ceremony in which it is presented from the SCWTCA’s annual dinner to ringside after judging concludes Montgomery day. This trophy was set up as a perpetual trophy, which commits the Club to continue to support it. Carol Carlson has advised us that after 2012, the National Club would be out of inventory. The trophy is a bronze statuette of a running Wheaten mounted on a walnut base. A smaller version is present to the winning breeder to keep permanently, and it is the smaller version that National is asking our club to replenish. The cost to reissue the statuettes for six more years would be $475.00 including shipping.
A motion was made, seconded, and passed to reissue the Edward Keller Memorial Trophy from 2013 to 2019.
Nominating Committee 2012
A Nominating Committee consisting of Ann Leigh, chair, Rose Clime and Steve Steging was installed. Mary Peltier and Susan Sakauye have agreed to serve as alternates. The committee must be governed by Article 4, Section 4 of the Standing Rules of the SCWTCSC. Ann is required present her report to the club secretary, Jeanine Flavell, by mid-September, who in turn must announce the new slate two weeks before the October meeting. The new board will be installed at the Annual Club Meeting and Holiday dinner, Dec. 2, 2012.
Connie has announced that she will step down as president, but would be willing to remain on the board for another year to assist the incoming president to make a smooth transition. Merrillee announced that she also would not return in 2013.
A motion to adjourn was made, seconded, and passed. The meeting was adjourned at 12:15 p.m.
Jeanine Flavell
Secretary
Soft Coated Wheaten Terrier Club of Southern California