Soft Coated Wheaten Terrier Club
Of Southern California
General Meeting
May 15, 2012
The meeting was held at Fio-Rito’s Ristorante at 11101 Los Alamitos, Los Alamitos, CA.
Roll Call:
A quorum was present. Attending were Rose Clime, Karla Cohen, Caroline Filling, Jeanine Flavell, Vickie Gosnell, Joan Johnson, Miriam Kahan, Connie Koehler, Mary Lindquist, Cecily Skinner, Marilyn Smith, Mike Smith, Lauren Smith, Bonney Snyder, Beverly Streicher, and Jackie Whitham (all regular members): Debbie Bowen, Ellen Huberman, Richard Huberman, and Laura Virant (associate members.)
Minutes of the April meeting:
Approved as submitted.
Report of the President:
All of the judges for Great Western 2012 are installed, including the new Sunday Sweepstakes judge Doreen Gordin. Connie advised members that both the South Bay Show and the Dog Hair and Eggnog Classic have been cancelled for this year. Connie announced that Beverly has retired as Rescue Chair, but that Bonney has agreed to return to resume the lead role in Rescue. Additional details are appended at the end of the minutes.
Report of the Secretary:
All the judge’s contracts for 2012 have been signed and returned. The Santa Barbara Kennel Club has requested the SCWTCSC to once again support their entry in 2012, as we did in 2011. I will inform the Santa Barbara club secretary, Connie Clark, that the SCWTCSC members have voted to decline Santa Barbara’s invitation this year.
Report of the Treasurer:
Until the security issues resulting from the “back door” (potentially public) access to the password-protected Members Only section of our website have been resolved, financial information will not be included in the General Minutes. Anyone who is interested in receiving a Treasurer’s report may contact our Treasurer, Vickie Gosnell, directly at 805-983-1582.
Rescue Report:
Guinness and Harp have finally been adopted, separately, from the Irvine Shelter. A couple from Sacramento has adopted Bear, who was relinquished because of financial hardship. Lucy, who did not get along with the other dog in her original household, has also been adopted. Tony Bennett adopted a young dog that was rescued from the San Bernardino Shelter.
Website Development
The brochure for Great Western is online, and the postcards have gone out. In the two and a half weeks since Pay Pal went live, the SCWTCSC has made $2000.00, primarily in dinner and hospitality reservations. Getting all of this accomplished in time for our Specialty weekend was intensely time consuming. Now Jon has returned to the security issues which were raised when Debbie Bloom googled herself, and we discovered that a “back door” existed as discussed in the Report from the Treasurer, above. Jon has done an enormous amount of research, and is close to closing this “back door”. Once the security solutions have been “beta tested”, Connie and Jon will have the club’s financial information, current club roster, and other privacy sensitive documents back on the website in the Members Only section.
Ways and Means Committee:
Ann Leigh and Bonney Snyder have been developing the initial offerings, which will include salt and pepper shakers and spoon rests featuring Wheaten images by Darcie Olsen, as well as vests decorated with embroidered Wheatens on the front.
Membership Renewal 2012
The SCWTCSC had ninety-nine members in 2011. As of today, renewal for 2012 has dropped by twenty-two households. Some of these are long time members. One last effort will be made to contact non-renewing members before their membership is terminated.
Greeting Cards:
Greeting Cards were sent out to Vickie Gosnell for the loss of her father-in-law, to Michael DeCarlo, who was hospitalized, and to Jim and Karla Cohen for the death of Gabe.
Great Western 2012
Anna has done an amazing job, collecting fifty-one ads as of this evening. Many of these are from members of SCWTCA, who live on the East Coast, rarely attend Great Western, and have never placed an ad in our Great Western Catalog before this year. Anna has also helped the inspirationally challenged by putting together many of the ads herself.
The Great Western Specialty weekend will begin with setup on Thursday afternoon.
This year Merrillee and Marilyn will prepare and serve breakfast Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, but the lunches will be catered all three days. The cost for breakfast and lunch combined will be $15.00 a day. Because the lunches are being catered, this year the food must be paid for in advance. Club members who have questions are encouraged to contact Karla or Merrillee. Each catered meal will be centered on the food associated with a different city on Route 66. The Saturday night dinner hosted by our club will be Italian in theme, and return once more to the popular format of Dinner-on-the-Green. Steve Steging has agreed to help by functioning as our auctioneer for the centerpieces and ring decorations.
Cecily, Laura, Rose, and Debbie have volunteered to make the DNA kits, and will have them available for pickup at Great Western.
Photographs of those who are being memorialized will be displayed on the tables under the Wheaten tent space.
There are still four openings to participate in the CAP at Great Western. Bonney recommended it for anyone who wants to breed their dog or bitch. The opportunity to learn from breeder-judges and exceptional, long time breeders is unique; reinforcing that which you do know, and then expanding and reinforcing that knowledge.
Cecily announced that this year generators might be leased from GWTA.
Volunteers are needed, especially for the Thursday setup, the breakdown on Sunday afternoon, and to help pass out the wrist bands, which will be available each morning from 7:30 to 9:30 a.m., and while meals are served. White wristbands will be given to those who paid for all three days, and green will be for the Dinner-on-the-Green. Three other colors will be for individual days.
Unfinished Business Insurance Coverage
Connie, Bonney, and Vickie have put their analysis of our insurance needs on hiatus until after Great Western, but it is already apparent that by reorganizing and bundling our policies the club stands to save a great deal. Premiums will be due by the end of the summer.
Pet Expo
Rose and Laura had to send out a last minute emergency request for volunteers, and members responded so enthusiastically that there were too many to fit into even a doublewide booth. The decoration of the booth garnered praise from both visitors and the Pet Expo Organizers.
Pot Luck and B-Match
The next general meeting of the SCWTCSC will be held in conjunction with the annual Pot Luck and B-Match at the home of Chuck and Bonney Snyder Sunday, July 29th. Jeanine was the unanimous choice for the judging assignment, and Beverly will serve as ring steward.
Fun Day
This year Fun Day is scheduled for Oct.21, 2012. Unfortunately, Arcadia Park was completely booked that weekend. We are tentatively booked instead for Brookside Park in Pasadena. Susan Walker will again told the CGC tests, and Silly Games will be organized and hosted by Jim and Karla Cohen.
New Business
There was no new business to report.
A motion to adjourn was made, seconded, and passed. The meeting was adjourned at 9:00 p.m.
Jeanine Flavell
Secretary
Soft Coated Wheaten Terrier Club of Southern California
REPORT OF THE PRESIDENT:
April/May, 2012; Connie Koehler
- 2013 Specialty Judging Panel Contract Letters Status
Clay Coady and Cindy Vogels have both responded to us with signed contract letters for their 2013 specialty assignments as regular class and breed judges.
- 2012 Specialty Sweepstakes Judging Change
Cecily Skinner has stepped down from her Sunday, June 24, 2012, specialty sweepstakes judging assignment in accordance with the club’s Standing Rule of July 14, 2007. The SR prohibits judging or exhibiting SCWTs within a 90-day window of the specialty weekend in the states of California and Arizona. Doreen Gordin, a Wheaten breeder/provisional judge from Prescott Valley, AZ, has enthusiastically accepted the assignment in Cecily’s place. She has no conflict with our Standing Rule.
- 2012 All-Breed Show Cancellations
It has been reported at recent all-breed club meetings that two shows frequently entered by our members will be canceled for 2012, due to financial constraints on the part of the sponsoring clubs. South Bay KC will not hold its usual August show this year at Torrance North High School, with no follow-on plans for the remainder of the year. The well-known Doghair ‘n’ Eggnog Classic—sponsored by KC of Beverly Hills, Los Encinos KC and Long Beach KC—will also not be conducted in December at the Long Beach Convention Center.
- New Rescue Chair for 2013
Bonney Snyder informed the board at its May telecom meeting that if no successor for Beverly Streicher comes forward, she will assume the position of rescue coordinator, heading up the club rescue network team. Beverly announced her retirement from the rescue chair position at the April general meeting.
- Fun Day Update
L. A. County Dept, of Parks and Recreation will not accept a reservation for any activity at Arcadia County Park for the Oct. 21 Fun Day date chosen by the club; there is a County-sponsored event that will occupy the entire park that weekend. Instead, I have reserved one of the picnic areas at Brookside Park at the Rose Bowl—site of the upcoming Pasadena KC shows and one of our former Fun Day sites—with the City of Pasadena. The city will confirm the reservation at the end of May when their six-month events calendar is updated.
- Website Development
To support both the SCWTCSC and SCWTCA Roving specialties in June, Jon Apogee has upgraded our website significantly to enable online, real-time orders, reservations and payments for most fundraising activities and events for our “Woof 66” weekend. Karla Cohen’s artistic and informative brochure is available online for reference and download 24/7, and PayPal has been fully integrated for payments as an alternative to surface mailing of checks and order forms. From April 27—when PayPal went live—to May 14, we have received 24 completed payments, totaling $1,830.61.
Jon has also introduced a link on our home page, in the left column, “Pages of Interest,” for Membership Renewal, right under the link for Membership Information and Application. Members may renew their annual dues through PayPal; a pull-down menu lists all membership categories and their corresponding dues levels, including a very nominal PayPal service charge (less than $1.00 per each category).
As a follow-up to our discovery in March that our website’s password-protected, Members Only section has a security “back door” through which the public can enter, Jon researched solutions to render our website secure once more. As of May 13, he has implemented a fix, which he will test for a week before declaring victory. So far, both his and my tests have proved successful. Once we have determined that the Members Only page and its links are fully encrypted, we will re-post the membership directory and meeting minutes.
CLK
May 14, 2012