Fellow ACFA North Central Region Members,
Happy New Year!
As you may have already seen on the North Central Region web site or in the ACFA Bulletin, several of our North Central members were elected to ACFA offices in the election held at the end of 2009.
- Don Finger was elected ACFA Second Vice-President.
- Joan Apel-Klarner was elected American Shorthair Breed Committee chairperson, and Jim Nelson was elected to the American Shorthair Breed Committee.
- Wendy Meyer was elected Maine Coon Cat Breed Committee chairperson, and Judy Liggett was elected to the Maine Coon Cat Breed Committee.
If you haven’t looked at the North Central Region web site, please take a few minutes to browse and see what’s there: https://acfanorthcentralregion.org Also, if you have a show coming up, don’t forget to send your flyer to Jo (jonewton@comcast.net) or me.
If you didn’t receive a November-December Bulletin, let me know, and I can help you get one and make sure that our newsletter editor, who emails the bulletins, has the right email address for you.
Robert Jacobs is the new ACFA Household Pet Committee chairperson, and he’s looking for members willing to serve on the committee. If you’re interested, please contact him in Winnipeg at rcjacobs@mts.net or (204) 477-9125.
Thanks to all of you who have renewed your ACFA memberships already. For those whose memberships expired on December 31, 2009, I encourage you to renew and continue to support your association. Although the three-year membership discount is no longer advertised, if you’re renewing now and want to sign up for three years, Central Office has extended the three-year membership discount as an unadvertised special - $120 for a regular member, $30 for a family member.
ACFA’s semi-annual board meeting is next weekend. Although judges are the main topic of discussion, there is limited time on the agenda for other topics. I’d like to ask your opinion about two subjects that might be discussed.
First, I’ve proposed that anyone who wins an ACFA breeder of the year award (or second or third), either IA or regional, must be an ACFA member. A few years back, our IA breeder of the year wasn’t in ACFA, and that rubbed a lot of people the wrong way. (As far as I’m concerned, they can join at any time during the show year, as long as they are ACFA members on the day the show year ends.) Note that I am not suggesting that IA or regional top 20 winners or breed winners should be required to be in ACFA, because I’m concerned that it would discourage people from entering our ACFA shows. Please let me know your opinions.
Second, I’ve suggested that we should revisit the three-year rotation of rules amendments. Article XVI of the bylaws says this:
“Proposed amendments to the Rules may be proposed only at three-year intervals as follows:
a. Standards of Perfection. Three-year intervals beginning October 1997.
b. Bylaws. Three-year intervals beginning October 1998.
c. Show Rules and Registration Rules. Three-year intervals beginning October 1996.”
Does this three-year cycle meet your needs? My understanding is that it was instituted because rules were changing every year, and the three-year period brought some stability, as well as cutting down on the number of documents Central Office had to update each year. The ACFA board can now declare a rule change proposal to be an emergency and override the timetable above, and in practice, past boards have declared items to be “emergencies” to put new rules to a vote of the members when it wasn’t the designated year, even though most people would say the rule changes were just good ideas, not emergencies. Should there be a three-year period of stability for standards of perfection while allowing bylaws, show rules, and registration rules to change every year? Please let me know your opinions.
Sincerely,
Glen Newton
North Central Regional Director
