SECRETARY'S REPORT

Minutes from the March 6, 2006 ROM banquet and meeting held at Log Cabin Restaurant in Holyoke, Ma.

The meeting was called to order at 1:15 pm by President Jean Janotta after a yummy lunch and Mary Ann's fun and educational quiz.

Jean thanked all the members of ASCNE that work so hard to make things possible and thanked Mary Ann and Joe Stoddard for once again putting on a great ROM banquet.

• Secretary's Report – Gull Reidy
• Minutes from the September meeting were accepted as printed in the New England Aussie Newsletter.
• Minutes from the January 8 meeting at Canine Mastery were accepted as printed in the New England Aussie Newsletter.
• Treasurer's Report – Dottie Duclos
• ASCNE Treasury - $ 21,076.59
• Rescue Treasury - $ 2,740.54
• Earmarked for the 2007 Nationals - $6,658.09
• February 4 & 5 Breed and Obedience show in Seekonk: Income - $3,071.00; Expenses - $1,896.90; Profit - $1,174.10
• Affiliate Report - Sheila Dolan
• Reports are no longer being sent to affiliate reps because the secretary's reports are online now.
• The Show & Trial newsletter will be available on the ASCA website for free, a hard copy will still be available for a fee.
• The first ASCA only agility trial was held in California and was a success.
• There is a motion before the ASCA Board to create a standing committee for rally.
• There will be an offer made shortly for the position of Executive Director.
• ASCA Board of Directors Report - Linda Gray and/or Chris Davenport - Representative not present
• Committee Reports:
• Agility - Dianne McCormick - Jean had an email from Dianne that there are a couple of motions before the Board:
• Clarification on equipment specs
• All breed merit list
• Changing gamblers opening time to 40 seconds for all
• Also being worked on are:
• Judges list
• Extension of Nationals placement rules
• Bylaws - Linda Gray - representative not present - Linda forwarded a message that the committee was in remission.
• Conformation - Peter Kontos - representative not present - the following are being worked on to send to the Board for the April meeting:
• template for premiums to help all clubs put the proper information in them
• template on how to host an efficient preshow. This was based on the last two ASCNE preshows. The Board did make a few comments on how great our preshow was in Georgia
• Comformation Finals sub committee - Peter Kontos is chairing - final project is being reviewed by the whole Conformation committee.
• DNA & Genetics - Linda Gray - representative not present
• Juniors - Cindy King - there will be a junior performance survey in the Aussie Times to learn ways to get more juniors involved
• Obedience - Mary Ann Stoddart - the committee has spent lots of time wrestling with rally. They want it to be separate from Obedience. Also the obedience website is being updated and they are working on obedience finals.
• Stockdog - Bill Pechka-King - they are working on cleaning up the rule book, voting on the working description and where to put it and working on a Farm Trial program
• Tracking - Celeste Kelly, Linda Gray, Sue Schroeder: Sue reported they are working on the requirements for in house and outside judges and updating the judges list. There is a motion before the Board to allow deaf dogs to run in tracking trials. And the committee is working with the 06 Nationals in Wisconsin. If any one is interested in laying tracks at the Nationals please contact Renea DeSourcy.
• Library Report: Cindy King - the library was on display for anyone interested.
• Sunshine Report - Jean Janotta
• nothing to report.
• Event Updates:
• Rescue show - March 17, 18 & 19 - Brenda Dean - everything is going nicely. There have been two judge changes
• Colors of Summer - June 10 & 11 - Keli Gaunt - all is well, need one more obedience judge and some breed stewards
• Intro to herding - April 22 (rain date April 23) - Tenley Dexter - is still on
• Stock clinic with Jim Hartnagle - April 29 & 20 - Matt Mason - still room for auditors
• CA Sharp seminar - August 20 - Linda Gray - will be at White's in Westport, Ma, cost is $40 for ASCNE members and $50 for non-member - includes a buffet lunch

OLD BUSINESS

• New Members:
• The following were accepted as new members: Lisa Howard, Joyce O'Connell, and Jane MClaughlin
• ASCNE website
• The website is being moved to the same domain the 2007 Nationals is on. Robin Goodman has volunteered to manage the website. She had a laptop with the new design for everyone to see. Robin, Mary Ann and Karen Thurlow-Kimball will coordinate moving the site. Several people will be able to add information on the new website, making it easier to keep updated. The old site will still be available for a time.
• Jean thanked Mary Ann for managing the website all this time.
• Mary Ann mentioned that ASCNE was the first affiliate club to have a website.
• Kate Viles also had her laptop with pictures from the 2005 Nationals in Georgia.
• 2007 ASCA Nationals:
• ASCA's Golden Jubilee will be held in Augusta, New Jersey. The dates are September 29 thru October 6, 2007.
• The Yahoo Group has 85 members. Pete encouraged anyone interested in helping to add their name and area(s) of interest to the volunteer list.
• Hotel and Transportation coordinators are the only key positions left to fill.
• There was a meeting of venue chairs at the fairgrounds in February. The main purpose of the meeting was to walk the grounds and set an agreement between the clubs directly involved in hosting the nationals. Each club will front $1,000 to get started. The current list of clubs is WASCUNY, HONYASC, GSASA, ASCNE, and possibly NYASA. Each of the venue chairs is developing a budget; these are due by mid April. A preliminary schedule was roughed out and will be on Yahoo soon.
• The website is ASCAgoldenjubilee.com. So far the only thing on the website is the list of committee chairs.
• Keli Gaunt sent a flier to all affiliate clubs announcing the logo contest, and Sheila reported we are getting responses.
• Pete said everyone should feel free to give comments, ideas and input across the board.
• Jean thanked Pete for all his work and he got a round of "toy" applause.

NEW BUSINESS

• Membership Applications - Kathie Chouinard

• Club endorsement policies
• The ASCNE Board met and talked about the club as a whole endorsing people running for ASCA board positions. Based on feedback from last year the Board decided that ASCNE will not endorse candidates. Individuals will be able to endorse other club members. This club policy is effective as of March 2006.
• New Agility Trial
• Jean received a request from Jon Hoadley to host an ASCA agility trial in Goshen, CT in late August or early September. The September dates conflict with Garden States' trial but the August dates are fine. Jean will contact Jon to let him know.
• Jean and Pete are working on a document for other clubs wishing to host ASCA trials.
• Achievements - Jean Janotta
• Jean received the following report from Mary Lambert:: Last week I drove down to Pincie Creek in Alabama to watch a pup I bred finish his WTCH @ 19 mos old! He is now WTCH StoneCircle Relentless Spirit RTDcs owned by Randy Kelly of Canada. I also brought his littermate brother, who I own, "Bungee" and we earned all three of his started titles and 1 Open leg in cattle that weekend. He is now StoneCircle Right Back Atcha STDcds.
• Mike Sheehan's dog, Sazbrat Mr. Beaujangles, finished his Altered Championship.
• CA Sharp Seminar
• Sue Winters asked if a blood draw could be added to the seminar. All thought that would be a great idea.
  

The meeting was adjourned at 2:05. Title bowls and ROM ribbons were awarded after the meeting.

The next meeting will be July 9, 2006 at Sue Winters' in Norton, MA.

Respectfully submitted,

Gull Reidy, Secretary