English Cocker Spaniel Field Trial Hall of Fame Committee Meeting

March 1, 2016 – 7:00 pm CST (Conference Call)

In attendance were:  Bethann Wiley, AR Ginn, Sheryl Mayo, Rob Cotiaux, Sheryl Mayo

Guest: Kate Romanski (ECSCA Historian)

Absent: Larry Hansen, Pete Rizzo

Old Business

1. Review the By-laws and Operating Procedure:
2.  Update language – pages 1 and 3 Section 1: These sections are mostly items that were needed when the Hall of Fame was founded. We can remove and change several of these sections. This will help to make the By-Laws easier to read and follow. There are several grammatical errors that need to be addressed as well. Kate and Bethann will continue to make some changes and suggestions in order to make the by-laws easier to read and understand.
3.  Regions page 3 and 4: Term Limits section needs to rewritten: a committee member can server (2) 3 year terms, beyond an appointed term to fill a vacancy.  In the event that a committee member replaces an existing member.  That member could complete the appointed term and then be voted upon for 2 more terms.  Kate & Bethann will review this section as well.  Kate suggested shortening some of the key words such as Hall of Fame to HoF etc…

Regional Representation.  AR stated that it is more important to have people on the committee that are passionate about the history of our Trialers and our Cockers rather than being concerned with representation from each region. Kate, Keith and Sheryl all agreed. AR would like to see if there are more trialers out there that have a passion for the Hall of Fame. Keith felt that there was no need to follow the FTC regions and that we should do what is best in order to gather the best people for the committee. Bethann will make the change to the regional representative and possibly make a change to include 7 nominated members at large.

Voting Process: The HoF committee felt that voting on Committee Members nominations should be left to any owner with an NCC qualified dog.

1.  Page 5 – Advisory Panel:Keith stated that it might be easier and streamline the process to eliminate the Advisory Panel and have the nominations for the HoF sent directly to the Committee. Bethann stated that the Advisory Panel will send the Committee all of the nominations anyways so if we streamline the process, then we may have more. From the last meeting, Larry had an idea to hand out nomination forms at the trials that the committee members attend. Rob felt that if we put an advertising page in each field trial catalog, it would gain us a lot of advertising and interest. Robb made a motion to dissolve the Advisory Panel and the Hall of Fame Committee will solicit nominations from all of the Cocker Spaniel Field
2.  Page 5 – 8  Clarify language:There is a lot of repeated language/parts in this section that will remove almost a page and a half of the document. There are dates in this section that will constrain the process and by removing the dates we will enable the committee to come up with its own time table. Robb and Kate thought that it would still be good to have cutoff dates in the document. This would help the committee not be rushed in reviewing its nominations. AR was concerned that if we shorten up the nomination start and end date we may be limiting ourselves to the amount of nominations. Nominations will be collected up until August 31st. The nominations will be sent to a designated Nomination Chairperson which will be chosen at the beginning of each year.
3.  Ideas to increase participation and interest in the Hall of Fame
   
4.  Having hard copies of the Nomination Forms at Field Trials.
5.  Putting an advertisement in Field Trial Catalogs for the HoF.
6.  Putting an advertisement in the NCC Catalog for the HoF
7.  Robb stated that if we could have something to offer people we may have more interest in the HoF.
8.  Having a fundraising Field Trial for the HoF.
9.  Kate liked the idea of HoF pins that we could hand out.
10.  A display at the NCC with pictures and info about the HoF and or dogs and people nominated would help to increase interest.
11.  It was agreed that the intent is NOT to create any sort of general membership requiring dues.

Adjournment: Robb made a motion to adjourn at 8:23pm CST  Sheryl seconded the motion

(Reminder of the Hall of Fame Calendar)

2016 Calendar: 

May 1st – August 31st is the deadline for Hall of Fame nominations

May 10th Meeting of the Hall of Fame Committee

September 6th Meeting of the Hall of Fame Committee

October 4th Meeting of the Hall of Fame Committee

Solicit Nominees for 2017 HoF Committee

Presentation of inductees made at the NCC