Minutes: Hall of Fame Committee

Dated December 27, 2012

The meeting took place by teleconference. It began at 9:00p.m. EDT and ended at 10:30 p.m. EDT. Present were Hob Brown, A.R. Ginn, Dennis Joannides, Barbara Haupt, and Sue Rose. Ernie Hasse was absent.

The meeting began on time. Everyone was previously sent a copy of the prior minutes and there were no corrections or additions. Barbara Haupt made a motion to accept the minutes as written, it was seconded by AR Ginn. The HFC approved the October 2012 minutes.

Status of the English Cocker Spaniel Field Trial Hall of Fame Committee
Dave Williams had notified Dennis Joannides, Chairman of the HFC in November that he was resigning from the HFC for personal reasons. This was further confirmed by his discussion with AR Ginn. The committee waited to select his replacement in hopes David could find a way to continue. David confirmed his decision with AR earlier this week so the committee moved forward with electing his replacement. The HFC received emails from the Chairman asking them to consider nominations for his replacement.

While other names were considered the HFC felt Dave’s replacement needed to be someone who was very familiar with field trialing Cockers and preferably had judging experience as this was found to be invaluable when selecting contemporary dogs for the HOF. After discussion, AR Ginn nominated John Leininger, a person who has been involved with Cocker field trials as a gunner and judge for quite some time. John was elected unanimously by the HFC to replace David Williams for his unexpired term which ends December 31, 2013. John has accepted the position.

A question was raised about Ernie Hasse’s status on the committee as we have not received any communication from him. He has been sent emails, text and voice messages but has not responded. Members of the HFC felt Ernie’s input was extremely important, especially with his judging and trialing background since the resurgence of the breed. Several of the HFC members said they will try to reach out to Ernie to find out what has kept him from participating.

The HFC has felt the need for us having a recording secretary. Dennis has been doing double duty in trying to be secretary and chair of meeting and he would like some help. It was also pointed out that there is a need for a secretary to send out information to the Advisory Panel about nominations for people and dogs for the coming years HOF. We also need to be sure that the Advisory Panel receives history information about dogs and people of the past so they can put forth good nominations. In addition, this year we will also be asking for nominations for the 3 at large positions on the HFC. Currently, these are held by Dennis Joannides, Sue Rose and John Leininger (Dave Williams’ replacement). All three are eligible for reelection if they choose to run, nevertheless nominations need to be open to the field. Our secretary will need to solicit nominations and send out ballots during the same period as nominations for the HOF are solicited, June 1-August 31, 2013. Each owner of a dog who is qualified for the 2013 NCC shall be entitled to one vote for the HFC representative. No individual may have more than one vote no matter how many dogs he/she owns. If there is more than one owner of a qualified dog, the joint owners will only receive one vote. If someone owns a dog jointly and also owns another dog individually he/she may receive more than one vote but in no event collectively more than 2 votes at any time. Ballots will be returned to Sue Rose for tallying the final vote. After the winners are elected, and agree to serve, the HFC will announce their names.

Dennis had approached Kate Romanski about filling this role even though she would not be a voting member of the HFC and she expressed a willingness to do so. The HFC voted unanimously to ask Kate to become the Recording Secretary for the HFC.

Hob Brown reported that the scrolls for the 2013 inductees have been ordered through David Fletcher. He is using the art work provided by Barbara Haupt in designing our scrolls. He will sign 5 scrolls as Secretary of the BDF, the scrolls will be sent to Dennis for signature as Chairman of the HFC, who in turn will mail them to the framer in Grand Junction, TN. The scrolls will be presented to each of the dog owners and individuals elected or their representatives if no present.

Hob indicated he and Lisa have been working on photos of the dogs and people being inducted. Lisa has also sent information about the event to the inductee representatives. The photos will be 11X14 and the Browns are arranging the framing. They will be placed on an easel during the ceremony and then hung in our new space at the bird dog museum.

Tony White had conflicting responsibilities and has withdrawn from our project. This has made it impossible for us to complete the space in time for the induction ceremony. Sometimes good comes out of bad and this may be such a case. After considerable discussion it was decided to table final design until after the induction on February 9, 2013. General consensus was that we should move in the direction of technology, using a kiosk with a free standing or wall mounted monitor. Depending upon the final design, costs and funding considerations, we could run one to several different programs. It can be used to introduce the visitor to our breed as a companion in the field and at home as well as a competitor in the field. Photos could be selected those Dennis gathered from prior NCC events and contributions from Hudson Nichols and Carole & Jeff Janousek. The visitor might also choose to see excerpts from the first NCC that was shot professionally by Pat Marek. Larry Dihel has copy in VHS format that could be transferred to a CD or other electronic format. Our timeline could be displayed in another program with a voice over narrative that explains our history. These are just a couple of examples.

HFC members offered to do additional research into cost and suggestions on how to create the display. AR was to talk with his son, Crew, who works in the field. Dennis has been in contact with a lady from, Grand Junction, TN who helped the BDF create some video and slide presentations and a recent college graduate from journalism and broadcasting school in Arizona who has produced various commercials and slide shows.

We had considerable conversation about what if anything needed to go up on the walls prior to the induction. Hob felt strongly that our space was about the hall of fame and our space could be left bare because this was the first induction. Others felt that we promised people the space was going to be used to display the history of our breed as field trial competitors, a repository to preserve our history and display artifacts, etc., as well as a place to honor dogs and people who have contributed to our breed. At our prior meeting, the HFC members in attendance, voted to have the prints of the prior NCC events framed and hung on the walls, as a fallback position, until such time as space was needed for other reasons. We spent considerable time rehashing the same facts and due to the lateness of the hour we left the subject unresolved.

We pointed out that Sue Wilson indicated when she accepted the chair for the Advisory Panel she would only do it for one year. It was suggested that maybe Dave Williams could chair the Advisory Panel as he was familiar with the entire process. Hob was to contact Dave to see if he was willing.

AR mentioned that we needed to discuss the issues raised by the FTC following the annual meeting. In particular allowing foreign dogs into the ECSFTHOF and the reduction of age from 65 to some other number. Dennis had previously indicated to the FTC that the HFC will take up this subject in 2013 after it completed its work on the displays and current inductions. This subject was tabled for a later meeting.

The next meeting was scheduled for the Thursday prior to the trial at AR Ginn’s house in February.

Submitted by:

Dennis N. Joannides, Chairman/Secretary

P.S. On the day following this meeting a number of HFC members expressed concern and embarrassment about our space being bare for the induction. People were traveling from a far to be there and for some it might be the last time they will visit the museum and we owe it to them to have some representation of our breed on the walls. The committee informally agreed to go forward with the framing of the NCC prints. AR Ginn offered to do the framing at his cost. Sue Rose is sending AR prints from the prior NCC events and she is having photos produced of the two dogs for which we do not have prints. In addition, Sue will do a short write up about the NCC and create captions for each print. These will be sent to David Fletcher for printing similar to the HOF photos. These will placed under small lucite plaques and attached below the photos. AR and Dennis offered to arrive the day before the induction ceremony to hang the prints if necessary.