Minutes Hall of Fame Committee
September 15, 2011
The meeting took place at the Brown’s Farm in Menoken, ND. It began at 9:00p.m. EDT and ended at 10:15p.m. EDT. Present were Hob Brown, A.R. Ginn, Dave Williams, and Dennis Joannides. Barbara Haupt and Ernie Hasse joined by teleconference. Sue Rose was out of the country and absent.
Barbara reported she has been in touch with the bird dog museum. They do have on display 2 Cocker limited edition prints. One donated, by Barbara, back in 1999 honoring the 1998 championship. The other is dated April 2002 and came from Ernie and Andrea Hasse of Holly, Michigan. It is listed as 2000 Championship honoring 1998 NFC Flat Home Accord “Rocky”. The museum also has a couple of articles but did not acknowledge having the annual prints of the NCC champions, nor the Jubilee Books. Barbara will contact Kate Romanski, in Sue’s absence, to see what other information she may have sent, as well as what Kate has in inventory.
The initial draft of a proposed resolution for our committee to become a standing committee of the Bird Dog Foundation, Inc., was discussed at length. A.R. Ginn as chair called for a subcommittee meeting. Hob Brown and Dennis Joannides worked with A.R. refining a first draft. It was based upon information collected from the BDF, as well as the Springer group. The draft was submitted to all HFC members prior to the meeting and it was discussed at length during the meeting.
It sets forth the criteria and process to be used in selecting individuals and dogs to the HOF as well as the criteria and process to nominate and elect future members to the HFC. There was substantial discussion about the nomination process for both the HFC and the HOF. We also discussed having an Advisory Panel that will be responsible for nominations of dogs and people to the HOF. It was agreed to limit this group to current FTC members and prior handlers of dogs who have been titled as National Cocker Champions. This group will be expanded in the future by the inclusion of living people elected to the HOF, as well as all former HFC members after they complete their term.
Dave Williams raised several points about criteria and minimum age requirements. We discussed the age 65 requirement and talked about the fact that this award should be reflective of one’s lifetime body of work and contribution to the sport. While this may not really be known until one was deceased, age 65 seemed a reasonable marker. After discussion this was accepted by all.
We discussed the selection of future HFC members and it was decided that the members at-large and the regional members would be elected by the owners of dogs who have qualified for the NCC in the year in which the terms of the HFC members ended. Furthermore, no owner may have more than one vote regardless of the number of qualified dogs he/she may own. The HFC chairperson will continue to be appointed by the FTC from within the current FTC members.
There was a general feeling that all of the HFC members will have spent considerable time while serving on the committee, researching and learning about dogs, and it was important to preserve this knowledge and, therefore, after the HFC member completes a term, they will then become permanent members of the Advisory Panel.
It was decided that we should document the voting procedure for election of the HOF dogs and individuals as well as future HFC members. This and all suggestions offered and accepted at the meeting are included on the revised draft attached to these minutes.
The next meeting will take place during the 2011 NCC in Minnesota at a time and place to be announced. Barbara will be joining us by conference call, all others plan to be in attendance. A suggestion was made by Hob Brown that each meeting should be devoted to one of the sub – committees for in depth reporting and discussion. Therefore, I will ask Dave Williams as the chairman of space design and layout to prepare an agenda and lead the discussion about what we would like to display in our new space, for the meeting in November. I am also asking Sue Rose to head the following meeting on History.
The group suggested we put together a survey, similar to the one we used for HFC input, that we distribute to all those actively field trialing asking them to vote on which criteria they feel is most important in selecting potential HOF dogs and people. Dennis will work on the document but needs helps in formulating the questions for individuals versus dogs.
Dennis reported that fund raising was slow but we have received a donation from Steve Collins as a Bronze Founding member and that Fred Bradley indicated they were sending an additional $2,500 in memory of Bill Drake, moving them up to Platinum from Gold. More work needs to be done on fund raising for the balance of our endowment as well as monies needed for displays, etc.
Note to Dave Williams: we need to be thinking about the type of plaque we want to order to acknowledge our founding members. The meeting concluded at 10:15 p.m., EDT.