Board Members in attendance: Larry Brillhart, Jim Dodds, Nacho Alvarado, Bob Daymude, Donna Daymude, Shirley Webber, Todd Allen, Todd Pederson, Rick Williams

Board members not in attendance; Terry Lee

Missy Kehler (resigned); Debi Pruznick(resigned)

Others in attendance:

Stan Poinstien, Treasurer

Kitty Alvarado, Secretary

Invited guest: Kelly Williams, David Heil

8:00 meeting called to order by President, Larry Brillhart

The 2004 board meeting will be recorded for the record; any member may request a copy at their own expense.

Larry would like to extend an invitation to Kelly Williams and Dave Heil to attend the 2004 board of directors meeting as a listening participant.

Secretary, Kitty Alvarado read the minutes from last years board meeting.

Motion: To accept the minutes as read. MSC

President, Larry Brillhart expressed that the club did have a good year. Membership seems to be down, there were very few problems. Judges interruption of the rules seems to still be an issue, seems to be a lot of complaining but not a lot of grievances filed. Overall the championships were beautiful, they did an excellent job. The key to new memberships is to keep the championship committee from last year and keep things geared in that direction.

Reports

Budget Report, Stan Ponstein: Written report presented (attached)

Written report given; ’03-’04 budget, checks written, and next years proposed budget

The budget for current years books are not closed yet due to misc. expenses,

Final expenses should be closed within the next month and will be sent to the current presiding board for approval. All figures on the budget should be within in a $100-$200 once the few misc. expenses are added. Membership money is up, the sanctioning events and dogs pulled are down. Newsletter is a large cost. First issues of the newsletter were not sent to old members the year, only to the current members, this resulted in a large decrease of newsletter budget.

Medals and awards were off from budget, due to ordering this year and next year’s medals. There were 3 returned check and fees, 2 are paid, 1 has still not been collected. Committee members are keeping check before sending to Stan which can cause the checks to bounce or accounts to be closed. Committee folks need to send check in a timelier manner.

Tracy would like to be removed as our Montana member; Teresa Keening will take over this position to keep us a non-profit status in the state of Montana.

Motion: Accept the report as presented. MSC

Committee reports

Grievance Committee: Bob Daymude, verbal report given

One board action was taken for a member pulling underage dogs. One grievance was filed against a board member. This grievance was filled and will be handled under old business by the current presiding board. There were 2 IWPA members to server on the grievance board; both members did not know any of the people involved in the grievance. They conducted an interview with all involved and reported their findings back to the board along with the grievance action to be taken. The recommendation was reported back to the board for review and finalization.

Bob had received numerous calls during the year in reference to judging, Bob instructed the members to submit something in writing, and none did.

Motion: accept report as submitted. MSC

Championship Report: Bob Daymude, verbal report given

This year’s championship went very well, a report was sent off to Missy from the organizer, not available for the board meeting. All events were indoors 2 snow tracks, and one natural track. Concern was voiced over the decision to run 1 wheeled track; wheeled events ran very late 11:30 pm. Other than that, no problems to speak of. Having Board members and experienced organizers there did help. Nacho request that a letter be sent to Devin, thanking him for helping the IWPA to host a great championship. The board would like for past championship organizers submit info and ideas they might think would be informational to place in a championship informational booklet. Bob though there were 69 dogs in attendance for the championship.

Motion: to accept the report as submitted. MSC

Drug Testing Report: Todd Allen, verbal report given

All tests from the championship came back negative. There were only three dogs that couldn’t be tested due to low volume. (Less than 20cc). This year the drug testing areas was baited, this did help in collecting samples. Coolers that were to be ordered this year never were ordered. Need to clarify how we want to test during the season. There needs to be around a 30 day notice to Todd for drug testing to be done during the regular season. Championship Techs were paid $200. Per tech for 22 hours. Drug testing was completed for the 5th year at championship. During the 5 years, there has never been a dog test positive. Testing was completed down to 5th place this year, due to the 4th and 5th place dogs being invited to attend. Todd did an excellent job setting up scheduling of all judges and board events.

Motion: to accept the report as submitted. MSC

Judges Report: Jim Dodds, report submitted (attached)

49 judges total this year

42 renewals

7 new apprenticeship and passed the test and were made judges. One of the new judges is from Texas

Reasons why judges disqualified handlers during the season according to the rules;

7- Stepping across line or touched the pulling surface: Section 5 C 2

4- False starts: Section 5 C 12

3- tangles: Section 5 C 13-A

7- Calling the dog before crossing the finish line; Section 5 C 10

1- Safety of the dog or pulling an injured dog; Section 4 a 2

1- Touching dog before crossing the finish line; Section 5 C 2

One judge will not be renewed this next season, Tony Yoakam, due to not following the rules.

There were not very many handlers report forms turned in, nothing to report.

Motion: accept the report as presented. MSC

Election Report: Terry Lee, no report submitted

Membership Report: Karen James, report sent to Larry Brillhart (attached)

Database is an improvement over last year’s database

286 memberships this season

2 lifetime members

145 family memberships

149 individual memberships

Motion: to accept the report as presented. MSC

Sanctioning Report, Donna Daymude, verbal report:

There were a lot of organizers that did not check to see if handlers were members or not. Donna had to spend a lot of time contacting the organizer to retrieve the extra provisional money for non members pulling. The reports on the dogs are not sent to the statistician until the provisional fees are collected, this way the points system is correct. The numbers of sanctioned events for the season are down from last year.

There were 111 sanctioned events this year. 1-2 were fun matches.

The sanctioning forms are electronic now and can be downloaded off the website or Donna can send them. With having the forms electronically, there should be a savings in cost of printing the forms.

Motion: to accept the report as presented. MSC

 

Unfinished Business:

Grievance against Debi Pruznick- (committee submitted recommendation attached)

Committee consisted of Jim Galli, Region 10, and Robert Bobber Region 2 both did not know either party involved. The only information given by Bob to the grievance committee was the complaint letter and phone numbers of persons involved.

The board’s decision is to accept the recommendation from the grievance committee and schedule a hearing for Debi.

Debi will receive a copy of the grievance, a letter with the recommendation from the grievance committee and a hearing date. The letter send will ask Debi to follow the recommendation of the grievance committee and the issue will be closed. If she chooses not to follow the grievance committee’s recommendation, she would be accepting that the current board would conduct a hearing on June 23 at 7:00 MST.

Motion: to accept the recommendation of the grievance committee and follow the dates listed above. MSC

Old Business:

Nacho presented samples pins of the membership as requested at the last board meeting. Patches would be pins and patches will be purchased for members and sales.

These would be nice to recognize the benchmark members with a lapel pin. This will be addressed under new business along with the medals.

Motion: to accept old business and close old business. MS

There is a discrepancy in the standing rule. Board of Director Article 8-15 section 5. The constitution section Article XIII, section 1 contradicts each other. We need to follow Roberts rule. Both incoming and current board members will be allowed to vote on the new election of officers.

Motion: to accept old business and close old business. MSC

Larry welcomes new board members, the new members are sworn in. Larry would like to thank the outgoing board members, Bob, Debi and Missy for serving the board. Kitty will write a letter to Debi and Missy thanking them for their services.

Elections of new Board Positions;

President- Todd Pederson

Nominations Todd Pederson, Nacho Alvarado

Vice President- Todd Allen

Nominations-Nacho Alvarado, Rick Williams, Todd Allen

Treasure- Stan Ponstein

Nomination- Stan Ponstein

Secretary- Kitty Alvarado

Nominations- Mary Jane St. Lawrence, Kitty Alvarado

Current Board members: Terry Lee, Larry Brilliant, Nacho Alvarado, Jim Dodds, Shirley Webber, Donna Daymude, Todd Allen, Todd Pederson, Rick Williams

Lunch Break

Todd Pederson as president calls the meeting to order, and invites David Hiel, Kelly Williams and Bob Daymude. Roll call, excused absence, Board member: Terry Lee

 

New Business:

President Todd Pederson appointed the Committee Chairpersons:

Drug Testing; Todd Allen, sub-committees East- Jim Dodds, Central- Terry Reed,

West- Bob Daymude

Membership: Karen James

Santationing: Donna Daymude

Judges: Jim Dodd; back up Bob Daymude

Elections: Larry Brilliant

Standing Rules: Donna & Bob Daymude, Jim Dodds Back up

Medals: Kelly Williams, backup Scotty Wheeler?

Grievance: Mary St. Lawrence, Rick Williams, David Heil

Personnel: Nacho Alvarado, Larry Brillhart

Championship Chair: Rick Williams, Todd Allen sub committee, East- ?, Central- Kelly Williams, West-

Promotions: Justine Alvarado

Regional Reps: Shirley Webber

Statistician: Jim Dodd, Donna Daymude back up- Password will be kept by Jim Dodd and President

Insurance; Donna Daymude, Jim Dodds

Purina Farms: Nacho Alvarado, Larry Brillhart, Todd Allen, David Heil

Constitutional Committee; Bob Daymude, Todd Pederson, Kelly Williams

Public Relations: Shirley Webber

Historian; Kelly Williams, Kitty Alvarado

Newsletter:

Need to get bits from more sources to produce the newsletter. The board would like to look at various ways to cut the cost and distribute the information. Nacho and Shirley will chair the committee to check the cost of publishing 4 large newsletters, and 6 smaller. Mike Swenson and Debi Pruznick will be contacted to see if they want to submit a bid. Nacho and Shirley will check into the bids and report back to the board.

 

Changes to be made to the newsletter for cost reasons.

Sept- Jan- May-Standings

Oct- Feb- June-

Nov- Mar- July-

Dec- April- Aug-

The newsletter topic will be tabled for later discussion.

Stan and Nacho will contact Ron’s family and Eskimo to get the password and username changed.

Jim will get back to the board with how much time is involved in recording the stats. Jim will do it for the $300 each month for the next 3 months and will get back to the board.

Motion: to accept the committees as assigned. MSC

Budget, Stan Ponstien, report submitted (attached)

Stan submitted the proposed budget; discussed target areas; memberships, sanctioning, drug testing money. Discussed the option of money left over in the drug fund shall be delegated to the general fund. The changes that the board makes, Stan will type up a new copy and mail them to the Board members.

Motion: "that any left over money in the drug testing account be rolled over, ½ to the general and ½ to the travel fund" M/S not passed

Motion: "that any left over money in the drug testing account be rolled over into the general fund" MSC

Motion: to amend Article 8 section 5 "to increase the monies that come back to the club from $2 to $3 per dog for general fund. Stan will make changes to the proposed budget and resubmit the proposed budget" MSC

The amended section will read: That the IWPA increases the $4.00/dog fee to $5.00/dog to be distributed as follows: $3.00 to general administration fees, $1.00 to travel fund for the championship, and $1 for drug testing expenses.

Motion: "that the President or his designee, if he has no dogs competing, will be included in the distribution of travel money for the championship" MSC -1 apposed

Motion: "to accept budget as presented and proposed" MSC

Motion: "that Article 13, section 3 be removed from the standing rules" MSC

Article 13, section 3 read: No more than two members of the Board may be from any one state or province.

Todd Allen submitted a list of members concerns, the board went through and discussed the items on the list.

List of Judges

Membership fee

Judge’s fee

New Judges vs. Chief Judge

Standing rules

Cost of materials

Championship/ Regions

Newsletter

Judges application, new criteria

Tie breaker

Kids pulling

Novice pull rule

Novice Pull separate

Dog Registration

False start rule

Disability rule

President or V. President

Expenses reimbursed for the championships

Furnishing travel judges

Official attire

Handler’s appearance

Standing rules

Handler’s use of illegal drugs

Starting weights

Crowd barrier clarification

Supporting the championship

Junior membership

Life memberships

Motion: amend Article 3 section 4 "to change the number of judges to 10 with no less than 8 at the championship" MSC

Motion "to prioritize the list for discussion" MSC

Motion: Article 3 section 6, "delete 2nd sentence from standing rules". MSC

Sentence removed: Of that entry fee 50% or an amount not to exceed $700 should be returned to the IWPA in order to cover championship expenses.

Motion: add to rule booklet "novice dogs may not compete during sanctioned event" MS not passed

Motion: add to standing rules "Novice pulls can not be conducted at the same time as sanctioned event." MS – tie- according to Roberts rule not passed

Discussion was, since the novice dogs are not professional or provisional pullers, novice dogs can not be pulled with provisional and sanctioned dogs in the same event.

Motion: to remove from the rule booklet "the age limit for dogs" M No second

Motion: "to maintain the current ruling on false starts" MS

The false start rule was tabled for discussion in the morning.

 

Meeting adjourned at 5:10pm until tomorrow morning. Start time for tomorrow is scheduled for 7:00 am. MSC

IWPA Board Meeting
June 6, 2004
St. Louis, MO

7:20am, President Todd Pederson called the meeting to order.

Invited to attend the meeting; Bob Daymude, Kelly Williams and David Heil

Roll call:

Todd Pederson, Jim Dodds, Rick Williams, Larry Brillhart, Shirley Webber, Todd Allen, Donna Daymude, Nacho Alvarado, secretary Kitty Alvarado

 

Stan Ponstien and Terry Lee excused

President Todd Pederson reviews "Robert rules of order", according to the research presented to the board by the president, the president can vote to break or create a tie. If there is a tie, the vote is not passed. (attached)

False start rule: continued discussion from yesterday. The motion was: "Motion: "to maintain the current ruling on false starts"

Motion: "to maintain the current ruling on false starts" MSC

Motion: to modify the false start rule : "to state that once the dog is hooked to the tug line the handler will immediately proceed to a position past the finish line if calling the dog or to a position no farther forward than the front of the cart if driving the dog." MS 5- apposed- not passed.

Championship; Regions

Topics of discussion; Have one location for the championship; to combine Region 6 with central bids, realigning the regions for distribution for the championship rotation. Table discussion of regions, championship. Discussion of Purina Farm as a permanent location for the championship.

Select a committee to check out the possibilities of Purina use, the committee will be back to the board by the middle of July around the 15th.

Motion "to move region 6 into the central regions for the championship, for the annual geographically rotation" MSC

The new central district rotation regions will be: 3, 4,6,8,9.

Disability ruling:

Motion: to add last years disability ruling "be added to the standing rule under article 1, subsection 1" MSC

Starting Weights:

Discussion; pullers wanting to come in at a higher weight and/or changing max weight;

To change the ruling so that all handlers understand that they must enter the competition at the same starting weights as all participants in their class.

Motion: to change rule weight to read section 5 article C (8) or the rule booklet, "Starting weights/load increments shall be determined by the chief judge and a simple majority of the handlers and shall be set prior to the beginning of the class." MS not passed.

Motion: In the rule booklet "Section5, C. 7: change to read "starting weight of the cart to be pulled shall not exceed the following for the first round for all dogs entering the competition." MS-rescind motion.

Motion: In the rule booklet, Section 5, C: 7 "chief judge shall set the starting weight not to exceed the following: All dogs entered in that class must begin competition at the set starting weight." MS

Second Motion added to above: to amend section 5; C; 7- (in conjunction with above) increase the max starting weights to:

20- 300lbs

40-400lbs

60-500lbs

80- 600 lbs

100- 700lbs

125- and Up 800lbs

MSC

Motion: In the rule booklet, Section 5,c19 increase the number of dogs a handler can compete with in one weight class; " The maximum number of dogs handled in a given weight class by one handler shall be limited to no more than three (3) dogs per weight class."

MS not passed

Discipline Procedure: president will check the Roberts Rule of Order and will get back to the board.

Junior Membership:

Donna will research this issue with other clubs and report back to the board on junior memberships.

Lifetime membership:

Discussion on the criteria. Larry will coordinate the life time membership.

Insurance:

Discussion on which company to use, Donna/Jim will get a few bids and get back to the board.

Motion: add to sanctioning application form "add a choice for electronic forms." MSC

Board of directors

Motion: to remove Article 13, section 7 of the standing rules. MSC

Article 13, section 7 read; due to possible conflict of interest current IWPA board members, officers and immediate family members can not serve as an officer or board member of another weight pulling club.

Closer to election time the board would like to do a special vote of the membership on the false start rule, leash throwing.

During the elections ballots, a vote along with the pros and cons will be added for false start ruling for the general membership to decide. The leash throwing issue was voted not to be added to the ballot.

Motion: "Distance would be used as a tie breaker" MS not passed

The motion listed above will be added to the ballot for the membership to decide. Not passed.

A list of all the IWPA equipment will be submitted to the secretary.

We need public relations person/persons to answer questions on the website. Jim and Shirley will work on this to get this set up; Shirley will be the main contact.

Motion: standing rules, article 3 section 7, add to subsection "B" to read "2 wheeled tracks will be mandatory." MSC

Bob has volunteered to go over the constitution realignment/disillusion of the Constitution as requested by the president. Bob will contact Robbie Reed for assistance.

Motion: "to adjourn the meeting" MSC

Meeting adjourned at 12:05

MSC- indicates Motion; Second; Carried