Breed Council Special General Meeting 13th November 2014
A Special General Meeting of the Breed Council was held at the Holiday Inn Stafford on Thursday 13th November. It was attended by delegates from the eight participating clubs and a number of fully paid up members of some of the participating clubs. There were two items on the agenda: – (a) DCM funding and (b) The Breed Council and the way forward.
(a) The Health Co-ordinator gave an up to date report on the finances left from the original funding and also had to inform the meeting that the day before she had received the disappointing news that the Kennel Club Charitable Trust had rejected the grant application for further funding to keep the research going in the long term. The delegates unanimously agreed to release the £4,000 held in the BC health account in order to keep the project going in the short term and give time for the Clubs/BC and Liverpool to produce a revised proposal for funds to keep the research going in the longer term. The Health Sub Committee had produced funding examples for the delegates to take back to their committees in order for further feedback on the way forward. The £4,000 was monies raised by the clubs and kind individuals, including the profits made from the BC Health Days.
(b) The Chairman asked each club if they wished the BC to continue and if they wished to be part of the BC. There was unanimous affirmative to both questions. Each club was then asked what problems they thought existed with the BC and lastly how they could be addressed. A number of minor problems were identified along with the main problem of communication, from BC to the members via the clubs and also a lack of interclub communications. Some of these problems could be addressed immediately others have been taken back to the club committees for further discussion. The meeting closed with the unanimous agreement that all eight clubs will endeavour to work together for the betterment of Great Danes and should any problems arise however small they would be promptly addressed before they affected that resolve.
It was pointed out to the club members that attended the meeting that the Breed Council is not a governing body, it is there for the eight participating clubs to liaise with the Kennel Club, so that the members can put their ideas and thoughts to their clubs and they can be discussed by the delegates around one table and taken to the KC as may be appropriate
The next meeting of the BC delegates will be in April prior to the BC AGM and it is intended to have a revised proposal for further DCM funding at that time ready for submission to the KCCT. The eight breed clubs will also have looked at improving ways of getting the message of the work being done by the BC also out to their club members.