Opening Remarks
The meeting was opened by the chairman G Eltringham who welcomed everybody to the meeting. The delegates then stood in 2 minutes silence in remembrance of the sad losses we have had in the past year. The chairman thought that it was probably the most disastrous year for loss of fanciers.
Delegates representing 19 clubs were present; these were I.B.B.A., Border Counties, Birmingham Area, Midland Counties, Green Cinnamon and White, Cornish, Northhants, Annesley (Notts), Wessex, Leicestershire, Irish, British Border, North Staffs, Merseyside, Cumbria, Northern Border, Clwyd, Welsh Border and West Wales. Also in attendance were R Morgan (President), D Harrison (Secretary) and
J Hilton (Treasurer).
Northampton Area BFCC
The Northampton Area BFCC are to be run as a combined Border and Fife club. Committees will be formed for both Sections and these will be run strictly under the Border Convention and the Fife Fancy Federation. The annual show will not change and panel judges will be booked for both sections. They still wished to be affiliated to the Border Convention and hope that consideration will be given to retain membership of the convention.The meeting discussed the situation and as long as border members represented the club then it would be acceptable. It was proposed that the Northampton Area BFCC request was acceptable, voting 18 for and therefore carried.
The National
Cage and Aviary Birds that they will be celebrating 100 years of publishing in January 2002 and would welcome ideas from the Border Fancy to help in their celebrations. Any ideas can be passed to the secretary. They also notified us of the National date which will be the 1st and 2nd of December 2001
PRESIDENT’S REPORT
Ray Morgan thanked all of the delegates for attending the A.G.M. and expressed concern over the clubs, which were missing. He thought that the committee had done a marvellous job and deserved a vote of thanks. He was concerned that there were no members forthcoming to serve on the committee and believed that some in the fancy thought that the committee were a law unto themselves. This he said was not true and the committee work very hard for the best interests of the fancy. He commented with sadness on the loss of some very prominent fanciers and clubs over the past year. Ray expressed great concern for the fancy as a whole and feared for the future. He asked the delegates to go back to their clubs and encourage their members to attend all meetings and support the Border Convention. He asked for constructive suggestions from all to improve the Border Convention and the Border Fancy. He thanked all of the specialist clubs for putting on the shows and said that without the specialist clubs there would be no Border Convention.
CHAIRMAN’S REPORT
George Eltringham welcomed the delegates to the meeting. He expressed concern over certain missing clubs and said that he had been in contact with some of them to ascertain why they were not turning up. He commented on the adverse publicity regarding the model and believed that the subject would have to discussed and decisions made. He believed that the model debate would be the key issue for the next few years..
SECRETARIES REPORT AND CONVENTION JOURNAL
D Harrison thanked the President and Chairman for all of the help that he had received over the past year, also the members of the committee for their support. He was very concerned about the future of the Journal; it is becoming more expensive to print. He is still short of articles despite regular requests. He is concerned over the subscription level, fanciers either do not subscribe or pass the journal around and adverts are not as forthcoming as they should be. He requested that fanciers approach traders to enlist support for advertising to ensure that the journal is cost effective. Articles are required from fanciers and the AGM reports and show reports are either not sent in at all or sent in late. Only 8 clubs have sent their AGM reports in out of over 30.
PRESENTATION AND ACCEPTANCE OF ACCOUNTS
J Hilton circulated copies of the 2000 statement of accounts to the delegates. It showed the Convention to be in an improving financial position and it was proposed by that the accounts were a correct record, all in favour. J Hilton was again given a vote of confidence for his sterling work in managing the Convention Accounts.
ELECTION OF OFFICERS
President: R Morgan, Chairman: G Eltringham, Vice Chairman: M Barnett, Secretary & Journal Editor: D Harrison, T reasurer/Journal Distributor: J Hilton, Minutes Secretary & Publicity Officer: M Scott, Auditors: P Fenlon G Eltringham, Canary Council Delegates: D Norton & D Harrison, Cage Inspection Committee: B Martin, Ring Scheme Secretary: K Hobbs.
Convention Committee
It was pointed out to the members that the elected committee should consist of 15 members, currently the members who are willing to stand are: -P Fenlon, I Wishart, J Pearson, I Austin. also representing the committee are: -President (R Morgan), Chairman (G Eltringham) Vice Chairman (M Barnett), Secretary (D Harrison), Treasurer (J Hilton) and Publicity Officer (M Scott). The attending delegates were asked if anyone was prepared to go forward onto the committee and D Faulder from Cumbria was willing to attend. The secretary was asked to write to all clubs again asking for volunteers to go onto the Convention Committee.
HONORARIUMS
It was proposed by R Morgan and seconded by D Faulder that a 5% increase be applied to all honorariums and this is carried across each year, proposed J Hilton and seconded by K Hobbs that they stay as they are, the voting was in favour of staying as they are.
MANDATES
1 Green Cinnamon & White B.F.C.C.
The G.C.&W.B.F.C.C. would like to propose that the rule regarding “all birds going forward for specials must be printed in the show catalogue, not on loose leaf paper” be printed in all specialist clubs schedules, under the rules of their show. Rule should read as follows; “Entries not shown in the catalogue will not be eligible for specials”Voting For 11 Against 8
2. Handbook Rules – Convention Committee.
For clarification of Rules in the Handbook we need the 12-month rule incorporating for the ratification of mandates. The current rule is that if a new rule is introduced or an existing rule changed and this works OK for 12 months then the rule is accepted, however, because it is not clear in the rule book it was suggested that we raise a mandate for clarification. Voting For 17 Against 2
3. North Staffs. B.F.C.C.
The North Staffs. B.F.C.C. submitted a mandate for a change of model, providing the revised version conforms to the written Standard of Excellence. Reason – owing to the general uncertainty as to whether we should change it or not, it seems the only way to settle it, one way or another is to submit a mandate to change the model, which can be voted on at the next AGM. At least we will know what the fancy in general decides. Voting For 14 Against 5
JUDGES PANEL
The following had been nominated for inclusion onto the Border Convention Judges Panel.
F Steegmans (Belgium),
K T Gardner (Malvern),
D Sheridan (Co Kildare),
G Haynes (Bromsgrove),
J Williams (Kirby-in-Ashfield),
T Kelly (Huddersfield),
W Angus (Duns),
A Smalley,
B Jensen,
M Jensen,
The form submitted by the British Border F.C.C. for T Kelly was found to be incomplete and it was proposed by B Martin that it be rejected and returned for completion. This was carried.
18. BORDER MODEL
The secretary informed the meeting that he had received 30 models and felt that we needed to put to the fancy what our way forward was as there was still controversy surrounding the model. It was agreed that the current model still stands until 2005. A discussion on how any increase in size of the border model may impact on the size of the existing show cages ensued, the secretary informed the meeting that the models submitted so far are not for a bigger bird more towards a rounder bird.It was agreed to publicise again for any more models to be submitted. The possibility of displaying some of the models at the shows later in the year was to be looked into. It was proposed that the last call for new models must be submitted by the 2002 AGM, this was carried.
THE BORDER CONVENTION
MINUTES OF THE COMMITTEE MEETING
Held on Sunday 24th June 2001
At RUBERY COMMUNITY CENTRE, RUBERY BIRMINGHAM
1.Meeting opened at 10.30am - By the Chairman George Eltringham, Secretary Don Harrison.
The committee members stood for 2 minutes silence in respect for George Hall, a past president who died recently.
2.APOLOGIES received from Ian Wishart and John Pearson.
3. MEMBERS ATTENDING: Don Harrison, George Eltringham, Ray Morgan, Malcolm Barnett, Pat Fenlon, Jack Hilton, Ivan Austin, David Faulder, Malcolm Scott.
4. Minutes of the Last Committee Meeting
The minutes of the Committee Meeting held on the 28th January 2001 at Rubery Community Centre, Rubery Birmingham were read out by the secretary.
Proposed as true record by R Morgan and seconded by I Austin.
5. Matters arising from the Minutes
The Border Model – Item 8.
The statement regarding going back to specialist club members for a feed back into their local specialist clubs was queried for clarification. It was agreed that the option was it may be possible for individual members to vote at club level and all of the individual votes collated by the convention. Whether or not we use this method will be decided at a later date.
6. Rings
Concern was expressed at the time taken to supply the rings when ordered through the Border Convention Ring Scheme. The Ring Secretary had been contacted and assured the Convention that the delay was with the Ring Supplier.
It was suggested that one way of improving the ordering and delivery time was to either put the details in an earlier Journal or advertise all the year around for the Convention Ring Scheme. Other methods of running the scheme were also suggested, bulk buying rings out of season would ensure better delivery times and potentially a better deal on the rings but this would entail the Convention buying uniquely numbered rings and allocating them out in blocks when ordered.
The Ring Scheme Secretary had supplied the secretary with a quotation from Hughes for rings for 2002 produced both in and outside of their busy periods. He had also compared the prices against the 2001 price from Lambournes.
It was commented on the quality of the current rings, rough edges, twisted, sent out loose. One of the options discussed was for the Ring Secretary to become the distributor of the rings. This had been discussed with Ken who was quite prepared to do it. Concern was expressed at the possibility of losing fanciers from the ring scheme because of the current problems but concern was also expressed at the possibility of the Convention buying rings in bulk and then not selling them all. The other alternative was to continue with the current system but with a different supplier.
It was agreed to ask the Ring Secretary to go back to the alternative ring producer with the option of them doing the supplying to the fanciers for a quote. It was also suggested that when the subject of Rings is on the agenda that Ken Hobbs attends the Committee Meeting, this will probably be only once a year. It would also be beneficial if the rings were ordered earlier. It was proposed to discuss the subject further at the next Committee Meeting hopefully with Ken Hobbs in attendance.
7. The Border Model - Drawings
The secretary reported that he had not received any more new models. Cage and Aviary Birds had offered to print the new models but it was agreed that the border fanciers should be given sight of them first, to get some idea of what was happening with the new models. This could be achieved by either printing them in the Journal or sending them to the specialist clubs. The secretary is to consult a printer to see if all of the models can be reproduced in full size on a few sheets of paper for submission to the specialist clubs.
It was restated that it is not planned to increase the size of the border canary and the main consideration is to update the existing model. It was suggested that if a new model is selected in 2005 any new drawing should have the standard of excellence alongside it.
Because of recent concerns over the size of the Border Canary the committee discussed options available including the standard of excellence and points allocation. One of the main objectives of this concern was to ensure that in the future a new model if selected would be adhered to by all judges. To achieve progress this would require a mandate, which the committee will raise in the future after the fancy have had a chance to discuss it and if it was deemed necessary. It is planned to discuss this subject in more detail at the next committee meeting.
It was also suggested that if a new model is selected in 2005 we produce an artist’s impression to try to give more than a one-dimensional view.
8. Welsh Border F.C.C. Incident
The secretary reported that there had been no further correspondence and the matter was now closed.
9. New Rule Book
The committee discussed the possibility of producing a New Rule Book to coincide with any new model. All details pertinent to any new model in three-dimensional form would be available only in the rule book.
To date the secretary has 15 new judges and there are clubs who are no longer in existence. It is intended to produce a flyer containing the new judges and any rule changes to go with the existing rule books.
It is also intended to revisit the rule book with a view to clarifying some rules before 2005.
10. Club Subscriptions
The treasurer informed the meeting that there were a number of clubs who had not yet paid their subscriptions to the Convention. It was pointed out that these subscriptions are due at the Convention AGM in April. It was agreed that the treasurer will send out a gentle reminder to the clubs in arrears.
11. Border/Fife Clubs – The way Forward
Merseyside B.F.C.C. has queried the validity of the decision at the 2001 AGM to include a Border/Fife club within the Border Convention and the impact upon the Convention Constitution. Whilst all were in favour of saving a Border Club from folding it was pointed out that Constitution Rule number 2 had been breached and this had been noted at the AGM but not minuted.
Rule number 2 states :- “Membership of the Border Convention shall be open to clubs and/or associations formed solely for the fostering of the Border Canary”
After discussion it was agreed that the best way forward was to raise the subject at the next AGM to see if the fancy wish to change the Constitution to cater for Border/Fife clubs. If the AGM wish to go forward with this then the committee will be required to raise a mandate. The discussion at the next AGM will be centred around the Constitution and how far we go with a mixed club, i.e. Border/Fife only or others as well
12. Visibility at some of the Big Shows
The possibility of setting up a Border Convention Stand at some of the Big Shows was discussed. It was proposed that committee members would man the stand selling Rule Books, advertising the Journal with old copies on display, answering questions and displaying the proposed new model drawing submissions. The secretary is to approach the British Border at Fleetwood for a stand. Others to be considered are the Welsh B.F.C.C., North Staffs, The Border Canary Association, and Cumbria. The possibility of obtaining a stand at the National sponsored by Cage and Aviary Birds is to be pursued by the publicity officer.
13. Venue for future Meetings
It was agreed that the current venue was acceptable for the committee meetings but it would be better if we could find a different venue for the AGM. Investigations will be undertaken by the secretary but if nowhere else can be found for the AGM then the current venue will have to be used. It was agreed that Birmingham was most central for all.
14. Correspondence
The secretary had written to T Kelly regarding his application to join the Convention Judging Panel outlining the omissions on his application form. The British Border had queried how one of the two submissions for the judging panel had been accepted when they were both missing some of the detail. The secretary will write to the British Border.
The secretary had received a letter from Simon Tamman contesting the Conventions attitude to his advertisements. It has been pointed out to him that colour feeding is not allowed by Border Convention rules, he argues that his product is natural and therefore not artificial colour feeding. It was identified that the rule (specialist show rule 9) debars colour feeding of any type and therefore we unfortunately cannot print his advert in the journal because although only using natural products it advertises colour feeding.
The secretary informed the meeting that some specialist clubs still had copies of the old style judges application forms. He will send copies of the new forms to specialist societies with the next set of correspondence.
Sponsorship for a memorial show for W Gibson had been requested by Greenock & District C.B.S., the committee believed that the IBBA show had already held a memorial show.
15. Any Other Business
The secretary is very concerned at the response from the clubs in connection with journal articles and urges the specialist clubs to send club details and show reports to him and as quickly as possible after the event. It has been suggested that the journal prints a list of all C.B.S. Best Border/Best Champion/Best Novice in the style that Bill Tracey did for the Scottish Clubs in a journal earlier this year. The publicity officer to look into it.
Tim Ward has volunteered to join the Convention Committee, he will be welcome.
It was pointed out that the mandate from the G.C.& W. B.F.C.C. whereby ALL entries must be in the catalogue to receive the special does not cater for a genuine error by a show secretary and would penalise an exhibitor if for any reason a show secretary missed an entry out of the catalogue.
A request had been received to restate rule 27 to all clubs giving patronage. Rule 27 reads as follows :-
“Specialist Clubs awarding patronage to other clubs must let the clubs receiving the patronage know what has been allocated by 30th June.”
16. Date of Next Convention Meetings
Convention Committee To be arranged possibly in September
