The board met by teleconference the evening of Wednesday, August 6th. The treasurer submitted the financial reports for the year to date through June 2014, and the board approved it. You will find the report posted to the BLU website. The treasurer reported that our current bank, Bank of America, has been purchased by Huntington Bank.
Kris Barndt presented the minutes from the previous meeting in February. They were approved as written.
The 2014 BFL National show committee representative, Margaret VanCamp, reported on final preparations for the event. The sheep show, which has 62 entries, is at the Michigan Fiber Festival in Allegan, MI on Saturday, August 16th. The festival runs from the 15th to the 17th. There is also a fleece and a skein competition. BLU has some special educational sessions planned during the festival. Information on the event is posted on the BLU website and Facebook pages. There will be a banquet on Saturday evening, and all BLU members will be able to sell items at the BLU display booth in the sheep barn during the festival.
The genetics taskforce reported that there has been no contact from USDA since the last meeting. At that time, the USDA official stated that an agreement on protocol to allow importation of ovine semen from the UK to the US was imminent. The protocol for bovine semen has long since been adopted. Since this still has not happened for sheep producers, BLU now takes the position of contacting our US representatives to ask for help in moving the process along. Members are also encouraged to push their state and local sheep organizations to press for the protocol to be adopted so that semen can once again be imported from the UK.
The upcoming 2014 election was discussed, and the schedule of deadlines reviewed. The positions of president, as well as that of 3 board positions are up for election, with all 4 current members being term limited out of office. Annette Boose has agreed to be the election supervisor again this year, and will be handing the printing, mailing, and counting of ballots. Please consider running for the board. A postcard with a call for resumes as well as the schedule of the election will be mailed out in the next few weeks. The deadline to submit a resume will be October 25th.
ASR, our registrar, had sent a letter to the board, requesting input on suggestions to improve their registry software, since they are working on an upgrade of their system. Several ideas, including an online searchable database, and the ability to register sheep online were discussed. Lisa will email all the suggestions to ASR. The deadline to comment is August 15th and members are encouraged to send suggestions to Lisa to forward to ASR. Our current contract with ASR is up for renewal in November of this year.
Since our current secretary will be leaving office, and our current treasurer has expressed the desire to resign, the board has appointed Lisa Rodenfels as the new secretary/treasurer. She will assume these responsibilities as of January 1, 2015. This position is not a board position, and serves at the pleasure of the board. It is reappointed each year. Lisa will be working with our current secretary and treasurer to make the transition as smooth as possible.
The board welcomes comments and concerns from members. Please contact any board member to have your issue addressed during quarterly meetings. The next scheduled meeting of the board is in midOctober.