The BLU board met by teleconference on the afternoon of Saturday, October 31st .
The treasurers report gave the current balance of $8304.15 with a net loss of $315.69 for the year to date, which is likely attributed to lower than normal registrations, transfers and dues.
The secretary’s report stated that BLU has a membership of 78 members current as of October 1st . A list has been compiled of new members during 2014-2015 in order to send a membership welcome packet to each of the 22 new members. At the end of the year, these and all other members who dropped out in 2014 and 2015 will be sent letters inviting them to consider re-joining BLU .
A request has been received via the website from Kyle Brisendine, asking for the board to distribute a survey on coyote predation to our membership. Ms. Brisendine’s family are members of the association, and the survey is part of a college project. The Secretary/Treasurer has been instructed to send a current membership list to her so that she can send the survey.
The membership app on the BLU website is very cumbersome and so the board gave permission to disable it, and to post two .pdf files of the current membership; one in alphabetic order, and the other arranged by state. These .pdf files will be updated each month with new members . Members are urged to go to the website and check the list to be certain they are on it, and all information given is correct.
President Margaret VanCamp appointed herself to be chair of the national show committee, and Lisa Rodenfels to be the membership committee chair. Still to be filled after the election are Bylaws/Standards, Media, and Youth chairs. The Genetics Taskforce chair, Heather Landin, was not at the meeting, but Margaret was able to fill the board in on the most recent developments in semen importation. The border between the UK and the US has been opened. However, the new protocols that have been agreed upon between USDA and the EU make it difficult and expensive for UK BFL breeders to collect semen that passes these new rules. Now the entire flock must be bloodtested and all test negative on 2 separate occasions before a ram can be sent in for semen collection. Some of the UK breeders are working on possible workarounds to these rules, such as maintaining a small flock just for testing and collection purposes.
The board made the decision to bestow lifetime memberships on LeeAnne Richert, Kristen Barndt, and Robina Koenig.
The site for the 2016 National Show was discussed. The sheep show chairman of the Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival, has stated they are very interested in hosting the event. Because the show catalog has to be printed, the deadline to have the show plans complete is January 1 st For this reason, the board decided to go ahead with plans to have the 2016 National BFL show at the Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival on May 7 & 8 th . More information will be posted on the website and Facebook page and Twitter as plans are made.
The next scheduled meeting of the board is set for 7PM EST on Wednesday, January 6 th . Newly elected board members will be invited to attend this meeting.