The 2009 ACFA Annual Board Meetings will be held August 11-14 in Concord, North Carolina. I will represent the North Central Region in those meetings, and I'm interested in your thoughts on issues coming before the board.

This is a Breed Standards year. Show Rules and Bylaws must be declared an emergency to be on the agenda, so some of the topics below might not be discussed, but I'm interested in your ideas in any case. For most of these topics, you can check the rules on the ACFA web site for the exact wording of the relevant rules and directives.)

ACFA membership votes on amendments to the Bylaws, Show Rules and Registration Rules (the general and non-breed-specific sections), so for those matters, after the board has examined them, you will have a chance to vote on them. This involvement of the ACFA membership in setting the rules that govern the association is one thing that distinguishes ACFA from other associations. (Remember that if you haven't renewed your membership, you won't be eligible to vote on these matters.)

• In the Show Rules, Article VII, Judges, section 9, says that judges may not transport a cat that will be shown in their ring. It has been interpreted to also prohibit a judge who rides to the show with an exhibitor from judging the cats in their ring. Should we continue this restriction? What if the judge has not handled, loaded, or unloaded the cats, leaving all that to the exhibitor? Would this affect the shows you attend? Would you be more or less likely to enter cats in shows if the rule was relaxed?
• Board directive 07-03 says that when a benefit show is held, the amount sent to ACFA must be at least as much as the judges' fees would have been, since the judges are donating their fees to ACFA. Sometimes this causes the club putting on the benefit to lose money, as they would if the show had not been a benefit show. Should the board continue the same policy or modify it some way to encourage clubs to put on benefti shows without the risk of losing money? Looking at a bigger question, are there better ways than benefit shows to raise money for ACFA?
• The Pixie Bob breed committee has proposed some changes to the breed standard, including allowing polydactyl Pixie Bobs. This would require a show rule change, because Article 9. General Judging Rules, section 9.g says that cats having more than 5 toes on each front foot and four on each hind foot shall be disqualified. The committee is recommending adding the phrase "unless allowed in a specific breed standard" to the show rule.
• The Russian Blue breed committee has proposed allowing new colors - black and white - to be added to the Russian Blues.
• Individual cats can be registered with ACFA if the Sire and Dam are ACFA registered, even if the kitten litter is not registered. The board is considering change the policy to require the litter to be registered before the individual kittens in the litter can be registered. (This is a Central Office billing and booking procedure, so it won't come up for a vote of the membership.) The board has also been asekd to consider a change in the minimum requirements on a pedigree, although the specific proposal hasn't yet been presented.
• Article XII, Licensed Judges, in the Bylaws, includes clause 6.a.[3] that requires a judge to officiate or exhibit a minimum of three weekends in a show season to be considered for re-licensing. The board has been asked to relax this "3 or 3" rule.
• Currently there are no standards for household pets, but the board has been asked to consider adding standards, related to health, cleanliness, grooming, disposition, etc., as part of a way of showing support for household pets.
• Last year there was a membership poll regarding a revised pay schedule for master clerks. 72 ACFA members responded in favor of changing the pay schedule for a one-day show to 1-1/2 times the entry fee, rather than two times the entry fee as it is today. The board will consider the proposal in light of the poll results.
• Proposals for 8-ring shows and split format shows came up at the semi-annual meeting and might be considered by the board at the annual.
• At the semi-annual meeting, in brainstorming about how to attract more people to the judging program, there was a suggestion that perhaps the option of being only a longhair specialty judge or only a shorthair specialty judge might be appealing to some potential judges. This might come up at the annual.
• There was also a brainstorming suggestion to no longer require a judge to be a breeder, and this might come up at the annual.
• There was yet another brainstorming suggestion to remove the continuous membership requirement for judges. A change to the continuous membership requirement would affect not only judges but anyone wanting to become a judge or serve on the board or on a breed executive committee in the future as well as those who are already filling these positions.
• The board has also been asked to re-examine the education requirements for judges, including lowering the biennial training requirement for senior judges with a certain number of years of service.

What else should the board consider at the annual meeting? Let me know via email - my address is glennewton@comcast.net