Here comes finally my report of the 2009 CFA annual meeting held in Palm Spring on june 26-27.

I am not going to comment everything in details as it would take for ever but I will try to summarise and focus on topics of interest for the International Division.

However, if anyone wishes to have more details on one or the other subject, please feel free to bring it to discussion.

A) Advancement of Judges

Michael Schleissner = Allbreed Aproval pending

Congratulations Michael!!!

This is great! A new CFA judge in Europe!

We need our own judges to be able to cut off expenses and so produce more shows in our region.

I would like to thank these few individuals who are going through the long process of becoming an approved CFA-judge.

You are joining Arie, George and Peter and I surely hope that it will motivate other people to follow your traces and become CFA-approved judges.

B) Election Results Directors At Large (DAL)

Roger Brown, DVM

George J Eigenhauser, Jr

Richard Kallmeyer

Carol Krzanowski

David L. Mare

Darrell Newkirk

David White

NB: Eventhough not elected as DAL, Liz Watson accepted to remain our Liaison for Europe and so the ID-E team stays the same along with Darrell and me.

C) Proposed Amendments and Resolutions

A complete list of proposed amendments can be found at:

Constitutional amendments

1- passed by 2/3

2- failed

3- failed

4- failed

Show Rule resolutions

5- failed

6- failed

7- failed

8- failed

9- failed

10- passed by 2/3

11- failed

12- passed by 2/3

13- withdrawn

14- failed

15- passed by 2/3

Non-Show Rule resolutions

16- failed

Resolutions from the floor

21- passed

24- passed

I confess I lost track of some of the resolutions from the floor as most didn't pass but these 2: 21) and 24) were of direct interest for our Division. Anyway, resolutions from the floor are advisory only and will have to be presented at next board meeting for ratification. A positive recomandation from the delegates is a good sign but does not garanty that it will pass!

In summary:

1- was a proposal to improve the presentation of the financial situation of CFA at the annual (passed)

2- 3- and 4- were proposals to include in the consitution sections about breed definition in order to prevent mainly LH-Exotics (and breeds with similar issues such as pointed orientals) to ever be shown in CFA. (failed)

5- proposed to create an Open class for kittens between 7-8 months old, in order to enable them to already get winner ribbons toward CH-Title when adults. (failed)

6- proposed to EXCLUDE NOVICE CATS from national/regional counts for e-points scoring. This was important for us as it would affect our counts and make them drop. Also since we are part of the Worl Cat Congress (WCC), and have agreed on an open door policy between member associations (CFA, TICA, Fife, etc), how nice would it sound to basically tell them "your cats can participate at our shows but they count for 0! Defeating them is not worth a point." There were many people reacting about this (exhibitors and judges from Europe as well as from USA) and I would like to thank the following people who stood up and spoke in front of the delegates to help me defend the interests of the International Division: Kim Everett, Donna Fuller, Darrell Newkirk, Laura Shimer, Roger Kallmeyer and frederic Goedert. I might have forgotten some and if so I apologise and thank them just the same. (failed)

7- similar to 2- 3- and 4- but to amend show rules and not constitution and only restricted to the showing of LH-Exotics. (failed)

8- proposed to prevent a judge to be allowed to judge a cat whose Sire (father) was owned or co-owned by him at the time the mating had taken place. ( failed)

9- Proposed to create Open-finals (top 3 LH-SH-AB as for CH-finals) and require at least 1 placement in them to qualify for CH/PR title. (failed)

10- 12- were about Veteran classes, in order to allow to hold these classes in 1 day shows as well as to provide them with specific ribbons. (passed)

11- about lights provided on the judging rings. Required to have special notice on the flyer if the recommanded quality of light can not be offered. (failed)

14- proposed to allow changes of regional assignement for cats/kittens even after first weekend of january if there would be a change of ownership. (failed)

15- offered to create titles for Agility competitors to be included to the cat's name in addition to names earned in judging rings, such as Agility Competitor (AC), Agility Winner (AW), Agility Master (AM) and Agility Grand Master (AG), according to specific requirements based on their results in agility competition. (passed)

16- was about Dinstinguished Merit Title and asked to reduce the number of required GC/GP for males to qualify from 15 to 10 GC/GP. (failed)

21- was about « split season kittens » and asked to change the deadline for regional assignement (currently the FIRST weekend they earn points as a kitten) to the LAST weekend they earn points as a kitten, in order to offert hem the same conditions than the other kittens being shown and scored against them later during the show season.

( passed)

24- (and 22- ?) was asking for the possibility for a club to licence an experimental format for a 2 days show : 6 AB and 4 SP => 10 rings total. (passed)

Again, since they were from the floor, eventhough passed by delegates these 2 last proposals will still need to be presented (with positive recomandation) at the next board meeting in october and pass in order to become effective.

D) Meeting with International Division

This year again, the Board of CFA was very supportive of the idea of Europe becoming CFA's 9th region and for the first time, a possible date has been advanced for the application (this needs to be voted and pass at 2/3 by the delegates as it will need a change in the constitution). Provided that we can manage to open a bank account and demonstrate that we are able to cover our own expenses, 2011 annual would be realistic to apply. So folks, let get to work !!!

Main subjects discussed were :

- Treasury

- Mentoring, New Bee and Ambassador programs

- Show licences

- GC-pts and Winner Ribbons requirements within the ID

Treasury

We discussed the problem of security of the account, how to prevent that anyone can run away with the money, as well as how and where would be the most conveniant to open an account. I asked the different regional directors what had been their strategy in their respective regions. What I didn't know is that CFA has contracted a bounding that covers all CFA accounts including those of the regions. Apparently a bounding is a kind of insurance that protects the account. I asked if this bounding would cover also an eventual foreign account for the Europe Region and CO will clarify this and come back with an answer.

In the case it would not, it seems that it is possible to contract a bounding with a local company in any country and the aproximative cost for it based on our estimated budget would be around 150€ per year which is a realistic option.

About the bank account there are 2 main options open and that seem realistic.

Option 1A : is to have a long time stable established european club open a separate account specific for the Europe Region. Attention, this does not mean that this club would have more regard on this account than other clubs of Europe ! We will have a separate treasurer and separate signatures for this account. But we would benefit of their status of non-profit organisation. This is the option that has been used for the Asia Division as they were facing the same problems than we do, dealing with clubs of the same organisation located in different countries, each with specific regulations.

It seems to be a viable solution, at least it seems to work for Asia.

Option 1B : is to open an account without the fostering of an existing club. The question would be in which country ? We don't know where would be our next treasurer and/or representative and we might end up with an account in a country where we have neither one nor the other… Also in order to have the status of non-profit organisation we will need to create an association called for ex. « CFA Europe » and have its status legalised in that country.

Aproximate cost for this procedure should be around 1'500 €. Since we don't have any money yet, unless a club (or an individual) wants to make a donation to cover these expenses I don't see how we could afford this option.

Option 2 : is a variant of 1B. The idea is to open an account without a fostering club but in USA. This way we are sure to be covered by the CFA-bounding and the account would be in the same country than our main association. We will need someone that is citizen of USA to open the account but this could be our chairman (presently Darrell Newkirk). He doesn't need to be the treasurer and transactions can be done online. Of course we will still need to create and register officially a non-profit organisation but a CFA club from the USA has offered to sponsor us and to cover these expenses.

Mentoring, New Bee and Ambassador programs

This year again, the board has suggested us to develop these programs in Europe as they have proven to be effective tools to stimulate growth and interest from newbies in our association. Best example for this is Asia who has now a well organised

Ambassador program and shows a spectacular developement in the past years.

For this purpose a Regional Coordinator has been appointed, Aleksejs Dergachovs, and together we will try to develop these programs in Europe too.

A new Ambassador banner and new « Ask Me » buttons have been provided in order to increase the visibility of Ambassadors at the shows and I was very glad to be able to use them for the first show in « La Grande Motte » last weekend in France.

I would like to take this occasion to thank all experienced exhibitors who offered their support and worked at that show as Ambassadors. Thank you guys !

Anyone interested in becoming a mentor, a pupil or an ambassador, please don't hesitate to contact me or Alex.

Show licences

This is a wish that has been expressed by the board that we start paying for the show licences in Europe, especially if we are going to become a region.

This doesn't come as a surprise as we knew from the very begining that it would be part of the package to become a region. Anyway, provided that clubs will manage to licence their shows in time, I don't think that these 100$ will be a big problem in the total budget of a show. However, we have asked if it would be possible to come with a progressive approach, like for example a fixed annual fee based on the average number of regular shows in Europe. I think that the Europe fund might be able to cover this fee, at least as long as we don't have to refund money to CFA on each show-entry (regions have to refund 50 cts per entry). This way it would not generate additional cost for the clubs.

We definately will have to come with a proposal for the next board meeting.

GC-pts and Winner Ribbons requirements within the ID

With the growth of CFA and increasing number of shows & entries in some isolated areas of Europe, Ukraine and Russia, it has become necessary to increase the requirements to archive CFA-titles in these areas in order to maintain fair conditions of competition with the ID. On the other hand we have to take in consideration the difficulties of people from these regions to travel to other shows (obtention of visas, etc).

We absolutely don't want to penalise the clubs from these areas who are doing a great job to promote and develop CFA.

The Board of CFA has decided to increase the number of required Winner ribbons from 4 to 6 and leave the GC-pts requirement at 75 ptsfor Ukraine ONLY Russia keeps for now the 4 winner ribbons requirement

At the end of the coming show season, the situation will be examined again and only then will be decided if the counts are favorable enough to raise the GC-pts requirements or not.

The goal is to progressively bring these areas to the same requirements than the rest of Europe, without making prejudice to their developement.

I am still hoping to organise fast (informal) meetings at most of the shows in Europe in order to get the opinions and feedbacks from as many CFA-exhibitors in our region as possible.

I think it is important to offer a possibility to everyone, not only to the clubs, to express their view and share their ideas. But for this I need the cooperation of the clubs as I don't think it is realistic to organise meetings in the evening or before/after the shows. Most people will be either not arrived, already left or will have to take care of their cats and be tired and nobody will attempt these meetings.

Hoping to see most of you soon at one of the next shows,

Olivier Grin

CFA's ID-Europe Representative

Dommartin, Switzerland