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BGS Committee Meeting (24/04/10 )
 

Present: Agnes Aitken,  Christine Ball,  Peter Cox, Ros Earthy, Terry Hanna, Margaret Hardman, Shane Jones, Colin Newton, Nick Parr,  Richard Pemble and Richard Wood

In  attendance Jane Wilson

Apologies: Maureen Ross.

Richard  Wood reported the deaths of Molly Stevens and Miss Weldon and informed the committee that the BGS had received a bequest of £1000 from the will of Clive Bradbury.

Richard Wood welcomed two new members to the Committee Margaret Hardman and Shane Jones.

The election of officers took place:
Chair: Richard Wood. Vice-chairs: Agnes Aitken, Margaret Hardman, Nick Parr.
Archivist: Jane Wilson. Commercial Liaison Officer: Richard Pemble. 
Herd Book Co-ordinator: Margaret Hardman. Honorary Solicitor:  Nick Parr.
Milk recording Co-ordinator: Agnes Aitken. Overseas Representative: Christine Ball.
Public Relations Officer and Publications Co-ordinator: Ros Earthy. Publicity Manager: Shane Jones. Scientific Liaison Officer: Ruth Godwin. Show Co-ordinator: Colin Newton.
Web Manager: Peter Cox. Year Book editor: Michael Ackroyd.
Who might take the role of Government Liaison Officer is being considered.

It was decided that a policy for the trophies held by the BGS is required and this topic will be dealt with at the next meeting when Richard Wood and Colin Newton have visited the office in Northumberland.

It was decided not to form the two working sub groups at this time. The groups normally are
a) Publicity, Publications, Public Relations and Membership
b) Herd Book and Milk Recording.

The Office move had been completed and the Grassroots programme installed on a new computer and members would have access to the programme shortly. Registrations, transfers, milk recording and show schedules could all be completed online. The office would still issue the certificates.
Access to Grassroots online would be by password. This facility would be available to members during May to familiarise themselves with its use, update their own data, complete their data protection forms and then the programme would be available for full use.  The Secretary gave a short demonstration on how the programme is working and examples of how it can be used.

There has been a backlog in registrations and this reason show secretaries are to be asked to accept RAF (registration applied for) when kids are entered for shows this year. Registrations through the office are now being dealt with within one week.

There were discussions regarding the cost and format of the Journal and it was resolved to ensure regular quotations were sort for all publications.

The AGM in Derbyshire was very successful with nearly 50 people attending. The Derbyshire Goat Club and Joanne Smith in particular where thanked for their hard work. £80 had been raised by the auction of the medal donated by Mr Thornley.

Considerations of resolutions passed at the Affiliated Societies’ conference.
Kid classes are already recognised by the BGS and as agreed the results will be published this year.
The question of an award for goats awarded Certificates of Merit received considerable discussion and will be discussed at future meetings. The award would not be retrospective.

The resolution regarding judges abroad would require a change to rules and regulations and would also be discussed in more depth at the next meeting.

The secretary will investigate the practicalities of allowing members to decide which publications they wish to receive.

Questions were raised about regarding bi-annual AGMs in London, and about the present system for electing the BGS committee. Richard Wood stated that we need to consider these matters as future agenda items.

Volunteers to host Autumn Conferences will be requested in the Journal.

The next Committee meeting takes place in August.

 
 
 
 
BGS Committee Meeting (06/02/10 )

Present: Richard Wood (Chairman) Mr P Cox, Mrs A Aitken, Mrs M Edginton, Mr C Newton,
Mr N Parr, Mr T Hanna, Mr R Pemble, Mrs C Ball, Ms S Knowles.
By invitation: - Mrs J Wilson.
Apologies were received from Mrs R. Earthy

The Chairman opened the meeting by introducing and welcoming Jane Wilson, the new Secretary to the BGS. The chairman thanked Mr Peck who is retiring from committee and Mr Cox who is the retiring President.

Plans are going ahead for the implementation of the Grassroots System after 1st March and a meeting of the Milk Recording Secretaries will take place when the system is operational. Donations towards the Grassroots appeal were now in excess of the December’s £900.

Offers of help with closure the office in Bovey Tracey had been received from members. This was very much appreciated. The Committee gave approval for Mr Wood and Mrs Wilson to visit the office as soon as possible and together with Mrs Knowles would consider the archive and necessary sorting, storage an removal to Northumberland..

Plans are going ahead for a BGS stand at the Dairy Event at the NEC in September.

The Chairman would write on behalf of the BGS and give formal support to an award nomination for David Harwood for his work as a veterinarian and long standing support for goat health and welfare.

The landlord for the Bovey Tracey office had produced a large bill with a list of repairs and dilapidations that raised many questions as to responsibilities. Mr Parr the BGS solicitor advised that we should act within our contract. It was resolved after some discussion that quotations would be sort for painting and decorating the office space and Mr Parr would write to the landlord.

An enquiry for export has been received from the West Indies. Further enquiries to be made on EID for exports.

The accounts were approved prior to going to the Auditors. Three small amendments to the Report of the Trustees were approved for the year ending 31st October 2009.

Mr Pemble had researched the history of the Centenary Fund first recorded in 1979. Further discussion would go before the new committee in April.

The AGM takes place on 10th April in Derbyshire. Two nominations had been received for President and therefore a vote would be necessary.

The Chairman thanked Mrs Knowles for all her work as Secretary over 23 years.

The next committee meeting takes place on 24th April.

(Thanks to Jane Wilson for writing this summary - as a volunteer!)
 
 
 
BGS Committee Meeting (21/11/09 )

Present: Richard Wood (Chairman), Agnes Aitken, Christine Ball, Peter Cox. Ros Earthy, Terry Hanna, Margaret Edginton, Colin Newton, Nick Parr, Charlie Peck, Richard Pemble.
Apologies were received from   Sue Knowles.

The deaths were announced of John Allen and Peter Bidwell. Richard Wood has written to both families to give the Society’s condolences. 

 A meeting with regard to the proposed Dairy Goat Show to take place at RASE has not yet taken place but is still under active consideration.

A major publicity drive is to be linked to a bid to the Sir James Nott charity. This will help to give the BGS stand at the Dairy Event the professional image it requires.

An export to Trinidad took place. The purchaser is very pleased and had ordered more. More enquires have been received but the Blue Tongue situation is still making things difficult.

DEFRA has made an enquiry about how commercial herds would re-stock in the event of a major health crisis.

 The autumn conferences were successful. There were excellent speakers at Grampian and the Grassroots presentation at Durham was very well received.

Appointment of a new secretary: the interviews will take place in London on 5th January.

 Discussion of the Grassroots system: the proposal that the system be accepted as a whole and to be in place for use by the new secretary was passed unanimously. The chairman was authorised to launch an appeal to be called ‘The Grassroots Appeal"

 Feedback on the consultation with members. Richard W. reported that a lot of the issues raised were answered by our adoption of the Grassroots system. Other points are to be broken down and passed to the relevant sub-committees for further consideration.

 A net increase in members has produced £1000 increase in funds. Transfers and prefix registrations show an increase and there is a small rise in registrations. Year Book advertisements and sales are up but income from shares is still down.

 CAE testing: The proposal that we should move to three year testing was discussed. It was felt that there was still not enough information about the extent of CAE. A reminder of the Monitored herd scheme is to appear in the journal.

The AGM will be at the Twin Oaks Hotel, Derbyshire 10th April 2010
 
 
 
BGS Autumn Conference - Durham (07/11/09 )

The final affliated society conference for 2009 was mainly devoted to a demonstration of the Grassroots program which allows a vast amount of data to be stored, sorted, analysed and accessed.

The program had been devised specifically for livestock registrations and data and is used by many breed societies including RBST.

The demonstration, and the response to questions, impressed everyone present.

Our thanks go to Libby Henson and Margaret Hargreaves (of Grassroots Systems Ltd.) who gave the excellent presentation and also Durham Dairy Goat Society who hosted the conference.

The PowerPoint slides which acted as the core of the presentation can be downloaded from HERE, but if you do not have PowerPoint on your computer then get a .pdf version from HERE.

The personal notes used by Libby in her talk are available HERE. The notes list 56 points, only 34 of which were covered by the PowerPoint presentation. The other points in  the notes refer to an online demonstration of Pedeweb in action.

Ros Earthy and Peter Cox

 
 
 
 
BGS Committee Meeting (12 /08/09 )

Present: Richard Wood, Margaret Edginton, Agnes Aitken, Terry Hanna, Peter Cox, Christine Ball, Ros Earthy.

Apologies: Nick Parr, Charlie Peck, Colin Newton, Richard Pemble.

The minutes of the previous meeting were read and agreed.

A few goats are able to be moved to other protection zones, but Blue Tongue restrictions are making the export of goats difficult.

Reports were given on the regional meetings held at Forfar and Durham and there was discussion of the proposals for new farming and livestock events at RASE. Autumn conferences will be held in Scotland and Durham.

The web-site again received praise. Breed show pictures are now on but there are urgent requests for the show results to appear more quickly. This, of course, can only be done when the information comes from the office. It was also suggested that a rolling news page would be a valuable addition.

It was unanimously decided not to renew the office lease when it becomes due in 2010. In order to facilitate the movement to new premises and the appointment of a new secretary, Sue Knowles has agreed to retire at the same time as the lease expires

This is a personal summary and does not take the place of the official minutes
Roz Earthy.

Click here for more details re Secretary's retirement etc.
 
 
 
BGS Committee Meeting ( 16/05/09 )

Present :RW, AA, CB, ME, RE, TH, CN, CP, RP, SK.
Apologies for absence: Nick Parr

Election of officers: There are no changes from last year.
Next year's AGM will be held in Derbyshire.
Resolutions passed at the AGM were given to the sub-committees for consideration.
Although finance is still causing some concern the situation is not as bad as was feared.
The lease of the BGS office is up for renewal in 2010.
It was agreed that this would only be re-newed for a maximum of six months.
There was discussion of Grassroots, a registration system which some members of the committee have seen demonstrated and were impressed
There will be an Autumn Conference in Scotland hosted by Grampian.Goat Club

This is a personal summary and does not take the place of the official minutes
Roz Earthy.