Dexter Cattle Society Website

Report on Council Meeting

24th January 2007

Roles and responsibilities: Ken Hobbs has agreed to take on the task of Treasurer, although Ted Neal will present this years’ accounts as he has been in office for most of it. Pat Short is to continue as the Society Archivist, Bob Huntley and Mervyn Mountjoy are to continue on the Registrations Committee and Mervyn will also be responsible for liaison with Canada and USA. Veronica Schofield, Beryl Rutherford and Di Smith are to continue with the Genetics Project. George Godber will continue as Bull Inspector Coordinator, with the Scheme being supported by Bernard Stamp and Bob Huntley. Mick Oliphant is to continue as Field Officer Coordinator and Bernard Stamp with Judges Clearing House and Judges. George Godber is to be Bull Inspector Co-ordinator and with Bernard Stamp organising Show and Sales. Mary Kay is organising the Judges training, liaising with Bernard Stamp. Eileen Hayes is to continue with the Bulletin liaising with Sue Bancroft and Felicity Thomson is heading promotions, liaising with Caroline Ryder for Merchandise. Sue Bancroft is liaising with RBST and Fiona Miles is organising the Herd Book and the web site. Ted Neal is to start work on the journal with Eileen Hayes, George Godber and Di Smith and he has and has the task of getting sponsorship for the DCS. A Beef Marketing team will be set up, covering the whole of UK.

We are hoping to roll out the on-line registrations at the end of February so that it can be in use from the beginning of March. A special introductory reduction will be in place for those that use this service this year.

We are trying to get the Herd Book as the members want it. The layout is to be changed so that the Herd survey and the births of each herd follow on. We will also get all prefixes listed rather than just those of current members. We will be including male calves which are birth notified so do let us know of all your births within 30 days.

George Godber reported that a calf show is held each year at Stoneleigh which perhaps would be of interest to the junior members. He has been invited to attend this year with a view to organising some Dexter classes next year. George had also tried to arrange a Show and Sale at Bristol this year but unfortunately we have since found that it clashes with one already arranged at Frome, so it will have to be postponed for the present.

We propose sending out a survey in February which will hopefully find the views of the membership with regard to the bulletin. Eileen Hayes has put this together so we would be grateful of a good response by the end of March. In the meantime Eileen, George and Ted will look into the details of an annual Journal with small bulletins/newsletters during the year.

We are hoping to organise a Dexter Calendar for 2009 so please get snapping. We will hold a photo competition and hope to get some winners with some good shots of your cattle.

Gill Gabriel has offered to run the raffle again this year, the first prize to be a heifer or £500.

We will have DCS stands at the Royal Welsh, The Royal, Newbury Show, and Bath & West Show this year. There will also be subsidies for members entry at the Royal and the Welsh Royal of £25.00 for the first animal forward and £10 an animal thereafter.

If you have any comments or wish to attend the next meeting of Council it is to be held on 17^th April, 2007.

Report on Council Meeting

8th November 2006

All Council members welcomed the new Chairman Mrs S Bancroft. At the same time Bernard Stamp was elected Vice President and Mick Oliphant was elected Vice Chairman. George Godber was confirmed as President elect.

It was agreed that the AGM should not clash with the York Show and Sale in the future. The Dexter Cattle Society AGM would now be held on the second Saturday of October. The York Sale and Show was to be held on the 5th & 6th October 2007 and our AGM would be held on the 13th October 2007 in Woolsery Village Hall, Woolsery, Bideford, Devon.

It was agreed generally that the bulletin has probably come to the end of its natural life and Council are to look into the possibly moving towards a yearly journal which will consist of articles, adverts (from members and allied companies), show results etc. and anything else which would interest our membership. Up to date rules and fees of the society will be published annually in a Year Book. This is still in the planning stage but hopefully more information will be available after the next meeting.

It was agreed that good quality photographs will be needed for the publication and if necessary the Society should think of employing a professional photographer. It is hoped that this will be in place for 2008.

George Godber reported the prices of the Show and Sale at Melton Mowbray (these can be seen on the Society News page.)

The genetic project is in its final year and there is to be a meeting in November with the RBST and Veronica Schofield and Yvonne Froehlich. The Society needs to know what has been achieved by the project and how this knowledge can be put to use for the future of the Dexter as a breed.

The web site is to be developed and will hopefully become a forum for members to keep up to date with the Society and the Council. For example it was suggested that it would a be good to have a copy of the accounts on line. It was also agreed that there could be links set up with society members who have web sites.

The herd book was discussed. It was because of a number of smudged pages that it had been necessary to reprint it and it was therefore hoped to be with members very soon. The future for the herd book needs discussion. It can be taken off the Grassroots system in A4 pages but in order to get it transferred into A5 size it has to be manually transposed. However this is the format which the members preferred and the cost might have to rise in order to cover the work involved.

It was agreed that Standing Order Payments would no longer be accepted, due to difficulties with changing rates. Members can now pay by Cheque or Credit Card Payments.

On line registrations, transfers etc will be available early in the New Year - more details on this to follow.

Date of the next meeting 24th January 2007

Report on Council Meeting

18^th July 2007

Apologies were recorded from Ted Neal who was recuperating after a hip operation. The meeting opened with Sue Bancroft appealing to members of council to put aside personal issues and work together as a team. This was followed by a frank discussion about the difficulties of the promotional stand at Three Counties Show and the subsequent decision that because of the logistical problems with the Society trailer it would be most sensible to sell it. The regional groups usually were happy to run the stands at their local county shows, and the money spent on moving the trailer around the country would be better spent supporting the groups. The exception to this would be the Royal Show which would be run by the Council, this year the position of the stand had been very successful, it was proposed that we should apply for the same position next year.

Sue Bancroft had spoken to Eileen Hayes who for personal reasons was unsure whether she wanted to continue editing the Bulletin. It was suggested that Ted Neal had an interest in the bulletin and perhaps could assist her on the commercial side in respect of getting information and sponsorship. It was decided that in future all information, contributions and advertising for the Bulletin should come into the office, before being passed on to the Editor. The advertising rates were reconsidered as there had been interest from commercial companies in advertising in the bulletin, a new band of commercial costs were agreed by Council which would hopefully contribute to the future development of the publication.

Mervyn Mountjoy had been speaking to Rob Wills of UK Sires who had pointed out that the Dexter Cattle Society were the only major breed not to belong to British Cattle Genetics, it was decided that we had intended to join a national cattle organisation; this was thought to be a suitable one.

Andrew Sheppy had written a letter pointing out that in the past three prefix’s had been reissued, Council were extremely concerned that this had been allowed to happen and resolved that it should not happen again. A letter had also been received from Clive Taylor asking for support for his Dexter Beef online. Council were grateful for his work in this direction and would be interested to support a project looking into fatty acid testing, however, Council were concerned that the charitable status of DCS would limit how it can help a commercial business.

The secretary reported that we had been offered an online Herd Book from Grassroots; this would provide a service for our members. It was agreed we would take advantage of this offer. Council also discussed the possibility of linking members’ own ‘Dexter’ web sites to the DCS site and it was agreed that the format for this should be explored. The final proof of the Herd Book is being worked on in the old layout, and should be with members by the end of the summer.

The Genetics Contract with Cardiff University was signed by Mervyn Mountjoy and Sue Bancroft.

The Bull Scheme committee had worked on some new simplified forms, which it was hoped would be the start of a revised scheme.

A secret ballot took place and Fiona Miles was selected as President Elect.

Mervyn Mountjoy explained his plans for the AGM, on Saturday 13^th October, in Woolsery Village Hall, near Bideford, and the herd visits which were arranged for the following day. The AGM papers were to be sent out at the beginning of September.

The next Council Meeting is on Wednesday 26^th September 2007

News update....news update

Details of the EGM has been sent to members

PDF file of the constitution for members to download

Elaine Burdon has damaged her Achilles tendon and will not be at work for a few weeks. We wish her a speedy recovery.

Statement from the Steering committee

At the Council meeting on the 1st November 2007 where ordinary members expressed their discontent with Council, the Dexter Cattle Society Council took the unprecedented step of tabling a motion to move towards the resignation from office of almost all Council Members. The motion first elected that Mrs. Fiona Miles was to remain on Council, and that five ordinary members be appointed to fill vacancies as allowed for in the Memorandum & Articles of Association 16.3 left by the resignations. The new smaller body is to be known as a Steering Committee whose job will be to maintain the affairs of the society until a new Council can be elected. The Steering committee is to be chaired by Mrs. Fiona Miles.

It is hoped this will be only a matter of some months before the election can be concluded.

The Steering Committee is charged with reviewing rules that will hopefully enable Council’s of the future to function more effectively. This will include more transparency and openness, together with a mechanism to allow ordinary members to have their say and make complaints that will be listened to, reviewed and acted upon where appropriate, without the necessity for drastic action as has been the case in this instance.

Suggestions are positively invited from all members and a process will be put into action shortly to gather your ideas and views. Some have already started to arrive.

Fiona Miles miles@groubear-farm.co.uk 01884 251181 Martin Ryder info@pikeendfarm.net 01422 823949

Rob Kirk randakirk@ukfarmers.com 01608 674099 Martin Wilson martin@global-fire.co.uk 07718 897256

Mark Bowles info@dextercattleforsale.co.uk 01509 211864 07973 841301 Clive Taylor clive@broomcroft.com 01952 510335 07866 444010

The Steering Committee Website Link

To help keep people informed on matters relating specifically to the Steering Committee, we have created a new website. You can find it at the above link.

We were asked to recommend changes to the Articles of the society. To do this we have consulted professionals and received guidance from members who have been prepared to act as advisors. All of this has been published on the site for you to view at your leisure.

After taking time to consider the advice, we would invite all members to give us your ideas by using the links on the “Submit Ideas” page. Your ideas will be collated and reviewed in due course, to a timescale yet to be announced.

Details of the site will be sent to all members with the bulletin. Anyone without internet access is encouraged to get someone they know to access the site for them and print off what they require. Failing that, we will supply hardcopy details where requested, however the office is extremely busy with herd returns and end of year accounts so we would ask this to be a matter of last resort.

Ideas can also be submitted to the office by letter, but emails with ideas should only be sent by using the links on the site to ensure they are filed properly. It is an automated system of collection. Please note that you will not get a reply.

If you have any comments please contact the Webmaster@dextercattle.co.uk

Report on Council Meeting

17^th April 2007

Eileen Hayes attended the beginning of the Council meeting to discuss the Bulletin and the results of the survey which we had recently carried out. There had been 348 replies in total and 227 of these had been in favour of keeping the bulletin, 85 in favour of a year book and 35 did not know. Eileen has obviously had difficulties in the past from a lack of contributions and this has often delayed it going to the printers, however Eileen did feel that she would be prepared to continue editing the Bulletin in the future and hopefully there would be more enthusiasm and support from both members and the council in the form of articles and photographs. The spring Bulletin will also be sent out direct from the printers which will hopefully be a more efficient use of office time. It was agreed that in 2009 we would try the format of two Bulletins and two newsletters. The newsletter is a good way of getting the very latest news to the membership, such as new DEFRA regulations. It was also felt that the Bulletin should move towards being self funding and we should try to get some commercial advertising and charge appropriately.

The council are very grateful to Eileen for her work on the bulletin over the last fifteen years and look forward to supporting her in the future.

The Dexter Society will have a trade stand at the Royal show this year and it is hoped that members will volunteer their services to help on the stand, but if not, do come and visit. Unfortunately the Royal Welsh Show had no space available for a trade stand so it has been agreed that to try again next year, this year it is hoped to put the stand up in the lines. Council will be looking into the costs of a professional photographer being used at the main shows this year as there seems to be a general lack of Dexter photographs in circulation at present.

George Godber has been working on the Bull Scheme and reported that there are major problems with it largely caused by different co-ordinators working in different directions with paperwork often missing. The number of Inspectors has been reduced in order to create continuity however the scheme needs to be worked on and George Godber suggested that a permanent co-ordinator be appointed to avoid some of this confusion. A Bull Scheme subcommittee was formed to look into improving the scheme in order to encourage more members to use it.

The secretary reported that there had been a great response to the amnesty on the rejoining fee and it was agreed that in future the fee would not come into force until the end of February.

A discussion took place regarding the Native Breed status of the Dexter and our omission from the list. It was reported that DEFRA were forming a new committee in May and we would make our representations then.

The next meeting of the DCS Council is on July 18^th, 2007.

Bulletin Survey 2007

The survey of the bulletin had quite a good response, and thank you to all those who responded. A number of people took the time to make specific comments and we have made note of these. As mentioned in the above report we had 348 replies which was about 20% of the membership. 227 were in favour of keeping the bulletin, 85 voted for an annual publication and 36 did not know. There were obviously many new members who responded and who were requesting articles on general husbandry such as advice on health, nutrition and advice on foot trimming, worming, breeding etc. There were also many of you, who wanted to see more photographs in the Bulletin, I am sure that Eileen would really appreciate receiving your efforts with the camera. There were requests for Show results and Sale prices and many wanted DEFRA regulation updates to be included in the Bulletin. The message is that members want to keep the Bulletin but Eileen needs support from the membership with plenty of material to publish in order that we can keep the standards at a high level.

Report of Council Meeting

26th September 2007

Apologies were received from Bernard Stamp who was away on holiday.

The Royal show was discussed and the Secretary was asked to book the stand for the 2008 show. It was noted that the Royal Show had changed dates which would unfortunately clash with the Great Yorkshire Show, judging would be on Friday.

The Society trailer had been sold as agreed.

Bob Huntley reported that he had looked into the problem of the prefixes and the three prefixes in question which had been duplicated, Rosewood, Cashel and Sylvan would be entered into the herd book with dates beside them. It was agreed that a prefix could not be reused in the future.

Council would be pleased to liaise with Clive Taylor over the fatty acid tests and would look into possible companies to do the work. Di Smith reported that the committee had been selected in respect of the native breed status and she would report back to Council at the next meeting. The Society has booked a stand at Royal Smithfields Christmas Fair.

There was a discussion about bulls entering Stage 2 of the bull scheme and it was agreed that if a test was required from siblings for parent verification (due to a sire or dam not being alive) the bull inspector should have full sight of the paperwork.

The financial report showed that the Society forecast was for a slight loss, this was felt to be partly due to the foot and mouth outbreak and fewer registrations.

Mick Oliphant was elected as Vice President, the constitution required this to be ratified at the AGM.

There was a discussion of whether at some stage we should consider becoming the United Kingdom Dexter Cattle Society, but this was put on hold as we first have to sort out our native breed status.

The Council were all very sorry that Eileen had decided not continue as editor of the Bulletin. She had done a fantastic job over the last fourteen years. She was sent flowers by the society. New advertising rates were discussed and although the members rates were not greatly changed; the commercial rates had risen considerably which would hopefully bring in some revenue.

Final arrangements were made for the AGM, Mr M Huxtable would get an independent person to assist with the count and the results would be announced at the AGM. It was agreed not to hold a council meeting with new council members immediately after the AGM but in a couple of weeks.

The trophies were to be awarded despite a large number of shows being cancelled. It was agreed by Council that the Lisa Kemmish Trophy would be awarded to Christopher Ashwin and the Angela Seymour Trophy to Sophie Lines. The Group Trophy would be awarded to the Midland group.

It was suggested that semen could be sold on the DCS website and perhaps these adverts could be coupled up with classified adverts in the bulletin.

The next Council Meeting would be on 1^stNovember, 2007