Southern Counties SBT Society

Minutes of the Meeting held on Saturday 19th November 2022

at

The Fieldhead Hotel, Markfield Lane, Markfield LE67 9PS

The Chairman welcomed everyone to the meeting and opened at 11.05am

1. Apologies for absence.

Pro – Clare Robinson-Cox

KCBLO – Karon Jackson

Lead Health Co-Ordinator – Gem Rowe

Downlands

Potteries

Merseyside – apologies not received

South Wales -

Attendance

Chairperson – Dave Lee

Secretary/Treasurer – Helen Reaney

BEC – Helen Reaney

10 Clubs represented at some or all sections of the agenda

East Anglia – Lesley McFadyen & Paul Thurston

East Midlands – Maureen Ward & Janet Higgins

Northern Counties – Helen Reaney acting on behalf of the club

Northwest – Tec Norton

North of Scotland –Maureen Ward acting on behalf of the club

Notts & Derby – Kirsty Summerfield

Scottish – Maureen Ward acting on behalf of the Club

Southern Counties – Helen Reaney acting on behalf of the club

SBTC – Alan Hedges

Western – Martin Grimwood

2. Minutes of the meeting held on Saturday 2nd July 2022 and Matters Arising

* The Breed Council Website and social media Page – nothing further has been done on this, at the last meeting it was stated that Clubs need to provide information to update onto the site. A friend of Julie Gray has set the site up and is just waiting for information. Need to clarify the website address and once updated with relevant information the Social Media page can also be set up.

• Western raised the issue of Overseas Judging and how much the Breed Council /Club will accept as part of the number of dogs judged. This was a lengthy discussion, and it was agreed that the following be put forward to the Clubs.

• Any overseas judge to have the support of the breed to have judged a Breed Club Show or Sacs classes

• UK judges wishing to include overseas judging must have judged a minimum of two breed club shows.

• Does the Breed maintain the Breed Council List after 2025. Do we as a breed keep our criteria of a minimum of 180 dogs judged to judge a Breed Club Show. The Generals will source judges from the JEP judging lists but we as a breed can ensure that anyone wishing to judge our Championship shows has more experience than ninety dogs.

As an agenda item for the January 2023 meeting via Video and all clubs invited to the meeting.

3 Reports.

3.1. Chairman’s Report. – Dave read out his report – see attached

3.2. Secretary’s Report. – Helen read out her report – see attached

3.3. Public Relation Officer’s Report. – none

3.4. Kennel Club Breed Liaison Officer’s Report. - none

3.5 Lead Health Co-Ordinator – in the absence of Gem, Lesley read out the report – see attached Please ensure that this is read as it highlights key areas.

3.6 BEC report – See attached within the Secretary report

4. Correspondence & matters arising. –

All correspondence formed part of the agenda today

5. Propositions

5.1 EM propose/2nd SBTC – Breed Council Zoom/Teams annual subscription to be paid by all breed clubs, (as part of the annual subscription) representatives of each Club to be able to have full participation in the meeting. This was discussed and amended by EM to include the wording in red. See voting sheet.

Maureen Ward read out the notes from the North of Scotland at their request who would like them included in the minutes

The North of Scotland vote for this proposal and are happy to second the proposal. We look forward to a more accessible Breed Council meeting and more participation

5.2 SBTC propose/2nd Northwest – The Breed Council to write to the Kennel Club to ask that they add to the Breed Standard, head, and muzzle proportions of two parts skull one part muzzle. (Any amendment to the Breed Standard requires all clubs to agree)

North of Scotland wished to have the following comments minuted – Vote Against this proposal even with the addition of the word minimum.

Previous proposed changes to the Breed Standard have been brought to the NOS membership to discuss and vote on. We would like to understand more of the rationale behind this proposal and whether it has been made due to an evidence-based approach. Whilst we fully appreciate the challenges foreign enthusiasts are facing with their Kennel Clubs and breeding restrictions, we want an initiative-taking approach rather than reactive. Perhaps a BOAS testing sample is required. Has the BVA got stats? In terms of judging how much impact will it make and how many judges are reporting breathing issues? A complex issue that we want to make sure we get right.

This was discussed and voting took place – as an agenda item for the Video meeting in January 2023 with all seventeen clubs invited.

5.3 SBTC propose – The Breed Council write to the Kennel Club to ask that the health status of parents in terms of L2HGA and HC is known as a requirement to register puppies This was withdrawn following the report from the Lead Health Co Ordinator and will await the outcome from correspondence from Gem Rowe – See report attached

6. Health Issues and Lead Health Co-Ordinator Report - moved up to 3.5

7. Breed Education Co-Ordinator Report – moved up to 3.6

8. Matters brought forward by delegates for discussion.

8.1 - SBTC would like the following item for discussion. Do the Breed Clubs support the recent Kennel Club’s alterations to how Judges qualify to award CC’s (i.e., being mentored) This was discussed at length. It was agreed that some areas of the new JEP were good and workable however there are concerns over the mentoring of candidates and observations. It was confirmed that Mentors are selected from the approved list and three sessions need passing before progression can be made further. The list of judges who are starting this process will increase over the next two years and where possible we need to encourage those part way through to get onto the A3 or A2. The BAD sessions are seeing more all-rounders attending and it is highly likely that the Generals will look to sort a breed specialist however if they can source an all rounder to do several breeds, they may well go down this path. The current B list is way out of date with names that have not judged in years and if they wish to continue will have to go down the JEP route. It was agreed that the B list would be collated after clubs, Breed Council Secretary/BEC work through.

9. Free discussion period on the Staffordshire Bull Terrier – minutes taken by the PRO

Following on from the proposal from SBTC regarding the Muzzle it was agreed that we have a Breed Council/Standard subcommittee. This was proposed by EA and seconded by Western. This could be discussed more at the Teams meeting in January.

10. A.O.B.

Helen advised the room that the cost for hiring the venue has increased to £250 which does not’ include tea/coffee. It was agreed that the Secretary source a new venue and couple of options were put forward. Storage facilities sometimes have room which come free if you pay for storage. Notts & Derby storage has a room which may be big enough and will be looked at. Also mentioned some Tesco Extra have conference rooms that are hired out.

Teams’ meetings could be the way forward for some of the meetings with two face to face meetings taking place. The Council wants to ensure that all seventeen clubs can be engaged in the Council and following on from the pandemic virtual meetings are coming the norm.

11. Date of the next meeting.

Teams meeting on Tuesday 24th January 2023 at 7.30pm

Please advise who will be representing the Club – one delegate per club please.

Link to the meeting will be forwarded at the proper time once we have details of who is attending and their emails.

Meeting closed at 2.15pm

Helen E Reaney (Hon Secretary)

Circulated to all Member Clubs Sunday 11th December 2022 ©