Minutes of the June 2010 Breed Council Meeting

A meeting of the Persian Breed Council was called to order in Minneapolis, MN, by Secretary Nancy Petersen at 8 am on Saturday, June 26, 2010. Thirty (30) members representing each of the seven divisions were present.

President-elect and Persian BC member Jerry Hamza visited our meeting early on and promised his continued support of the Persian breed and vowed to help protect it from future BOD action which the BC might consider detrimental.

Susan Cook Henry reported that the treasury currently stands at $1,034.00. Donations had been solicited earlier in the year yet represented less than a third of the donations from the previous year. The Persian BC placed a full-page ad in last year's CFA Yearbook and plans are to do the same again. Discussion followed regarding whether to honor kittens once again or go in a different direction. A suggestion was made to utilize hundreds of photos of individual Persian RW/NW to form a pixilated "collage" of a Persian head or full body. Lisa Smith and Lauren Gonano said they would research the possibility and see what options might be available. Kathy Durdick has photos of nearly all the Division Top Tens in kittens, championship and premiership so in the neighborhood of 200 photos might be available to use. Short of that, honoring the top kittens by division as last year is the preferred option.

Another expense to the treasury was the donation of $150 to CatsCenterstage! A grateful Joan Miller had acknowledged our BC's contribution along with others during her report to the delegation at the Annual meeting which helped her committee get this important project up and running.

As for income for the treasury, the Midwest T.G.I.F. show in March honored the Persian and the Ocicat and contributed $5 per Persian entry to our BC (57 entries yielded $285). Beyond that, proceeds from half of the raffle netted $470. Jeanne Nangle had a book sale and gave all the proceeds to the BC for another $64, giving a total income to our treasure of $819. Thanks so much to Beth Cassely and her T.G.I.F. members for such a wonderful offer! At the end of the meeting, further donations totaling $250 were received from Hope and Lauren Gonano, Wilma Van Scoyk and Claire Larkin which brings our treasury balance to $1,284.00. Many thanks for their generosity! Another post to the Persian BC List will be made in mid-July to see if any more individuals are interested in making contributions, as the first donations last year came at the end of July - some people have now contributed twice in one year.

Nancy Petersen mentioned that the deadline for ballot items will be August 1, 2010. Discussion about potential ballot items ensued. Mention was made of the Chocolate Smokes being proposed once again for the Smoke/Shaded division. Consensus was among the attendees that for consistency across the divisions that Chocolate Smoke should be considered for that division which is currently the only division without representation of the chocolate gene. Pointed Bi-Colors was another mention of a possibility for adding to the ballot for consideration by the Bi-Color membership.

"Meet the Breeds" is a go for a second time, taking place on October 16-17, 2010, at the Jacob Javits Center in New York City. The Persian booth was of great interest at last year's event, and there are a number of people interested in participating this year. Lisa Smith volunteered to help coordinate this year's efforts. One lesson learned last year was that the two double cages in the front of the booth area actually became a barrier of sorts and kept large numbers of spectators out of our booth who instead chose to admire the cats in the front and just look into the booth from the outside. It was decided to remove the front cages and instead have just 4 doubles in the booth. This will cut down on the numbers of Persians in the booth, but there will still be several representatives from a few of our popular divisions. Another goal is to have different cats and people on each day of the event, as it certainly proved to be very tiring for those people and cats who participated last year. A number of people expressed interest, and soon the parts will begin falling into place as we get more information regarding the specifics of this year's event.

We expect to receive $1,000 for our booth this year, as will all breeds. We also expect to have our same 30' booth space. This is half last year's amount, but considering the vast majority of the decor is already done, we should have funds available to pay for increased fees for extra tables, chairs, carpet, etc. There were a number of "surprise" charges to CFA's general account for MTB last year, mostly owing to labor-related fees. Hopefully, this will be avoided this year. Participants in the Persian booth will be willing volunteers who understand it is very possible that their lodging expenses may not be covered, nor any travel-related expenses. Our overall experience last year was very positive and it should be much smoother an event this year given it has been done once already. A question was asked about the possibility of providing a "training video" of sorts showing how to bathe and groom a Persian. This might help avoid needing a Persian and a groomer to do a live demo, which was a problem last year when there was not an "extra cat" in place for this purpose. When Claudia Hasay has more information available, that question can be asked as well as determining whether the video could be offered for sale as a tool for the spectators.

As for promoting the Persian, our road-warrior breed booth is a lovely display yet it is difficult to transport and not so easy to set up. The booth is good in the sense that the various BW by division are featured anew each year so it changes in that sense. But it is getting long on years and fairly soon will need some cosmetic work to keep it up to par. We still expect it to appear at some large-scale events such as MTB and National Capital Cat Show (as it is housed in that general area). But we need to have a few or several breed displays that are very portable yet showcase our breed adequately. Art Graafmans in California was mentioned as a possible source as was Rarteo Lowe in Hong Kong - each has the ability to produce a quality product which is light-weight and eye-catching.

Gina Hargett mentioned a laboratory, "Greer Labs," whose representative, Mike Mudd, is purchasing cat hair (shaved or from grooming) for $115/pound. The hair must be dirty (i.e. no bath within 10 days) and you will be asked to provide vaccination protocol, share details on how you keep your cats, isolate them for kittening or illness, etc. This is all part of a study using DNA from the hair for research into various cat diseases. If you have further questions, contact Gina at cotnhill@cotnhill.com.

The meeting was adjourned at 9:05 am.

Respectfully submitted,
Susan Cook Henry