ILR Show
Division
FLEECE
COMMITTEE Minutes
March 16, 2009
Conference Call Meeting
March 16, 2009, 7 pm EST
Committee Members - Val
Carmichael, Lynda Carothers, Betty Moe, Mary Jo
Miller, Fran Soukup - Chair, Pamela Tait - Secretary
Meeting was called to order
at 7:05 pm EST. All committee members present.
Minutes
Minutes from February 16th meeting - Motion
to approve by Val; Lynda seconded motion. Motion
passed unanimously.
Budget
Lynda reported on the budget that there were no
additions and the budget for the fleece committee
looked good as is.
Email Contacts
The committee received several emails from
members since the last meeting. These emails have
all been responded to by Fran, and the ILR SD has
received some further emails from these members
expressing their elation at having been responded to
so promptly.
Mission Statement &
Responsibilities
Committee had already approved the
committee’s Mission Statement and Responsibilities
statement by email, but wanted to add to
Responsibilities: ”Fleece educational material for
exhibitors, general public and judges”. Motion by
Betty to approve, second by Pam, motion passed
unanimously.
Subcommittees
FLEECE JUDGING
Fran and Mary Jo reported on
their first runs with the fleece scoring cards. Mary
Jo had used all of the score cards with the
exception of Coat On.
Fran had used the score cards at a farm visit that
she did at Kristy Brown’s. There was some discussion
on uniformity in length (variations in re-growth).
Also discussed was the benefit of being able to pull
a lock from the side of the llama during the Fleece
On judging in order to be able to judge Tensile
Strength, Fineness, and Guard Hair. The pulled lock
also made it easier to show the exhibitor what was
being judged. Pam also commented that she had done
a trial run with the ILR scorecards for shorn fleece
and found them much easier to use than the previous
scorecards she had been exposed to, as the ILR
scorecards are more specific as to what is being
judged. All in all, the scorecards were a ‘hit’.
GROUP CLASSES
Committee discussed approving the Group Classes
rules, and a motion was made by Pam to approve them.
Discussion resulted in the committee recommending
that we need further discussion on the specific
criteria that fleece judges will be judging for the
fleece get and produce classes. Motion to approve
was withdrawn by Pam. Fran will contact the fleece
judges regarding what specifically will be judged in
Group Classes, and the Rules may or may not need to
be adjusted to reflect this. The chair will request
this item be dropped as an agenda item for the
Governing Board meeting.
FINISHED PRODUCTS
Committee discussed the changes which were made
to the Fleece Products score cards, entry cards and
rules. Motion to approve was made by Betty, 2nd
by Mary Jo. Motion passed unanimously.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
(FAQ)
Committee went over the proposed FAQ and made
some comments and suggestions. It was decided that
we will need FAQ for both show management and for
exhibitors/members, even though some questions will
overlap. Pam will submit final fleece show
management FAQ to committee for approval and then
start on the exhibitor/member FAQ list.
SHOW MANAGEMENT GUIDE
Fran is working on consolidating the show
management guide
AWARDS AND LIFETIME
ACHIEVEMENTS
Mary Jo reported that she is continuing research
on this. We will need to see what the other
committees are doing on this so that we can be
consistent.
MARKETING
Tabled.
EDUCATION – JUDGES
Committee discussed our procedure for the
requests for grandfathering fleece judges as ILR
fleece judges, as there have been several requests
to be grandfathered in. The procedure will be:
Request to be grandfathered in
goes to the judges committee, and they will review
the request and decide whether they will then
present the request to the fleece committee for
input. At that time, Fran will interview the
applicant over the phone, looking at their fleece
experience, processes and definitions with a
consistent set of questions. She will then send her
recommendation back to the judges committee for
their final approval.
Fran would like to see a clinic
for all ILR fleece judges in the near future to go
over consistency in terminology and judging
approaches.
EDUCATION – GENERAL
Tabled.
ALPACA FLEECE JUDGING
It was noted that more alpaca fleece judges are
needed. At this time, priority will not be given to
the development of alpaca fleece judging rules and
criteria. Education will come first.
The annual ILR meeting is
scheduled for June 30th, 2009, in
Kalispell, Montana. All ILR members are welcome and
encouraged to attend.
Next conference call
meeting will be Wednesday, April 1st, 2009, at 8 pm
EST.
Val made a motion to adjourn
the meeting; Betty seconded motion. Motion passed
unanimously, and the meeting was adjourned at
approximately 8:40 EST.
Minutes submitted by Pamela
Tait, ILR Fleece Committee secretary.