ILR Show Division Fleece Committee Minutes - July 16, 2013
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ILR Show Division

FLEECE COMMITTEE Minutes
July 16, 201
3 

Conference Call Meeting - July 16, 2013, 8:00 pm EST 

Committee Members Present:  Judy Ross - Chair, Rawna Hamann - Secretary, Debi Garvin, Eran McCarty, Maryan Baker, Jenni Jimmerson                                                            

CALL TO ORDER:

Meeting was called to order at 8:05 pm EDT. All committee members were present.

MINUTES:

Minutes from 2-9-13 meeting - approved by email and sent to office for posting. 

Updated minutes from email meeting on 2-24-13 approved by email and sent to office for posting.

AGENDA ITEMS:    

1.       Fleece committee member introductions: Welcomed new member BOD liason, Debi Garvin

2.       Gathering Fleece promotion: Eran brought up that it was very difficult to navigate for information on the Gathering Fleece show esp. for sending in fleece and products. It was suggested to have a separate link for fleece information to make it more efficient to locate entry forms, class information, and mailing instructions.

3.       Youth Division Judging: It was brought up that there are no guidleines for training and supervising youth for fleece judging. Debi motioned; Maryan seconded: support youth committee reccommendations until further development of this portion of the program. Roll Call vote: 6 votes yes/no no's: To support this reccommenation was Passed.

4.       Gathering judges Reccomendations: Debi motioned; Eran seconded the 3 top choices of fleece judges for the 2014 Gathering show. These reccommendations are, in order: Mary Jo Miller, Maryan Baker, Niki Kuklenski.

a.       These ladies meet the following changes: Anyone judging The Gathering has to skip at least three years before judging again, in any division. The judge must be in good standing with the ILR and the ILR-SD. The fleece committee shall pick three candidates by consensus for fleece judging. The halter committee shall pick three candidates by consensus for the halter judge. The youth committee and the performance committee shall jointly select three candidates for performance judge. Each committee can rank the candidates. The judges committee shall review the nine candidates, making sure they are all in good standing with the ILR SD. The ILR board shall make sure the candidates are in good standing with the ILR. Once the candidates are validated the names will be sent to all six ILR-SD committees for review so the chair can then represent each committee on the GB for voting. The final selections will be ratified by the ILR BOD.  

5.       Fleece Champions: Dar is creating certificates. Debi would like to see a 'token award' presented to these lifetime achievement Champions. She suggested wool bags from Quality Llama Products. She will investigate the costs and specifics and get us the information via e-mail. Need to find out from Dar how many we are looking at honoring. The committee was asked to think about special awards that could be useful for fleece users and be affordable.

6.       Annualized Weights: Rawna brought up that there are several issues for discussion regarding annualized weight. There was an open discussion with the following concerns/comments:

a.       Age of animal may differ from age at shearing and gets locked up in show manager - changes division and thus points for said fleece/animal.

b.       Shearing styles are all different and until that is consistent, they should not be judged by the weight.

c.       It was also brought up that weight is the one thing that cannot be 'improved upon on that llama' as compared to the other qualities that can change from shearing to shearing on that llama. Judy commented that year to year shearing, blanket vs barrel can make a difference as well as proper skirting can make a difference, proper nutrition enhances fleece growth as well as climate/weather can make a difference, this was just discussion. You not only look at the follicles per inch, but you have length as well that adds to the weight. We are talking about weight not density.

7.       Because of all the variables, and thus controversy, it was suggested that a survey through Survey Monkey be sent out to every ILR member. Judy objected that we first need the list of questions, so the committee could agree on what needs to be asked. She also stated that from personal experiences it is better to have a conversation with each person as they won't respond to a survey. The rest of the committee felt that if it were kept simple and specific, people would take 10 minutes to respond, and then we would have better information about the importance of fleece weights in judging - or at all. A motion was made by Jenni to conduct a survey. It was seconded by Maryan. Motion: to conduct a survey, questions to be created later. Roll Call vote: Rawna, Jenni, Maryan, Debi and Eran - yes; Judy - no, 5-1 voted yes; Passed. Judy stated she was not against having the survey but to have the questions first.

It was then suggested that each committee member submit ideas for questions to be reviewed by members and then submitted to Survey Monkey.

8.       Composite Champions: Tabled - to be discussed via email and at next meeting.

9.       Danish system - Tabled - to be discussed via email and at next meeting.

Next Meeting:  Date to be determined; 8:00 EST

Motion to adjourn was made by Judy. Time limited our meeting.

Meeting adjourned at 9:00pm EST

Note: All motions approved by the Fleece Committee still need to be approved by the Governing Board before they go into effect.

Minutes submitted by Rawna Hamann, ILR Fleece Committee Secretary.