ILR eBulletin

January 9, 2009

Dear ILR Llama Owners,

re: ILR Show Division Committees

Since our last email, we have heard from many of you with comments and suggestions on various aspects of the new ILR Show Division. As a result of your input, the ILR Board reopened the discussion on previously earned points and decided to accept them into the ILR Show Division award system. The particulars of exactly how those points will fit into the awards that will be offered by the ILR Show Division will be determined by the newly formed committees. However, you can now rest assured that you can participate in ILR sanctioned shows without losing any of your hard-earned points.

In addition, also as a result of your input, the ILR Board has added two new standing committees – Fiber and Youth. More particulars on all the committees are given below.

The ILR Board wishes to extend a big “Thank You” to everyone who volunteered to work on the standing committees. Fortunately and unfortunately, there were more volunteers than we had positions so we did not have a slot for everyone. However, that does not mean that we do not want your input. Each committee will be encouraged to contact those of you who volunteered for that committee for your input. In addition, each committee has an email address which you can use to send your suggestions directly to the entire committee. Also, we are keeping your names on file so that we can contact you in the future if we need help in other areas.

The ILR Board has a vision of how the committees will function. Following are the Committee Member Expectations. Each committee member is expected to:

be a current ILR Show Division member.
treat their position as one of responsibility rather than power.
take input from the members and use that input to develop policies that will be the most beneficial to the majority of Show Division members.
advocate for the policies that he/she believes will be the most beneficial to the Show Division members but he/she is also expected to listen to the opinions of other committee members and work to find solutions that embrace as many of those differing positions as possible.
refrain from using his/her position to “push” personal pet projects.
be polite and considerate to other committee members whether or not he/she agrees with them.
be on the committee calls and to be diligent in completing tasks assigned to him/her.
limit discussions regarding committee work (for the most part) to the scheduled committee calls. Politicking for a specific position before the committee call takes place is discouraged because once a member has taken a position on an issue; he/she no longer has an “open” mind to actually hear the input from others.

Any committee member who refuses to abide by the above guidelines can be removed from his/her position on the committee by a vote of the other five members of the committee, subject to the final approval of the ILR Board.

Each committee consists of five appointed members and an ILR Board representative. All six members of the committee are voting members of the committee. Each committee will elect its own chairperson and secretary from the non-ILR board members. The committees are expected to work toward consensus on all recommendations but if consensus can not be reached, any recommendation must have 4 positive votes to move on.

Each appointee has a term length associated with them. To make sure that the term length assignments did not show any favoritism, the ILR Board agreed that term lengths would be assigned alphabetically by last name on each committee. Before assigning committees, the term lengths were established with the one-year term given to the person whose last name started with the letter closest to the beginning of the alphabet. The term length of each committee member is shown in the list of committees. Each year, beginning in 2010, ILR Show Division members will elect one representative to each of the committees. Committee members can serve only one term before sitting out from that committee for a year. An exception is being made in that the initial committee appointees with one- or two-year terms will be able to rerun for an additional five-year term without sitting out a year. A committee person completing a term on one committee is free to run for a position on another committee without sitting out a year. A chairperson can serve a maximum of two consecutive years as the chairperson of a committee. Vacancies on committees will be filled by appointment by the ILR Board for the remainder of the open term.

The chairperson from each of the seven committees, together with the five members of the ILR board, will form the twelve-member Show Division Governing Committee. The Governing Committee will be responsible for final approval of recommendations coming from the individual committees. Initially, because they are the only elected members of the committee, the ILR Board will be the only voting members of the Show Division Governing Committee. However, it is anticipated that after the recommendations of the individual committees are thoroughly discussed and a course of action is agreed on by the Governing Committee, the actual vote will be a formality. Recommendations from the individual committees will either be approved as presented or sent back to the originating committee with the recommendations and/or concerns of the Governing Committee. Reports on the work of the Governing Committee will be sent out as decisions are made.

Charges for the committees are being finalized and initial individual committee meetings will be set up shortly so work can begin the week of January 12, 2009. Committee assignments can be viewed at: http://www.lamaregistry.com/showdivision.shtml.

If you have input you would like to have considered by the committees, send an email to the appropriate email address from the list below and your email will be automatically forwarded to all the members of that committee. The committee email addresses are as follows:

[email protected]

Have a happy 2009!

Sincerely,

The ILR Board of Directors

Mark Smith, Mary Jo Miller, Kathi McKinney, Kristy Brown, Karen Baum

ALONE we struggle; TOGETHER we thrive!