Dear ILR Members,

 

The ILR Board would like to make a couple of announcements to keep our membership up to date on the operations of the International Lama Registry.

 

ILR Board Elections 2009 – A First in ILR History

            The Process: The ILR Board selects a chairperson for the election nominating committee. The chairperson then selects their own committee of three to five members, and the committee then selects two to three people to run for the board vacancy. The person elected to the ILR board by the ILR membership serves a five-year term. At the end of the five years, they may run for a second term. At the end of their second term, there is a mandatory one year waiting period before they can run again. The small pool of nominees ensures that the person elected is supported by the majority of the members. The five-year term provides continuity, stability and a historical perspective to the board.

 

            The 2009 Election: The First Ever Tie: The 2009 election between Bill Safreed and Father Ryan Scott was the closest election in ILR history! When our independent accountant tallied the electronic votes and the mail in ballots, it was a tie. This has never happened before. The board referred to the bylaws of the ILR and the process for a tie breaker is well defined: ballots received after the deadline are counted and used as a tie breaker. After the late ballots were counted, there were only four votes separating the candidates!

 

            The 2009 Election Results: Congratulations to Father Ryan Scott as the new board member for the ILR. Father Ryan will begin on the board at the Face-to-Face meeting in June. He fills the vacancy left after Dr. Karen Baum served two full terms on the ILR Board. Thank you to Dr. Karen for her commitment and dedication on the ILR Board and to Bill Safreed for his interest and willingness to run for the ILR Board.

 

ILR-UAP & ILR- IF 2008 Finalized

            At the Face-to-Face meeting in June, the ILR Board will review the points from the 2008 ILR-UAP and ILR-IF and determine the awards for the ILR-UAP and calculate the payouts for the ILR-IF. We regret that it has taken this long to finalize the 2008 results, but since this is a new program and a new venture for the ILR, we wanted to review the computer programming and be sure that everything has been calculated properly before we gave out the awards. In the future, year end awards can be given out in a more timely manner.

 

            If you were an ILR member in 2008 and want to be involved in the ILR-UAP or the ILR-IF for 2008, you have until June 20, 2009 to complete the UAP Activity Log on the ILR website, www.lamaregistry.com. You can also use the UAP Activity Log to enter Lifetime History of Achievement information for any llama in your herd and your 2009 activities.

 

ILR-SD Updates:

            No National Show for 2009 – At the April 21, 2009 ILR-SD Governing Board meeting there was a proposal made by an individual to host a national show for 2009. The ILR-SD Governing Board requested a budget be presented at the May 19, 2009 meeting to determine the financial feasibility of such an event. In the process of investigating the event, the individual making the proposal decided not to pursue hosting a national event. The ILR-SD Governing Board decided not to proceed with a national show for 2009 and instead, at the suggestion of the ILR Board, will form a national show committee to develop a format for a national show in 2010. Anyone wishing to volunteer for or suggest someone to serve on this committee, or with suggestions for developing a format for the show, can contact the ILR office by phone or email at [email protected].

 

            Guidelines for 2009 – when the ILR-SD was started in January 2009, our goal was that the committees have the 2009 rules completed by July 1, 2009 and we are glad to announce that we are right on target! The committees have put in a lot of hours developing a new show association that provides an additional and new option for the llama owners interested in showing. The approved guidelines are on the ILR website, www.lamaregistry.com, in the ILR-SD information page. The rules committee is in the process of preparing a guidelines document that can be downloaded by the members.  

 

            ILR-SD Face-to-Face – there will be an open forum for discussion regarding the ILR-SD held after the ILR Annual Meeting on June 30, 2009. See below for more information.

 

            Upcoming ILR-SD Sanctioned Shows – there are many ILR-SD Sanctioned Shows listed on the ILR Events Calendar at the ILR website, www.lamaregistry.com.  If you are hosting any llama event, please enter it onto the ILR Events Calendar as soon as you can so folks can make plans to attend!  ILR-SD shows are highlighted on the calendar!

 

2009 ILR Annual Meeting

            The ILR Annual Meeting has been held in a variety of locations over the years including the ILR office and national llama events. The 2009 ILR Annual Meeting will be held at the ILR office in Kalispell, MT on June 30, 2009 at 1pm MDT. Any ILR member is welcome to attend the annual meeting. Jan Wassink, the ILR Registrar, will present a “State of the Registry” that will review the past year at the registry and discuss future activities of the registry. For more information or to RSVP, contact the ILR office.

 

As always, the ILR Board welcomes your comments, concerns and input on our current ILR programs and any ideas for future programming.  We are elected to represent our membership and need your input to develop and grow our registry and the llama industry.

 

Sincerely,

 

The ILR Board of Directors & Registrar

 

Mark Smith - President, Mary Jo Miller - Vice President, Kathi McKinney - Treasurer,

Kristy Brown -  Secretary, Karen Baum - Member at Large, and Jan Wassink - Registrar