Paws4Fun Board of Directors, Unofficial Meeting Highlights

Meeting Date: 24 October, 2024
  1. Kathleen MacTavish will take on the role of Training Manager beginning 1-Nov. This is a Coordinator position which will exist until the Training Director position comes up for election at the 2025 AGM. until that time Kathleen will run the training program, and there will be no Training Director appointed.

  2. The CARO Coordinator has stepped down, and no one has volunteered to fill that position, the primary role of which was to run Sanctioned CARO Trials and Fun Matches. This position will be retired, and removed from the web site. Paws4Fun will no longer host CARO Trials, unless a member steps forward to organize an event, or to be CARO Coordinator.

  3. Paws4Fun will continue to sell CARO ribbons to people who request to buy them until the current supply of ribbons is exhausted, and as long as there is a member willing to handle the task for preparing, shipping and billing.

  4. The Board of Directors Terms of Reference (ToR) document has been updated to require that all club data and documents (e.g. corporate documents, processes and procedures, trial premiums, registration and entry forms, emails) be stored on either club owned devices or club owned online databases.

  5. The Training Director is looking into sources for new puppy contact equipment to purchase.

  6. The Webmaster is going to present a new design of business cards to the Board for design and review.

  7. The equipment will be put into storage for the winter, and the fields closed down on Saturday 2-Nov.

  8. The policy on bitches-in-season (BIS) for classes, workshops and seminars at Paws4Fun will be the same as the Paws4Fun AAC Trials policy, so that students are training for the same environment in which they will trial at Paws4Fun.

Meeting Date: 26 September, 2024
  1. At the last K9 Kup event on Sept-29, and at the member & Student Fun Match on 5-Oct, there will be a small memorial for Catherine Woolham with pictures, purple flowers, and a donation box for a charity to be designated by her son.

  2. In memory of Catherine Woolham, two or three jumps will be painted purple, her favourite colour.

  3. No one has volunteered yet to step up for the position of Interim Training Director, to fill the role between the 2024 AGM when the current Director steps down, and the 2025 AGM when the position comes up for re-election. Until there is a Training Director in place, no classes or workshops or seminars will be held at Paws4Fun.

  4.  The Board is working on updating the Roles and Responsibilities documents for all Directors and Coordinators. Completed at this meeting: President; Vice President; Treasurer; Facilities Director; Training Director; Trials Director; Trials Secretary; Training Coordinator.

  5. A committee has been launched to review and document the K9 Kup mission statement, rules and process.

Meeting Date: 29 August, 2024 (amended 26-Sept with item 5)
  1. Road repair has been tentatively scheduled for sometime in the first half of October.

  2. The equipment auction is complete, payments received total $880.

  3. T-shirts sales have closed, all T-shirts have been received and are in the shed available for pickup.

  4. The ToR will be modified to reflect the Board decision that all club data must be stored on club owned computers, storage devices, or online storage. This includes items such as forms, event registrations, and club documents.

  5. The ToR will be modified to reflect the Board Decision that the only compensation that members receive from actual volunteer hours worked is the credit for those volunteer hours, effective the start of the Paws4Fun 2025 membership year. This decision will be added to the Board Highlights web page only after it has been shared with any part of the membership which might be impacted.

Meeting Date: 31 July, 2024
  1. The Board approved funds to repair the rest of the road and the large hole just inside the gates. Estimated cost $4800.

  2. A facebook auction will be created for the old equipment.

  3. Orders are now being placed for club T-shirts. Hats and sweat shirts will be considered for a later time if the T-shirts prove popular.

  4. Sandra Johnson has donated a microphone and stand to the club. It connects to our speaker, so can be used for briefings at large events. It is not practical for Judges' use while calling faults or points during an event.

  5. Online storage for documents and email has been increased from 5GB to 10GB.

  6. New canopies will be purchased for the permanent shelters.

Meeting Date: 19 June, 2024
  1. The "One for the Road" AAC Open Special Event netted about $3,100 and the associated Games Competition about $400, which recouped nearly 3/5 of the road repair cost.

  2. The June AAC Trial gave significant trial bonus for Team Relay - $5 discount per dog per run. While this cut into the revenue, it resulted in a very large number of entries - 20 teams in each of the 3 Team Relay classes offered.

  3. The photo booth got very good reviews from competitors at the May and June AAC Trials.

  4. The Board agreed to make $100 Friend of Agility donation to the 2024 AAC Nationals to be held in August in Maxville, ON. 

  5. The weather has not been cooperative, there have a lot of class cancellations. The club has a clear policy with regards to class and workshop cancellations and rescheduling due to nature events such as heat, thunderstorms, and air quality.

Meeting Date: 13 May, 2024
  1. Paws4Fun has switched providers for Directors and Officers Insurance and General Liability Insurance from Intact Insurance (via BrokerLink) to Co-Operators Insurance.

  2. New processes and policies approved, which will be posted on the website: Membership & Volunteer Hours Standard Operating Procedure, Calendar Booking Policy.

  3. Members of the Incident Management Committee confirmed: Rheal Nadeau chair, committee members Rose-Anne Gleiser (2 year term), and Catherine Woolham (1 year term).

  4. There is a CARO Trial planned for 28-July-2024.

  5. IDAL will not be held on Wednesday evenings only. The course will not remain built on the thursday following, as this is tying up Ring 1 for a whole day,

Meeting Date: 29 April, 2024
  1. Wording was approved for two signs to be put up along the driveway:
    - Not responsible for injuries / accidents / loss
    - Please be kind. Verbal or physical abuse will not be tolerated.

  2. At this time, there are 17 K9 Kup Teams registered

  3. 2024 Memberships: there are 67 confirmed, 7 of which are family memberships, and 9 of which are new members

  4. New policies approved, which will be posted on the website: Incident Management Procedure, new Code of Conduct, Harassment Policy and Waiver StandardOperating Procedure.

  5. The Vice-President, Rheal Nadeau, was appointed as chair of the standing Incident Management Committee.

  6. It was decided that it will be policy for the AGM will always be held on the 5th Sunday after the last day of the Paws4Fun Agility fiscal year.
    - It was decided that an exception to this policy will be made for the 2024 AGM, which will be held on the 4th Sunday after the end of the Paws4Fun Agility Fiscal year. This will be 1-Dec-2024.

Meeting Date: 15 March, 2024
  1. The board approved purchase of new 44 pairs of tunnel bags to comply with the new AAC ruling re bags required for tunnel coverage.

  2. The board approved purchase of the material for building new wooden jump wings. The goal is the have 36 jumps, 12 for each ring, right now the club has 23. A plan will be formulated for the building and painting these jumps over the course of the summer.

  3. The board approved purchase of new inserts to go into the wooden jump wings.

  4. For the May AAC Games trial, all three rings will be used, and the club does not own enough jumps to cover this. Out Back Agility has kindly agree to lend Paws4Fun as many AAC approved jumps as needed for that trial. In the other AAC trials for the year only 2 rings are in use, so this is not a problem. For K9 Kup the courses are designed, or tweaked at build time, to get by with the number of Paws4Fun jumps available.

  5. The K9 Kup registration process has changed slightly starting this year. Captains are required to register their teams prior to team members registering as individuals. Registration for team captains / teams opens on 25-March, for individuals (Paws4Fun members and non-members) on 1-April.

  6. The Membership Coordinator will send a reminder to people who owe the penalty fee for missed volunteer hours that they must pay that fee before they will be accepted for membership or registration in any event.

  7. There will be a permanent photo booth set up on site, a bench has been purchased for it. The location will be settled after the fields are open.

  8. There will be a sign put up at the entry gate with a “enter at your risk” sort of warning, exact wording to be determined. Members and registered event/class participants all sign liability waivers, but helps with possible liability issues from un-registered spectators at events.