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Directors present: Barbara Burrows, Sherry Carlson, Myrtle Dow, Martin Dally, David Moran, Andrea Szabo, and Sandra Hanson, Treasurer.

Directors absent: Neil Kentner

President Martin Dally called the meeting to order 6:37 pm Pacific time.

A motion was made by Sandi Hanson to approve the minutes of the Board meeting of 5-6-01 as written. Seconded by Sherry Carlson, the motion was unanimously approved.

There were several items added to the agenda, after which Barbara Burrows made a motion to accept the agenda, Seconded by Sandi Hanson the motion was passed. Items added by Sherry Carlson included Election of board officers, Definition of active membership, Clarify RR issue for rams, Response to Leicester Longwool Breeders, Promotion/Advertising.

Election of Officers for 2001-02
Barbara Burrows was nominated for the office of President by Sherry Carlson, seconded by Martin Dally. There were no further nomination; Martin made a motion to close nominations, seconded by Myrtle Dow. Barbara Burrows was unanimously elected as president.

David Moran was nominated for the office of Vice-President by Martin Dally, seconded by Sherry Carlson. There were no further nominations; Martin made a motion to close nominations, seconded by Barbara Burrows. David Moran was unanimously elected as vice president.

Sherry Carlson was nominated for the office of Secretary by Martin Dally, seconded by Andrea Szabo. There were no further nominations; Martin made a motion to close nominations, seconded by David Moran. Sherry Carlson was unanimously elected as secretary.

It was agreed that Sandra Hanson continue in the office of Treasurer, Although Sandi is not a current Board member, the bylaws provide that this office may be held by other than a member of the board.

Martin Dally said that it has been a pleasure serving as NAWSA President for its first year and felt that we have established a good foundation for the future. Martin has no breeding stock at this time, and felt that it will soon be appropriate for only those members who own and breed Wensleydales to serve as directors and guide the Association.

Number of Directors
Our bylaws state that at the discretion of the current board, there may be from 5 to 9 directors and that the board may schedule the election of new directors to achieve staggered terms of office. David Moran made a motion to set the number of Directors at 7 and to stagger the terms of office so that approximately half of the board is elected each year. Based on our current membership of less than 30 active members, this would still allow for almost 25% of the membership to be on the board. The motion was seconded by Myrtle Dow and passed unanimously.

Directors Martin Dally, Sherry Carlson, and Andrea Szabo volunteered to serve a one-year term of office in order to stagger the election of directors.

Manner of Elections
In our recent directors election, there were fewer nominations than positions available and so all nominees were accepted as new Directors. Barbara Burrows asked if we actually needed to call for a vote from the membership and it was felt that an election was unnecessary in this case. For future reference, Martin Dally made a motion to state that our policy should be that if at any time the number of nominees should be less than the number of positions to be filled, the nominees would fill the positions without an election being necessary. David Moran seconded the motion, unanimously approved.

Ear Tag Policy
Discussion from the recent membership meeting revealed that members were not in favor of NAWSA issuing any type of association identification. Sherry felt that we shouldn’t make rules that we cannot enforce, and other directors agreed that there could be no policing the private application of such tags. David Moran made a motion that NAWSA policy state we do not issue association ear tags. Barbara mentioned that at the very least, all animals would carry scrapie ID tags or tattoos and probably additional private ID. The motion was seconded by Martin Dally and passed unanimously.

Association Newsletter
The last general membership meeting discussed the fact that a newsletter would be a welcome addition to the Association. Kim Caulfield has volunteered to organize it and the board discussed the guidelines that should be followed for such a publication.

• The newsletter will be published on line at our website location, and mailed to the few number of members who do not have internet access.
  
• The president shall be responsible for review and editing of the newsletter before distribution.
  
• Content of the newsletter should be concise and consist only of factual, timely, and need-to-know information. i.e., current industry or Wensleydale news, member activities, AI information (Martin can supply this info), semen availability, member & registration information (from Sherry), changes in Federal regulations, and other such issues relevant to all of us.
  
• There should be no reprinting of articles or information from other periodicals, only a reference made to where the info might be found.
  
• The membership and board did not favor having personal opinions, editorials, or stories in our newsletter.
  
• If show results are available, we should report only outstanding fleece & show results, not entire placings.
  
• Two times a year would be sufficient to issue the newsletter unless there was a need for more frequent reporting. July 1st would be a good time for one publication because it falls after lambing and before breeding season.

Based on the above criteria, David Moran made a motion to approve the use of a newsletter, seconded by Myrtle Dow, the motion passed unanimously.

Member Benefits Offered
Benefits for Active Members - Sherry Carlson presented a proposal to make personal web pages available to all active members. Not a true independent web site, the one-page sites would be hosted on the association’s server and be designed and maintained by our web designer. The cost to members would be nominal, with an annual hosting fee of $40 being paid to the association. Martin agreed with the proposal saying that it would give a member exposure and promotional opportunities and that we are here to serve every member. Andrea Szabo made a motion to adopt the proposal. Seconded by Barbara Burrows, the motion carried unanimously.

Benefits for Associate Members - The recent membership meeting discussed the fact that Associate members are probably our most enthusiastic supporters and as such we should seek to retain and increase their membership. Associate members are very interested in the availability of Wensleydale fleeces and Sherry proposed that we issue a statement saying that ‘the Association encourages its active producer-members to give NAWSA members priority status for purchasing fleeces when they become available for sale’. Board members who had waiting lists for their fleeces commented that they would be happy to sell to NAWSA members ahead of anyone else. The board felt that this cannot be made a requirement, but it strongly encourages all members to adopt this policy.

Association Fees
Myrtle Dow made a motion to adopt the fee schedule and regulations as listed below. Andrea Szabo seconded the motion, passed unanimously. Notable is the rule that no animal over 24 months of age will be considered for the registry except by special consideration of the Board. It is felt that accurate records be maintained on a timely basis, especially during the formation of the breed.

Code of Ethics
Our bylaws do not specifically provide for removal of a member or other punitive actions due to inappropriate behavior. Rather than try to identify specific instances and corrections, the Board felt that issues should be considered on an individual basis.

Directors agreed that they would review any issue regarding unethical behavior that is brought to the attention of the Board by an active member. It was felt that since the membership elects the Board to be their representative; the Board should have the authority to consider these matters and to take any action that it feels is appropriate without having to bring the matter before the entire membership.
David Moran said that ethical behavior is very important to the Association and Board action should be timely and decisive. Martin stated that the Board is the steward of the integrity of the Wensleydale breed.

Membership renewal date
Clarification is needed in the way the bylaws explain termination of membership, stating that membership shall terminate on March 31st of each year (corresponding to our fiscal year) and that there is a 60-day grace period to allow members to send in their dues without penalty. This was clarified to mean that the 60 day grace period is for renewing without penalty, not that membership actually extended for a total of 14 months. David Moran mentioned, and the board agreed that listings should be removed from the member roster on the website when membership expires - March 31st. It was clarified that the secretary does send out renewal notices via U.S. mail.

Registration Data Required
This item was included to record the data that we require for registry information. The current Foundation ewe and Percentage Blood recording forms include all of this information. In the future, we may elect not to require as much data, but it is important that at the inception of the registry we accumulate as many statistics as we can.

Current info collected:
Breeder’s name, address, phone, FAX, email
Breeder’s NAWSA flock number & scrapie program number
Farm name & private ID number of the animal to be registered (not animal nickname)
Percent of Wensleydale blood of animal to be registered
Date of birth, sex, birth type, scrapie ID number, color (white or black), Codon 171 (required for rams only)
Is animal product of AI, OT or natural breeding, AI tech name, and location of procedure
Sire ID, NAWSA number, % of Wensleydale blood
Dam ID, NAWSA number, % of Wensleydale blood
Pedigree of animal to be registered (if appropriate)

Request for Reconsideration of Percentage status
Some of the original ewes that Myrtle Dow used for AI are unregistered, but apparently purebred Cotswolds. At the first NAWSA meeting, it was agreed that any unregistered ewes from either Myrtle Dow or Barbara Burrows already used in the AI program would be accepted, but would require an extra generation to qualify for registration. This means that their daughters would become foundation ewes and the percentage-recording paperwork would begin with them. This rule was made because we knew that a few ewes of mixed or non-longwool breeds had been AI’d with Wensleydale and we voted to accept them with this caveat.

Upon examination and research of the pedigrees submitted by Myrtle Dow, her original ewes appear to be purebred Cotswold as a result of 4 and 5 generations of registered Cotwsold sires being used. Myrtle Dow bred these (four) Cotswold ewes to Wensleydale well before our association was formed and the guidelines established. Myrtle has asked that we reconsider these particular Cotswolds and recognize them as foundation ewes. Andrea Szabo made a motion to grant Myrtle’s request, and to make the policy position of the board that no other exceptions will be made. Barbara Burrows seconded the motion, which passed unanimously. The secretary will work with Myrtle to correct the NAWSA records on these ewes and on the 10 lambs born from these ewes.

Location of next Membership Meeting
At the direction of members at the last membership meeting, Sherry Carlson made a motion to hold the next Membership Meeting at the fiber festival in Rhinebeck NY in October 2002. Myrtle Dow seconded and the motion passed unanimously.

Redefine "Active" Membership
The bylaws state that "active" members are those who own, breed or are actively involved in the promotion or development of Wensleydale sheep. This broad definition was established in order to include as many people as possible during the formation of the Association. Many active members did not own or breed Wensleydale sheep, but had expertise and background valuable to our direction. As the membership increases, more members are actively breeding for Wensleydales. All active members are eligible to serve as Directors, and the Board felt that those not breeding & registering sheep should not be charged with representing these members. Therefore, the Board proposes to bring a change before the membership to define an Active member as one who "Owns, breeds, and registers Wensleydale sheep in the Association flock book each year. If no animals are registered by an active member for a period of two consecutive years, the member shall automatically become an Associate member".

Clarify RR Rule for NAWSA rams
Based on the fact that the Wensleydale breed in the U.K. is reported to test 92%RR at Codon 171, at our first membership meeting, it was felt that this attribute be perpetuated in the North American Wensleydale. At a time when other breed associations are struggling to develop a more scrapie-resistant population, members felt that the NAWSA has the opportunity to establish our breed from the onset with highly resistant individuals, based on current industry information. As a result, our upgrading guidelines designated that all rams recognized in the NAWSA registry, whether imported as semen or naturally bred, must test RR at Codon 171.

Barbara Burrows mentioned that one ram, Upper Mill Cracker, a U.K. ram already collected and used, tests QR at Codon 171 and that his offspring will have a higher incident of Qs than the other rams. As a result, she believes that exceptions should be made for rams in the Cracker line and that they should be admitted to NAWSA records if they test QR.

Martin explained that by crossing a (worst case scenario) QQ foundation ewe with Cracker (QR), there will still be RR rams out of his original line that would be eligible. In this F1 cross, statistically 1/2 of the progeny would test QQ, the other 1/2 testing QR. The next generation (75% blood) using an RR ram, individuals would test 3/4 QR and 1/4 RR. The following generation would produce 1/2 QR and 1/2 RR, and the 93% or registered ram generation would produce 3/4 RR and 1/4 QR.

We realize there will be rams ineligible for registration, but for the integrity of the national flock and until all of the facts are known about scrapie, carrier status, resistance and its link to genetics, we can’t afford to be wrong at this point in time.

Sherry Carlson made a motion that the restriction of only recognizing RR rams within the registry be maintained. Martin commented that you can always relax the standards but you can’t make them more rigid. The motion was seconded by David Moran and a vote was taken: In favor of keeping the current guidelines - Martin Dally, Andrea Szabo, David Moran, Sherry Carlson. Opposed to the current guidelines - Barbara Burrows, Myrtle Dow. The motion carried 4-2.

Response to Leicester Longwool Breeders
The secretary presented a letter of response to the Leicester Longwool Sheep Breeders Association explaining why we cannot comply with their request to remove Leicesters from our list of acceptable foundation ewes. The board had no changes to the letter and instructed the secretary to send it out.

Promotion/Advertising
Based on advertising rates and funds available for advertising,, the board suggested that we simply keep an ongoing association listing in The Black Sheep Newsletter, The Marker, and The Shepherd magazine. The heading of Wensleydale will be notable in the magazine and our association website and information will be accessible.

David Moran recommended that the association start to organize a flock book from the onset of upgrading if our major objectives are to be recognized by the U.K. breeders. David and Martin will each send the secretary examples of other flock books.

As there was no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 9:30 pm Pacific.

Minutes submitted by Sherry Carlson

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