2016 CFA ANNUAL MEETING Friday, July 1, 2016 (32) CALL MEETING TO ORDER. ..................................................................................... 193 (33) PRESIDENT’S WELCOME AND MESSAGE............................................................. 194 (34) DECLARE THE DETERMINATION OF A QUORUM (ROLL CALL IF DESIRED). ..................................................................................................................... 196 (35) CORRECTION AND APPROVAL OF 2015 MINUTES. ............................................ 205 (36) APPOINT PARLIAMENTARIAN FOR THE 2016 ANNUAL MEETING................. 206 (37) SPECIAL RULES OF PARLIAMENTARY PROCEDURE. ....................................... 207 (38) 2017 ANNUAL MEETING UPDATE........................................................................... 208 (39) 2021 ANNUAL MEETING SITE SELECTION. .......................................................... 209 (40) AMBASSADOR PROGRAM........................................................................................ 210 (41) CFA AMBASSADOR CATS......................................................................................... 219 (42) TREASURER’S REPORT. ............................................................................................ 223 (43) IT UPDATE.................................................................................................................... 228 (44) WINN FOUNDATION. ................................................................................................. 229 (45) LEGISLATION. ............................................................................................................. 236 (46) ROYAL CANIN. ............................................................................................................ 244 (47) RED ROOF..................................................................................................................... 245 (48) CREDENTIALS COMMITTEE AND ELECTION RESULTS.................................... 247 (49) MEDIA VIDEO:............................................................................................................. 254 (50) CFA INTERNATIONAL SHOW: ................................................................................. 255 (51) JUDGING PROGRAM. ................................................................................................. 257 (52) YOUTH FELINE EDUCATION PROGRAM............................................................... 260 (53) 2016 AMENDMENTS AND RESOLUTIONS. ............................................................ 262 (54) RESOLUTIONS FROM THE FLOOR.......................................................................... 321 192 (32) CALL MEETING TO ORDER. President Mark Hannon called the meeting to order at 9:00 a.m. Hannon: I thought it would be nice to start this meeting with a prayer. Jo Ann Miksa- Blackwell: Greetings and salutations. I would like to begin by saying that I told Mark that George Summerville had called me and asked me to pray. Mark, in his ways, said to me, “did you call you recently?” [laughter] It was several years ago and it was a promise that I made to George, and I’m glad we are actually doing it today. I would like to honor all of the different religions here because I would like this to be a time of inclusion. We’ve got Taoism, Confucianism, we’ve got Buddhism, and I want all of us to join together and agree on one thing – that we want to have CFA be the best organization in the world that it can be. So, Lord, I come to you now in prayer. As we all come together in this one moment, this one day, that we would set aside our differences, that we would come together and agree that this is an important time and things that we do right now, they are important. If you would bless that and if you would help us to measure our words carefully so we could be sensitive to one another, and that we can remember that the most important thing is the decisions we make today, not our own personal priorities, but the priorities of CFA, the priorities that need to go forward in a powerful way so we can continue to be the global organization that we are, and we can continue to inspire cat fanciers around the globe to love and care for their animals, and for the welfare of all cats, and the care for one another – because that’s what it’s all about. I would like to honor all the people that have come before us. I can just see them all here with us as we come together in prayer. They are just sitting – 100+ years of this effort and this work – they are here with us today. I want to acknowledge that we have lost many people and will continue to lose more people, but I would like to call them by name. I want to encourage you out there, as we have a moment of silence, to raise those names. Who is it that we have lost? Someone call those names out so that we can honor them. Would you like to do that? Would you like to join in? Who did we lose this year that you care about? Ed Kempf. Jo Ann Cummings. Robin Phillips. Connie Stewart. Beth Cassely. Guy Pantigny. Carol Brown. Bob Polcaro. Donna Brown. In the past years, who did we lose that made such an impact? Let’s honor those for just one moment. Bob Bradshaw. Vaughn Barber. Leta Williams. Diana Barth. Wayne Park. Allen Scruggs. Hazel Lindstrand. Olen Wilford. Mona Cherrington. Bob Smith. And there are many, many more. So, as we enter this meeting today, I want us to remember the people that came before us. They worked long and hard, and now it’s our job to work long and hard. I pray this in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. Thank you Jesus. Amen. Hannon: Thank you, Jo Ann. 193 (33) PRESIDENT’S WELCOME AND MESSAGE. President Mark Hannon provided the following welcome message: Hannon: Welcome to the Mojave Desert, home of fabulous Las Vegas, situated in CFA’s great Southwest Region. My first Annual Meeting was in Kansas City in 1975. That year and every year since, the seven CFA regions in North America have hosted this event, until this year. At the suggestion of our regional directors, the responsibility for running our Annuals was turned over to the Central Office. That was a serious challenge for our relatively new staff, and an even newer Executive Director, Terri Barry. However, Terri had a very capable staff member in Jodell Raymond, who was enthused about this new challenge. When Jodell left CFA, we were fortunate to hire Allene Tartaglia, who had 28 years of experience coordinating our Annual Meetings. So, let’s offer appreciation to Terri Barry, Allene Tartaglia, Shelly Borawski, Verna Dobbins, and other Central Office staff members, as well as the many cat fanciers who stepped up to the plate to volunteer their assistance. Many thanks to Regional Director Lisa Kuta of Region 5. There’s a list in your delegate book of the many volunteers. Be sure to offer your thanks to both the Central Office staff and the cat fanciers, when you see them. Hannon: CFA relies heavily on volunteers. Hundreds of cat fanciers work hard producing our weekly shows, running and serving on CFA committees, serving on our Board of Directors, clerking, judging, and so much more. Let me offer my personal thanks to each person who has stepped up to the plate and helped CFA succeed. Without you, CFA would not exist. Hannon: The President’s Message is often intended as a state of the union message. So, how is CFA doing? Six years ago, CFA was in financial trouble. There were weeks when we had to borrow to make payroll. We had redesigned our website, but had to take out a loan to pay for it. CFA presidents as far back as Craig Rothermel have wanted to move our Central Office out of expensive New Jersey. President Pam DelaBar appointed a committee to search for a less- expensive venue for our main office. Salaries are high in New Jersey, as are property taxes. Shortly after Jerry Hamza was elected President in 2010, he reported that CFA had only $28,000 in the bank, and if we didn’t make some dramatic changes, CFA would close its doors by the following Spring. That’s how dire he thought things were. Within a year of Jerry’s election, we had bought and renovated the building in Alliance, Ohio, and started hiring new staff. While the New Jersey staff was offered continued employment if they wanted to move with us, most had ties to the community and were not free to follow us to Ohio. So, a new staff was hired and trained. Financially, this was a wise move for CFA. We went from a bank balance of $28,000 six years ago to a balance of, as of this morning, over $2 million in the bank. [applause] This allowed us to give those employees who have been with us for a year or more a well-deserved raise. As our needs required, we hired additional staff to serve you, our customers. Hannon: Two years ago, I stood before you at a time when we had some serious issues. The biggest one was our new computer system and the impact it had on our registrations. We may have blocked it out, but it was taking months to process a registration. Well, we’ve come a long way. As of last week, 80% of our registrations come in via eCats. We are turning most of them around within 24 hours, and often within just a couple of hours. We have gone from months to hours in our Registration Department. For those registrations that come into our office via snail mail, we are normally turning them around within 10 work days, which is the same 194 standard we had back in the days of Manasquan. Last week we turned them around quicker than the 10 day standard. Hannon: Last year,