Members Present:  Jan Barthelemy, Becky Geske, Karen Loken, Tammy Lorch, Laurie Magnus, Karl Reimer, and Rhonda Weis

Guests Present:  Loretta Eichmann, Brenda Fenton, Leona Hellesvig, Nancy Holmseth, Owen Holmseth, Melanie Pamp, Donna Sonnek, Cherrye Tagatz

The meeting was called to order at 10:45 a.m. by Chair, Karen Loken.  Everyone present introduced themselves.  There was five minutes of "District Discussion Time" where the representatives from each district met together to discuss ideas and concerns from their district.  When the group reassembled, one representative from each district gave a 90 second update to the entire group:

New Member Applications
M/S/C (Karl/Becky) to accept applications from Loretta Eichmann-Nobles County, and Brenda Fenton-Nobles County.  They are both from the SW District and were welcomed to the committee.
M/S/C (Laurie/Becky) to accept the application from Cherrye Tagatz.  Cherrye will fill the unexpired term vacated by Tammy Lorch.

Secretary's Report
The minutes of  the last meeting (November 1, 1997) should be corrected to include Laurie Magnus under "Members Present" (not "Ex-Officio Present").
M/S/C (Becky/Rhonda) to approve the minutes as corrected.

Treasurer's Report
November balance:  $1,579.06
Current balance:  $3,348.36
Regional and state shows:  $3,300.23 profit
Bills not paid:     Jan Barthelemy - $125.85  (for phone bills, copy charges, and postage) and $68.89 (for the judges committee)
M/S/C (Rhonda /Becky) to pay the bills as reported.
M/S/C (Cherrye/Becky) to accept the financial report.

Jan brought up the fact that Olmsted County had not turned over profits from the 1996 Southern Regional Dog Show.  Laurie will follow up with the Olmsted County Office.

A suggestion was made that a "Request Form" be developed in order to request needed funds for shows or educational events from the Treasurer.

Karl suggested that the checkbook should be audited once a year.  Jan is bonded.  Also the group would like to have the Treasurer's Report in written form and handed out to the committee at each meeting.  Jan said she will develop this.

Center for 4-H Youth Development Update
Brad Rugg is on study leave until  October 1, 1998.  Valerie Malmquist is currently filling his position.  Until  May 15, 1998 she is half time and then will be full time until October 1.  Tammy has replaced Lynn Moluf as the 4-H Program Specialist.  Tammy will no longer serve on the committee as volunteer from SE, but will work with the committee as a representative of the Center for 4-H Youth Development.

PDC Structure
A "copy-ready" draft of the By-laws was passed out. Committee approved of the new "professional look" of the laser printed copy.  Committee is asked to proof read the copy and make changes.  Call or mail the typos/changes into Tammy at the Center so a corrected, final copy will be available at the June Meeting.

Districts determined terms for members.  A coin was flipped in order to determine the terms of those not attending.  Discussion followed regarding those members who have missed two or more consecutive meetings. Concerns were addressed about these people not being contacted because there are others who would like to join the committee. It was brought up that they could be contacted today.  According to Article 4 section 5, Karen stated that is only the secretary who may contact these members.  After much discussion Karen did not feel that these folks could be contacted and asked about their commitment.  The secretary must do this even though Brad contacted Cindy Stover at the last meeting.  Karen will follow up with secretary Lorene Naze, and ask her to do this.  SW will not determine terms until the June Meeting.

Tammy is in the process of redoing the PDC application.  Tammy will present the draft at the June meeting.

Project Bowl Report
Youth ran the dog bowl contest.  It worked well.  Regional Bowls in all happened in March.  Numbers of dog teams has not been going up.  Ten teams compete in Regional contests - 8 go on to the State contest.   Dog Training Projects for Young People was a new reference included this year and will be evaluated for next year because it is not specific to Minnesota 4-H Dog Project rules/regulations.  It is available from the National 4-H Supply Catalog and is therefore written to a wide audience.   Volunteers have already expressed an interest in coordinating next year.  The AKC Complete Dog Book for Kids has been suggested to use for the juniors and The AKC Complete Dog Book for seniors.

Judges Certification Committee Report
Jan reported that the Symposium held on April 18, 1998, had only five participants.  Jennifer Hippe sent information to all extension offices and selected volunteers.  One person was recertified.

A current judges list has been sent out to counties. Laurie mentioned that a representative from the judges committee did e-mail all county offices in January stating that the county fair judges must be certified for 1998 in order to show at regional contests.   This caused a big problem in the county offices and the 4-H Center since they do not have to be certified in 1998.  Certification for the county fair level is not going to happen until there is enough judges to cover the state.

Jennifer Hippe will send out a packet to Regional Show Coordinators regarding the judges for the Regionals.  She will also answer questions from the Regional Show Committees.

Maureen and Mike Martin are coordinating the judging training sessions at Supersession Two.

Steward guidelines will be drawn up and presented to the Show Committee.

A dress code for judges is being discussed.

Judges have expressed a difficulty in getting re-certification every two years.
M/C/S (Karl /Becky) that judges need to be re-certified every four years instead of every two.

Jan will take the following suggestions back to the committee:
Judges should be able to be certified in only one area or the areas they feel qualified.   The dog shows are for the youth and the judges need to be comfortable in the area.  If not, the kids are the ones that suffer.  Do not expect judges to do all three areas.  Maybe the judges could use a ranking system as to how qualified they feel they are to judge the areas so that counties will be aware of the judges skills when hiring them.

The group suggested adding a  pre-utility class.  The Judges Committee is suggesting that the PDC look at this.  (The purpose of the judges committee is to certify the judges.)
M/S/C (Cherrye/Brenda) to create a mini-committee to include youth, trainers, and judges to research this and bring back a proposal to the June meeting.  Karl will chair this committee.

Maureen Martin sent a survey to all judges; 13 of 20 responded.  Some are not willing to judge if they have to travel 100 miles one way before a hotel would be paid.  They are asking to have the number of miles changed to 75 one way.  They feel it is a safety factor.  They feel that a reimbursement of up to $50.00 for their stay is fair.
M/S/C (Rhonda /Laurie) to leave the one way mileage at 100 before a motel would be paid.  A paper ballot vote passed.

M/S/C (Rhonda/ Cherrye) that the Regional Show Committees make hotel/motel arrangements for judges traveling 100 miles or more one way.  If judges stay on their own, it will be on their own expense.

Karl brought up the possibility of finding out about corporate sponsorship for the dog projects.  Cost of shows may need to be increased.   Counties might be willing to help fund in order to allow us to raise the fees.  Ideas for fund raising were brought up.  If this group wants to contact corporations, we must work with the Minnesota 4-H Foundation.  Tammy will invite Deb Noll, 4-H Foundation Executive Director, to speak to this group about fund raising.

M/S/C (Laurie /Rhonda) that the Judges Certification Committee put the following things in writing and present it to the PDC:  (1) mission to clarify what they are working with,  (2) area of authority, (3) list of who is on the committee, (4) when terms expire, (5) when new people can join the committee, (6) how new committee members are chosen, (7) internal rules of the committee, and (8) when the meetings are scheduled.

Agility Report
Leona Hellesvig presented the agility report that was handed out at the November, 1997, meeting.  Each item was discussed.  Changes include:
· 2B - "with penalty of ribbons withheld" was deleted.
· 2E - replace the word "or" with "of"
· 4F - attendance at regular judges seminar every 4 years.
M/S/C (Laurie/Rhonda) to accept the items 2-7 with changes noted above.
M/S/C (Laurie/Karl) that people who wish to judge agility need only be certified in agility.  They do not need to be certified in obedience and/or showmanship if they do not want to be.  Motion will become 4 I.

The "Agility Supplement to 4-H Dog Project Health Form"  (Regional & State Dog Show Form #7) is no longer required to participate in Agility.  This is because the form required veterinarians to sign off on a statement that read:  "I have examined this dog, and believe it to be fit to participate in the sport of dog agility, requiring running and the jumping of hurdles no greater than the height of the dog at the withers."  Many veterinarians were not willing to sign this form for liability reasons.

M/S/C (Laurie/Brenda) that the agility committee put the following things in writing and present it to the PDC: (1) mission to clarify what they are working with,  (2) area of authority, (3) list of who is on the committee, (4) when terms expire, (5) when new people can join the committee, (6) how new committee members are chosen, (7) internal rules of the committee, and (8) when the meetings are scheduled.

Regional Dog Show Updates
Northern - Saturday, September 11 - Hibbing (St. Louis County) ~ Chapmans are working on coordinating it again.
Central - Saturday, September 26 - Willmar (Kandiyohi County) ~ Becky said fund raisers are happening to get started with everything, same building as last year.
Southern - Saturday, September 11 (Obedience & Showmanship) and Sunday, September 12 (Agility) - Blue Earth (Faribault County) ~ Cherrye stated things are going well.

Supersession Two ~ June 19-21, 1998
Schedule has been determined.  There will be an agility member and training introduction as well as an agility judges training.  Meals need to be coordinated.  There will be sessions on the obedience rules and current problems; showmanship; opening session;  class sessions including, beginning, novice, open, utility, and brace.  Agility committee will meet on Friday at 7:00 p.m. and Dog PDC will meet on Saturday at 7:00 p.m. Supersession is geared for 4th graders and older.  About 50 people attended last year.  Program starts at 6:30 on Friday.

Show Committee Report
Tammy stated that the committee has not met, but will meet at Supersession.  The Regional and State Dog Show Handbook is being updated and members could go through and make corrections.  Send all corrections to Tammy.  She is working on developing a data base for the County Contacts for the county dog computer program.

State Dog Show
The building is reserved for October 17, 1998 in Hutchinson.  A coordinator is still needed.

Web Page
Karl has started a web page for the dog project.  This web page may contain all information, meeting minutes, information about judges certification, information on the committees of the PDC, who's who, and  information that people need to know.  Publishing this web page is one way to solve the communication problems.  It will become part of the 4-H website links.  Send information to Karl as soon as possible.

Daily Penalty Mail Pool/Penalty Mail
Correspondence to all county offices should be sent to Tammy with instructions and she will deliver via Penalty Mail.  This will not cost the PDC any postage.

Announcements
Dakota County 4-H handbook was distributed.
Click and Train is scheduled for Albert Lea on June 27, 1998

M/S/C (Rhonda/Becky) to adjourn at 4:30 p.m.

Respectfully submitted:
Laurie Magnus - Acting Secretary

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