Members Present
NW: Tish Jensen, Libertie Smith
NE:  None
C:  Leona Hellesvig, Marlene Keller, Karl Reimer, Brenden Roman
SW:  Denise Larson, Cathy Steinmetz, Jeff Steinmetz
SE:  Jennifer Holmseth, Vanessa Magnus

Members Absent
NW:  Tess DeBlieck, Karl Oestreich
NE:  Tana Schmalenberg, Vicky Schmalenberg
C:  None
SW:  None
SE:  Cherrye Tagatz, Rhonda Weis

Extension Educators Present: Jon Hjelm
Extension Educators Absent: Kelly Strei
Center Staff Present: Tammy Lorch

Guests Present:  Linda Allen, Katie Bjorkman, Kelly Gentz, Nancy Holmseth, Laurie Magnus, Teri Nelson

The meeting called to order at 10:40 a.m. by PDC chair, Cathy Steinmetz.  Everyone present introduced himself or herself.

Committee Vitality - facilitated by Laurie Magnus
    Questions:  What is the purpose of the PDC (as you see it)?  What do we do well?  What needs improvement?  Why are you interested in this committee?
    Each person put one post-it note under each question on the wall.  Groups were then formed to summarize the posted responses.  We then discussed each topic as a large group.
    Goals for 2003:  more communication by email and/or phone
     Standing Committee discussions - how do we get more volunteers?  There are 88 positions open to volunteer within the state dog committees.  Ideas:  Consider moving location of meetings, chat rooms, e-mail; meetings all on the same day (PDC and standing committees); promote volunteering on website.  Include standing committees within the PDC application so that people do not always have to fill out multiple applications by creating a general application that would allow for checking boxes that show which committees you are interested in.  Cathy volunteered to bring a draft of a new application that would incorporate all committees into one application.
    Laurie challenged everyone to bring someone from a neighboring county with them to the next PDC meeting.

Secretary's Report
M/S/C (Marlene/Jeff) to accept the November 9, 2002 meeting minutes as printed.

Treasurer's Report -Karl
    Karl handed out a report of income and expenses from 1999 to 2002.  This report is also on the website.  As of January 31, 2003 the current balance is $13,373.76.  Since the report was printed, there have been bills of $3797.64 to the state fair and $909 to the U of MN (misc).  The balance, after outstanding bills are paid, will be approximately $7,422.84.  Supersession had a profit of approximately $300 in 2002.  The State Show 2002 had a profit of approximately $400.  Karl also began a list of assets that the State Dog PDC owns, which was not included in the handouts.  There is an audit committee, but Karl was not sure who is on it.
M/S/C (Jeff/Brenden) to accept the treasurer's report as stated.

Registration Fees & Budgets - Tammy
    Beginning March 1, 2003, any 4-H events that happen on a regional and state level must fill out an event request form that includes a budget.  Before any registration fees are set, Dale Blyth the Center for 4-H Youth Development Director, has to sign off on the proposed budget.  This includes supersession, judges' training, state show, etc.  Tammy did not know how far in advance this information needed to be given to Dale.  Brad thought we may need to look at increasing the fees for the state show one level.
    If we consider requesting donations for the Dog Project in general it needs to be coordinated through the 4-H Foundation.  It was suggested that we consider having a raffle at the state show.  In order to do this we would have to work with the 4-H Foundation due to legal reasons.

2002 Project Bowls - Marlene/Kelly
    Marlene is looking for one moderator and judge for the state bowl, April 12th.  Kelly just received the new program for writing questions this past week and needs to have them revised by the middle of February.  Regional Bowl registration due to host county February 10.  Contest dates:  March 1 - Horse Bowl ~ U of MN, March 1 - Douglas County, March 8 - Beltrami County, March 15 - Sibley County,  March 22 - Regional Snow Date.  The State Bowl is April 12 at Buffalo Middle School in Buffalo.

Supersession 2003 - Nancy Holmseth
June 20-22 ~ Faribault County Fairgrounds - Blue Earth
    The focus for the weekend is the new obedience rules.  Leona will be in charge of this session.  Each day will have focus areas for leaders and youth.  Need information for the website by today, which was turned into Tammy.  It was suggested to give information to people at this event about volunteer opportunities within the dog project, including the state show.

Standing Committee Reports

Agility - Karl Reimer
    A meeting is scheduled today after the PDC meeting.  This committee needs to appoint a new chair.  There are 20 open spots on the committee with one application on file.
M/S/C (Karl R../Marlene) to accept Katie Bjorkman, a youth from Sherburne Co. (central district) onto the Agility committee.
    Judges training - discussed having the weekend before or after Supersession, however there is not enough lead time at this point so a new date should be considered.  The agility committee will have to discuss this further.
    State show - need more volunteers and supplies; there was a judge's schedule conflict (measuring height, lunch, orientation meeting overlapping)  Ideas for next year - contact agility clubs to get donations and volunteers; regular classes starting at 11:00; jumpers last; seniors show on both days; have one ring only due to amount of equipment and volunteers needed to run two efficiently.  These ideas will be passed on to the show committee.
    The committee is considering creating a book of example courses for counties and newer judges.

 Finance - Karl Reimer
   Audit - Brad has a list of names for this committee.  The goal is to have the audit done by the May meeting.  The ledger information is available to PDC members through the web.

Judges Certification - Marlene Keller
        Need to appoint a new chair.  Marlene will continue as chair until there are more members.  Leona will remain the secretary.  There are five open spots on the committee, but no applications on file.  Next meeting is tentatively Feb. 22, 2003.  Obedience and showmanship judges training in the fall.

Obedience/Showmanship - Marlene Keller
        There are eight open spots on the committee, but no applications on file.  Obedience rules have been finalized and official copies were given to PDC members and judges.  The committee met on January 25 to work on showmanship rules.  Marlene passed out a draft of what has been done with the showmanship rules to this point.  It was suggested to read through the proposed changes and come with comments at the next meeting.  Anyone is welcome to attend the meetings to provide input.

Show - Marlene Keller
    The next meeting is February 22.  There is one open spot (obedience/showmanship coordinator), but a possible obedience/showmanship coordinator has been located (Cassia Drake).
 

State Fair Dog Project Showcase - Jan Brule
    Jan was not present, but Tammy will be connecting with her to get an update.  Again, volunteers are necessary for this to be a success!

Other
Committee resignations and applications:
    Karl Oestreich and Cherrye Tagatz have both resigned from the State PDC within the past week.  Cathy tried to call Karl to determine if his resignation was final since there was debate about this, he was not home.  It was suggested that committee members contact these individuals and thank them for their work.  It was suggested that we have a hospitality person on the committee to contact members who become ill or have difficult situations going on.
    There are position openings within each district.  It has been recommended by Brad to wait to fill the new position openings until the next meeting since the resignations have taken place within the last week and were not out to everyone prior to this meeting.  Thus, others may have applied if they had known about the openings.

M/S/C (Laurie/Marlene) to accept the resignations as being final since they occurred prior to this meeting.

NW - Karl Oestreich (V) resigned.  There is one youth opening.
There are two volunteer applications on file:  Laurie Lahman, Kimberly Moser.  Ballot vote.
Committee member elected February 1, 2003:  Laurie Lahman

NE - Two volunteer and one youth openings.  No applicants.

C - One youth position opening.
There is 1 Y application:  Katie Bjorkman
M/S/C (Jennifer/Tish) to cast a unanimous vote to accept Katie Bjorkman to fill this position.

SW - One volunteer and one youth opening.  No applicants.

SE - Cherrye Tagatz (V) resigned.  There is one other volunteer position open.
There are two volunteer applications on file:  Nancy Holmseth, Teri Nelson
M/S/C (Vanessa/Denise) to unanimously cast a vote to have Nancy Holmseth take the term expiring in 2005 and Teri fill the term expiring in 2003.

 It was suggested that thank you notes be sent to Cherry Tagatz and Karl Oestreich.  Nancy Holmseth volunteered to send notes to those committee members whose term expired in December 2002, along with the two recent resignations.  It was also suggested to consider forming a hospitality committee at the next meeting.

Future Meeting Dates:
Saturday, May 17 - 10:30 a.m. ~ University of MN - tentatively St. Paul
Saturday, November 8 - 10:30 a.m. ~ University of MN - tentatively St. Paul

M/S/C (Jeff/Karl R.) to adjourn the meeting at 2:20 p.m.

Respectfully submitted:
Kelly Gentz, Acting Secretary