Winter, 2005
James Watson, Gulf Shore Regional Director

CFA Region 3

CFA News:

CFA Treasurer's Report:
Based on May 1, 2004 through December 31,2004
Registrations are down, revenue is 7.8% lower than last year.
The Yearbook is showing an overall profit, largely driven by advertising (up $26,000 over last year).
The Almanac is continuing to decline (down $23,000 from last year).
Central Office expenses are under budget.
The following numbers are not final:
The New York show lost about $26,000 (better than the previous year)
The International Show made about $32,000 profit.
A study of the expenses of the New York Show indicate areas that will reduce the expense or increase profit by $30,000 to $35,000.  With these measures in place the NY Show will break even next year.  This tracks the advice given to CFA from the start of this project.  First year will be a substantial loss, second year less loss and break even the third year.  Profit will be generated in year four and continuing forward.
CFA closed the calendar year with a positive revenue flow.

Club Applications:
The following clubs were accepted,
Ragdoll Breed Club  Region 5
Ft. Sumter Cat Club  Region 7
Corea Allbreed Cat Club  International Division
Shanghai Cat Love Club  International Division
Note:  The Pongui Society cat club of Houston, TX resigned is membership in CFA and this was accepted by the Board effective this meeting and has been removed from the membership roster.

International Division:
We continue to see very strong support of our CFA shows in Europe and Asia.  The Cat Friends of Germany continue to have very large count shows.  The Hong Kong Cat Lover's Society had a show in December with 370 entries.  The Feline Fancier's Society of Singapore had it's first show in January and was a big success.

Judging Program Committee:
ACCEPTED AS TRAINEE:

Peter Vanwonterghem – SH

ADVANCED TO APPRENTICE:

Megumi Yamashita – LH

Carolyn Lyons – LH

ADVANCED TO APPROVAL PENDING:

Holly Ayers – SH

Carla Bizzell – LH

Kathy Black – LH

Rick Hoskinson – LH

Hisako Komota – LH

Aki Tamura – SH

Yoshiko Sada – AB

ADVANCED TO APPROVED:

Tracy Petty – AB

Some of the JPC forms are now on line at www.CFA.org/judges in PDF format.
Preliminary plans are for a Judges Workshop to be held in conjunction with the Annual include working with Birmans and a comparative workshop on Turkish Angoras and Turkish Vans.

Breeds and Standards:
I'm just going to list the results.  If you are a breed council member, you have the ballot to refer to.
If a number is not mentioned, it was not passed by the breed council and no action was required by the Board.
Abyssinian - #1 passed
American Bobtail - #1-8 passed. Advanced to Provisional.
American Shorthair - #1 no action; #2 no action; #3 passed
Balinese - #1 passed, #2 failed, #3 passed, #4 passed
Birman - #1 advisory, no action
British Shorthair - #1 passed; #2 passed; #3 no action; #4-16 passed
Burmese - #1-4 no action
Devon Rex - #1 no action; #2 passed; #3 passed
European Burmese - #1 ratified; #2 failed; #3 withdrawn
Javanese - #1 withdrawn, #2 withdrawn, #3 passed, #4 passed, #5 passed, #6  passed
LaPerm - #1 passed. Advanced to Provisional.
Maine Coon - #1 no action; #2 no action; #3 passed; #4 passed; #5 no  action;
#6 no action; #7 passed; #8 passed; #9 no action; #10 no action; #11  failed
Manx - #1-4 passed
Norwegian Forest Cat - #1 passed
Oriental - #1 passed, #2 passed, #3 passed
Persian-Himi #4 passed; #7 passed; #6 no action; others failed
Ragamuffin - #1 passed; #2 passed; #3 failed; #4 passed; #5 failed; #6 passed; #7 - #10 passed; #11 failed; #12 failed; #13 passed; #14 failed; #15 failed.
Ragdoll - #1 failed; #2 passed; #3 passed; #4 out of order; #5 passed
#6 - #7 no action - advisory
Russian Blue - 1 #passed
Scottish Fold - #1 passed
Selkirk Rex - #1 passed; #2 passed; #3 no action; #4 passed; #5  passed
Siamese - #1 passed, #2 passed
Siberian - Advanced to Provisional.
Sphynx; #1 passed; #8 passed - all others no action or failed
Turkish Angora - #1 passed, #2 passed, #3 passed, #4 passed, #5 passed, #6 passed
Turkish Van - #1 passed

Business Development Committee: (one of the committees I'm on)
Kitty Angell introduced Roeann Fulkerson who presented a spectacular program to the board.
As the board approved the committee to move forward with this project and sign the contracts, I will not mention names at this time but give an outline of the projects that were approved.
We will contract with a company that has done the "product branding" for AKC.  This includes a full product line of everything from clothing, accessories, mugs, throws, car seats, carriers, health and beauty aids and host of other items including stuffed toys, games, pet needs, etc. to be marketed through stores such as FAO Swartz to Target and Wall Mart.  CFA will receive a percentage of gross proceeds of these CFA branded products.  Our start up cost = $0.00 dollars/zip/nada.
CFA Pet Insurance will be introduced to be marketed through Vets offices and by the breeders with new kitten registration.  A 60 day trial membership is available for $20.00 that will cover the kitten and then they can join for full coverage.  The Insurance company will market this product for CFA and CFA will get an annual royalty on all policies placed.  The customer will apply for reimbursement of covered cost.
An agreement with a microchiping company will give CFA a discounted price and there a several ways that CFA will benefit from this program.
A gene bank is being set up for CFA to allow DNA ID test and data base collection for research.  CFA will be the leader in this field and it will generate income from fees for DNA ID testing and DNA Parentage Certificates.
CFA's API Feline Package brings this together with a program for ALL CATS.  API stands for Alter, Protect and Insure.  This will include a sponsored spay/neuter voucher, microchiping and pet insurance in a single package for new cat owners.  All these programs should be licensed and under way for presentation at the June annual.  You will be impressed.

Management Committee: (the other committee I'm on)
Our mission was to Analyze the efficiencies of Central Office and address the make up of the Board of Directors.
An outside firm, George S. May Company, was contracted to survey CO and it's employees regarding operation of the business of CFA.  It was found that:
CFA employees are doing a tremendous amount of work for the number of employees.
They are dedicated and overall morale is high and they enjoy working for CFA.
The size of the Board in not unusual for this size organization.
They found a need for a current Policies and Procedures Manual and the need to implement HR Best Practices by the year end.
Long and short term planning is needed.
Board terms should be 4 years instead of 2 years to allow work to be completed by the same committee members and foster consistency in policies. (this will require a Constitutional Amendment).
The Board was asked to approve implementing the suggestions of G.S. May Co.  Passed. 

CFA IT/WEB Committee:  
The CFA web site received over 2.5 million visits from over 124 countries in the last 3 months.  The Web site redesign has begun with a new portal page and an easier to use CFA exhibitor corner.  All the legislative related articles on the site have been reformatted as PDF files and are available for download.  A new search engine is faster and easier to use.  We now have classified adds for FANC-E-MEWS.  Please check out the on line magazine, there is a lot of information that you will find useful.

New Business: 
Proposed new national awards structure was discussed.  This proposal would do away with the National Winner top 25/25/25 and replace it with the top 3 of each breed in championship, the best of each breed in kitten and premiership.  These would become National Breed Winners NBW.  That would make up the National Winner Awards.  The rational is to take CFA to a Breed Focused organization.  This will focus the public on Pedigreed Breeds and give value to a CFA registered/pedigreed cat.
The Regions would retain the top 25/25/25 Regional Winners as is the current practice.  As you can imagine this was cussed and discussed at great length.  There are several versions being kicked around and a revision of some type will be proposed at the annual for your vote.  You will see the revised proposal as soon as I get it.

DISASTER PROGRAM GOES REGIONAL.   Pam DelaBar suggested that each region set up a list of equipment and facilities that can be used in the event of a disaster.  This would include spare rooms or even a garage that can be used by evacuees.  Those with generators that can be loaned would be appreciated.  If you are interested in gathering this information, please let me know.  This will develop over the years but just a list of small boats, campers, motor homes, spare cages, etc. will go a long way to helping those in need.

CLUB ACTIVITY REPORTS

Clubs need to get in their Activity Reports.  Please do this, as it is very important to several committees.  The information is used to provide information to various organizations and committees.  You can do this on line at   http://www.cfa.org/exhibitors/club-activity-report.html.