Minutes of the FIFe General Assembly 2007
Albufiera, Portugal, 24th and 25th May, 2007
21e. Proposals regarding the Breeding & Registration Rules
The General Secretary pointed that there were proposals from:
- the LO Commission
- Mundikat
- 1. DEKZV eV.
- SRK
- FB and they would be dealt with in this order.
He gave the floor to the Chairman of the LO Commission, Mr. Grytvik, to present their proposals. Mr. Grytvik introduced the first proposal.
from the LO Commission
Proposal 1 – Change of the name of the Commission
“The name of the LO Commission should be changed to the Breeding and Registration Commission (B&R Commission).
The name should be changed in the rules and statues in all places where it occurs.”
Mr. Reijers mentioned that the idea for this new name came from Mr. Simeonov and he thanked him for that. The proposal was carried with 30 yes to 1 no vote and 1 abstention.
Mr. Reijers asked Mr. Grytvik to continue with the second proposal.
Proposal 2 – Addition to the Breeding & Registration Rules, article 4.4.7.3.
“For all hairless breeds i.e. SPH, DSP, PEB, the EMS codes s and y shall not be used regardless of the genotype.”
With the agreement of the LO Commission and based on various questions and complaints of several National Members, the Board decided in 2006 not to implement the decision, which was accepted at the GA in Rome, which also affected the CRX, DRX and GRX. These could
no longer be registered as silver or golden and this was wrong. A picture of a clear silver tabby CRX was circulated to the delegates: Mr. Reijers stated for reasons of clarity this was not his cat.
Mr. Grytvik suggested a special vote to ratify this decision of the Board. Mr. Reijers summarised and gave the floor to Mr. Sagurski who asked the Assembly to vote on this ratification.
The Board´s decision not to implement the proposal of the LO Commission from 2006 was ratified with 30 yes to 0 no votes and 2 abstentions.
Consequently, the proposal regarding article 4.4.7.3 carried at the GA 2006 regarding the various Rex breeds, which had not yet been implemented in the B&R Rules, would be deleted.
For the JSC, Mrs. Friškovec stated that they had been unanimously in favour.
There were no speakers and the proposal was carried with 26 yes to 5 no votes and 1 abstention.
The General Secretary asked Mr. Grytvik, to continue, and Mr. Grytvik stated that proposals 3 and 4 of the LO Commission were withdrawn.
Proposal 3 – EMS list
“The LO Commission proposes the so called EMS list (the complete list of all possible breed and colour varieties) no longer to be the responsibility to maintain nor to be an official FIFe document. The description of the EMS system page 4 shall be a new annex to the Breeding and Registration rules: Annex III. EMS System”
Proposal 4 – Transfer of art. 5.1 of the B&R Rules to the Show Rules as article 3.14
Then Mr. Reijers asked Mr. Grytvik, to continue, and he introduced the last reworded proposal.
Proposal 5 – Addition to Breeding & Registration Rules, art. 4.6.3
“4.6.3 Recognition of a new breed
To insert, after the text: “To recognize a new breed…” up to and including “the cats can achieve no certificates higher than CACIB/CAPIB.” The following addition:
Titles obtained in the preliminary phase will be marked with P for Preliminary titles (PCh, PPr, PIC, PIP), and will only be fully valid as FIFe titles if full recognition is obtained.
After having reached the title PIC/PIP, these cats may only be shown “Out of Competition” and never in class 5 or 6.Cats belonging to a preliminary recognised breed may not be nominated for Best-in-Show nor may they become Best in Show.
Cats belonging to a preliminary recognised breed cannot qualify and participate in the World Show.
To obtain full recognition, a proposal for full recognition, must be presented to the FIFe General Assembly, which encloses documents proving that at least a total of 50 cats are entered in the LO or RIEX registries of at least 3 FIFe Members.”
All commissions were in favour of this proposal. There were a few other speakers and the proposal was carried with 28 yes to 4 no votes.
As mentioned earlier, because of the acceptance of this proposal nr. 5 of the LO Commission, Mr. Kurkowski said that proposal nr. 16 of the Show Commission was withdrawn.
Then General Secretary gave the floor to the President of Mundikat, Mrs. van de Wijngaart, to present their reworded proposal nr. 2.
from Mundikat
Proposal 2– Change of Breeding & Registration Rules, article 2.4
“All breeding cats shall be identified by either microchip (preferred) or tattoo and the identifying code shall be documented in the pedigree.
Exception is granted for males, which are not registered with FIFe.
This practice should be established for cats registered after 1st January 2010.”
For the LO and H&W Commissions, Mr. Grytvik and Mrs. Knez said they were in favour. There were more speakers. The proposal was rejected with 7 yes to 24 no votes and 1 abstention.
The General Secretary then gave the floor to the President of SRK, Mrs. Paloluoma-Sundholm, to present their last 2 proposals. She announced the withdrawal of proposal nr. 2 because of the acceptance of proposal nr. 2 of the LO Commission
from SRK
Proposal 2 – Addition to Breeding & Registration Rules, article 4.4.7.3
“The EMS codes s and y shall not be used for any hairless breed regardless of their genotype.”
Then he asked Mrs. Paloluoma-Sundholm, to present their last proposal.
Proposal 3 – Addition to Breeding & Registration Rules, new article 2.6.12
“2.6.12 – European (EUR)
FIFe shall not recognize the EUR with any other coat length than shorthair. Longhair offspring will be registered as XLH.”
For the LO Commission, Mr. Grytvik said that they had voted all in favour, and Mrs. Friškovec said the same for the JSC. There were no speakers and the proposal was carried unanimously.
The President then gave the floor to Ms Frances de Courcy-Rolls, the delegate for FB.
from FB
Proposal 2
“For colours or patterns that are specifically excluded in the NFO breed standard, any cats of the excluded colour or pattern should be registered as XLH and not as an unrecognised variety NFO.”
For the LO Commission, Mr. Grytvik said that the LO Commission had voted all in favour, and suggested the article to be 2.6.15. Mrs. Friškovec said the JSC voted 2 in favour and 3 against.
There were no speakers. The proposal was carried with 22 yes to 8 no votes and 2 abstentions.
Then Mr. Reijers gave the floor to the President of 1e DEKZV eV. Mrs. Seele, to present their reworded proposal nr. 1.
from 1e DEKZV eV.
Proposal 1– Change of Breeding & Registration Rules, article 2.6.3
“2.6.3 KOR (Korat)
“Only Korats imported from Thailand may be entered in the novice class for recognition. Their origin must be officially proven by documentation.”
For the LO Commission, Mr. Grytvik said that they voted all in favour. There were no other speakers and the proposal was carried with 31 yes votes and 1 abstention.
This concluded the proposals on the B&R Rules and Mr. Reijers went on to the next Agenda item.
21f. Proposals regarding the Standards
He pointed out that there were proposals from:
- the Judges & Standard Commission
- FFH and ČSCH-SCHK
- ÖVEK
- FB, AMIL, ANFI and ZFDS
- ARCCA and they would be dealt with in this order.
Mr. Reijers repeated the decision that the Assembly would deal with the proposals of FB, AMIL, ANFI and ZFDS regarding the division in 5 groups of hairless breeds (SPH, DSP and PEB), concurrently, because these were either completely or almost entirely similar.
The same counted for the proposals regarding group cats in category II of the ČSCH and FFH. He then said that the proposal of KKÖ had already been dealt with and was carried.
He gave the floor to the Secretary of the JSC, Mrs. Friškovec, to present their last 3 proposals. Mrs. Friškovec introduced their reworded proposal number 7.
from the Judges & Standards Commission
Proposal 7 – Addition to General Part of Standard (General Faults) and to article 3.10 of the Show rules
“The following faults are to be put into the standard, General part, General faults in all breeds:
Faults precluding the certificate, page 5/38 and to the Show Rules, article 3.10:
“Colour- 3.10: all pigmentation faults leading to a colour loss on the nose leather, on the paw pads and/or lips, which are not permitted in the standard.”
It was noted that this proposal was already accepted last year for category IV. Now it would also be valid for all other breeds. For the Show Commission, Mr. Kurkowski said that they had voted all in favour. There were no other speakers. The proposal was carried with 29 yes to 3 no votes.
Then Mr. Reijers asked Mrs. Friškovec to present their next proposal.
Proposal 8 – Addition to General Part of Standard – Tabby varieties 21/22/23/24/25
“Coat colour, Nose leather: red/ …/pink or solid”
There were no speakers and it was carried with 31 yes to 1 no vote.
Mr. Reijers asked Mrs. Friškovec to present their last proposal number 9, which read:
Proposal 9 – Change of the Standard for the Korat –KOR
Mrs. Friškovec informed the Assembly of this proposal, which had been initiated by the KOR Breed Council. She explained what had changed in the standard, which is attached to these minutes as Annex 21.
There were a few speakers and the proposal was carried with 29 yes to 3 no votes.
The General Secretary reminded the delegates that any changes must be sent to him electronically within the next week, or it could not be guaranteed they would be in the minutes
He then asked Mr. Wittich, the President of FFH to present their proposal. He stated that this proposal was withdrawn in favour of the reworded proposal of ČSCH-SCHK.
from FFH
Proposal 3 – Change of the SOP in the Standards of Group cats in Category II
“Concerns the cats judged in groups in category 2 (ACL/ACS, MCO, NFO, SIB, TUA) : Attribution of 5 points for the colour and the pattern and distinction of the points allotted to the length and the texture without any change in the total amount of points allotted to the coat of these different breeds in their current scales of points.”
These scales of points are attached to these Minutes as Annex 22.
The President asked Mr. Šanda, advisor of ČSCH-SCHK to present their reworded proposal.
from ČSCH-SCHK
Proposal 1 – Change of the SOP in the Standards of Group cats in Category II
“The proposal is to change the scale of points for the coat of all the Category II breeds judged in colour groups - ACL, ACS, MCO, NFO, SIB, and TUA – to also evaluate the coat colour and/or markings by allotting 5 points. These points would be transferred from the coat quality/length so the total amount of points for coat will remain unchanged.
We are of the opinion that this will be beneficial to correct registrations and also feel that in a beauty competition, colour and markings are important for all cats, no matter which breed. Below the current and proposed points for coat of the individual breeds.”
These points are attached to these Minutes as Annex 23.
There were a few speakers who expressed their satisfaction with the changes to the original proposal and the proposal was carried with 23 yes to 9 no votes.
The General Secretary asked Mr. Steinhauser, delegate for and President of ÖVEK to present their proposal, which they had amended together with the JSC.
from ÖVEK
Proposal 1 – Change of the Standard of the Sacred Birman – SBI
This change was aimed at giving the SBI extra points for eye colour, and to let the item “form and colour of eyes” be scored separately with 5 points, in the scale of points. These points came from taking away 5 points of the original 15 points for body colour and point colour (so now 10 in total).
The complete suggested new Standard is attached to these Minutes as Annex 24.
For the JSC Commission, Mrs. Friškovec gave the floor to Mrs. Porat who said they had voted in favour of the revised proposal and she explained the revised standard in detail.
There were no other speakers and the proposal was carried with 31 yes to 1 no vote.
In the short absence of the General Secretary, Mrs. Sjödin chaired the meeting. She asked if the next identical proposal on the reintroduction of groups (now 5) for the SPH would be presented by 1 speaker or if all wanted the floor.
She also stressed that as an integral part of this proposal all 4 Members had, in their proposal requested, for immediate implementation if their proposal was carried, meaning right after this Assembly, as from 1st June 2007.
It was decided that Ms Frances de Courcy-Rolls, Secretary of FB, would present this joint proposal on behalf of all 4 Members.
from FB, AMIL, ANFI and ZFDS
Proposal 1 – All Hairless Cats (SPH/DSP/PEB) to be judged in 5 Groups
Group I:
white/black/blue/chocolate/lilac/cinnamon/fawn solid/agouti
DSP/PEB/SPH w/n/a/b/c/o/p 21
Group II:
black/blue/chocolate/lilac/cinnamon/fawn solid/agouti WITH white
DSP/PEB/SPH n/a/b/c/o/p 01/02/03/09 21
Group III:
red/cream/tortie solid/ agouti - DSP/PEB/SPH d/e/f/g/h/j/q/r 21
Group IV:
red/cream/tortie solid/ agouti with white
DSP/PEB/SPH d/e/f/g/h/j/q/r 01/02/03/09 21
Group V:
pointed SOLID/ agouti without/ with WHITE
DSP/PEB/SPH n/a/b/c/o/p/d/e/f/g/h/j/q/r 01/02/03/09 21 31/32/33
Certificates already gained in present classes remain valid in the new groups.
If carried, this proposal is to take effect immediately.
For the JSC, Mrs. Friškovec said they had voted all in favour. There were a few other speakers and the proposal was carried with 25 yes to 5 no votes and 2 abstentions.
The President gave the floor to the General Secretary, to continue to chair the meeting. He gave the floor to Mr. Mahelka, the President of ČSCH-SCHK, which held the proxy for ARCCA, to present the reworded proposal.
from ARCCA
Proposal 1 – Introduction of 9 colour groups for KBL/KBS
Mr. Mahelka pointed out, that ARCCA had decided to leave out the new colour “amber” and light amber” because they realised this needed a special colour recognition, as described in the Breeding and Registration Rules.
The suggested division in groups is attached to these Minutes as Annex 25.
For the JSC, Mrs. Friškovec said that before amber was taken out, they were against. Now the JSC wondered why ARCCA had adopted the group system of category II group cats and not of category III group cats, because that was the category where the KBL/KBS were judged.
Based on the discussion Mr. Mahelka decided to withdraw this proposal.
Mr. Reijers announced the last proposal of this GA and gave the floor to Mr. Wittich, for FFH.
21g. Proposals regarding the Rules for Cattery Names
Proposal 2 - Addition of a new article (Art. 9) to the Rules for Cattery Names
“Cattery names in the BCN of FIFe will be deleted at the request of the FIFe member where the name is registered and may be re-allocated if one of the following 3 conditions applies:
- The owner of the cattery name has been excluded by the FIFe member
- The owner of the cattery name died and didn’t bequeath the name further
- The owner of the cattery name left the FIFe member and is breeding in a non FIFe organisation
The deletion of the cattery name can be requested if in addition in the last 25 years no more cats have been registered under that name.
If under the cattery name no litters have ever been registered, then the deletion may already be requested after 10 years.
The General Secretary asked the responsible for the FIFe Cattery Names, Mrs. Eva Wiéland-Schilla, for her opinion of this proposal and if she thought this would be helpful. Mrs. Wiéland-Schilla said that in her opinion Mr. Wittich had given a clear and comprehensive presentation to which she had nothing to add.
There were no other speakers and the proposal was carried with 28 yes to 4 no votes.
22. Information on the World Cat Congress (WCC)
The General-Secretary informed the Assembly about the last World Cat Congress, which had taken place in Dortmund, Germany, organised by WCF.
He referred everyone to the World Cat Congress Website where all he had said was recorded.
There had been elections for the WCC Board this year, and Mrs. Pam DelaBar, President of CFA, was unanimously re-elected as President, and Mrs. Penelope Bydlinski as Secretary and Treasurer. FIFe kept its extra position in the WCC Board: though Mr. Reijers himself had already since a long time indicated not to be available for another term as Vice-President of the WCC, this position had now been taken by Mr. Ole Mage Grytvik, our Chairman of the LO Commission, who was elected as Vice-President.
Next year the meeting would be hosted by the CFA in Houston (Texas) almost certainly during the last weekend of March 2008.
27. Miscellaneous
The General Secretary said that the Board had two options for the GA 2008: one was Israel and one was Slovakia. He informed the GA that the Board would look carefully at both offers and would inform the Members within 4 to 5 months.
For Mundikat Mrs. van de Wijngaart wanted the floor, and she had two questions, which she wanted minuted. Firstly, she read in the report of the Health & Welfare Commission about vaccination guidelines issued, by this Commission and an abstract on the Amyloidosis research. She had not been able to find either matter on the website and she hoped they would be published there soon or would be sent to all Members, because she was sure all Members would be interested to receive these.
Her second question referred to article 6.2 of the General Rules, which stated that the Minutes of the Commissions would be circulated to the Members and she had never received such minutes.
The General Secretary answered that of course these remarks would be minuted.
He also said, in line with more remarks of this year as can be found in these Minutes that it was remarkable that certain rules were asked to be respected but other rules never were. There was for example another rule in the General Rules, namely that the Chairmen of Commissions had to convene their members for a meeting by registered letter, and this rule had never been respected.
He stated that this article in the General Rules had been there for a very long time, also before he had been a Board Member and if Mrs. van de Wijngaart had ever received these minutes before.
Then he went on to explain that the reason of the Board not to distribute these Minutes was to avoid confusion because Commissions could only recommend and not decide. He referred to
one example which could be found in the vaccination protocol by the H&W Commission and that was a recommendation, amongst others, to vaccinate against FIP. The Board did not think it would be wise to publish such matters on the website because it might give the appearance that the Board actually supported this and the Board could and would be held responsible in the end because only they received a discharge of responsibility and not the Commissions.
He said the vaccination protocol could be sent to all Members and they then had to decide for themselves whether they wished to share this protocol with their individual members but the board would not be held accountable and he stated this for the Minutes.
He said that the Amyloidosis abstract was available on the website.
Mrs. van de Wijngaart answered that she had never seen these Commission Minutes and that as far as she could recollect, Mrs. Tjeerdsma had asked for these Minutes on every past Assembly.
Mr. Reijers said that in his opinion this honestly and truly was not the case. If this had been the case then surely these requests would have been minuted, as so many matters had been minuted in the past. He asked Mrs. van de Wijngaart to show the relevant passages in the past Minutes of General Assemblies and the Board. He stated that the Commission Minutes had not been sent out since he was a member of this Board, since 1997, but maybe in 1996. He did state that in the past Mrs. Preiss had made a similar request and had had a same answer.
He went on to say that, he hoped Mrs. van de Wijngaart realised that this was a delicate matter for the Board and asked the President for her opinion.
Mrs. Sjödin said she had nothing to add to what Mr. Reijers had said and that truly these Minutes of the Commissions were only recommendations. It was not written anywhere that these Minutes are only recommendations, but they were.
Mr. Reijers said that some of these Minutes contained very confidential and sensitive information, for example the Minutes of the Disciplinary Commission. Some of them even contained annexed emails and he could not agree to have these private matters published as they were, because also many of them contained very personal references.
He then asked Mrs. Bydlinski for confirmation that these Commission Minutes had never been sent out before, but she said they had been sent in the past. When Mr. Reijers asked when, she could not give the answer.
Mrs. Sjödin stated she knew: two sets of Minutes were sent out by Mrs. Preiss when she was Chairperson of the JSC in the past.
Mrs. Sjödin asked for this discussion to end and she said this matter would be addressed.
Mr. Wirth suggested these Minutes could be sent to the auditors and Mrs. van de Wijngaart stated she did not want to make a big issue out of this but was happy to hear Mrs. Sjödin say that this matter would be addressed.
Then she suggested to let the interpreters end their work, and Mr. Reijers agreed and asked all present for a big hand of applause for the wonderful work they had done again this year.
For the last time he talked about the randomness of which rules were to be respected and which not, and if all rules had been strictly enforced this year, only 25% of the proposals would have been in this Agenda.
The floor was given to Mr. Lubrano. Now that the interpreters had left, Mr. Reijers offered to translate the words of Mr. Lubrano simultaneously from French into English and German for the benefit of the delegates.
Mr. Lubrano said that with his speech he desired to offer to the delegates a final chapter in the very long “novel” which had been the matter between FFF and LOOF. He emphasized that all shows, which took place in France organised by FFF, were all 100% FIFe shows and were strictly organised according to FIFe Rules. He referred to the autumn show in Paris, where the FIFe President and Mr. Kurkowski from the Show Commission had officiated as judges and they could vouch that what he said here was the truth. Finally he would like to say that even if from time to time some people had been hurt or affected because of what happened in the past, but from all his heart he wanted to thank all FIFe Members for the support they had given FFF in these very problematic years, but he assured all that these problems were now over and assured all those present that France, FFF was devoted and loyal to FIFe and that they would remain loyal to FIFe.
Mr. Simeonov announced a change of email address for the Bulgarian Federation, which would be published on the FIFe website in a week or so.
Mrs. Sjödin took the floor and announced the decision of the Board to appoint three Honorary Judges. She was sorry to inform the delegates that one of these honours was bestowed posthumously, namely to Mrs. Britt Hagar Alvestad in gratitude for her input and service to FIFe.
Then she announced that as from today, also Mrs. Sabine Paquin, All Breed Judge from France and the Swedish All Breed Judge and Honorary President of FIFe Mrs. Alva Uddin were appointed Honorary FIFe Judges for all their years of service to FIFe.
Mrs. Uddin thanked the Board and reminded everyone of her over 30 year service to FIFe and that she would still be an active judge.
24. Close of the General Assembly
The President, Mrs. Sjödin, thanked all present, in particular the CPF officials, Mrs. Hartmann, Mr. Noronha and Mr. Gomes the interpreters, Gary, the technical assistant and the scrutineers, Mrs. Zurflüh and Mr. Gomes.
Then she declared the General Assembly of 2007 in Albufeira officially closed, at 18.15
By order of the Board
Annette Sjödin - Presidentt
Eric Reijers - General Secretary
Paula van de Wijngaart, Supervisor of the English version of the Minutes
