Australian Salers Association Inc.
Minutes of the Annual General Meeting held by Telephone Conference
Tuesday 08 December 2015, commencing 8:00pm AEST
Present: Steve McCourt, Peter Rogers, Margaret Pevitt, Roz Curtis, Ray Hughan, Kathleen Gardner, Alan Penfold, Michael Manley.
Chairman: Steve McCourt.
Apologies: Reg & Anne Mickelburough.
Proxies: Nil.
Notice of Meeting: Notice of todays AGM mailed 26/11/15, which was accompanied by President Steve’s letter 26/11/15, the Agenda, June’15 Financial Statements and Minutes of last year’s AGM 22/11/14, were tabled.
Minutes of Previous AGM: Minutes of the 29th Annual General Meeting held
22/14/14 at Busselton, WA, were taken as read. Moved P Rogers, seconded K Gardner “that the Minutes be accepted as a true and correct record of that meeting”. Carried. The President S. McCourt to sign the Minutes accordingly.
BAFPM: Steve requested that the matter of officially changing Rule 7.2.1 of the current Rules and Regulations of the Association regarding number of members required to form a quorum at General Meetings of members, being eight financial members present in person be changed by adding the following words after “in person” “or online by Skype or phone with loud speaker” as approved at the 2014 AGM, be formally changed by the passing of a Special Resolution at the 2016 AGM.
Treasurer’s Report: M Manley referred to the circulated 2015 financial statements together with Special Purpose Financial Report from the directors advising that the Association is not a reporting entity and that they have determined that the Association’s financial statements present fairly the financial position and result of operations for year ended 30 June’15. Alan Penfold moved and Peter Rogers seconded – “that the financial statements be accepted as a true and correct statement of the financial affairs of the Association.” Accepted.
Budget 2015/16: The chairman informed members that the budget for the current financial year shall be finalised by the incoming board as soon as possible.
President’s Report: Steve referred to his letter accompanying notice of today’s meeting, and reaffirmed that with the recent increase in cattle prices across Australia, the industry appears to be on a good footing to provide reasonable returns to breeders.
Regional Reports:
South Australia – Roz outlined the efforts that she and fellow breeders had made in presenting Salers at various shows and competitions, making special mention of Alan Kranz’s success in turning heads, and distributing Salers promotional items to some 180 participants and attendees at the Junior Handlers workshop.
Western Australia – Alan advised they have continued with their showing and carcase competition exploits and taken out various awards including Grand Champions. They’ve entered M/Grey x Salers and M/Grey x Salers x M/Grey crosses and are striving to exhibit Salers x M/Gray x Salers soon. They continue to receive accolades from meat buyers for their cattle, and have been selling some breeder bulls.
Victoria – Peter has taken advantage of the good prices to cull some of his lower end stock as the country continues to dry off. He has calves dropping from his N Z semen, and has also sold some bulls and cows to breeders. Marg Pevitt mentioned that they have been somewhat inactive due to family commitments.
New South Wales – Kathy advised they are regularly selling commercial x-bred cattle, but seldom hear from the other Salers breeders in NSW. Survival has been the principal objective with drought and previous average prices.
Queensland – M Manley advised that eastern Qld has finally achieved some drought relief with widespread 4”-6” storm rainfall in the eastern half of Qld in the last month. They presented 9 head in June at the 3 day Farmfest exhibition, without selling a beast like most exhibitors due to the ongoing drought. A key bull buyer client who always tops the Emeralds weekly cattle sale when he sells pens of his Salers x Brahman advises that he has Buyers now chasing his “hairy” cattle with the big weights, which is a big turn-around in attitude. They are still selling breeding bulls which should increase with improved weather patterns.
Appointment of new Board –
Steve announced that he is grateful to Roz Curtis for standing for election to represent S A in his place as he had heralded his retirement from the Board during this last term, and is pleased to see a younger person filling his position on the board. He congratulated the remaining 4 board members for their commitment to the breed in agreeing to re nominate for the board, with all being duly elected unanimously. Steve offered to assist the board wherever it needs any of his help in the future.
Vote of Thanks: Peter thanked Steve for the tremendous commitment and achievements he had made during his decade of selfless work in steering the Association and extending he and his family’s time to be so actively involved for the good of our Association. He reminded Steve that we would not forget his generous offer to remain involved in the giving of advice to the board where needed.
Election of President: Agreed that board members contact one another during the next month to discuss, and look to holding a SKYPE meeting in February’16.
Closure: There being no further business, the meeting closed at 7:30 pm.
Australian Salers Association Inc.
Minutes of the Council Meeting held
By Skype
Thursday, 08 August 2013, commencing 8.00 pm AEST
Present: Steve McCourt, Kathy Gardner, Peter Rogers, Ray Hughan & M Manley
Apologies: Nil
Confirmation of Minutes: Minutes of Board Meeting conducted 23/05/13 as previously circulated to the 5 Directors, were tabled and accepted as a true and correct record on the motion of Michael, seconded Peter.
Business Arising from Previous Minutes: Directors meeting was held by Skype Conference. This should be a very cost efficient way of conducting future meetings.
Car Sticker:
“There are only 2 breeds of cattle. Salers & the Rest”. Yellow lettering.
Merchandise: 10 Gold ties acquired @ a cost of $15 each.
Websites: – P Rogers again requested board members to submit relevant information and photographs to him for the website. He noted that he had posted various articles on the ASA website recently incl. the U K Journal, semen available, the upcoming France international conference, Salers in Tasmania, Maximising genetic improvement in seedstock production, and had averaged 90 hits in the past 2 months per feature article posted. He requested feedback from members if they encountered any problems with our website or feature articles. Agreed that the 2013 ASA journal be posted in full in one upgrade. 2008 journal already thereon, and agreed to place prior annual journals thereon also gradually.
Treasurer’s Report:
The treasures report was discussed and accepted.
2013 AGM and Election of Board:
Mike to get Anne to organise mailing of call for Nominations in next few weeks to all members to give a months notice, prior to Election Voting details being mailed to members.
Mike shall request Anne to follow the normal protocol to ensure that the elections are had prior to the AGM which will be held weekend (preferably) 16th, or 23rd November. Peter Rogers to organise farm visits on the Saturday prior to the AGM back in Melbourne. Mike shall arrange AGM venue in Melbourne after Peter advises which weekend suits. Directors meeting to be held that Sunday a.m.
Closure: There being no further business, meeting closed at 9.00 p.m.
Next Meeting: Steve to advise, but likely to be in 1st week of October ’13 prior to 06/10/13.
Extract From
Australian Salers Association Inc.
Minutes of the Council Meeting held
By Skype
Thursday, 23 May 2013, commencing 7.30 pm AEST
Business:
This was the Board’s first Conference Call using Skype technology which should reduce the cost of some 8 Board Meetings per year from some $2,000 to $Nil.
Websites – P Rogers again requested board members to submit relevant information and photographs to him for the website. He emphasised the fact that we need more content to add to its appeal to interested parties. [Members should arrange contributions to the website in an electronic format – if > 8 meg. – convert into a PDF file].
Steve McCourt has informed Steve Skinner (ABRI) of incorrect spelling of “Salers” on registration certificates, and any members in possession of wrong spelling of Salers on cards received should request replacement thereof.
Magazine – Steve advised that it is now ready to be printed.
Members attention is drawn to President Steve’s recent letter mailed 10 May 2013 beginning “magazine is nearing completion” but specifically referring to the registration procedural amendments to the Society’s Herdbook now simplified to Herdbook and Performance categories only and incorporating the registration procedures for inactive Purebred Salers cattle which are in place of the C register proposal.
Bendigo Beef Report:
Salers performed well with David and Marg Pevitt taking out Supreme Exhibit and the other exhibitors all doing credit to the breed.
Marketing:
An email of marketing suggestions from Tony Speer of Australian Topstock was reviewed by members and Peter reiterated the importance of having an up to date website for interested parties to view. The Board received Tony’s submission and are considering it but no decision has been made.