President’s Message
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t is hard to believe that we are already in December. It has been a bit of a strange year in many ways, but true to form it has gone quickly. I hope the Christmas and holiday period brings all our members some special times. The start of 2021 brought a degree of uncertainty for Dogs Queensland about how we would travel financially and with events. It has been great to see a more normal line up of shows and events in contrast to the southern States. We have been very fortunate in that regard. On the financial front this year we did not have the 2020 benefit of Jobkeeper, but the office and the Board have run a tight ship and the results have been pleasing. A virtual bouquet to Rob and his team for this good work. I like to keep members up to date with our financial position and our end of October financial position was presented to the Board at their meeting last week and Finance Committee meeting this week together with the proposed budget for 2022 that will be presented to the Board at our January 10 meeting. At this stage we are tracking on to show a net profit for 2021 slightly over $500k. This is subject to certification by our auditors who commenced this audit process this last week. The financial statements for 2021 certified by the auditors and the Board will be formally presented at our Annual General Meeting next year.
Resignation of Mrs Sharron Taylor as a Director Mrs Sharron Taylor resigned with immediate effect after our Board meeting on 24 November 2021. Sharron has made a significant contribution to the Board of Dogs Queensland for nearly 3 years and has been the director sourced from Zone 3. On behalf of all members and the other directors I thank her for the time and effort that she has dedicated to this voluntary role. Sharron has a wealth of knowledge about our dog world and this with her practical and common-sense approach has been of great benefit in these Covid times. We hope to see her continue to
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DOG WORLD December 2021
make a special contribution to our dog world in other ways. I expect that the Board will look to fill this around 15-month casual vacancy and will undertake an Expressions of Interest process. Members with 5-year membership standing, living in Zone 3 will qualify for consideration. If you qualify do consider lodging an expression of interest in due course. It is an opportunity to give something back to the dog world. In less than a year the nomination process for 6 director positions will happen so let’s encourage members with good skills to consider nominating for the Board.
Three Zones or Just One Zone? For many decades our organisation has divided the State into 3 Zones. The former council routinely made annual trips to Central (Zone 2) and Northern (Zone 3) to meet with members and discuss their particular needs. I don’t think there was a history of having councillors from these two zones before the final Council in 2012 predating incorporation. When I drafted the constitution, it was a given that the 3 Zone approach would be maintained. And in fact, we embedded a right for there to be at least one director from each of the three zones. Where we differ from Dogs NSW is that the wider membership votes in relation to all director nominations and not just for those directors in your zone. There can be more than one director from each of Zones 2 and 3 but at least one from each zone is guaranteed. The argument has been put forward at Board level that we should be “One State, One Entity” with just one zone. Arguments in favour of this approach have included improved technology e.g., more instant communications and zoom meetings. It has been suggested that Northern tours have been of limited value and that having just the one zone would mean Dogs Queensland could speak more with one voice. We have about 75% of our membership in Zone 1,
