Report of March 2021 Board Meeting

Both before and at the February 20th board meeting members expressed an interest in reporting of actions at CGS Board of Directors meetings.

The board welcomed this interest and is now beginning a process of reporting after each meeting. Here is the first Board meeting report prepared by President Sandy Howell. After each regular Board meeting a member of the Board will provide a report of discussion and decisions at each meeting.

Report prepared by President Sandy Howell, who is also director from British Columbia.


CGS Board Meeting held via Zoom March 19, 2021

Meeting called to order 8:37 pm EST.

Opening comments by President Sandy Howell  discussion on milk recording/ testing-focus:   ways of getting more members to participate.  Sandy Howell and Catherine Lord are going to create a working paper of proposals for the Board.

Business arising from minutes of three Board meetings in February, prior to the Annual Meeting:

Discussion on overdrafts at CLRC, resulting form submission of insufficient funds to cover the costs of the registration, transfer, membership, etc. e.g. taxes or miscalculation of fees ending in CLRC collecting accounts receivable from members and clients. Earlier this year CGS wrote off several hundred dollars on very aged accounts receivable at CLRC. ( These were from 2015 and earlier and clients are no longer active in the industry. Also a number of accounts under $3.00-most under $1.50 from December 2019 and earlier were written off.   Decision was made to notify CLRC that we will no longer accept overdrafts of any amount and this has been actioned.   Consequently, if enough money isn’t sent in to cover the cost of work being done members/clients will no longer receive their work until bill paid. No more overdrafts.  Suggestion is that members either do e-transfer or credit card transactions, if at all possible.

An In Camera session was held.

Reports on:

Office move is completed.  The office in Guelph has been closed due to the covid pandemic and moved to the Secretary/Manager’s residence.

Barry Van Camp is the representative for the Royal Agriculture Winter Fair Board of Governors.

Financial statements to the end of February were reviewed.

New Business:

  • Discussion if non-members and suspended members can participate in CGS programs.  In order to participate in Milk Test and Classification participants are to be CGS members.  Suspended members and non-members can participate in shows.  A suspended member or non-member does not receive any CGS awards.
  • CLRC AGM is April 24th and will be a zoom meeting and the CGS Reps will be Callum McLeod, Ed Cavanagh and Chris Grab.
  • East National Show that was to be held at Brooklin Spring Fair. This fair has been cancelled for 2021. The opportunity to host the East National is now being offered to the Royal.
  • Deadline for submission of applications to host a National show has been changed to a July 1 of the year previous.  
  • Steering Committee re Grant Application to Government reports that we should know by April 1st. This grant would provide funding to establish integrated databases within the small ruminant sector of the industry.
  • Judges extension of license for 2021:  letter will be going out to Judges regarding extensions at no fee for 2021.  Callum and Ed are looking at putting a webinar review together, as a refresher for judges.
  • News Letter: An issue to go out soon with a pull out, asking people if they want access to the Newsletter/ Quarterly on line or in hard copy by mail.  The response will be returned to office.
  • Classification:  Meeting was held with Holstein Canada in early March and we are waiting for Holstein Canada to reply.
  • Breeding Records:  Board members were asked to submit their breeding records, four sets have been received to date. When those are all in the membership, with one member randomly selected by computer software from each district, will be asked to submit breeding records for the most recent year. This process is an option within the by-laws of CGS.   

Meeting adjourned at 10:02 pm Eastern Standard Time.