APRIL, 2018: Do You Have Ten Minutes to Spare to Improve ISBONA??
This update provides the latest information on the Breed Association project that we undertook in February. We are also asking for your help in giving us some important criteria for success. This update and linked opinion survey will only take ten minutes of your time. Please read on!
To walk back just a bit, you may recall that along with our new Bylaws adoption (February 15, 2018), we committed to find ways in which ISBONA could play a more meaningful role as a comprehensive breed association to better represent Icelandic sheep and their shepherds.
Any breed association (eg, dog, horse, sheep) has at least four broad responsibilities: 1) it sets the rules that define purebred identification, eligibility and recognition; 2) it sets the fees for those rules; 3) it administers/enforces those rules; and 4) it educates people about the breed. For Icelandics today, the majority of the first two responsibilities are performed by the Canadian Sheep Breeders Association (CSBA) whose focus is the national sheep flock (all breeds) of Canada. The third function, the administration of breed association rules, is provided through a series of registrar duties performed by the Canadian Livestock Registry Corporation (CLRC). Since it’s inception, ISBONA has concentrated on the fourth responsibility — breed education — through its advertising, newsletter, website, and social media presence.
Because ISBONA is only minimally involved in the first three areas, breeders who want to register purebred sheep must first join another association (CSBA); they must pay additional fees over which they have very little control; they need to follow registration rules that do not always make sense outside of Canada. If they are US citizens and/or non-residents, breeders cannot benefit directly from many of the CSBA services that are only offered inside Canada or to Canadians such as serving on a Board, voting, parentage testing, dual ear tagging, youth scholarships, provincial 4-H shows, the Canadian National Sheep Show and others.
We proposed that ISBONA look beyond an education mission. In particular, we proposed to review the potential of having ISBONA replace CSBA as the breed association for Icelandics. This would have the benefits of removing the requirement to join CSBA in order to register sheep, may have the potential to reduce costs for breeders while at the same time allowing them to exercise more control over the rules of their association. Further, ISBONA could receive additional revenue that is now going to CSBA to fund CSBA-designated activities, such as industry wide research. This money could then be channeled directly to Icelandics and their breeders as is done in other breed-specific associations.
Like most such endeavors, this one started with a great deal of research and numerous conversations with all of the parties involved. The Executive Committee of the ISBONA Board (President Elaine Clark, VP Kathy Taft Boyden, Treasurer Marge Jackson) launched efforts in these directions. We have initiated discussions with CSBA and with CLRC as well as with additional registry associations to determine what might be feasible.
Our discussions with CSBA are particularly complex for a number of reasons — not the least being that we would like to keep ISBONA a true "North American” organization representing both the US and Canada. Also, this is the first time a situation like this has presented itself, so there are no well worn paths. CSBA is researching the regulatory requirements for Canadians to register sheep through other than CSBA as well as additional requirements of Canadian law. Our commitment to them is that we want to understand all of the implications so we do not make any decision that would disadvantage Canadian Icelandic breeders. Additionally, CSBA recognizes that US breeders represent the largest portion of their Icelandic registrations (and roughly 10% of their total registrations for all sheep breeds) which has implications for the rest of their business.
On another front, CLRC has been receptive to discussions involving a direct contractual relationship between ISBONA and CLRC. They have experience in bringing on board new associations such as ISBONA, including those from countries other than Canada. Their responses to our questions were slowed somewhat due to preparing for their own AGM, but now that that is concluded, we expect to begin our exchange of information again. Here, we are working to ensure we understand exactly what a “conversion” of information from CSBA membership/pedigree/other files to an ISBONA registry would entail so that impacts can be identified in advance.
We have also contacted two additional registry corporations which have an interest in our business, and we are compiling information from them as well. As we indicated at the AGM, we do not see a likely path for ISBONA to provide registration services on its own, so we are not spending any time pursuing that direction.
At this point, we see four possible outcomes:
1) No change at all
2) A revised ISBONA/CSBA/CLRC relationship
3) A direct contract with CLRC as our registry services vendor
4) A direct contract with another registry vendor
How You Can Help
Critical among our goals is to ensure that our breeder members would see no/limited reductions in services or quality of services received. Other goals include no hidden costs or increases in fees, while facilitating a source of revenue for ISBONA that would allow it to do more in carrying out its mission in support of the Icelandic sheep.
To that end, we are inviting everyone to participate in an opinion survey regarding the importance of various aspects of registry services. We have designed a short survey to let you quickly review the types of services provided and to indicate their importance to you. Results will be used to evaluate how closely the above alternatives can come to meeting all of our goals.
The survey can be found here, and we encourage every one who reads this letter to respond. It can be completed in about five minutes. The survey is done in Google forms and you will be transferred to a google web page to complete it.
To walk back just a bit, you may recall that along with our new Bylaws adoption (February 15, 2018), we committed to find ways in which ISBONA could play a more meaningful role as a comprehensive breed association to better represent Icelandic sheep and their shepherds.
Any breed association (eg, dog, horse, sheep) has at least four broad responsibilities: 1) it sets the rules that define purebred identification, eligibility and recognition; 2) it sets the fees for those rules; 3) it administers/enforces those rules; and 4) it educates people about the breed. For Icelandics today, the majority of the first two responsibilities are performed by the Canadian Sheep Breeders Association (CSBA) whose focus is the national sheep flock (all breeds) of Canada. The third function, the administration of breed association rules, is provided through a series of registrar duties performed by the Canadian Livestock Registry Corporation (CLRC). Since it’s inception, ISBONA has concentrated on the fourth responsibility — breed education — through its advertising, newsletter, website, and social media presence.
Because ISBONA is only minimally involved in the first three areas, breeders who want to register purebred sheep must first join another association (CSBA); they must pay additional fees over which they have very little control; they need to follow registration rules that do not always make sense outside of Canada. If they are US citizens and/or non-residents, breeders cannot benefit directly from many of the CSBA services that are only offered inside Canada or to Canadians such as serving on a Board, voting, parentage testing, dual ear tagging, youth scholarships, provincial 4-H shows, the Canadian National Sheep Show and others.
We proposed that ISBONA look beyond an education mission. In particular, we proposed to review the potential of having ISBONA replace CSBA as the breed association for Icelandics. This would have the benefits of removing the requirement to join CSBA in order to register sheep, may have the potential to reduce costs for breeders while at the same time allowing them to exercise more control over the rules of their association. Further, ISBONA could receive additional revenue that is now going to CSBA to fund CSBA-designated activities, such as industry wide research. This money could then be channeled directly to Icelandics and their breeders as is done in other breed-specific associations.
Like most such endeavors, this one started with a great deal of research and numerous conversations with all of the parties involved. The Executive Committee of the ISBONA Board (President Elaine Clark, VP Kathy Taft Boyden, Treasurer Marge Jackson) launched efforts in these directions. We have initiated discussions with CSBA and with CLRC as well as with additional registry associations to determine what might be feasible.
Our discussions with CSBA are particularly complex for a number of reasons — not the least being that we would like to keep ISBONA a true "North American” organization representing both the US and Canada. Also, this is the first time a situation like this has presented itself, so there are no well worn paths. CSBA is researching the regulatory requirements for Canadians to register sheep through other than CSBA as well as additional requirements of Canadian law. Our commitment to them is that we want to understand all of the implications so we do not make any decision that would disadvantage Canadian Icelandic breeders. Additionally, CSBA recognizes that US breeders represent the largest portion of their Icelandic registrations (and roughly 10% of their total registrations for all sheep breeds) which has implications for the rest of their business.
On another front, CLRC has been receptive to discussions involving a direct contractual relationship between ISBONA and CLRC. They have experience in bringing on board new associations such as ISBONA, including those from countries other than Canada. Their responses to our questions were slowed somewhat due to preparing for their own AGM, but now that that is concluded, we expect to begin our exchange of information again. Here, we are working to ensure we understand exactly what a “conversion” of information from CSBA membership/pedigree/other files to an ISBONA registry would entail so that impacts can be identified in advance.
We have also contacted two additional registry corporations which have an interest in our business, and we are compiling information from them as well. As we indicated at the AGM, we do not see a likely path for ISBONA to provide registration services on its own, so we are not spending any time pursuing that direction.
At this point, we see four possible outcomes:
1) No change at all
2) A revised ISBONA/CSBA/CLRC relationship
3) A direct contract with CLRC as our registry services vendor
4) A direct contract with another registry vendor
How You Can Help
Critical among our goals is to ensure that our breeder members would see no/limited reductions in services or quality of services received. Other goals include no hidden costs or increases in fees, while facilitating a source of revenue for ISBONA that would allow it to do more in carrying out its mission in support of the Icelandic sheep.
To that end, we are inviting everyone to participate in an opinion survey regarding the importance of various aspects of registry services. We have designed a short survey to let you quickly review the types of services provided and to indicate their importance to you. Results will be used to evaluate how closely the above alternatives can come to meeting all of our goals.
The survey can be found here, and we encourage every one who reads this letter to respond. It can be completed in about five minutes. The survey is done in Google forms and you will be transferred to a google web page to complete it.
As always, if you have any questions, please write and we will get back to you.
Thanks for helping.
Elaine Clark (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)
Kathy Taft Boyden (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)
Marge Jackson (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)
Elaine Clark (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)
Kathy Taft Boyden (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)
Marge Jackson (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)