Minutes of the Annual General Meeting of The International Union for Leonberger Dogs.
Held on September 23^rd  2006 Hotel Kirchner, Leonberg, Germany.

Member Clubs represented
Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland,  France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, The Netherlands, Norway, Russia, Sweden, Spain, Switzerland, USA.

Not Represented
Slovak Republic and New Zealand.

The Chairman for the Meeting was Gerhard Zerle.
Minutes were taken by Hein Sibrijns.

Introduction
Herr Zerle opened the meeting at 10 am and welcomed those present. He expressed pleasure that so many member countries were represented.

It was unanimously decided that the meeting would be interrupted at 11 am , because the representatives had been  invited to assist at the unveiling of a bronze sculpture of a Leonberger dog at the “Burgerplatz” in the town of Leonberg.

Mr. Fred Inwood was honoured with the golden pin of honour from the German Leonberger Club.

The deceased president of the Italian Leonberger Club was remembered with a minutes silence.

President’s report.

Many judges were present at the International Judges Seminar, organized by the Union in November 2005. 

During the judges seminar the committee discussed successfully with representatives of the  French Club their resumption of the membership, so France rejoined the Union.

The committee’s decision to grant again membership to France was unanimously supported.

Treasurer’s report.
The report has been sent to the member clubs by mail, together with the invitation for this meeting.

The capital on 31-12-2005 was 556.92  Euros.

No auditors had been elected in the previous meeting, so the auditors that will be elected in this meeting will audit the years 2005 and 2006.

Discussion acceptance of reports.

The reports were accepted unanimously.

Election of auditors.

Mrs. Anita Treichler (CH) and Mr. Jim Henshaw (USA) were unanimously elected.

Membership dues 2007
The membership dues are maintained at an annual fee of 50 euros plus 0.20 euros per club member.

Mr. Fred Inwood donated 1.000 euros to the Union.

Cooperation contract with FCI.

Negotiations between the FCI and the German Kennel Club made it possible for bodies like the Union for breeds of German origin to address the FCI directly.

So the president has concluded a contract with FCI.

Problems in member countries.

1 Hungary.

At this moment there is no active Leonberger Club in Hungary.

In the communist time there was a club that was recognized by the FCI-member kennel club.

After the turn to capitalism the breed clubs had to be recognized also by the ministry of agriculture, the Leonberger club was not recognized by the ministry.

So the president of the Leonberger Club founded a new club that obtained recognition from the ministry, but not from the FCI-member club.

Then a group founded a new club that obtained recognition from the FCI-member kennel club, that club lost its recognition because several people informed the kennel club that that club didn’t represent the majority of the Leonberger owners.

Now Mrs Kerekes is in the process of founding a 4^th club that hopefully will represent the majority of owners and that hopefully will obtain recognition from both the kennel club and the ministry.

For the time being serious Hungarian breeders are member of the Austrian Leonberger Club.

The meeting was interrupted at 10.45 for the unveiling of the bronze sculpture on the Burgerplatz.

Continuation at 12.15.

2 Czech Republic.

There is still no peace between the Czechian and the Moravian clubs.

Although the Czechian club has no problem with most members of the Moravian club and wants to cooperate with the Moravian club and transfer them information, the Czech club is still attacked through criminal charges by Mr. Josef  Zeman , who plays a leading role in the Moravian club.

The Czechian club has no problem with observer status for the Moravians, but the can not sit on one table with Mr. Zeman  because of the criminal charges.

The Union is served by the presence of two fighting clubs, so it was proposed that the Moravians would be told that they can obtain observer status when there are no more criminal charges.

11 delegates voted in favour of the proposal, 11 delegates voted against the proposal.

The case was discussed further.

The conclusion is that one should simply unconditionally reject the Moravian request for observer status.

That proposal was unanimously accepted.

3 USA.

The two clubs in the UAS are on their way to good cooperation.

The committee had granted the LCA permission to invite an observer from the LCUS for this meeting, unluckily the observer didn’t show up.

Leonberger databases.

There are at this moment 3 so called “Leonberger Databases”.

The data in these databases has not been reviewed and is not completely reliable.

Mrs. Edith Steffen was active in two of these databases

Mrs. Steffen was owner of a Leonberger, who was scored with severe hipdisplasia by Prof. Dr. Loeffler. She then got herself a HD-free certificate through Belgium but could still not use her male for breeding in Germany.

She had then bred two litters in Poland and sold the puppies in Germany.

It must be clear that such actions don’t add to the level of confidence in the collected data.

A warning will be placed on the Union website, stating that data from the three databases is not guaranteed by Leonberger clubs and the Union.

Several Leonberger Clubs have databases for the Leonbergers in their countries, these databases will be linked from the Union website.

Polyneuropathy.

Neuropathies occur in all dog breeds. Until now we have not enough info about the severity and number of cases.

At least 5 researchers occupy themselves with neuropathies in Leonbergers, unluckily information is not or only partially exchanged.

Veterinarian Hans Lieven will write a new article for the Union’s website.

Secretary Hein Sibrijns will collect the data and will send a report to the member clubs in spring 2007.

Miscellanious.

The Dutch Leonberger Club, as the second oldest club,  celebrated its 40^th anniversary.

The Italian club will award the millennium award 2007 posthumously to Lucio Migni.

The Italian club show will be held in May 2007.

The Russian Leonberger club had two events:

1 A general meeting, there are now regional groups in several counties.

2 The Russian club show, judged by Mr. Zerle.

The Russian club also produced a video.

The Swiss club asks for more info about a letter that was send by a number of  Italian breeders who want to leave the Italian club. This is an internal Italian issue.

The Danish club will celebrate its 30^th anniversary on 07-07-2007.

The German club would like to have an International list of stud dogs.

Hein Sibrijns will publish such a list on the Union’s website.

Closure

Leonberger, the 23rd September 2006.

Gerhard Zerle, president.     Hein Sibrijns, secretary.