Brief report of Council of Members meeting May 12, 2022

On May 12, the Council of Members meeting was held at Manege Hippisch Verband in Putten.

Mr. Leeuwenhaag spoke in, including the cost of influenza vaccinations and the possible reduced participation in judging as a result. He also addressed costs incurred for the Welsh Event. He feels it is important for such an event to be self-supporting. He also indicated that it would be good to include the experiences of stallion owners when evaluating the stallion inspections.

After the public participation session, the proceedings of the various department meetings were briefly discussed. Also discussed was the desired content of the annual report of the NWPCS: according to the members' council members, each year should be reported in outline form. Elements that should be named are: developments in the number of members, ponies, coverings, participation in inspections, changes in regulations; composition of working groups and officers. The 2021 annual accounts were explained below, then approved and discharge was granted to the Main Board regarding the year 2021. The Council of Members also reappointed Louis Roeters to the role of Chief Board Member for Breeding Affairs NWR/WPBR and Sport until May 2025.

Regarding the predicate system, a verbal explanation of the process was given. It is planned that decision-making will take place in the fall of 2022. Expansion of the jury corps was also discussed: there are now 5 new candidates for the dome training (1 male and 4 female); they have all passed the preliminary exam and are now in training. Expansion of the jury corps is important, in part because not all current jury members can be drafted often.

Questions had been raised at the departmental meeting in North why well-trained people from other studbooks had not been chosen instead of external advisors. The main board reports that as early as July 2021 there have been discussions in the form of a think tank (including Berry Bakker, Mascha Reijs and Ben Platzer from the jury corps, Hans Sloof and Johan van Drie from the FTCs, Rhodé van Praat and Louis Roeters from the main board) to think about staffing the jury corps. From this think tank it was decided after taking stock to activate people for the long term and to do the training through the dome and also to approach a number of persons who for the short term could offer a solution to the shortage of judges within the current jury corps. This makes the external consultants a logical choice for now.

The technical chairman of the Council of Members, Bastiaan Meerburg, indicates that his 4-year term is over and will step down as chairman in the fall meeting. The choice is up to the Council of Members whether to choose a chairman from within the Council of Members itself or a new independent chairman. The same applies to the secretary, following the departure of Reinier van de Ruit. The Council of Members pronounces that it is desirable that both are independent. Richard Dekkers and Jan Jukema will prepare the vacancies from within the Council of Members.