MWBGA Bylaws

MWBGA Constitution & By-Laws

CONSTITUTION SECTION 1: The name of the association shall be the Mid-West Beagle Gundog Association (MWBGA). The name cannot be changed without reorganization of the association.

SECTION 2: The objects of the association shall be:
(a) To encourage and promote the breeding of AKC registered beagles and to do all possible to bring their natural qualities to perfection, and to promote said beagles as hunting hounds.

(b) To conduct a championship runoff trial for hounds that have qualified at qualifying and licensed trials of the member clubs that year. The championship runoff will be held the second weekend in January, not to conflict with any member club's licensed trial.

(c) To assist any member club in any way possible towards obtaining an AKC licensed trial.

(d) To conduct a derby championship runoff. This trial will be held along with the all-age championship trial on the second weekend in January, not to conflict with any member club's licensed trial.
SECTION 3: The association shall not be conducted for profit and no part of any profits or remainder of residue from dues or donations to the association shall insure to the benefit of any member club or to any individual.

SECTION 4: The delegates of the member clubs and the officers shall adopt and may from time to time revise such by-laws as may be required to carry out these objectives by majority vote after the new item or revision has first been taken back to the member clubs and discussed.
BY-LAWS

ARTICLE I - MEMBERSHIP SECTION 1: ELIGIBILITY: Any club in good standing with the AKC may apply.

SECTION 2: MEMBERSHIP DUES: Dues are to be $50 per year and payable at the annual meeting of each year. No delegates may vote at the annual meeting or thereafter if the club they represent has not paid its dues. There will be a 60-day grace period before membership is considered lapsed.

SECTI0N 3: ELECTION TO MWBGA MEMBERSHIP: Any club wishing to join the association must make such request in writing to the association secretary accompanied by their membership dues. They will have to hold two trials within six months of each other, which will be observed by either an officer of the association or one of the delegates. After the two trials have been held and a report is heard from the observers, the association will vote on whether or not to accept the new club. A 3/4 affirmative vote is needed to be accepted. The two trial observation rule may be waived by a unanimous vote at any regular association meeting.

SECTION 4: Termination of membership. Memberships may be terminated by:(a) BY RESIGNATION: Any club in good standing may resign from the association by written notice to the Secretary. No refund on dues will be given.

(b) BY LAPSING: Any club whose dues have lapsed may be terminated from membership.

(c) BY EXPULSION:. A club may be expelled as provided in Article VI of these by-laws. ARTICLE II - VOTING AND MEETINGS SECTION 1: ASSOCIATION MEETINGS: The three regular meetings shall fall in the 1st quarter, 2nd quarter, and 3rd quarter of each year. The exact date, time, and place will be established at the prior meeting. The quorum for these meetings will be 50% of the delegates and officers.

SECTION 2: SPECIAL MEETINGS: Special meetings may be called by any two officers or by the secretary upon receipt of a petition signed by four delegates. Such meetings shall be held at a reasonable place, date, and hour and set up be the persons calling for the meeting. The persons calling such meeting shall also be responsible for contacting every delegate and officer and informing them of it. Only the purpose or purposes for which the meeting was called are to be discussed and no other business is to be discussed or acted upon. The quorum for such meetings is the same for regular meetings.

SECTION 3: VOTING: Each delegate and each officer will have one vote, provided the club that the delegate is representing has its dues paid and is in good standing with the association. The president of the association, however may only vote in case of a tie. There shall be no proxy voting.
ARTICLE III - OFFICERS AND DELEGATES SECTION 1: DELEGATES: Each club shall have two delegates and one alternate. An alternate or delegate cannot be an officer in the association. Only one alternate may be used. The secretary of the association must have the names of the two delegates and the alternate prior to any forthcoming association meeting. It is up to each individual member club to send their delegates names in and to keep them updated.
(a) It is the delegates responsibility to inform his or her club of any forthcoming changes or any motions made to change the by-laws and constitution. SECTION 2: OFFICERS: Officers of the Mid-West Beagle Gundog Association shall consist of a President, a Vice President, a Secretary, and a Treasurer.(a) The President shall preside at all meetings of the association and shall have the duties and powers normally implied to the officer of president in addition to those specifically implied in these by-laws and constitution.

(b) The Vice President shall have the duties and exercise the power of the President in case of the President' s death, absence, or incapacity.

(c) The Secretary shall keep a record of all meetings of the association and of all matter, which a record shall be ordered by the association. They shall have charge of correspondence, notify clubs of meetings, and carry out any other duties prescribed in these by-laws.

(d) The Treasurer shall collect and receive all monies due or belonging to the MWBGA. The books shall be open to inspection at all times. The treasurer shall report at every meeting on the state of the association's finances and report every item of receipt or payment.

SECTION 3: OFFICER VACANCIES:. Any vacancy of an officer's position occurring during the year shall be filled by majority vote at the first regular meeting following such vacancy. The exception being that in the event of a vacancy in the office of President, the Vice President would step up and then that office would be voted upon. Any officer missing three consecutive meetings without just cause will have their office declared vacant.

ARTICLE IV - THE ASSOCIATI0N YEAR, ANNUAL MEETING, ELECTIONS SECTION 1: ASSOCIATION YEAR: The association's fiscal year shall begin January 1st and extend to December 31st. The official year shall be the same.

SECTION 2: ANNUAL MEETINGS: The annual meeting shall be held in the first quarter of each year in January. This annual meeting will be held the Saturday evening of the corresponding trial. During such meeting officers will be elected by closed ballot for the coming year. They shall take office upon election and each retiring officer shall turn over all properties and records within 30 days.
(a) The position of officers are voted as is. The president and treasurer are voted on at the same meeting. The vice-president and secretary are voted on the following year. SECTION 3: ELECTIONS: The nominated candidate receiving the most votes for each office shall be declared elected. (a) NOMINATIONS: No person shall be a candidate in the elections unless they were nominated. Self-nomination is not allowed.

(b) Nominations must be made by a delegate of a MWBGA club or one of the MWBGA officers. Visitors and non-delegates aren't allowed to make nominations.

ARTICLE V - COMMITTEES

SECTION 1: The association may appoint committees to carry out various tasks throughout the year. Such committees shall always be subject to the final authority of the association except for the Field Trial Committee.

SECTION 2: The field trial committee for the championship runoff trial shall be made up of the two delegates from each club. Their duties is to handle any problems of disputes, which may arise at the championship runoff trial.
ARTICLE VI - DISCIPLINE SECTION 1: Expulsion of any club from the association must be by a unanimous vote (club in question can not vote nor any officers from that club) and the club in question must be given adequate time at such meeting to present its defense
ARTICLE VII - AMENDMENTS SECTION 1: Amendments to the constitution and by-laws may be proposed by any officer or delegate. They will then be taken back to each member club for discussion and voted upon at the next regular association meeting. A 3/4 vote by the delegates and officers in attendance at that following meeting is required to pass any amendment.

(a) MEMBERSHIP DUES: Dues are to be $50.00 per year and payable at the January association meeting of each year. No delegates may vote at any association meeting unless the club they're representing has paid it's membership dues before said meeting. There will be a sixty day grace period before membership is considered lapsed. (ARTICLE 1-Section 2)

(b) Each club must hold one and can hold two qualifying trials per year unless they have paid $50 to be exempt from having a qualifying trial. (ARTICLE IX-SECTION 1)

1. FAILURE TO COMPLY: The club would be placed on probation the following year. Failure to comply during the probation year would cause the club to be presented for EXPULSION at the first association meeting the following year.
(c) Each hound placing in a qualifying trial or licensed trial must be shown at the bench show at the championship runoff trial.

(d) Each club must send the dates of their qualifying trials to the secretary of the association no later than 30 days prior to the running of the trial.

1. FAILURE TO COMPLY: The voiding of any accumulation of points towards association High Hound Awards for participating hounds. However hounds placing at such trials would still be eligible to run in the association championship runoff.

(e) Each club must report qualifying and licensed trial results to the secretary of the association no later than 30 days following the date of the trial.

1. FAILURE TO COMPLY: The voiding of any accumulation of points towards association high hound awards for participating hounds. However hounds placing at such trials would still be eligible to run in the association championship runoff.
(f) Hounds placing at the championship runoff trial will obtain points towards high hound awards on a point scale of 5 points for 1st, 4 points for 2nd, 3 points for 3rd, 2 points for 4th, and 1 point for NBQ.

ARTICLE VIII - MISCELLANEOUS

SECTION 1: All officers traveling to the association meetings may receive $20 each for expenses.

SECTION 2: Association meetings are open and discussions are allowed by others, but motions or votes come only from those mentioned in Article II, Section 3. The President may, however, order the meeting closed on request of an officer or delegate.

SECTION 3: A fee of $1 is to be paid to the association for each field entry at a qualifying trial. This fee will be turned over to the treasurer at the first quarter annual meeting.

SECTION 4: At any time that the treasurer's job changes hands the association will have the books audited.

SECTION 5: The association will present a high hound award to one hound's owner. This award will be won in the following manner. Every hound placing first through NBQ in qualifying trials or licensed trials for that season will receive points on the following scale: 5 for 1st place, 4 for 2nd place, 3 for 3rd place, 2 for 4th place, and 1 for NBQ.

In addition a bonus points system applies offering one bonus points for every 10 dog entered. For example... 1-10 entries would give zero bonus points, those hounds would get only the standard 5, 4,3,2,1 for placing hounds. 11-20 entries would result in 1 bonus point for every placing dog so they would be scored 6, 5,4,3,2. 21-30 entries would result in 2 bonus point for every placing dog so the scoring would be 7, 6,5,4,3 and so on and so forth for as many entries are at the trial. The bonus points system is set to take effect beginning January 2008 and is to reward hounds that win and place in larger classes.

As noted in ARTICLE VII, hounds entered in the championship runoff will obtain the same amount of points per place. At the conclusion of the runoff, total points each of the six classes will be calculated. The hound with the highest points in it's individual class will be the hound of the year winner for that class.

(a) In the event a tie occurs in a class for individual hounds of the year, that hound that has won the most trials is chosen as the winner.

SECTION 6: The association will present a sire of the year, dam of the year, and breeder of the year for both the derby class and the all-age class. Each placing hound is awarded one point. A hound can't obtain points for multiple places nor places in two different classes. At the conclusion of qualifying trials for the season, all the points will be totaled. The sire, dam, and breeder of the year with the highest points in derby or all-age will be the winner.

(a) In the event a tie occurs in a class, then the sire or dam whose offspring has the most wins shall be award the sire or dam of the year.

(b) In the event a tie occurs in breeder of the year, then the breeder whose hounds has the most wins shall be awarded the breeder of the year award.

ARTICLE IX - QUALIFYING TRIALS AND THE RUNOFF SECTION 1: QUALIFYING TRIALS: Each club must hold one, and can hold two qualifying trials per year. Otherwise they must pay a $50.00 exemption fee. The dates will be given on a first come first serve basis. It is also highly recommended that all member clubs also clear the rest of their dates to avoid conflict with another member club. If you do not have the association qualifying trial results form, contact the secretary of the association and they will forward one to you. All qualifying trials are to be held under AKC small pack option rules with the exception that there shall be no combining of classes.

SECTION 2: HOW TO QUALIFY A HOUND: In order to qualify for the MWBGA Championship Runoff, a hound must place 1st through NBQ in the field at a qualifying or licensed trial. A hound must be AKC registered to be entered. The hound's owner must be a member of one of the member clubs or have their application in to be a member of one of the clubs before the hound is entered. Once a hound is qualified it is still allowed to compete in other qualifying trials. A $15.00 entry fee will be collected at the association championship runoff. All hounds entered at the championship runoff must be shown at the championship runoff bench show.

SECTION 3: THE CHAMPIONSHIP RUNOFF: The MWBGA Championship Runoff will be held at Jackson County Beagle Club in Jackson, OH on January 10 & 11, 2009.

(a) HOSTING THE RUNOFF: The host club for the championship runoff will be Jackson County Beagle Club. The host club must show proof of insurance. If the aforementioned clubs cannot hold the runoff or wishes not to, then any club within the MWBGA may make a bid to host the runoff. The association will absorb all expenses for awards, judges, advertising, etc. The host club will furnish food and drinks, although will be reimbursed for their expenses. The host club gets no money from entry fees nor from the association other then expenses for food and drink.

(b) RUNOFF JUDGES: Runoff judges are selected by the following method. The name of every club that is within good standing with the association is given a number to be put into a bingo roller. Numbers for each club are rolled out to select judges for all-age classes are rolled out. That club is responsible for sending a judge to championship runoff. In addition to the two clubs names being rolled per class, a third alternate club is rolled to be used in case of absence. Judges for derby class are chosen amongst the four all-age judges and their alternates. The association will cover all expenses of the judges. Judges for the MWBGA Championship Runoff will be offered $50 for their judging services.

(c) CLASSES: There shall be six separate classes at the championship runoff no matter what the entry numbers is. Each hound runs in the class that it first qualifies in. The 15" all-age and 13" derby classes are ran on Saturday and the 13" all-age and 15" derby classes are ran on Sunday.

(d) AWARDS:. The amount of money to be spent on awards will be set every year at the 1st quarter meeting. The association will also pay for a full-page ad in Better Beagling every year announcing the runoff results as well as hound of the year winners for each class. Hounds winning all-age hound of the year awards will be on the cover of Better Beagling as well.

ARTICLE X - DISSOLUTION SECTION 1: DISSOLUTION OF THE association: The association may be dissolved at any time by the written consent of at least 3/4 of the delegates and officers. In the event of dissolution none of the property, proceeds, nor assets of the association shall be left. After payment of all debts, remaining funds will be donated to an organization for the benefit of dogs selected by the officers and delegates.
ARTICLE XI - ORDER OF BUSINESS SECTI0N 1: At regular and special association meetings the order of business shall be as follows:

Roll Call
Minutes of Last Meeting
Report of President
Report of Secretary
Report of Treasurer
Report of Committees
Elections
Unfinished Business
New Business
Adjournment

Revised 12/06/2007