Dear MASCUSA Members,

For quite some time the Board has been concerned about the vulnerability of the NAMASCUSA registry records that go back to 1990. Currently these records exist only in paper form and are stored in binders in multiple cabinets in the home of our registrar, Mindy Stevenson. There are no "back up" copies, so if a tornado hits her home (heaven forbid) the records will be scattered far and wide! The Board has been working towards modernizing the registry processes.  All new processes and records are now digitized and kept online in storage provided by Google, where they are backed up, secure, and may be accessed and shared by multiple people. This approach not only protects the Club's records going forward, but it makes it possible to implement the checks and balances recently recommended by the Financial Review Committee.

Now the question is what to do about the large collection of paper records. The Financial Review Committee validated the Board's position that these records are a valuable asset of the Club. They give the history of the development of our dogs and provide the foundation of our stud book in AKC, and need to be preserved and protected. The Board would like to have the documents digitized and added to the online repository of documents that we are now building. A quote was solicited from a company that performs this kind of work (Image Processing Systems, Inc.). The collection of documents is large. There are about 125 binders with 100 dogs per binder and 5-10 documents per dog. The quote for digitizing this collection of documents was $31,750.00 for the first 62,500 documents and $0.50 per document above that.

The Board was not comfortable with spending this amount. In addition, there is a need for someone knowledgeable about the registry to determine what really needs to be digitized, to organize the digitized documents into our repository, and to reconcile with the pedigree database program and correct any discrepancies. None of this would (or could) be provided by an outside company. The MASCUSA Treasurer, Traci Philips, and Secretary, Patricia Davis, have been working with the registry records, processes, and pedigree database, and have the intimate knowledge necessary to properly do the work. The Board sought the advice of the Financial Review Committee on the legality, ethics, and proper procedures involved with t he Club paying two Officers of the club to perform such work.  The Committee confirmed that it would be legal, and could be done ethically, and has provided guidelines on the procedures to follow in securing a quote from them and monitoring the work. 

The Board proposes to pay Traci Philips and Patricia Davis the sum of $21,500, to be split as they see fit, to perform the work described above.  To put this in context, our current treasury balance is $65,953, and the balance has been increasing on a monthly basis. As MASCUSA is a member-driven Club, we are asking for feedback from the membership. Please respond to this survey so that we can determine if the majority of the membership will support this action. We may have another membership meeting on May 22, 2013, if needed, to discuss this issue and answer questions.  Thank you in advance!

Sincerely,

MASCUSA Board of Directors