The FIFe
German Rex Breed Council





At the FIFe General assembly of 2002 a proposal was made to institute a Breed Council system within FIFe. The proposal was accepted, and the first formulation of the 'Rules for Breed Councils' came in to being on the 1st January 2003.

A Breed Council (BC) is intended to allow breeders to have a more direct input into their main organisation than had been possible in the past. In FIFe, all breed matters were dealt with by fairly open discussion, but mainly amongst breeders within the national organisations, no matter which breed was concerned. Thus German Rex breeders worldwide did not have a full opportunity to discuss any proposal amongst themselves, but only heard about it if any information was circulated by the National members to the clubs.

In the past, most proposals to a FIFe GA affecting a particular breed usually stemmed from very localised groups of breeders getting a proposal accepted by one country's National member, with practically no input from elsewhere!

Of course, discussions can take place within breed clubs, but those tend to be oriented to a particular country, not least by the particular language associated with a club. An additional input to FIFe GA's also comes from the various Commissions where breed judges do have some say.

Now the German Rex Breed Council will be made up from experienced breeders in our breed only. Any breeder from any country can apply for membership so, perforce, the language for communication has to be English. The Rules for membership are quite strict, with the aim of ensuring that any proposals originated from a BC are carefully considered and not nationally biased. They also ensure that only breeders who are active in both breeding and showing can become members.

A BC can have any number of members, but only a BC with members from at least six countries can make proposals for changes to Standards etc. Proposals are submitted directly to the appropriate Commission, thus avoiding the previous system of getting them through local clubs, national members, and then the individual general meetings before a FIFe GA.

For the German Rex breed a Breed Council has been established that in mid-January 2004 has one member from one country. We are trying to get more members but there are no applications pending. Although one of the smaller breed groups, we are vigorous and very much want to have more breeders apply to join the BC.

As with many of the BC's, it was felt that to limit any form of participation in the BC to only the actual BC members would be self-defeating, therefore a Yahoo! discussion Group was started in December 2002 at web address http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BC-German-Rex/

The Yahoo! Group can be joined by anyone who has an interest in the FIFe Breed Council for German Rex, and currently has eight members. Together with the CRX/DRX/SPH BC's we are in the very first stages of discussing ideas for changes to the colour varieties common to all four breeds.

To facilitate discussion amongst FIFe breeders worldwide, most BC's have, like us,  established Internet discussion groups and websites. The Internet is the chosen form of communication for the BC's, as it is the only practical way to involve all breeders who want to participate.

There is the basic information at the FIFe page

http://www.fifeweb.org/en/wp/breeds/breeds_councils_en.html

and more information and links at the BC information pages

http://home.worldonline.dk/tamstudi/fife-bc  - the front page is a good summary.

Written for the GRX BC by Tony Batchelor 
http://www.snugglebugs.eu 

 


 

18.05.07
© by Tony Batchelor