Meeting of Council Wednesday, 20th June 2018
Conway Hall, Holborn, London at 2 noon

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ANNOUNCEMENT FOR THE JUNE 2018 ELECTIONS 

You no longer have to be a delegate to stand for GCCF’s three Disciplinary Committees (Appeals, Disciplinary and Investigations).

For those interested there are just two criteria:

1.    You must be bound by GCCF rules (be a GCCF owner, breeder and/or exhibitor).

2.    Have some qualifications and experience in GCCF and/or your everyday life that make you suitable

Your signature will be on a registration, transfer and/or show entry to prove the first, so make sure you supply your name and address for a computer check. (You can give your address separately if you do not wish it to be printed).

For the second, read the role descriptions that follow this announcement carefully and make an application. You will also find it useful to look at page 8 in the GCCF Byelaws where the Committees are defined.

Elections for two members for The Investigations and Disciplinary Committees will take place at the June Electoral Meeting of Council. (Elections for the Appeals Committee will be held at the October Meeting.)

If you are interested in joining either of these, you should write an application statement, using no more than one side of A4 paper, which describes how you fulfil the qualities required for the role.  The two members standing down, and those who are currently IC or DC reserves, are eligible to stand.

You may apply for more than one, but please put them in order of preference, as you can only be on one of these committees.

If you are/have been on one the committees don’t forget to include this. However, experience from your other hobbies, or from qualifications and employment may be relevant, so let delegates know about this. You do not have to be a lawyer, we simply seek the right people, who are passionate about maintaining fairness and justice in GCCF.

Send in your application to the GCCF Office by 30 April. You can do this by email or post. All applications received will be published with the Council agenda, so be aware that information you give will be in the public domain.

Good Luck!  

Committee Member Role Descriptions

DISCIPLINARY COMMITTEE

The Disciplinary Committee is scheduled to meet four times a year, usually midweek in central London.

Documents are circulated prior to the meeting and need to be analysed and the relevant information extracted to avoid being side-tracked at the Disciplinary Hearing.

Disciplinary Committee members must have a totally unbiased approach to a case and ignore any irrelevant information acquired either prior to or during a hearing. They must maintain impartiality throughout and remember there can be no public discussion of the case, or those concerned in it, in advance of the hearing.  

Disciplinary Committee members must recuse themselves from any case that they have any direct or indirect association with, or with which they may be perceived as having an interest.

A Committee member must be able to interview a witness, to put them at ease, and be prepared to assess live evidence.

If a case is proven, decision must be made on appropriate action.

Discussions in Disciplinary hearings must be treated with total confidentiality and discretion at all times.

Qualities required:

discretion, analytical powers, judgement, the ability to work within a quasi-judicial setting.

INVESTIGATION COMMITTEE

The purpose of the Investigation Committee is to examine complaints from any source relating to GCCF activity, and to decide whether there is a prima facie case to answer or not. If the answer is ‘no case’ the complainant is informed accordingly; if the answer is ‘yes’, a case may be prepared for presentation to the Disciplinary Committee, or a fixed penalty applied. 

A member of the Investigation Committee is required to:

1.    Attend all meetings of the Investigation Committee and, in addition, be prepared to attend Disciplinary Committee Meetings when required.

2.    Respond by email to requests relating to Casework, whether cases likely to be heard by the Disciplinary Committee, or dealt with by Fixed Penalty.  Such requests are normally accompanied by complaints and witness statements; these must be read and assessed by each Committee member.

3.    Prepare for meetings by reading many hundreds of pages of information from all parties prior to taking the papers to the meetings. There is not sufficient time to read the papers at the meetings themselves.

4.    Have the ability to ‘sift’ through the information supplied, extracting the relevant facts in a fair and unbiased way, to ensure that a just conclusion is reached. Cases rarely hinge on one fact, right or wrong, but usually a number of different facts need to be taken into account, both for and against.

5.    Be aware of the need for absolute discretion at all times; all of the material involved is confidential and may not be discussed outside the committee.

6.    Have a good working knowledge of the GCCF Byelaws, GCCF Rules and the BAC Constitution and Rules.

7.    Be able to assist the Committee Secretary when required, usually by email, telephone, or fax. 

Qualities required:

ability to read and assess large quantities of written information, discretion, analytical powers, and impartial judgement.

(If anyone requires further information, or has questions, please contact the GCCF Office)

NB     A person can serve on only one of the three disciplinary committees.      

If elected to the GCCF Board of Directors you cannot serve on the Disciplinary or Appeals Committee and there will be only two Board members on the Investigation Committee. (If more than two Board members stand it will be the two who poll the highest number of votes.) 

All members of the Disciplinary Committees will be required to sign a Code of Conduct in accordance with Byelaw 11(11). Please read this in advance and do not stand for election if you would not wish to sign to accept the Declaration of Office. 

 CODE OF CONDUCT