CFA Committee Reports

2019 CFA Committee Reports


CFA Convention Advisory Committee Report

 The Convention Advisory Committee assisted the President and Board of Trustees in the selection of the La Quinta Inn & Suites and the Big E Fair in West Springfield MA as the locations for the 2019 annual convention.  It will be held from September 25th through 27th. Gary Payne was appointed as Chair of the 2019 Convention.  Gary will be primarily assisted by Wayne McCary, Joe Barney and Bruce Hawley.
The Convention Advisory Committee also assisted the President and Board of Trustees in the selection of the Golden Nugget Casino in Las Vegas, NV as the location for the 2020 annual convention.  It will be held from September 14th through 16th and will be co-chaired by Beverly Abderrahman and Jan Biggerstaff with primary assistance from Alissa and Paiton Zilo.

Submitted by: Bruce Hawley, Chair; Beverly Abderrahman, Co-Chair Members: Pete Adams, Jan Biggerstaff (ex officio), Jim Fry, Clark Beurlen

Finance Committee

As you probably know, Pete Adams resigned from his role as chairman of the finance committee, an office he had held for fifteen years. He has earned a big
vote of thanks from you all!
I took over the job. Niles (Buddy) Calhoun, a current member of the Board of Trustees, and Larry Sayler have joined the committee. Buddy has years of experience with CFA and Larry adds his expertise from his role as professor at Greenville University in Business Management. I believe you know my credentials.  We three should work well together.
Cheryl Deptula will make some changes in the recording of moneys. Now dues will be recorded for the fiscal year they cover, not when they are received.  Consequently, the new dues that Cheryl receives this month will be recorded as next month. Because of this, you can expect to see a big deficit in the 4th quarter which ends on 4/30/19.
With guidance from Pete, we have prepared a budget for 2019-20. This budget is a bit tighter than last year’s, but it optimistically keeps CFA in the black. It is truly hard to predict our income when it is based on dues and donations. We need more members and generous donations!

Submitted by:  Maxine House, Chair

Historian Report

   I apologize to the CFA for the bad job I have done as historian in the last year. I’m hoping to make a contribution in 2019.

Submitted by:  Fred Pfening, Chair

Report on the Edith Johnston Memorial Trust Fund

 Coming Soon

Report of the Constitution and Bylaws Committee

Except for routine questions, no CFA business came to the Constitutions and Bylaws Committee this year.

                                                        Submitted by Clark Beurlen, Chairman

Report on the Jurisprudence Committee

      There has been no activity by the CFA Jurisprudence Committee during 2018/2019.

                                           Submitted by:  Herbert B. Ueckert, Chairman

Report on Circus 4 Youth Committee

 I am still very active in promoting circus to the younger generation.  But there really is no longer a Circus4Youth committee to be chair of.   The committee members all kind of phased away.  The C4Y momentum has shifted dramatically to Facebook.  I do have a few youth circus directors and trainers that send me stuff every now and then, some are CFA members, some are not.  I try to  put postings on the C4Y page almost daily, and they seems to get good response from the kids, their parents and their trainers.
We need to understand that today’s younger generation is not “organizationally motivated”   There seems to be very little interest in joining the CFA  among them.  They do however take great pride in their circus skills, both pro and youth circus, and love to share it on Social media.
I have offered many times that my youth circus photo albums be shared on the CFA Facebook page (takes about 2 minutes to do so), but It rarely if ever gets done.   The kids don’t want to wait 3 – 4 months to see a few photos of their circus in the White Tops.  They want them almost instantly on Facebook!  They go right to the C4Y Facebook page and they know that they are always welcomed to copy, share and tag any of my photos.
You can however be totally assured that promoting circus to the younger generation is my life’s passion and I have had great success with it!

                                                     Submitted, Jim Cole, Circus4Youth Chairman

Report on the Animal Welfare Committee 

           Once again, the Animal Welfare Committee has been operating at maximum speed during the legislative season, both in 2018 and now in 2019.  Last year on the Federal level we were watching and fighting the Big Cat Public Safety Act, a deceptively named attempt by animal rights groups to eliminate all big cat ownership, including the ability to travel with them.  Of course, it has come back for the 2019 legislative season, with the new bill number HR 1380.  Last year we relied on the Republican majority in the House of Representatives to let the bill die in committee, but this year with the new Democrat majority in the House and their tendency align themselves with animal rights extremists we will not be so lucky.  It is currently in the Subcommittee on Water, Oceans, and Wildlife and they have already held a hearing on the matter.  We remain hopeful that the Senate will be a backstop, but you never know what will happen in the name of bipartisanship and negotiations.  We must remain vigilant, and so must the rest of the CFA members.
2018 also saw a number of legislative battles on the state level.  In New Jersey, “Nosey’s Law” was passed, banning ‘wild’ animals including elephants in all traveling shows and exhibitions in the state.  This law had particular negative consequences for animal outreach programs (library shows, educational part encounters, fairground exhibits, etc) which were lumped into the broadly written language and therefore banned as well.  One might call this an “unintended consequence” but we all know that with the animal rights lobby, this was their full intention.  This bad legislation was the inspiration and model for the current bill we are fighting in California, SB 313, which is billed as an anti-circus bill but is broadly written to encompass much more.  There is hope that with amendments it will restrict the bill’s focus to just circus and not animal outreach and fairgrounds activities, but that is not a win for us and is only feeding the crocodile hoping he’ll eat you last.
In Missouri, CFA took the bold step to support the Working Animal Protection Act or WAPA.  Championed by The Cavalry Group and its founder Mindy Patterson, WAPA is a bill that protects the ability for legal animal enterprises to operate without arbitrary governmental attacks.  It is a move for the offense in the war against animal rights extremism.  We are hopeful that this bill will continue to progress in Missouri and catch on in other states.
There have been MANY other legislative battles fought over the last year, even on the local level.  For example, we fought another attempt at a performing animal ban in Kingman, Arizona.  It is legislative whack-a-mole and NONE of our efforts are possible without the essential legislative tracking services provided by Mary Lou Kelly Consulting.  In the days when we fought alongside Feld Entertainment in these battles, Feld contracted with legislative tracking services and shared those reports and alerts with CFA so we could mobilize our troops. The jumbo-size void left by Feld meant that we had to find a way to continue on.  You lose 100% of the fights you don’t even know are happening.  Thankfully, Mary Lou Kelly was able to form a coalition to continue on her consulting with CFA at a severely discounted cost.  Due to her reports, we find out when pertinent legislation is filed and watch it so we can rally the troops should it come to a hearing, vote, etc.  The National Circus Preservation Society has seen fit to fund CFA’s portion of these efforts so that your Animal Welfare Committee knows where to fight.  2019 brings fresh challenges, as Mary Lou has transitioned into a new, full-time job and will no longer be able to continue these services.  As of the writing of this report, we are hopeful that CFA will be able to extend the agreement for services with Mary Lou’s replacement, thereby enabling the CFA AWC to keep fighting anything that fights circus.

                                  Submitted by Sarah Conley, Chairman

Previous years’ committee reports can be found here:  http://new.circusfans.org/cfa-committee-report-archive/