THE LONG running saga of who should publish the official journal of the GCCF ground to a juddering halt last week at the latest GCCF Council meeting in London when delegates voted overwhelmingly in favour of OUR CATS retaining this status.
Termination
As previously reported over the past nine months, the GCCF Executive Committee had voted in July 2007 to remove the ‘official journal’ status from OUR CATS by terminating the contract that had been in place between the GCCF and Our Dogs Publishing since 1983.
This decision had been reached following alleged complaints that OUR CATS was not best serving the interests of the GCCF, which then led to the establishment of an ‘ad hoc’ Working Party to investigate the matter. The Working Party examined the company accounts relating to OUR CATS and concluded that in their view, OUR CATS was not financially viable. This view formed the basis of their recommendation to the Executive Committee that the agreement be terminated and that Seaview Publishing be awarded the contract to publish the new official journal in glossy format under the title of ‘Fancy That’.
OUR CATS were informed of this decision by letter, but refuted the allegations made. Since then, opinion within the Cat Fancy has been somewhat polarised, with many fanciers feeling that the decision had been taken undemocratically and ‘behind closed doors’. Over the course of the next few months, information and rumour were rife, but matters came to a head when delegates were informed at a Council meeting in October 2007 that not only had Seaview been offered a loan of £10,000 by the Executive, but that the Executive had not, in fact, signed the contract with Seaview to publish the journal.
Tenders
OUR CATS had been due to cease publication from January 2008, when Fancy That was to have taken over. However, due to the opposition from many of the cat club delegates, the Executive approached OUR CATS in December 2007 and asked them to carry on publishing until April 2008.
In the meantime, the GCCF would advertise within Fancy and trade publications for any interested parties to submit tenders to publish the official journal.
Following a further, inconclusive Council meeting in February this year, OUR CATS was asked to continue publishing for a further three months – i.e. until July 2008 – to allow the matter to be resolved once and for all at a specially-convened extra Council meeting in early April, where all interested parties would submit tenders, give presentations and answer questions as to how they would go about publishing the official journal.
Special Meeting
The special meeting took place at the usual venue of at the Friends Meeting House in London on Wednesday, April 9th. There were about 130 delegates in attendance, along with most of the Executive Committee.
The meeting commenced just after midday. The GCCF Chairman, Mr Gordon Butler had sent a statement to be read to the meeting in which he apologised for his absence and outlined his reasons for not attending. Vice Chairman Mr John Hansson took the chair and informed the meeting that representatives for two of the three parties tendering for the official journal – Mr Nick Mays for OUR CATS and Ms Anna Shafto for Fancy That were present, although the third party, Mr James Mansfield for Parkview Publishing, had been delayed en route and would arrive as soon as possible. Mr Hansson said that whilst one party gave their presentation, the other parties would leave the hall. When all presentations had been given, all parties would answer pre-submitted questions from the delegates and then answer any questions from the floor, although these should not be ‘loaded’ or directed to just one of the parties.
Presentations
After this process had been completed, a two-part vote would be taken, in which the party with the lowest number of votes would be ‘knocked out’ and then a further vote would be taken between the two highest scoring parties.
Nick Mays, the Editor of OUR CATS gave his presentation first, He was joined at the front table by Mr Robert Illingworth, Managing Director of Axis Cook Media Ltd, a company with an interest in buying the OUR CATS title from Our Dogs Publishing and continuing to publish it.
Ms Shafto spoke next, delivering her address with the aid of a Power Point presentation, outlining her vision for Fancy That. Mr Mansfield’s presentation was delayed until nearly 3pm, due to his late arrival, caused by train delays. Again, the presentation was given by PowerPoint.
In between the second and third presentations, other agenda items were discussed. This including items such as the ongoing question of the Supreme Show’s finances and a proposal for individuals standing for election to the Executive Committee at the June meeting to provide a 50 word statement of their policy regarding the future of Governing Council and in respect of their own aims and ambitions.
Open to Question
Once the presentations had been given individually, there was a much-needed refreshment break. Business continued some 20 minutes later when all representatives for the interested parties took their seats at the front of the hall and each answered the pre-submitted questions, which were put to them by Mr Hansson as Chairman. After this, questions were then taken from the floor.
Towards the end of this session, Mrs Carol Pike, delegate for the Seal and Blue Point Birman Cat Club attempted to put a question regarding legal action against the GCCF should one party’s tender be turned down. Mr Hansson tried to disallow the question, saying it was too loaded and directed at one of the parties, namely Ms Shafto who had allegedly threatened to sue the GCCF for breach of verbal contract to publish the official journal. Several other delegates backed Mrs Pike’s request to put the question. Mr Hansson tried to deflect this by saying that the matter had been dealt with at the previous Council meeting and was detailed in the minutes of that meeting. However, when the delegates made it very clear that they wished the question to be put, Mr Hansson had no choice but to allow it.
The question, as put, was ‘If any of the three applicants are not awarded the contract will any of them sue the GCCF, if so for what reason and for what amount?’ Mr Mays answered first saying: ‘Well, I might sulk a bit if we didn’t get the contract but no, we wouldn’t sue the GCCF.’ This prompted a great deal of laughter and applause from many of the delegates. Mr Mansfield also replied in a jocular fashion saying: ‘I wasn’t aware that I was able to sue the GCCF if I didn’t get the contract.’ He the confirmed that he would not attempt to sue should his tender prove unsuccessful.
Ms Shafto then answered, saying that it was a well-known fact that she was engaged in possible legal action in this regard and that she couldn’t comment any further due to this being of a legally sensitive nature.
Once the question and answer session was completed, Mr Hansson thanked the parties for their co-operation, after which all concerned shook hands and then left the hall whilst voting by ballot paper took place.
Voting
The voting was swiftly concluded and all parties were asked to come back into the hall and take their seats at the front again. Ms Jackie Beeson, GCCF Office Manager read out the result of the votes in a rather X-Factor fashion, ‘In no particular order’, which were cast as follows:
Seaview Publishing: 9
Parkview Publishing: 42
Our Cats: 81
OUR CATS were declared the outright winners, and it was deemed that no second vote was necessary. There were cheers and applause from a great number of the delegates. Messrs Mays, Cook, Mansfield and Ms Shafto all shook hands and then Mr Mays asked permission to address the meeting, which was graciously granted by the Chairman.
Mr Mays thanked all those present who had voted in favour of OUR CATS remaining publishers of the official journal of the GCCF and also thanked them for their support over the past few difficult months. He then added to those who had not voted in favour of OUR CATS that OUR CATS was their journal also, and that he would welcome any input they had for the publication’s future, and that, as Editor, his door was always open. He was warmly applauded.
Mr Mansfield also addressed the meeting and thanked the delegates for their support, congratulated OUR CATS and said; ‘These guys need your support; they need you to work with them and to promote your Fancy. It’s all up to you guys out there to make it all work.’
The meeting concluded at around 5.30pm. Many delegates and a number of Executive Officers shook hands with Mr Mays and Mr Illingworth as they left the hall. The question of who should publish the official journal had been answered; democracy had prevailed.
Turning Point
OUR CATS now faces the future with a new publisher, with new plans to improve the publication, and a ‘listening brief’ for all its readers. Perhaps history will record that Wednesday, April 9th 2008 was a turning point, not just for the official journal, but also for the UK Cat Fancy as a whole.
* The existing publishers of OUR CATS fully endorsed the format of this bid, and had written in advance to the GCCF confirming this fact.
A publisher’s statement appears in this issue.
