American Racing Pigeon Union | Homing Pigeons

BOARD POLICIES, PROCEDURES, & RULES

of the

AMERICAN RACING PIGEON UNION, INC.

Policy Title: AU Speakers’ Bureau

Policy Number: AU910

Effective Date: 12-5-2001

Last Revision: 11-28-2006

Introduction:

This policy letter establishes the AU Speakers' Bureau program.

The AU recognizes that certain individuals have mastered particular aspects of our hobby or have gained specialized knowledge that could have a significant impact on the level of competition for the average member.

The AU Speakers' Bureau serves AU-affiliated organizations as an official forum by which qualified volunteer members can impart information in their respective fields to other members of our sport and hobby. This program is a contributory program, i.e., it is a cost-sharing program in which the club/combine or host organization pays a share and the AU contributes an equal share of the cost. (This is usually on a 50/50 basis; however, under certain circumstances, the AU may provide a larger portion of the cost share.) Clubs or other organizations not affiliated with the AU will not normally be authorized to participate in this program and will not be reimbursed.

910.01 Speaker’s Bureau Committee & Authority to Approve Speakers

1. Authority to approve or disapprove a speaker ultimately rests with the Chairman of the Speaker’s Bureau Committee, who shall review the qualifications of each speaker or speaker candidate and with the advice and consent of the AU Executive Committee shall approve and/or remove any person from the Speaker’s Bureau registry list.

2. The Chairman of the AU Speakers' Bureau will maintain and distribute to each member of the Board of Directors a current list/registry of all qualified speakers. He shall be the final authority to authorize reimbursement for related expenses for any speaker’s fulfilled services as specified in 910.04 herein.

3. The Chairman will provide a written report on the status and activity of the AU Speakers' Bureau at each face-to-face meeting of the Board of Directors to include an annual estimate of the cost of the program for our membership.

4. The Chairman may do whatever survey, research and/or marketing studies he/she deems appropriate to determine the effectiveness of the current program or to ascertain if the program could be improved to better serve the needs of our membership.

910.02 Review of Speakers & Qualifying Speakers’ Subject Matter

1. The Chairman of the Speaker’s Bureau Committee will solicit volunteers for the AU Speakers' Bureau and interview each volunteer applicant to establish that the candidate in fact possesses extraordinary knowledge or a higher level of expertise in his/her given topic/subject, and recommend approval or disapproval of said candidate.

2. The AU Speakers' Bureau Chairman is encouraged to investigate volunteers to a high degree. He/she must be fully satisfied that the candidate has the ability to communicate ideas clearly, can make a presentation before large groups and answer direct questions from the audience. These qualifications are in addition to the need to ensure that their area of expertise meets the needs of AU members for propriety of content, level of expertise, length of delivery and suitability to conform to the AU’s programs.

3. The Chairman will notify the President, the Executive Director and the concerned speaker in the event he/she is removed from the list for any reason. The Chairman should include a letter of explanation and provide an informational copy to the speaker so removed.

910.03 Speaker’s Standards and Conduct

1. Speakers are expected to provide information freely and without reservation to any attendee at any lecture/seminar—no “secrets” will be harbored or withheld. Volunteers must also be made to understand that they are not allowed to charge for the lecture nor for providing any specialized knowledge they may have during that portion of their schedule for which the AU is reimbursing them.

2. The AU Board of Directors fully recognizes the volunteer nature of service as an AU Speaker; however, given such broad public exposure to our members, speakers are expected to represent and maintain the highest standards in their presentations and in their conduct. Their level of integrity, veracity and levels of conduct are expected to be exemplary. Speakers who do not maintain the highest standards or whose conduct brings into question their probity, motives, integrity or veracity can be removed from the registry list permanently, and they may not be reimbursed.

3. Political campaigning, or political activity of any kind, during an AU-sponsored event, is strictly prohibited.

4. The speaker is “on the AU’s nickel” at one of these functions. Conduct of business activities, whether related directly or indirectly to the nature of the seminar or lecture topic are not allowed. (Some examples of such restricted, fee-generating, business activity is: arranging sales of birds, shipments of futurity entries, “eyesign” judging in individual or group lofts, or bird “grading” for a fee, in any setting. This list is provided as an example only and is not all-inclusive!). Any such discovery of activity of this type will result in no reimbursement being made for services.

5. The AU Speakers' Bureau supports all of its affiliated clubs no matter how big or small. Contrary to AU policy, in the past, some speakers did not want to travel to some of our smaller affiliated organizations. While the AU recognizes the volunteer status of its speakers and their right to refuse to go to a particular club, doing so may result in their not being reimbursed for future seminars or outright removal from the AU Speakers' Bureau registry.

910.04 Reimbursement of Speaker’s Expenses

1. The national office shall coordinate reimbursement of speakers and/or clubs with the Chairman of the AU Speakers' Bureau—reimbursement is not authorized without the express approval of the Chairman. In order to facilitate appropriate reimbursement arrangements, please contact the national office prior to the event. Should a club contact the speaker first, speaker should direct the club to contact the national office prior to making any commitments. Only the national office may authorize reimbursement for any speaking events.

2. Detailed receipts showing the place, date and amount of any expense must be sent to the AU National Office for reimbursement. These may be sent by fax, e-mail or direct mail to:

American Racing Pigeon Union, Inc.

Attn: Karen Clifton, Executive Director

P.O. Box 18465

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, 73154-0465

Phone: (405) 858-5801/fax (405) 858-5888

Or you may e-mail: augrow@aol.com

3. Normally, speakers will be reimbursed for one half (up to $400.00 -Four hundred dollars) of their travel expenses to and from the announced hall/location where said seminar/lecture is scheduled to take place. Reimbursement, in whole or in part, for travel expenses to other locations will not be authorized.

4. Speakers will be reimbursed for meals on the day of the event not to exceed $25.00 (twenty-five dollars).

5. Incidental or direct expense items such as tips, rental cars and/or other ground transportation will NOT be reimbursed unless requested and approved IN ADVANCE by the AU President or Executive Director prior to the scheduled event.

910.05 Organizations Reimbursement for Speaker’s Expenses

1. AU affiliated organizations are encouraged to use the AU Speakers' Bureau lecturers. These volunteers have expertise covering every aspect of the racing pigeon hobby: feeding, management systems, legal affairs, club organization, widowhood systems, eyesign expertise, loft maintenance and construction, liberation advice and expertise, Internet use for liberations, survey expertise—every pigeon related conceivable subject.

2. The AU Speakers' Bureau is a “cost-share” program meaning the AU will pay up to 50%, up to $400 for a Speakers Bureau guest lecturer (as outline in 910.04 above). The club is expected to pay the rest of the cost for the guest.

3. The AU Speakers' Bureau is a member benefit program, meaning that neither clubs nor individuals are to profit from this program. Members will NOT BE CHARGED ADMISSION to a lecture or seminar paid for in part by the AU. Some smaller organizations are forced to charge a registration fee or conduct an auction or raffle, in order to generate enough funds to offset their costs. The AU is not opposed to these efforts as long as any profit (that is ALL profit) goes to offset the cost of the affair—and not into the organization’s treasury. Non-participation in these funds generating affairs should not disqualify a dues-paid AU member from attending that portion of the lecture paid for in part by the AU.

4. In clubs with mixed AU and IF memberships, the IF members will be required to pay their proportional amount of speaker expenses before the AU will authorize reimbursement to the organization.

5. The AU President may authorize reimbursement of a greater portion of a lecture/seminar speaker under special circumstances on a case-by-case basis. Smaller AU-affiliated clubs can apply directly to the AU Speakers' Bureau prior to requesting and scheduling a speaker, for exemption of a portion of their cost share.

910.06 Procedures for Requesting an AU Speakers' Bureau Member

1. Any AU-affiliated organization wanting to participate in the AU Speakers' Bureau program can do so by calling the AU national office during their normal business hours. The office will provide a list of volunteers on the registry and will help the club make initial contact with a selected speaker. If a club has a particular speaker in mind, they shall contact the national office to assist with all arrangements.

2. Clubs should not make prior agreements with speakers without talking to the national office staff or the Chairman of the AU Speakers' Bureau first—reimbursement may not be authorized in these cases. THE CLUB MUST CONTACT THE AU NATIONAL OFFICE PRIOR TO SCHEDULING A SPEAKER OR IT WILL NOT BE REIMBURSED.

910.07 Organization Support and Audience Presentation Feedback

1. In order to gauge the effectiveness and applicability of the subject matter of the AU Speakers Bureau presentations, the chairman of the local committee organizing the event will be provided feedback surveys to be filled out by the audience. These feedback surveys must be returned to the national office staff at the address indicated in 910.04 above before reimbursement will be made.

2. Each organization is encouraged to provide the speaker with input, comments and/or any suggestions that they feel may be constructive and enhance these presentations. We also encourage the organization to send direct feedback to the national office in the hopes that this will further improve this program for our members.