Rare Breeds Pigeon Club

ARTICLE I- Name

The name of this organization shall be THE RARE BREEDS PIGEON CLUB.

ARTICLE II - Purpose

To establish and maintain a national organization through which pigeon breeders may work together to stimulate interest for the development and promotion of the rare breeds of pigeons by all feasible means.

ARTICLE III - Membership

Anyone who breeds, or is interested in, rare breeds of pigeons is eligible for membership in this organization.

To establish and maintain a national organization through which pigeon breeders may work together to stimulate interest for the development and promotion of the rare breeds of pigeons by all feasible means.

ARTICLE III - Membership

Anyone who breeds, or is interested in, rare breeds of pigeons is eligible for membership in this organization.

ARTICLE IV-Dues

The annual dues shall be $15.00 for a single (1) member or a family residing in the USA. For Canada, Mexico and Overseas the dues are $20.00 per member or family. For the annual dues fee you receive four quarterly bulletins. Dues are payable on admission to membership and upon the first of January thereafter. New members joining will get a letter from the secretary notifying them when dues are due to get that new member in line with the standard membership of January to December.

ARTICLE V- Officers

The elective officers shall consist of the President, Secretary-Treasurer-Bulletin Editor and Area Vice Presidents. Nomination and election of officers shall be by ballot vote of the membership. Term of office shall be two (2) years. Election years are the even years - 1996,1998, etc. Elected officers shall take office at the first of the year following election. Minimum age for elected officials shall be 21 years. The Area Vice Presidents shall be nominated and elected by their district members only.

BY-LAWS OF THE RARE BREEDS PIGEON CLUB

ARTICLE I - Duties of Officers

PRESIDENT - The President shall exercise general supervision and leadership that will promote the aims and objectives of the organization. He/she shall preside at all meetings of the club and the Executive Committee. He/she shall, with the help and advice of the Secretary-Treasurer, make appointments to the office of Publicity Director, Election Commissioner, and provide for an Official Standards Committee. The President shall write a President's report for the Bulletin.

VICE-PRESIDENT - The Vice President from shall act as an aide to the President, and in the absence of the President, shall perform all the duties of the latter office. District Directors shall be leaders in RBPC affairs, representing their areas at Executive Committee meetings. They shall attempt to secure new members, keep in contact with regular members and urge delinquent members back into the club. They shall be responsible for any club meets in their area.

SECRETARY-TREASURER & BULLETIN EDITOR -1) The Secretary-Treasurer shall serve as general business manager of the organization. He/she shall keep all records of the club, handle all club moneys, and shall furnish in writing, at the annual meeting of Executive Committee, a complete financial statement of the club. The Secretary-Treasurer shall be exempt from all dues and assessments. 2) The Bulletin Editor will have the responsibility of assembling all news and pertinent information for the club bulletin. He/she reserves the right to solicit, edit, reject, and rewrite copy sent him/her. He/she shall issue a bulletin on a quarterly basis. The bulletin shall be mailed to all members of the club with the purpose of bringing into friendly contact all those who love, breed, and show and competition fly rare pigeons. The Bulletin Editor will gather and publish information in regard to the fancy of rare breeds.

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE - The Executive Committee shall consist of all the elective officers and the immediate past-president. If possible, they shall meet annually. It shall be their duty to carry out the objects and purposes of the club, and to this end, may exercise all the powers of the club, subject to the By-Laws.

PUBLICITY DIRECTOR - The Publicity Director shall write monthly publicity for the club and submit it to any pigeon media he/she deems advisable.

ELECTION COMMISSIONER - Upon his/her appointment, he/she will be the only person that election ballots of any kind may be sent to. He/she shall tally these ballots and report in writing to the Secretary the results within 15 days after the closing of any election or referendum balloting. He/she shall keep the official ballots for one year. Any and all questions concerning ballots or results shall be directed to him/her. No officer or committee or individual member may take possession of said ballots, them being his/her sole responsibility. He/she being a person of integrity and honor, is appointed to this position of trust.

EX-OFFICIAL - The last past-president automatically fills this office. His/her duties are of an advisory tenure to all officers of the club. The President may give him special assignments where his/her experience will be of use to the club.

OFFICIAL STANDARD COMMITTEE - A committee of no less than 3 persons nor more than 5 persons shall be appointed by the officers as outlined in Duties of Officers under President of Article I of the By-Laws. This committee is to submit to the Bulletin Editor copies of Official Standards when the said committee had come to a full agreement on any standard or group of standards that they deem advisable to accept. Once they have agreed, that standard shall be the only recognized standard for judging in official RBPC meets. The Official Standards shall be counter-signed by all members of the committee prior to publication in the club bulletin. All their finished work will always carry the following leading: Official Standard of the Rare Breeds Pigeon Club for (variety) and the date. Any standard appearing without this heading is not official and is just a standard or a translation provided to us as a general suggested guide or as an adjunct to an Article as submitted by an author in an article.

ARTICLE II - Districts and Area Vice-Presidents

Districts (Areas) - The United States, its island possessions and Canada, shall be divided into Districts and shall consist of the following:

Western Canada - Alberta, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and British Columbia (All Western Provinces)

Eastern Canada - Ontario, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Newfoundland, Quebec (All Eastern Provinces)

Northwestern- Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Alaska

Southwestern- California, Utah, Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, Hawaii, Nevada

South-central- Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Arkansas, Missouri, Louisiana, Mississippi

Southeastern- Alabama, Georgia, Florida, S. Carolina, N. Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky

Northeastern- Virginia, West Virginia, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Maryland, New York, Vermont, Maine, New

Hampshire, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Delaware

North Central - North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa,

Michigan.

AREA VICE-PRESIDENTS - They shall be leaders in RBPC affairs, representing their area at Executive Committee meetings, They shall attempt to secure new members, keep in contact with regular members and urge delinquent members back into the club. They shall be responsible for any club meets in their area.

ARTICLE III - Rules of Order

The rules contained in "Robert's Rules of Order, Revised", shall govern the club in all cases to which they are applicable, and in which they are not inconsistent with the By-Laws of the club.

DUTIES OF THE STATE DIRECTORS AND AREA VICE-PRESIDENTS

1. Keep in contact with those RBPC members in their own State or Area (visits, letters, calls).

2. Recruit new members.

3. Plan to hold an official meet at least once each year in their state and be present to run the meet. Choose judges, obtain trophies as appropriate and award them. More than one meet may be held in each state or area.

CRITERIA FOR LISTING AS A RARE BREED

All breeds not currently sponsored by an active and well-established specialty club not devoted to a single breed or a strictly related group of breeds shall be listed. Exceptions are those breeds whose sponsoring specialty clubs have disbanded for reasons other than the evident and acknowledged scarcity or unpopularity of the breeds in question and those breeds whose sponsoring clubs are inactive or otherwise poorly organized while the breeds themselves remain popular and quite common. With regard to the exceptions stated herein, a survey of the breeders and the numbers of the breeds in question shall be alternate criterion for the listing or deletion of the breeds. Breeds of dubious scarcity shall be determined eligible for listing through mutual agreement between the specialty club and group of breeders in question and the RBPC. Said breeds may be entered at meets upon eligibility for listing. No breeds of merely local or regional scarcity shall be listed.

REMOVAL OF BREEDS FROM THE RBPC LIST *approved 2002

Removal of a breed from the RBPC list means that the RBPC will no longer provide any support for the breed in the show hall. Because of this, we recommend that the members of the new club be made aware of the three options for affiliated clubs and of the consequences of removal. Let the voices of those who may not have the opportunity to show with the new club be heard. After the needs of all those who raise and show the breed are considered, the RBPC expects to be informed in writing if the members have decided to continue co-sponsoring the breed with the RBPC or if the members feel that removal is a realistic option. The RBPC will respect the consensus reached by the breeders and act accordingly.

AFFILIATED CLUBS. *approved 2002

The RBPC provides a support system for the sponsorship of rare breeds. The RBPC expects that new clubs will form to sponsor breeds already sponsored by the RBPC. This is viewed as progress. The RBPC asks such new clubs to inform the RBPC and the NPA of their existence. At that time we recommend that all RBPC members who raise that breed join the new club. We ask the new club to affiliate with the NPA. this is important since new clubs can only apply for sponsorship of a breed at the Grand National after they have been affiliated with the NPA for two years. Prior to the new club meeting this NPA requirement, the RBPC will co-sponsor the breed with the new club at the NPA National.

During this two year period the new club has three options for managing the bred at shows: (I) It can hold it's own meets, under their own rules where it has enough members to do so. (2) It can hold joint meets with the RBPC where support is needed from the RBPC. (3) It can depend on the RBPC to hold meets fro the breed where the new club does not have sufficient numbers to put on it's own meet. At the end of the NPA's two year period, the RBPC expects that the new club will know whether they still need to co-sponsor the breed with the RBPC or will seek to discontinue the relationship.

REVISION OF THE RARE BREEDS LIST

The RBPC Official Rare Breeds list and index shall be revised yearly by committee consisting of RBPC members who have wide knowledge of breeds and varieties and access to all available records pertaining to precise information of the breeds and varieties in question to the survey and census. A survey and census of (1) specialty clubs, (2) individual breeders, (3) actual numbers of rare breeds, insofar as may be obtained, shall provide the necessary criteria for determination of eligibility for listing.

BOOKS CONTAINING RARE BREEDS STANDARDS

Standards for rare breeds are difficult to obtain; perhaps no one book, as yet, is complete in detail with all the standards of just the rare breeds that our club promotes. Consequently, one must obtain several publications from various sources in order to have at their fingertips those standards that they desire. Below are several books that contain rare breed standards along with the more common varieties. Several of these may be useful as a general guide, although most do not contain official standards. There are some very good German Standard books, but these must be translated.

· The Book of the Pigeon and Wild Foreign Doves, Naether, a 260-page book on rare breeds.

· Encyclopedia of Pigeon Breeds, Levi, 800 pages with and color pictures.

· International Pigeon Standard, Twomby, standards for 98 breeds, many on rare breeds

· The Empire Short Face Tumbler Club Handbook, drawings and standards of rare short face breeds.

· Pigeons of Today, Watmough, a British publication, 200 pages, contains about IS rare standards.

· Fancy Pigeons Book of Standards, a British publication of 180 pages containing about 50 rare pigeon standards.

NPA Book of Standards.

HANDBUCHDER TA UBENRASSEN, die taubenrassen der Welt, Schutte, Stach and Walters. 718 pages in color and black and white. Excellent book for rare breeds enthusiast.