Annual General Meeting Minutes

Third Annual General Meeting
FALLOW DEER RESERVE
Tuesday, February 16, 2010, 5:15pm, Kingston, Ontario

Present: Don Murphy, President, Jane McDonald, Treasurer, Allan Park, Head Deer Keeper, Lorraine Alderman, Aida Sulcs, Board Members
Regrets: Wendy Workman, Monique Cloutier

The meeting was called to order at 5:30pm. The Agenda for this meeting was approved as well as the minutes of the 2009 Annual General Meeting held in February 2009.

The President welcomed all present and gave a brief summary of the activities of this year. The 2009 hunting season brought with it no extraordinary incidents. He praised the work of the team this year especially Allan Park, head deerkeeper.

Copies of the financial statements for the period January 1, 2009 to December 31, 2009 were distributed to those present by the Treasurer, reviewed and accepted. Sales of antlers (to artists, especially Dandi Maestre) and fundraising activities netted more money than expected. Purchase of horse trailer and additional fencing materials made possible because of this increase in revenue. Increase in bank fees caused by having to purchase cheques. A Budget for 2010 was presented indicating anticipated new revenue of $4185(excluding surplus) and expenses of approx $4715.The financial statements and budget were reviewed. A motion was made by Aida Sulcs, seconded by Don Murphy that these reports be accepted and approved by unanimous vote.

All offices were declared vacant. The following were nominated to serve as officers in 2010:
President: Don Murphy, Secretary: Wendy Workman, Treasurer: Jane McDonald
The above nominations were approved by unanimous vote.

The Head Deer Keeper, Allan Park, thanked the board members (security, sign making, winter water heating) as well as Emerald Murphy and Bruce Burt for their time, hay donations and companionship. He reported the occurrences leading up to KoKo’s death. A post mortem examination done by the Animal Health Lab, University of Guelph (Kemptville) indicated a chronic abscess in his jaw that led to emaciation and his death. The veterinarian who did the exam estimated KoKo’s age to be 10 years, about 2 years older than we had believed. Allan shared some of his observations and memories of KoKo, one of the most recognizable and loved of our bucks. Dr. Brian Willows had inspected the herd on December 29, 2009 and found the remaining 10 bucks to be in excellent “awesome' condition. Communications had been received from people near Lake Simcoe who are caring for a wild escaped fallow deer buck and from a reporter in Waterford concerning 12 fallow deer bucks living on 17 acres, descendants of a herd there since 1949. Female deer had been killed by coyotes and the township wants to bring in new females to continue the herd. However, in the past this herd was regularly “culled”. We had expressed our concern about this and recommended an approach similar to that of the Fallow Deer Reserve, i.e. let the males live until death occurs naturally.

Future plans, considerations:


Veterinary care: Lorraine recommended testing the deer’s scat for the presence of worms/parasites before any chemical treatment is administered. It may not be necessary. All agreed this was the best approach.

Shelter/squeeze: A discussion took place about creating an additional paddock adding approximately ½ acre to the enclosure for the purpose of isolating an injured or unhealthy animal or the introduction of a new animal. The former stable of the barn can be considered for a squeeze in order to examine or test animals and would also provide the bucks with additional shelter.

Rescuing/introducing additional fallow deer bucks: A good discussion took place about the future, purpose of the Fallow Deer Reserve. It was generally agreed that introducing a new animal to the herd could be problematic and that each situation be considered carefully. Three conditions would need to be met before a new animal could be accepted.

1) the buck would need to pass all health tests in order to prevent introducing disease to our herd
2) the buck would need to be in a moveable state, i.e. having recently lost antlers or very small regrowth
3) the buck would need to 3 years of age or less so that his chances of being accepted into the herd would be good

The meeting was adjourned at 7:15pm.