GroomTeam USA General Meeting FITS October 16, 2025 7:24 pm
Live and via Zoom
Quorum determined as there were 3 of the 5 board members present (Tammy S, Shannon T, Diane B.)
Tammy S read the minutes from the Groom Expo general meeting.
Shannon T motioned to accept
Diane B seconded
Discussed needing to have the website redone and that the store is now open.
The Quarterly top ten mandatory meeting is Nov. 13th at 6:30 EST.
A docusign will be sent out to new point holders.
Judges Committee. What they will be looking at and planning for future.
We want to not only support Open level competitors but all, entry and intermediate as well.
The next General meeting will be at Groom’d in March 2026 and we will have a booth there.
Looking for raffle ideas.
The new T’shirts designed by Lindsey should be available for presale on November 1, 2025.
We have a new crewneck hoodie for sale in the booth.
The Treasure’s report was read.
We need sponsors to help cover next year’s travel team expenses.
Jacob R. stated he was happy about the formation of the Judge’s Committee.
Meeting adjourned at 7:45pm EST
Groom Expo General Meeting
September 4, 2025
The meeting was called to order at 7:42 Tammy read the minutes from SUPER ZOO and All American. Shannon motioned to approve the minutes from both shows and Diane 2nd. Reminder that we are only counting 14 shows for 2024 and 2025. Another reminder that next year starts the rule that judges are only allowed to judge three classes per year.
Next year we are also updating the conflict of interest policy. It will be reworded and will be in effect for 2026. We received a grievance asking if a competitor is allowed to go under a judge that is on the same team or work for the same company and the answer is there is no conflict, as long as there is no money exchanged between them.
The board of directors has been meeting with show promoters to be transparent about new sanctioning policies that could possibly take effect in the 28-29 cycle which would be new judges rules and the standardizing of lower levels.
The new t-shirts that we are creating with taglines are done and will hopefully be on our website by November 1st for pre-sale orders. If you’re at a show you place and would like to share something on social media about that please tag GroomTeam USA.
We have been meeting with the top 10 quarterly and our next quarterly meeting is mandatory and will be November 13th at 6:30 Eastern Time.
We have our judges committee. They will be meeting and coming up with qualifications and criteria for judges. As a part of our sanctioning policy show promoters will only be allowed to hire judges that are qualified and/or fit the qualifications. There will be an education program for judges. Judges will either be sanctioned or certified. We haven’t decided what we’re going to call it.
Some judges have reached out to us regarding after class critiques that they are being is respected and we just want to remind everyone that when getting a critique be professional and polite thank them even if you do not agree with the critique.
We just found out that worlds will be in Belgium during Groomania September 17th through the 20th 2026. Sunday the 20th is the date of the World Championships. We opened the floor for questions or comments. Colin Taylor asked if he could speak. He reminded everyone how lucky the USA is to be a part of Groom Team USA. Most countries do not have an organization to help fund and support them.
Another question was asked that if a competitor qualifies for two classes for the travel team do they get to choose and pick which class they want first. The answer is yes they get to choose. Tammy also mentioned that in the past we have also had to do what’s in the best interest of the team.
The meeting was adjourned at 8:30pm
August 21, 2025
The meeting was called to order at 6:01pm
Introduction of Board members Tammy Siert, Loren Mesquita via Zoom Shannon Tupes, Diane Betelak.
Judy Breton Domestic Show Representative.
Grievance Liaison for the weekend is Joey Villani.
SuperZoo General Meeting
August 12, 2025
Tammy read the minutes from Groom’d Tammy motioned to approve the minutes and Diane 2nd. A reminder that we will only be counting 14 of the 16 competitors best shows for 2025
Next year the rule starts that judges are only allowed to judge three classes per year, there is a spread sheet of judges available on our website.
Loren gave us a social media update. We grew 5000 followers on FB 2000 on Instagram. Our goal is to reach more of our community and future sponsors. Sommer mentioned talking to Pet Store Direct and SoPosh for Sponsorships.
Tammy read the treasures report as of July 31st checking is 11,171.80, savings $80,045.89 our Vanguard account is $182,499.60 our grand total on all accounts is $273,717.29.
We had an unexpected expense this year. Our website crashed and we had to have it redone. Anjie Coates of Coates Design redid it and did a great job please visit our website for updated rankings and show info.
We have been having quarterly team meetings for the Top Ten. The Top Ten will receive and new point holders will receive a Congratulations letter and a docusign with our policies to sign.
Lindsey Dicken created new shirts for each of the 4 classes. We need taglines for them.
We are creating a committee to work on judges’ criteria and a judges education program. If anyone is interested in being a part of this committee please reach out to us.
The next two years we will also be working on new sanctioning policies for 28-29. Standardization of lower levels, Climate controlled facility for holding area. Require three levels at all shows.
Judges have reached out concerned about competitors being rude and unprofessional after critiques.
Our next general meeting will be at Hershey 7:30 p.m. immediately following the competitor meeting. We will have a booth and auction at the end of the show looking for help at the auction. Reminder to the top 10 that they need four hours of volunteer hours this is a great way for you to complete your hours. Our last show of the year will be fun in the sun. We will have a general meeting as well as Booth and auction at the close of the show. This is your last opportunity to receive volunteer hours.
Opened the floor for questions or comments.
We heard that people are boycotting shows because they are mad at GroomTeam. If there are issues people aren’t bringing to our attention, we don’t know about them and can’t help fix the issue. We received a grievance after SUPERZOO about competitors competing under judges that are a part of the same company. That does not break any rules in our conflict of interest policy. Competitors need to trust the ethics of judges and if you can’t then you shouldn’t go under them.
A question was asked about a way for GT to keep track of placements for competitors, we talked about that as an option and we would have to look into a program that would do that and work with show promoters to enter all placements and charge show promoters a fee which they would most likely add to entry fees. Sommer suggested posting all the level wins as a way to track. We talked about the difference between novice classes and some shows not having an intermediate class. We talked about the 3, 6 rules and moving up and out of a level that is confusing for some new competitors, we will be making the rules easier for everyone to follow, not just open level. We don’t want to lose competitors, we want it to be easy for everyone.
Joey talked about competitors knowing the difference between a GT issue and a Show Promoter issue and that GT can’t police everything. We talked a little about taglines for new shirts and adjourned the meeting at 7:50.
The meeting was called to order at 6:01pm
Introduction of Board members Tammy Siert, Loren Mesquita, Shannon Tupes, Via Zoom Diane Betelak and Judy Breton Domestic Show Representative.
Grievance Liaison for the weekend is Sue Watson
Tammy read the minutes from Groom’d, Tammy motioned to approve the minutes and Diane 2nd. Please check out our new website. It crashed this year so we had to have it rebuilt by Anjie Coates. She did a wonderful job, it was an unexpected expense but the new site is much easier to maneuver.
Reminder that we are only counting 14 shows for 2025
Next year the rule starts that judges are only allowed to judge three of the same classe per year, there is a spread sheet of judges available on our website.
Loren gave us a social media update. We grew 5000 followers on FB 2000 on Instagram.
Lindsey is creating tshirts for each class and we are looking for taglines for each in hope to have this done by the end of September.
We opened the floor to questions and Lis Johnston wanted to know if we updated the conflict of interest policy regarding why she can’t compete at the same time Nick is judging. We told her that it is against the conflict of interest which states…. Competitors will not be eligible to earn GT points if Familial and/or personal relationship with any judge(s) assigned during the sanctioned class(es).
We understand there is a grey area with the wording of some of the conflict of interest policy and are working to re-word this for the new cycle next year.
There was a question asked about what the difference is when a mentor or personal relationship in the rules currently there isn’t one. The competitor that is being mentored by a judge and if the judge is judging a lower level that competitor will not earn points. Another question was asked about where they could find minutes from past meetings. Meeting minutes are available on our website. We adjourned the meeting at 6:40 pm
GROOM’D – Atlanta, GA
March 6, 2025
The meeting was call the order at 6:31
Tammy read the minutes from our last meeting via Zoom from FITS. Tammy read the treasure’s report. Checking account has $7,066.64, savings account has $100,030.56. Vanguard accounts have $179,375.25 and our total balances are $286,472.45.
Loren gave a social media report. Instagram we’ve grown over a thousand followers in 90 days and we have a live coming up with Grace.
We reminded everyone that the grievance liaison for the weekend is going to be Sue Watson and if there are any grievances they need to be filed before the close of the show.
We will be counting 14 shows for 2025. We are also looking for t-shirt concepts. Looking for new sponsors if anybody has a sponsor that they can think of please either reach out to them or come to a board member and we can reach out to them.
Reminding everyone to check the message board our last message is open judges will only be able to judge three tournaments in a year starting in 2026. The top 10 are required to attend two meetings and volunteer for 4 hours whether it’s in the booth, selling raffle tickets, donating a raffle or volunteering at our auctions. If you can come up with any other ideas please reach out to us.
We will also be sending out docusigns to the top 10 as well as new point holders. If you’re a top 10 member you need to sign the DocuSign and return it to us. We will be having our presentations on Sunday. Please be ringside by 12:00 noon wearing your uniforms. We will thank our sponsors and introduce our top 10. Also please thank Niira (Pina) for sponsoring the uniforms and we’re going to work out a time with Ren to take a team picture.
A question was asked that if someone was an apprentice judge/judging if they can still compete at the same time. They will not be eligible to earn GroomTeam USA points and that would be a show promoter decision whether or not they wanted to hire that said judge. Another question was asked if we were going to sanction Canadian shows and all the Canadian show promoters were told the deadline to apply for shows but did not seem interested in being sanctioned. There is also a question about guidelines for Apprentice judges: what they are and are not able to do is a show promoter decision. Each show promoter can and should develop their own set of guidelines that has nothing to do with GroomTeam.
The meeting was adjourned at 7:33 p.m.
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