Interview with the newly elected vice-president, Ole Magne Grytvik

Ole Magne Grytvik

Ole Magne Grytvik: Since I was not present at the closed executive session where I was nominated as a candidate for vice-president, I don’t know if the points in the question were actually part of the discussion and as such, the opinion of the WCC. All I knew beforehand was that some members of the WCC were not happy with the situation in the organization and they wanted a change.

In any case, you have been placed in a position of needing to live up to some people's expectations.

Ole Magne Grytvik: Agreed!

Do you have some preliminary ideas for proposals or initiatives that would meet these expectations?

Ole Magne Grytvik: I think a good first step would be to review past decisions of the WCC and determine which have not yet been acted upon or completed. It should be the first priority for the WCC officers to make sure these outstanding issues are brought to a conclusion.

The Charter and Constitution of the WCC may be considered a framework for the organization. The WCC may also be seen as an experiment where the basic idea is to create a place for the world’s major cat organizations to meet. Each member of the WCC represents an individual culture with regards to social values, economics, politics and traditions in which cats play a major part.

As can be seen on the WCC website, the purpose of the organization covers a wide range of challenges from the promotion of health, welfare and protection of all cats to matters such as registering, showing and judging pedigreed cats.

The latter may be considered a more technical matter, while the former may well challenge the integrity and the culture of the members. For an organization to be able to handle such a wide range of expectations I believe it is of the utmost importance to create an atmosphere of mutual trust and respect.

This will require co-operation and, above all, communication among the members, which cannot just be done at the annual meetings. It is important for the WCC officers to keep communication and information exchange alive in the period between the annual meetings.

What potential does the WCC have to become a driving force in the cat fancy and what should it do to become one, or should it?

Ole Magne Grytvik: It all depends on what is meant by a driving force. Some people may see the WCC as becoming a single, worldwide cat organization where everything is governed by the same set of rules, others may see it as an authoritive voice speaking on behalf of all its members on basic issues such as cat health, welfare an protection, while others may want a feline United Nations.

The WCC has already proved to be successful as a forum for the organizations in the cat fancy to meet and work out their differences. This success gives the WCC an enormous potential to remain as a valid means of mediation that fosters co-operation among and between its members, something that I feel is fundamental no matter where the future takes us.

Evolution is a slow, methodic process, but for this evolution to occur in a positive manner, I feel it is of utmost importance that the WCC officers contribute to a continuation of mutual trust and respect among the WCC members. We can then discuss what should be our next step.

What do you hope will be the future of the WCC in the cat fancy?

Ole Magne Grytvik: At the moment, I would like the WCC to develop into an organization able to speak on behalf of all its members in matters related to health, welfare and protection of cats. Hopefully the WCC will contribute to the ever-increasing research that is being conducted in cat related issues. By doing so, the WCC could speak, not only to the world outside the cat fancy, but to the cat fancy itself. As individual breeders and exhibitors we all need to be challenged with respect to how we keep our cats and our reasons for acting and thinking as we do, whether this is based on objective standards or simply on traditions.

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