Goals of the Global Egyptian Mau Society

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Welcome to GEMS - The Global Egyptian Mau Society A.K.A. The Green-eyed Monsters Chartered in June 2002, GEMS is unlike any other currently functioning Egyptian Mau Breed club. The hope is that the club will not only fill a void for Egyptian Mau breeders and fanciers, but be an asset to CFA as a whole. GEMS primary purpose is to provide a venue for people with a common interest to gather and work together in pursuing the promotion of the Egyptian Mau and the education of the general public as well as the fancier.

In order to accomplish this, GEMS holds regular meetings on-line for members only and solicits member input via the Yahoo tm email lists. In addition to the regular on-line meetings and email discussions, GEMS also produces a quarterly on-line newsletter and maintains an active web page under www.egyptianmau.org. The hope is that once funds are up and running that GEMS will be able to produce or co-sponsor a CFA show as well.

But GEMS starts to really shine when one gets beyond the basic "normal" club functions and starts to delve deeper into the inner workings and aspirations of the club.

All GEMS members agree to adhere to a statement of ethics when they apply and join the club. CFA strongly recommends that its clubs require this kind of responsible action from their membership in order to start to minimize and discourage the plethora of dir-reputable breeders seek credibility from CFA sanctioned affiliations. By agreeing to stand behind a statement/code of ethics, GEMS members send a clear message that they believe in responsible breeding programs and stand behind their cats and their programs. The code of ethics itself acts not only as a standard to guide breeders, but an educational tool of basic minimum requirements for new breeders and fanciers as they look to start their programs.

One of the first actions of the GEMS club was to establish and maintain a CFA Egyptian Mau breed rescue fund. The GEMS club works in conjunction with the CFA Breed Council members to try to coordinate rescue efforts throughout CFA.

Another primary goal involves our past and its preservation. Anyone who works with this fabulous breed has an appreciation for its tradition and history. We all acknowledge that we cannot know where we are going if we do not know where we have been. For decades Egyptian Mau breeders have bemoaned the fact that we seem to be losing our past as key players move on for one reason or another and their knowledge and records go with them. If each individual keeps his or her piece of the puzzle squirreled safely away, then as a whole the breed will lose its precious history and there will be no provisions for educating newcomers, and nothing to preserve that individuals part of the saga of the Egyptian Mau. We all lose in that scenario. GEMS hopes, therefore, to create in its files, newsletters and website a comprehensive historical archive that will begin to pull together as many bits and pieces of the grand story that has brought our spotted beauties to the 21st century. Members are working diligently to find and collate historical data from letters, pedigrees, pictures and statistics. Like the Breed Rescue fund, this labor of love is an ongoing effort that takes time and effort, but GEMS hopes that the result will be a legacy of knowledge that will fascinate generations to come.

So, welcome to the public part of our web page and please feel free to browse our pages, hopefully you have a feel for who we are. You will find membership requirements detailed and must have a member sponsor to apply. If you would like to make a tax deductible donation please contact our treasurer, Bob Walton at r.waltons@att.net for details. We can take paypal or check. Feel free to browse our pages and enjoy the beauty of the cats.