AMERICAN KENNEL CLUB Delegates Meeting June 7, Dennis B. Sprung, President in the Chair, called the meeting to order at 10:10 a.m.

Transcription

1 AMERICAN KENNEL CLUB Delegates Meeting June 7, 2010 Dennis B. Sprung, President in the Chair, called the meeting to order at 10:10 a.m. Mr. Sprung: The meeting will come to order. Welcome to Atlanta. If there is any Delegate present who has not given his or her name to one of the computer operators at the registration desk outside this meeting room, please be sure to do so before leaving, as this is the official record of attendance. The Chair would like to introduce the people seated with me on the dais. On my immediate left is our Chairman, Ron Menaker. To his left is Vice Chairman, Dr. Thomas Davies. On my right is Doris Abbate, Professional Registered Parliamentarian. To her right is Jim Crowley, Executive Secretary. To Mr. Crowley's right is Arne' Davis, the court reporter. New Delegates have been requested to submit individual photographs for publication in the AKC Gazette. Any Delegate who has not submitted a photograph and wishes to do so, please see the photographer at the registration desk during a recess in the meeting or after adjournment. It is my sad duty to inform you of the passing of two Delegates: Mary Jean Knott, Delegate for County-Wide Dog Training Club since December 1990, died on December 10th, Marieann Gladstone, Delegate for the Penn Ridge Kennel Club since August 2000, died on May 28th, Our love to Steve. I would be remiss if I did not break with tradition and mention some of our own who left us but will remain household names in the Sport: Richard Bauer; Roy Holloway; Bob Moore; Dee Hutchinson; and Corky Vroom. The Chair calls on the Executive Secretary to read the names of Delegates seated since the last meeting: Mr. Crowley: The following Delegates have been seated since the last meeting: Pamela Jane Arwood, Euless, TX, Arkansas Kennel Club Fay Erickson, Columbia, SC, Columbia Kennel Club Michael Gibson, Scurry, TX, Briard Club of America Ralph E.Goshorn, Fort Wayne, IN, Northeastern Indiana Kennel Club Mary-Lynne Jensen, Ph.D., Windermere, FL, Orlando Dog Training Club Paul Kouski, Port Byron, IL, Chain O'Lakes Kennel Club Lydia Maduri, Elmwood Park, NJ, First Dog Training Club of Northern New Jersey Colleen McDaniel, Bothell, WA, Whidbey Island Kennel Club Sue Pfrank, West Terre Haute, IN, Terre Haute Kennel Club Naomi Shorr, Hillsboro, OR, Doberman Pinscher Club of America Nancy Smith, Lawrenceville, IL, Evansville Kennel Club Janice C. Watts, Glendale, AZ, Portuguese Water Dog Club of America Jeanne D. Zuver, Mount Shasta, CA, Southern Oregon Kennel Club The following Delegates, who were attending their first meeting since approval, were introduced from the floor: Pamela Jane Arwood, Euless, TX, Arkansas Kennel Club Fay Erickson, Columbia, SC, Columbia Kennel Club Michael Gibson, Scurry, TX, Briard Club of America Mary-Lynne Jensen, Ph.D., Windermere, FL, Orlando Dog Training Club 1

2 Dawna R. Mauldin, Pampa, TX, Panhandle Kennel Club of Texas Colleen McDaniel, Bothell, WA, Whidbey Island Kennel Club Naomi Shorr, Hillsboro, OR, Doberman Pinscher Club of America Nancy Smith, Lawrenceville, IL, Evansville Kennel Club Evelyn M. Van Uden, Ransomville, NY, Irish Water Spaniel Club of America Janice C. Watts, Glendale, AZ, Portuguese Water Dog Club of America Jeanne D. Zuver, Mount Shasta, CA, Southern Oregon Kennel Club Mr. Sprung: The minutes of the March 2010 Delegates meeting were published in the April 2010 AKC Gazette, and the complete transcript was posted on the Delegate Portal on AKC's website. If there are no corrections, the minutes will stand approved as published. Hearing no corrections, the minutes stand approved. The next item is the approval of a new member club. The following club has been approved by your Board of Directors, and will be voted on at this meeting: Glen of Imaal Terrier Club of America. In accordance with the Bylaws, a written ballot shall be required, if requested, in writing by at least five Delegates, made to the Executive Secretary, seven days prior to the start of the meeting at which the vote is scheduled. The Chair has been advised by the Executive Secretary that no such request has been made. We will, therefore, proceed with the vote. An affirmative vote of four-fifths of all Delegates is required to elect. The question is the election of the Glen of Imaal Terrier Club of America as a member of the American Kennel Club. Those in favor, please raise your hand. Thank you. Those opposed, please raise your hand. Thank you. There are four-fifths in the affirmative. The Chair declares that the Glen of Imaal Terrier Club of America has been duly elected as a member of the American Kennel Club. The Chair calls on Ron Menaker for the Chairman's Report. Mr. Menaker: Good Morning. I m pleased to report that this year across all event types conformation, companion and performance each one now offers a brand new AKC title. The conformation and performance titles will appeal to the long-time exhibitor while the companion title will help bring along the novice handler or inexperienced dog. Last month, conformation added the Grand Champion title. Judges now have the opportunity of awarding Grand Championship points to their Best of Breed and Best of Opposite winners as well as to additional AKC Champions with the Select Dog and Select Bitch award. We believe this title gives breeders and owners a new way to showcase the quality of their breeding stock to judges and other breeders and exhibitors alike. We encourage you to take advantage of the enhanced conformation title. We are proud to announce that we already have the first AKC Grand Champion in history a 4-year old Weimaraner named Grand Champion Monterra s Best Bet, Master Hunter finished his title in six consecutive shows. In addition, all dogs that complete their Grand Champion title will receive an invitation to the AKC / Eukanuba National Championship. Companion events, starting this summer, will offer a new Beginner Novice obedience title. This title is an excellent competitive event for both the novice handler and dog. Most exercises, a blend of Rally and Companion Dog, are completed on-leash. In the Performance area, Earthdog competitors now have the opportunity to earn a new title - the Endurance Earthdog - the first since the program s inception in This 2

3 EE title provides a new challenge for dogs that have earned their Master Earthdog title by earning five double qualifications in master and senior. In fact, a Border Terrier named Rosemary recently earned the first ever EE title. As you know, Parent Clubs have a variety of breed specific sports and events. The Board recently approved a program to allow the recording of parent club performance event titles if AKC does not provide a test for these breed-specific skills. The Bloodhound Club of America is the first to apply for acknowledgment of its titles with their man-trailing event If your parent club would like to participate in this new program please contact Performance Events AVP Doug Ljungren. As you can see it s an exciting time for AKC exhibitors. Whether you want to further compete, add more titles or participate in parent club events, we hope these new AKC titles will inspire you to reach higher goals, remain longer on the competitive trail, and provide you with more ways to bond with your dog. Mr. Sprung: Thank you, Ron. Next is the President's Report. Last month the Board approved a fee for Conformation Judges excluding Delegates and those approved only for Junior Showmanship. The reason for this fee traces back to revenue, which has changed significantly since you and I began in this sport. As we know, the decline in registration is not a new issue for us to face as a community; it started in 1992, and for the last 18 years no one has discovered the silver bullet to change the slide. The fact is that if we look back to earlier years when registration was on the increase, approximately 95% of our revenue came from our core business of registration allowing us to subsidize all areas, and it is still our intent to do so. Each of us is aware of the increase in services and programs we have developed over the last number of years, which is an especially positive accomplishment considering that all of these enhancements were made while revenue fell; in fact, today less than half of our total revenue comes from registration. We must be flexible enough to guarantee our future and work collectively to support one another. Perhaps the original judges fee was too much too soon, but to suggest no fee is not appropriate either. It was adopted with the best long-term interests of the organization. It is easy to understand the differentiation in how people within the same community look at things, and it is fair to look at these issues from opposing points of view. A judge naturally forms an opinion based on how an action, in this case a fee, affects him or her; your Board and staff look at thousands of judges and consider their fiduciary responsibility of how that fee affects the entire organization s future. A number of fees have already been implemented including Registered Handlers, CGC evaluators and the event service fees which impact clubs and exhibitors. These fees have allowed us to maintain and enhance the level of service our core constituents deserve and expect while paving the way for the future. The Board and staff listened to the concerns expressed and swiftly decided to withdraw the structure and perform additional due diligence. Management in the Judges Department immediately began the reevaluation. They reached out for additional input and also held individual conference calls with three Judges groups and have already scheduled meetings with the Dog Judges Association and the American Dog Show Judges in the upcoming weeks. I thank all of the organizations who are willing to work cooperatively and share ideas with us. In my opinion, we will be able to formulate a fee structure that is both fair and reasonable, and also perceived as such. We will accomplish this by following the Board s direction to prepare a document and share details and the reasons for the recommendations with the fancy. This process welcomes your input. 3

4 While references to the past provide you with factual information, any resulting decisions are not easy ones as they are about our future and our survival. In a world of constant and fast-paced change, we must be willing to be a participant. I realize that it is not always easy to accept certain realities of today s world. Even esteemed organizations with the greatest of traditions must learn to do so. Think back to when you first were bitten by the dog show bug and recall some of the gradual but significant changes we have experienced, all thankfully without the sky falling. I remember not having a judges approval process of any type, just one man who at his sole discretion made or broke the dreams of your entire judging career; AKC was a virtual monopoly; no women were permitted to be a delegate; there were only six groups; and those meetings I attended as a delegate back in the early 80s were simply rubber chicken and rubber stamps. We didn t have clusters, group clubs, back-to-back shows, online registration nor , laptops, blackberries, or cell phones. I appreciate that there is uneasiness about the rapid changes of today s world; there is a natural resistance to the unknown; change can be painful, scary and challenging. My friends, it affects me just the same as it does you; however, some change is what is needed to preserve our great sport. Together, as a community -- and as friends -- we can embrace change. We can collectively take the long view, for the benefit of the future of the American Kennel Club. Thank you. The Chair calls Jim Stevens for the financial report. Mr. Stevens: Good morning. So here we are in Atlanta. We ll review with you today our results for the first five months of this year through the end of May. It s somewhat amusing to hear that some economists believe the U.S. economy has now begun to regain its footing. Personally, I m not so sure about this. What I can tell you is that this perceived economic recovery hasn t yet found its way to AKC in terms of our revenues this year. As some of you may recall, I was asked to prepare an article for Perspectives a couple of years ago. This envisioned what AKC might look like in 2012 if registrations continued their decline. The somewhat pessimistic and conservative projections that I used at that time are in fact turning out to be the trend which our registrations are following. Our total revenues for the first five months of this year were $1.9 million or 7% lower than Most of our major revenue sources have continued to decline similar to last year. One might say it still looks like déjà vu all over again. Two thirds of this year s decreased revenues were directly attributable to registrations. Total registration revenues were $1.1 million less than last year for this five month period. For all of last year, litter registrations were 11% lower than the prior year. For the first five months of this year, the number of litters continued to decline at a similar rate. For all of last year, dog registrations had declined by 12% from the previous year. So far this year, this trend also has not changed. For those of you who are relatively new Delegates, it s worth noting that our registrations have been in a downward spiral since Beyond registrations, our other major sources of revenue were also lower this year. It s no surprise that declining registrations continued to hamper the sales of pedigrees. These were down by $241,000 or 10 ½ % from last year. Decreased registrations and the soft economy also continued to impact our alternative revenues derived from royalties. These were lower by $374,000 or 19% from last year. 4

5 We ve noted in previous Delegate meetings that our affinity credit card and licensing activities are no longer contributing revenues at levels they had in the past. It s not easy. It s important to review the trend of our alternative revenues from royalties & sponsorships over the past five years. These revenues have declined by 19% per year for the past two years. There is no question that they continue to be impaired by declining registrations and remain uncertain by their very nature. However, please be aware that during this 5 year period, we aggregated over $44 million in such revenues. These were staff-generated initiatives and much needed to offset the decline in registrations. Our publications area has benefitted from a shift to digital technology. Although the traditional revenue sources of subscribers and print advertising have declined, this has been mitigated by new revenues generated from web advertising and the new Weekly Wins Gallery. As you digest all of this, it s clear that our most significant financial challenge is managing our revenues. Frankly, this remains much more of an uphill battle given the fragile state of the economy. If we now shift our focus to expenses, the picture starts to become somewhat brighter. We ve successfully kept a lid on our overall operating expenses this year. They ve decreased by $921,000 or 4% from last year. Management remains very attentive to cost containment. Many of this year s operating expenses have been lower due to an on going concerted effort by each department to aggressively control their own costs. We re pleased with this trend and continue to work very hard at it. As you may recall, we had reduced our total headcount by 7% last year compared to the previous year. In fact, if we look back 5 years, today s headcount is lower by 57 employees or 14%. Given that the average turnover rate in the Delegate body is 20%, some of you may not be aware of other cost savings initiatives that we ve implemented over the past few years. Our employee benefits expense is one worth mentioning. We have proactively made numerous changes to our pension, post retirement, medical and life insurance plans over the past few years in order to substantially lower these costs. These changes have reduced our operating expenses by $5.3 million over the past four years. Future savings will also continue to be realized as a result of these changes. So what does this all mean? We have a year-to-date operating deficit of approximately $100,000 for the first five months of this year. This is due to the decline in our 2010 revenues exceeding the cost savings we ve achieved so far. Although we re not pleased with this deficit, we have generated a consistent operating surplus in each of the previous five years. The aggregate surplus over this period totaled approximately $21 million. The next area we d like to review with you is the performance of our investments. Given the recent volatility in the stock market, I m sure many of you are wondering how we are doing. The market value of our investments increased by $1.6 million for the first five months. This represented a 2½% return for the period. You might also be curious how our performance compares to the market. This rate of return has outperformed all of the major stock market indices as you can see here. The Dow Jones, Nasdaq and Russell were all in negative territory due to the horrible performance of the markets in May. We re pleased with our positive results. One significant area of our financial strength worth mentioning is the status of our reserves. Some of you may have heard about how the Canadian Kennel Club is currently struggling with major financial challenges since they had no reserves. 5

6 If we look back ten years ago, the AKC had $7.2 million set aside by the Board as a general reserve. This was primarily for computer reengineering related to a complete revision of the old registration system. Today we re fortunate to have the benefit of two reserve balances. One is an operating reserve pegged at 50% of our budgeted annual operating expenses. This has a current balance of $31 million. Our previous auditors, Ernst & Young, and KPMG as our present auditors strongly endorse this methodology. Another national accounting firm, Grant Thornton, recently issued a report also advocating the wisdom of not-for-profit organizations maintaining such a reserve. So we all should feel very good about this. In addition, we have an endowment reserve with a current balance of $24 million. We re fortunate today to benefit from the Board s foresight in establishing this particular reserve. In conclusion, if we reflect on our current year s operating results to date, our cost containment and achieving favorable investment returns have been the financial pluses. Enhancing our core revenues remains our greatest challenge. We re keeping our fingers crossed in being cautiously optimistic that we ll begin to see some improvement as the year progresses. Please stay tuned. Mr. Sprung: Thank you Jim. Today's vote is on the proposed amendment to Chapter 14, additional wording on National Championship Events of the Field Trial Rules and Standard Procedure for Pointing Breeds - Rules for Pointing Breed Field Trials. This amendment would establish minimum standards for National Championship events. It has been published in two issues of the AKC Gazette and is on the Pink worksheet. A two-thirds affirmative vote is required for adoption. Is there any discussion? The question is on the addition to Chapter 14, of Field Trial Rules and Standard Procedure for Pointing Breeds - Rules for Pointing Breed Field Trials. Those in favor, please stand. Thank you. Be seated. Those opposed, please stand. There are two-thirds in the affirmative and the amendment is adopted. The Chair now calls on the Executive Secretary to read the proposed amendment to Article VII, Section 1, of the Charter and Bylaws of the American Kennel Club. Mr. Crowley: This amendment to Article VII, Section 1, of the Charter and Bylaws of the American Kennel Club, would eliminate AKC Board term limits. The full text is on the Blue worksheet. This amendment was submitted by the Delegate Bylaws Committee and is approved by the AKC Board of Directors. It will be published in two issues of the AKC Gazette, and you will be asked to vote on it at the September 2010 meeting. Mr. Sprung: Are there any questions on this proposal? The Chair recognized Judith V. Daniels, Delegate for the Mt. Baker Kennel Club and Chair of the Delegate By-Laws Committee who spoke as follows: I would like to briefly explain how the By-Laws Committee arrived at this proposal in order to bring it to the Delegate body for our consideration. We ve had many Delegates over the past few years mention to us and to each other, their thoughts on term limits. Some agree with term limits, while others have said that they don t agree with term limits, and it s also been stated several times that many feel that if there is a term limit it should be a full term which is four years. And so our committee, at the last meeting where we proposed this, considered three ways of proceeding. One was to do nothing and leave it in place; one was to consider eliminating the term limit as it now stands in 6

7 the Bylaws; and the other was to propose increasing it to a full term of four years. After a long meeting with lengthy discussion, we voted six to five to propose eliminating the term limit as it appears in the Bylaws. Now, at our meeting this time, it was asked if this proposal could not be amended to a full term, and the answer to that is no, because that would be out of the scope. The scope right now is one year or none. And we also announced that if people wish to propose a term limit for a full term, any Delegate can do that through their club and the By-Laws Committee can consider it. So this is in the hands of the Delegates. Thank you. Mr. Sprung: The Chair now calls on the Executive Secretary to read the proposed amendment to Chapter 7, New Section 1, of the Field Trial Rules and Standard Procedure for Dachshunds - Entry Requirements and Eligibility. Mr. Crowley: This amendment to Chapter 7, New Section 1, of the Field Trial Rules and Standard Procedures for Dachshunds - Entry Requirements and Eligibility, would specify a minimum age of six months. The full text is on the Grey worksheet. This amendment was submitted by the Dachshund Club of America and is approved by the AKC Board of Directions. It will be published in two issues of the AKC Gazette and you will be asked to vote on it at the September 2010 meeting. Mr. Sprung: Are there any questions on the proposed amendment? The Chair now calls on the Executive Secretary to read the proposed amendment to Chapter 7, New Section 1, of the Field Trial Rules and Standard Procedure for Basset Hounds - Entry Requirements and Eligibility. Mr. Crowley: This amendment to Chapter 7, New Section 1, of the Field Trial Rules and Standard Procedure for Basset Hounds - Entry Requirements and Eligibility, would specify a minimum age of six months. The full text is on the Yellow worksheet. This amendment was submitted by the Basset Hound Club of America and is approved by the AKC Board of Directors. It will be published in two issues of the AKC Gazette, and you will be asked to vote on it at the September 2010 meeting. Mr. Sprung: Are there any questions on the proposed amendment? The Chair now calls on the Executive Secretary to read the proposed amendment to Chapter 7, New Section 1, of the Beagle Field Trial Rules and Standard Procedure for Large Pack Field Trials - Entry Requirements and Eligibility. Mr. Crowley: This amendment to Chapter 7, New Section 1, of the Beagle Field Trial Rules and Standard Procedure for Large Pack Field Trials - Entry Requirements and Eligibility, would specify a minimum age of six months. The full text is on the Orchid worksheet. This amendment was submitted by the Beagle Advisory Committee and is approved by the AKC Board of Directors. It will be published in two issues of the AKC Gazette, and you will be asked to vote on it at the September 2010 meeting. Mr. Sprung: Are there any questions on the proposed amendment? The Chair now calls on the Executive Secretary to read the proposed amendment to Chapter 7, New Section 1, of the Beagle Field Trial Rules and Standard Procedure for 7

8 Brace, Small Pack and Small Pack Option Field Trials and Two-Couples Pack Hunting Tests - Entry Requirements and Eligibility. Mr. Crowley: This amendment to Chapter 7, New Section 1, of the Beagle Field Trial Rules and Standard Procedure for Brace, Small Pack and Small Pack Option Field Trials and Two-Couples Pack Hunting Tests - Entry Requirements and Eligibility, would specify a minimum age of six months. The full text is on the Tan worksheet. This amendment was submitted by the Beagle Advisory Committee and is approved by the AKC Board of Directors. It will be published in two issues of the AKC Gazette, and you will be asked to vote on it at the September 2010 meeting. Mr. Sprung: Are there any questions on the proposed amendment? The Chair now calls on the Executive Secretary to read the proposed amendment to Chapter 5, Section 1, of the Field Trial Rules and Standard Procedure for Dachshunds - Judges and Their Decisions. Mr. Crowley: This amendment to Chapter 5, Section 1, of the Field Trial Rules and Standard Procedure for Dachshunds - Judges and Their Decisions, would delete wording to permit officers of the club to judge, becoming consistent with other AKC venues and increasing the judges' pool. The full text is on the Green worksheet. This amendment was submitted by the Dachshund Club of America and is approved by the AKC Board of Directors. It will be published in two issues of the AKC Gazette, and you will be asked to vote on it at the September 2010 meeting. Mr. Sprung: Are there any questions. The Chair now calls the Executive Secretary to read the proposed amendment to Chapter 5, Section 1, Paragraph 2, of the Field Trial Rules and Standard Procedure for Basset Hounds - Judges and Their Decisions. Mr. Crowley: This amendment to Chapter 5, Section 1, Paragraph 2, of the Field Trial Rules and Standard Procedure for Basset Hounds - Judges and Their Decisions, would require clubs to retain entry forms for one year. The full text is on the Salmon worksheet. This amendment was submitted by the Basset Hound Club of America and is approved by the AKC Board of Directors. It will be published in two issues of the AKC Gazette, and you will be asked to vote on it at the September 2010 meeting. Mr. Sprung: Are there any questions on the proposed amendment? The Chair now calls on the Executive Secretary to read a list of vacancies for the Delegate Committees that are to be filled in September. Mr. Crowley: These are the vacancies on Delegate Committees that are to be filled at the September Delegate meeting: All-Breeds Clubs Committee: Four, three-year terms Bylaws Committee: Four, three-year terms Canine Health Committee: Four, three-year terms and one, two-year term Delegate Advocacy and Advancement Committee: Four, three-year terms Dog Show Rules Committee: Four, three-year terms and one, one-year term 8

9 Field Trial and Hunting Test Events Committee: Four, three-year terms and one, one-year term Herding, Earthdog and Coursing Events Committee: Four, three-year terms Obedience, Tracking and Agility Committee: Four, three-year terms and two, two-year terms Parent Clubs Committee: Four, three-year terms Perspectives Editorial Staff: Six, two-year terms Mr. Sprung: All Delegates will be sent the self-nomination form by the end of the month. This self-nomination form must be returned to the Executive Secretary by Friday, July 23rd. Questions on the procedures to be followed should also be directed to the Executive Secretary. Delegates may only self-nominate for one committee, except that a member of the Perspectives Editorial staff may also serve on another standing committee. In August, the Delegates will be sent a list of nominees for each committee, their qualification statements and a sample ballot. At the September meeting, following the Election of Committees, meeting space will be provided for each committee to elect their Chairs and Secretaries. The Chair now calls on John Lyons, Chief Operating Officer to announce several awards. Mr. Lyons: I am pleased to announce the second quarter recipients of AKC 2010 Community Achievement Awards. This award is given to clubs and AKC federations and their members who have made outstanding contributions to public education or canine legislation activities. Each honoree receives an AKC Certificate of Recognition and the AKC donates $1,000 to each honoree's club or federation. Details about the honorees' accomplishments are published in the AKC Gazette and featured on the AKC website. The second quarter honorees are: Lawrenceville Kennel Club, Robert LaBerge, Delegate; Belle-City Kennel Club (Applause) I am also pleased to announce the winner of the Inaugural Walter Bebout Award for Leadership in Canine Legislation. Named for the late Director of AKC Government Relations, this award honors federations and organizations that have been actively involved in educating legislators about responsible dog ownership issues and have worked to preserve the rights of responsible owners and breeders. Winners of this quarterly award receive an AKC Certificate of Recognition and a $1,000 check to help offset the costs associated with their legislative efforts. The winner of our very first Bebout Award for Leadership in Canine Legislation is the North Carolina Federation of Dog Clubs. Mr. Sprung: Thank you, John. For your information, the September 2010 Delegates meeting will be held at the Sheraton Newark Airport Hotel on Tuesday, September 14th. We will be ing and placing hotel information on the Delegate Portal after July 1st, when our block of rooms becomes available. The December Delegates meeting will be held in Long Beach, California. The meeting will be held at the Hyatt Regency Long Beach Hotel on Tuesday, December 7th, A block of rooms have been reserved for Delegates' use. Reservations on the block can only be made by calling AKC's Conference and Travel Department. In the next few 9

10 weeks, our Conference and Travel Department will you more information and will place the hotel information on the Delegate Portal. Lunch will be in Salon A/B/C, across the hall. Delegates should return their badges at the registration desk following lunch. Once again, our photographer is available at the registration desk to take photographs of new Delegates after adjournment. Is there any further business to come before the Delegate Body? The Chair recognized Patricia Laurans, Delegate for the German Wirehaired Pointer Club of America, who spoke as follows: On May 13, when I received the letter regarding the enacted Judges Annual Fee I spoke to a number of Board and Staff members to express my concerns. I also posted the following statement on several lists. I believe that the Conformation Judges Annual Fee that the Board of Directors of the American Kennel Club voted to adopt on May 11, 2010 is arbitrary, flawed and discriminatory. I also believe that it is another example where there was not enough discussion and input and certainly not enough explanation or disclosure before the fee became and edict. At the June Delegate s Meeting I intend to propose a motion that there be a vote of the Delegate Body to request the Board to rescind and revisit the concept known as the Conformation Judges Annual Fee. After hearing that the proposal had been pulled back for review I wrote the following to read at this meeting: I was pleased to hear that the Board has pulled back the originally adopted fee/assessment plan and that the Board and Staff will be working to come up with some type of fee proposal that, if adopted, will be fair and equitable. The meeting scheduled with staff members and representatives of the Judges Organizations is a good step in determining if there should be a fee. If the determination is made that a fee is necessary and appropriate, I believe that the proposal should be made public before the Board votes on its adoption. I was pleased to hear in the President s message presented to us this morning that the Board and staff after listening to the concerns expressed decided to withdraw the original fee structure and to perform additional due diligence. He also indicated that a request of communication and transparency deemed necessary by AKC s core constituency was heard. After the July meeting with members of AKC staff and the Judges Organizations, and if it is decided that a fee is deemed appropriate, a proposal will be drafted. I was also pleased to hear that the Fancy will be made aware of what this proposal will be and that there will be time provided for AKC 's constituency to comment before the proposal goes to the Board for a vote. As we all know it is the Board that is charged with the responsibility of making the necessary decision. I encourage everyone here and in the Fancy to participate in this process by communicating your thoughts and concerns to the Board and Staff, before a proposal is developed, and also once the proposal is announced. I thank the Board and the Staff for hearing our concerns and acting on them. Only if we work together as a family, if we communicate with one another, if we are open and honest, and if we continue to care about AKC, our sport and one another, can we come up with an equitable solution. We must work together so that those working against us do not defeat us. Thank you very much. 10

11 Mr. Sprung: Thank you for your comments on the judges fees. The Chair recognized Barbara Mann, Delegate for the Dayton Dog Training Club, who spoke as follows: For once I m not going to say something controversial, I hope. The Delegate Committee for Obedience, Tracking and Agility has been working to put together an list, and it is finally in existence. This list is designed specifically to help clubs find ways of making their companion events more profitable and more successful. We would especially like to get Delegates and members of All-Breed clubs, Specialty clubs and other people who put on these trials, who are not training clubs, we recognize that you re having difficulty with these at times and we hope that we have some ideas that will help you. We ve got some handouts, there s some that are back on the table underneath the big AKC legislation sign out there. We don t have enough, we know that, but we would like to encourage groups and clubs to appoint at least one member to join this list. We re going to put something out on the Delegates list about this so that you ll know who to contact. It will be me, Barbara Mann, or Maureen Setter. We re going to be sort of managing the group to start with. There will also be an article in the next Perspectives Magazine about it. So we encourage everybody who puts on companion events to have somebody in your club who s interested in companion events to get on this list so that we can share ideas and continue to make these events successful. Thank you. Mr. Sprung: Thank you, Barbara, for that information. Ms. Mann: Let me just add one more thing. We will be here, you can fill out the little form and we will get you on-line tonight or tomorrow. Thank you Mr. Sprung: Thank you. The Chair recognized Harold Sundstrom, Delegate for the Collie Club of America, who spoke as follows: I d like first of all to confirm Pat s comments to the Board and also I appreciate the comments that you made, Mr. President. Our newly elected president, Robert A. Meyers, has asked that the following statement be addressed to the Delegates and the Board regarding annual licensing fees for judges at AKC events. Requiring judges to pay an annual licensing fee will place an undue hardship on clubs sponsoring AKC events. The Collie Club of America does not pay a fee to judges for their services. Judges at our National Specialty are only paid their actual expenses. These judges are prohibited by our national show rules from judging collies except for herding group competition for the period of one year prior to the national. If these judges are licensed to judge other breeds as well as our breeds, they would be paying a fee for the privilege of judging our national. It is our sense that this would not be appropriate. A projected judge s licensing fee should be given careful scrutiny and thorough review prior to its implementation. Consider that as a group of enthusiasts we nurture and encourage newcomers to embrace our sport of purebred dogs. With additional fees being placed on judges, these fees would be passed to club events and then to exhibitors. This would be another costly expense to exhibitors. I ask that The American Kennel Club proceed with due diligence so that the sport we love does not again become the sport of kings because only the rich may afford it. Consider that as a group of enthusiasts we nurture and encourage newcomers to embrace our sport of purebred dogs. With additional fees being placed on judges, these fees would be passed to club events and then to exhibitors. 11

12 Mr. Sprung: Thank you for sharing your club s input. The Chair recognized Nancy Fisk, Delegate for the Hockamock Kennel Club, who spoke as follows: Much of our purpose in the Legislative Caucus, is obviously looking at legislation and its impact on the canine/human bond, and our ability to make choices for our animals and our pets. One of the important focuses of that is our ability to communicate with our veterinarians and make choices for our pets with our veterinarians. Much of the legislation that we ve been fighting would interfere with that and politicians would be making those decisions. Things like the guardianship laws, things like in Massachusetts where we just lost the battle to prevent devocalization of pets. It s not a decision that can be made anymore and in fact if a veterinarian devocalizes a dog, it is a felony. They would lose their license. So, with this in mind the legislative caucus has focused on communicating with our veterinarians to get them on board in legislative fights because it is a battle for them and for us. Jim Efron very kindly formulated a letter that we would send and we have available out on the government relations table. This is a letter that would come from the client to the veterinarian and present things like the difference between animal welfare and animal rights. They need to become involved. I would suggest that each and every one of you pick up a copy of that, take it back to your club, give it to your club members, let them take it to their veterinarians. It is from the client to the veterinarian, it s a personal request for them to become involved in this issue. Thank you. Mr. Sprung: Thank you very much for providing the Delegates with that legislative information. The Chair recognized Dr. Carmen Battaglia, Delegate for the German Shepherd Dog Club of America, who spoke as follows: I d like to announce that we re planning a new study which is now out in conjunction with Dr. Otto at the University of Pennsylvania on Bloat. There has not been a definitive study on this subject for more than ten years and this study, which is up on Survey Monthly and I hope you will see it on the e-list when you get home, is going to involve all breeds from ten countries. So it s going to be a much more far-reaching study than what we ve seen in this past. This disease has many faces unfortunately and it has many issues, most of which are based on folk-law and rumor. So we re hoping that we ll be able to participate and do some good here. I m going to participate in the study for a meeting on this subject in Bar Harbor in August and the results and the preliminary findings of this study will be reported in November. So if we can get the Delegates and the clubs to all participate, we hope that with at least 5,000 people participating this will be good and useful data. Thank you. Mr. Sprung: Thank you so much. The Chair recognized Carol Williamson, Delegate for the Houston Kennel Club, who spoke as follows: I am speaking on behalf of the Perspectives Editorial Board, and can I please ask the members of the Perspectives Committee to stand up or raise you hands for just a minute? We have a number of topics coming up which are going to be very, very important to this Board and to the AKC and to our clubs in general. Perspectives was a publication which was created so that the Delegates could communicate with each other. 12

13 Not all of the Delegates are here today. I would like to remind you that Perspectives is here for your use, we re interested in your comments and your thoughts. Please contact one of the Perspectives Committee members if you would like to write an article for us. If you have thoughts and you re not sure about your writing ability we will work with you. The deadline for the next issue is July 5 th. We have some time for you to think and get your thoughts together, but it s coming up quickly. Let us know if anybody has any questions, and my contact information and the names of the committee members are just inside the front cover of the publication. Contact any of us. Thank you. Mr. Sprung: Thank you and please thank the Perspectives Committee. The Chair recognized Dr. Gerry Meisels, Delegate for the St. Petersburg Dog Fanciers Association, who spoke as follows: I m here to ask for your help. For the last two weeks I have had to deal with an upswing of anger in the dog community that I deal with. And I do not know how to handle it because I believe very strongly, along with Pat, that we must act as a family that respects and supports each other and it is part of my role as a Delegate to help smooth the waters. I cannot do that. There are two issues that cause that. The first one is the judges fee. I think it is very clear to most of those I ve talked to that they know that this will only be passed on to the clubs in the fees the judges charges and so it is an indirect way of raising entry fees. We ll have another fee on entries as we ve had before, which will be a preferable and automatically equitable solution to the problem rather than another Byzantine process that has to be designed to charge judges who then in turn charge the clubs. The second issue is the question of the release of a lot of information on financial matters within the club that has not gone over very well. And I cannot answer that because I don t have any answers. So I hope that some of you can address those two issues better Mr. Sprung: Thank you. The Chair recognized Sherry Wallis, Delegate for the Akita Club of America, who spoke as follows: All of us are familiar with the situation where you find out that your county or your city or your state has legislation that is going to have an enormous impact on your life and they have proceeded along with developing it and proposing it and you don t find out about it until it s already too late. We talked about this yesterday in the Delegates Caucus and it isn t just the judges expense. There are other aspects where people who are stakeholders in whatever decision is being made are never invited to the table. I think it s part of the reason there is so much anger, it s the same reason that we all get angry when we re exploited. I don t know if you re going to consider extending the judges fees to obedience and agility and other judges in field, or any of those things, but do they have judges associations that are going to be invited to the table or are you going to find a representative from them? Because you ll have the same ground swell of protest from them that you ve had from us and it s the same issues with the committee that is reviewing the judging procedures, because that committee does not have on it any people that are going through an application process currently or have in the recent past. Mr. Sprung: In response to fees in any other areas, those that have judges organizations will be met with. Secondly, individuals on the Judges Committee are in fact from time to time going through the process whenever they apply for additional breeds 13

14 and are subject to the very same criteria. Each committee member is not an All-Breed Judge. Ms. Wallis: I don t think that when we went through the list of names of people on the list, we saw very many of them that would be going through that. The Chair recognized Kenneth Marden, Delegate for the German Shorthaired Pointer Club of America, who spoke as follows: At this time I would like to inform the Delegates about one of the most prestigious national events run by the American Kennel Club and that is the AKC Pointing Breed Gun Dog Championships which have just been completed. It was run at Fort Robinson, the historic Fort Robinson out in Nebraska. And it is a fantastic thing. It ran 11 days, judges sat in that saddle eight hours a day running dogs. We had 100 dogs, qualified dogs that ran in each on of the stakes. That s never happened before. The other thing is that we had a really unusual occurrence. A German Shorthaired Pointer won both stakes. In 17 years that has never happened before. Yes and a Wirehaired was second. Ms. Laurans: And the Wirehaired that was second is a dual champion and got an award of merit at our national. Mr. Marden: Right. That was great. What I was most proud of though was the performance of our event reps out there. They did a fantastic job. A field rep s job is different from a shop rep s job. Especially when you get up at 4:30 in the morning. By 5:30 you re out there on the grounds planting birds over a one-hour stake, or you are functioning as a marshal, you are writing and scribing every single brace, what every single dog does, as well as taking pictures. And then what happens is we all go to bed except that rep has to sit up, write this all up, put it in a computer, send the photographs to the AKC and the next morning on our web site you had all of the running of the day and exactly what happened. And the people are just fantastic. They do all kinds of jobs. They do gunning, they help the club. I must also give credit to the Colorado Pointer Club who was the host club, and they were so well organized, it went beautifully. I had people come up to me and saying, you know, this is the greatest event that AKC runs. And boy, it s so it s just wonderful and there s no friction, there s no flack. It s just terrific. And I ll tell you, most of that is due to our performance event reps. I thank them and I would like that to be in the record please. Thank you. Mr. Sprung: We will make sure it s in the record, Ken, and of course also about the German Shorthaired and Wirehaired Pointers. And we appreciate the compliments on the performance reps. We really do. Ms. Laurans: Is Doug Ljungren in this room? Mr. Sprung: He s right in the front of the room. Ms. Laurans: The sire of Louie, the dual champion who won the award of merit at our National in conformation and also did quite well at our field trial happens to have been sired by a dog that our own AVP of Performance, Doug Ljungren bred. Mr. Sprung: Congratulations, Doug. 14

15 Mrs. Daniels: I would like to share another positive note and that is with respect to the Grand Champion program. I believe it s been in effect now for four weekends and I ve had the pleasure of judging the last three and I thoroughly enjoyed being able to award them when they were eligible and worthy and I ve had very many worthy ones, and the exhibitors have been thrilled. So I think even though most of us don t understand their point system yet, that s okay. They go to the rep and find out what they earned and I think it s going to be extremely successful. Thank you. Mr. Sprung: Thank you for that good news. The Chair recognized Nancy Perrell, Delegate for the Scottsdale Dog Fanciers Association, who spoke as follows: I also would like to say something positive for those of us who received the nice certificates who have been Delegates for the first ten years of the 2000 s. I appreciate it and I m sure many of the rest of you do as well. Mr. Sprung Thank you, they are well deserved. The Chair recognized William Green, Delegate for the Rio Grande Kennel Club, who spoke as follows: I would like to express the pride of Rio Grande Kennel Club that the first Grand Champion came from our cluster in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Thank you. The Chair recognized Marcy Zingler, Delegate for the Sun Maid Kennel Club of Fresno, who spoke as follows: I m going to add onto the positivity train. First, the Keeshond Club of America had its 75 th anniversary show pretty much all of the previous week and they had a huge agility trial with 145 runs and the hound trials, this is how all-inclusive this sport can be. There was an 82-year-old woman with a 10-1/2-year-old bitch there. I also have a suggestion, changing gears entirely. The suggestion is for the people who are going to be considering the fees for judges. As it has been previously stated, these were assessed on conformation judges because as also stated that was where the deficit was. As Dennis very correctly presented, we are a family, we are an actual picture of many puzzle pieces. I am hoping at least at some point, whether it has been or it will be, that assessing fees for all judges, not necessarily breed by breed or class by class, could be considered, as was mentioned before, but by doing so possibly to put all reps in a sub-department with an oversight committee of a representative from each of the disciplines, from conformation judging, from performance, certainly from companion events as well, and those reps in that separate department, so to speak, for lack of a better word, could then be assessed fairly and evenly and the fees that came from that could go forward to the benefit of the organization as a whole. Mr. Sprung: Thank you. The Chair recognized Robert Eisele, Delegate for the Suffolk County Kennel Club, who spoke as follows: I m pretty sure I probably represent some silent part of this body. I think a lot of people come up to me and they support me but they re not speaking up I guess as loudly as I am. The committee on the judging approval process is, as far as I m concerned, clearly not balanced when you take into consideration the group of judges that are out there. From the committee that I read out loud at the caucus there were no judges that 15