All-Breed committee: A study was done on the population needed to support one all-breed show. The results indicated that it takes a population of 500,000 to support a club. Many members disagreed with the results.
An AKC staff member stated that entries were up 17% this year.
Robin Stansel, Vice President of Events, spoke on holding a specialty on the same day as an all-breed show. We will just talk about the Bull Terriers as an example. The Bullies can be shown first thing in the morning at the Chattanooga KC show and as soon as they are finished judging may begin their Specialty with their judge. It is limited to 100 entries each. If the Specialty isn’t finished when group judging starts, the breed winner from earlier can go to the group or show at the Specialty, but the all-breed is not to be held up waiting for the Specialty to be over.
Four to six month puppy entries can get points toward an award of merit, but not CH points. It takes a total of 15 points to get the award. There are no majors required and I assume the point schedule will be the same as regular classes. It seems that 2 months will not allow enough time to finish most puppies for this title. Puppies can continue to garnish points in the new Open Shows. The Open Show is expected to replace the sanctioned matches. It is a pilot program at this time so rules and procedures will probably change as problems arise. At this time, judges must be regular judges for these events, they don’t have to be approved for the breeds, but they need a judge’s number. There are plans to give numbers to people who go through a training class to become a judge and take the judge’s test.
Fifth and sixth place ribbons for the groups was pulled from the agenda; however, the Board still wants it. Reserve BIS is still on the drawing board and reserve majors at Nationals is back on the agenda.
There is a downloadable presentation for legislation concerns on the AKC website under government relations.
PAC letters have been sent out to the members of all AKC clubs.
Aug 27-28, 2011 there will be a legislative conference in Raleigh at the Embassy Suites.
Therapy dog titles have been announced.
During the general meeting we were told over all entries were up 5.2 percent.
The Grand CH increased entries by 58,000 for a total of $1,700,000 in extra income for clubs.
Show entries are up 19% from 2000 to 2010.
In October The AKC Gazette will go digital. Circulation had dropped to 20k issues a month.
Family dog has a circulation of 170,000 per month. It will start having features from the Gazette. The new digital issues will be custom fit to your mobile device, I-phone, blackberry or other smart devise.
The decline in Registrations of individual dogs has lessened from -10% in 2010 to -3%. Litter registrations were down 12% last year and this year they are on track to be down only 10%. Individual dog registrations were down 13% last year and it looks like they will be down 4% this year.
Sponsorships and royalties are down, but investments are up.
New marketing group is working on a new campaign. Their survey says that 80% of AKC registrations come from the casual/backyard breeder. They found that there are approximately 150,000 people involved in the sport, but there are over 3 million people interested in becoming involved. Entries are up 5.4% (this number was not consistent with each speaker) and revenues are down 6.4%.
The Walter E Bebout Memorial Award for leadership in Canine Legislation was awarded to the Georgia Canine Coalition.
Respectfully submitted,
David Gilstrap, CKC Delegate