26 Saber Tails Winter 2016

Petit Basset Griffon Vendéen Club of America

AKC DELEGATE’S REPORT

Respectfully Submitted by Anne Gallant

Committee & Delegates’ Meetings 9/11-12/2016

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Committee Meetings, 9-11-16

Rules Committee

The proposed amendments being voted on at the Del-

egates’ Meeting, 9-12-16, were reviewed.  The Committee 

voted to recommend that shows that use a Show Secre-

tary be allowed to order/use ribbons that are not dated.  

Group realignment is being brought back to the table.   

About 560 email questionnaries were sent out with a re-

turn of 350 responses.   It was reported that 72% of those 

responding are in favor of looking at this issue again.

The Rules Committee has been working on the terri-

tory issue for 4 years now.  A new policy has been writ-

ten which will be sent to the staff and legal counsel to 

review.   The reinstatement procedure for dogs DQed 

for attacking is under review, and several suggestions 

from the Rules Committee have been sent to the Board.  

Fairness and safety to all (the clubs, the judges doing the 

reinstatement exam, the public at the show, etc.) must all 

be taken into consideration.  

 The By-Laws Committee requested from the AKC an 

estimate of the time and cost involved to change the 

programming for the Grand Championship points to 

include single, non-regular classes.  The AKC estimates 

that it would cost $2,080 and take 3-4 days to make  the 

programming changes. The Committee voted in favor of 

going forward with this change.    

There was significant discussion about Judges who are 

Delegates asking clubs to make a donation or honorari-

um in addition to the reimbursement of their expenses 

for judging a show.  A club is under no obligation to 

make that donation unless it is included in the Judge’s 

contract.  The Committee also voted to recommend to 

the Board that Judges who are Delegates not be assessed 

a fee for new breed applications.  The AKC Board, based 

on staff recommendation, is proposing to change the 

time of entry closing to 11:59 PM.  The Dog Show Super-

intendents Association is opposed to this change.  This 

proposal will be voted on in December, 2016.

By-Laws Committee

The issue of eliminating the application fee for new 

breeds for Delegate Judges was discussed.  The Chair-

man of this Committee was asked to address the ques-

tion at the Delegates’ Meeting and ask for a non-binding 

vote of the Delegates to waive this fee for Delegate 

Judges.   Delegates who judge can not charge a fee in 

excess of actual expenses.   Whether or not a donation or 

honorarium requirement could be included in the con-

tract was discussed.  The Committee will ask for a letter 

of clarification from the AKC.

Dan Smyth, Chair of the Delegates’ Advocacy Committee, 

presented their comments regarding the nomination 

procedure for election to the AKC Board of Directors.  In 

the present process, the AKC Board of Directors selects 

the nominating committee and two alternates.  This, 

of course, can add bias to the outcome.  An alternative 

selection process was proposed whereby each of the 9 

Standing Committees selects a person to comprise the 

Nomination Committee.

The Forum

Dr. Jerold Bell, Adjunct Professor of Clinical Genetics at 

the Tufts University, talked about maintaining genetically 

diverse, healthy and sustainable breed populations.  Dr. 

Bell has been a speaker at several of our PBGVCA Special-

ties.  Because Dr. Bell was speaking to Delegates who 

represent or are associated with almost all AKC breeds, 

his presentation focused more on general principles as 

opposed to breed specific concerns.  He emphasized that 

homozygosity is not, in itself, detrimental to breeds un-

less they carry a high genetic load of deleterious effects.  

He indicated that the Popular Sire Syndrome is the most