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