AKC's "Financial Rescue"

I'd comment, but I'm not done laughing yet.

"Completely Different"????? Different than what???

In case the link gets removed, here is the next:

"And Now for Something Completely Different"

By Gretchen Bernardi

Falling entries, established clubs with financial difficulty, rising costs to everyone, registrations that continue to decrease—there is no denying that our sport is in trouble. That is the one thing with which we all are in agreement. When viewed dispassionately, which almost never happens, the other, often contentious issues—the quality of the dogs, the quality of the judging, whether or not to realign the groups, whether or not to accept mixed breeds into the fold —pale in comparison to the most fundamental question of the day. Can the American Kennel Club survive? And if so, how?

And the “how” is the biggest question with the most difficult answer. The AKC, the company, has done business one way for a very long time, relying on registrations to fund a growing and increasingly more expensive institution. Doing business in any other way goes against the grain, contradicts a long and honored culture. The railroad companies were in love with their trains. Camera companies were in love with film. Newspapers were in love with printed paper. AKC is in love with registrations.

There is no shortage of suggestions for solutions, but ultimately most of those are simply tweaking the ways in which we are doing business, and have always done business. Many of the suggestions offered are honest and well-meaning, but completely predictable. Some have offered completely new business models as the only possible solution to our problems.

In that vein, of something completely different, I recently received a lengthy letter from a person I have known for a very long time; someone who has been deeply involved with purebred dogs, the AKC, showing and breeding. His suggestions for a financial rescue of the AKC are so original, so completely new, that I decided to share his suggestions, with his permission, although he requested that I not use his name. I have complied with that request. Some of his ideas are so new we may find them scary, since we are often afraid of very new ideas, sometimes unreasonably, frequently without cause. His suggestions follow:

“In order to survive, the American Kennel Club must conduct a complete reorganization of all of its entities, segregating those activities governed by rules from those governed by regulations. Dog shows, including all-breed shows, sanctioned A and B matches, specialty shows and group shows, plus Retriever Trials and Beagle Trials, are all governed by rules. All other activities are governed by regulations including companion events (obedience, tracking, agility and rally), performance events (field trials, hunting tests, lure coursing, herding, earthdog events and the working dog sport) and Coonhound events. Although actual figures are not available, it is generally accepted that, with the possible exception of Agility, those events that are governed by regulations are not paying their own way, but are subsidized by registration money. In fact, when the AKC commissioned Strategic Plan was presented to the board, one of the recommendations was to simply do away with many of these events if revenue were the only consideration. Naturally, the board wisely rejected that suggestion.

“Segregating these entities would result in a “pay to play” system. All revenue generated by litter registrations, individual dog registrations, certified pedigrees and supplemental transfers must be included in the “rules” entity. All other events would come under a separate name, such as The All-American Canine Experience, or ACE, as we can call it in this discussion. ACE would then be divided into two parts, one for purebred “registered” AKC dogs and one for mixed breed “listed” AKC dogs. The competition regulations for the purebred dogs and the mixed breed dogs would be the same.

“The goal of the ACE competition would be to create a nucleus that would generate 100,000 participants. This seems a completely realistic goal. According to the 2008 AKC Annual Report, obedience trials had 122,076 entries, rally had 91,117 entries, tracking had 859 entries, with the agility trials attracting 838,392 entries. These numbers are entries, of course, and not participants, but when added to the hundreds of thousands of entries generated by field trials, hunting tests, etc., the goal would be easily attained. And surely the entrance of the mixed breed dogs into the competition would even exceed 100,000 participants.

“Since all registration-related money would pay for conformation shows (plus Beagle and Retriever Trials), including judges’ education, kennel inspections, executive field staff and all other related expenses, financing for the ACE entity would require a new system. This could be accomplished with an ACE card, similar to retail merchants’ gift cards, sold annually to participants for $100, good for one year’s participation. If participants did not want to or could not afford an up-front expenditure for the card, quarterly cards could be sold, accommodating participants who perhaps do not participate in dog activities during a specific time of the year. If the targeted 100,000 participants bought yearly cards, ten million dollars would be generated under this plan. All expenses related to these events would be paid out of this revenue, including all appropriate field representatives, club assistance programs, judge and participant seminars and all meetings and conferences of the various advisory boards that write and update regulations governing these events.

“From this revenue platform, AKC and ACE would have created an outreach program for local humane societies, many of which are currently making their facilities available for rally and obedience events. It would also leave monetary room for promotion and expansion. One added revenue source would be the design, the manufacture and the sale of the various equipment used in all AKC events. This equipment would carry the AKC name and logo, be produced exclusively for AKC events and used by AKC participants. This plan would give higher brand recognition for the organization, in addition to increasing income.

“The important point in this discussion is the equitable distribution of AKC revenue, which should be palatable to all participants in the many activities involving AKC dogs. Hopefully, we can begin to think of this plan and others that could save the AKC and the show-giving clubs and allow both to better pursue their core purposes. In the end, it all boils down to this: if you want to play, you have to pay.”

Is this too scary to even consider? I hope not. I appreciate that my friend has been thinking about it and took the time to put his thoughts into words. I hope that we all can begin to think of completely new solutions (just shoot me if I ever use “thinking outside the box,” but you know what I mean).

Gretchen Bernardi - berwyck@ezl.com