By Dr. Al Grossman

The American Kennel Club is looked upon by many as one of the most insular bureaucracies in the world. It has survived for more than a century by rarely looking outward for ideas, answers or leaders. A few years ago they desperately needed leadership from outside their own ranks. After a nationwide search they came up with a leader who was ill-equipped to lead this type of organization. To say the least, it was not a progressive time. As a result, they have gone back to in-house selections.

While bringing comfort to the fancy-at-large that one of their own was in charge, it has failed to bring about needed changes at the board level. We continued to elect board members from the delegate body that were “like us”. Prospective candidates who were outspoken or pressed for significant change were ignored. The comfort zone of having only people “just like us” was too great to risk change. It is my firm opinion that until we can break that cycle of conformity we will not see the changes necessary to bring about the changes we need to survive.

The current president is well-liked by the fancy and worked his way up through the ranks. Unfortunately, in today’s climate, the real power lies with the Board Chairman and the Vice Board Chairman. Their actions, at times, make a fully capable President/Chief Executive Officer look inept.

The term CEO is fully that. An executive who runs the organization. In most organizations, the board has policy-making authority, not day-to-day line responsibility. His COO, who handles the internal operations, supports the CEO.

Today the management structure of AKC is upside down. A powerful Board Chairman not only dictates policy but also literally runs the operations of the organization. While he has performed yeoman service for AKC, his bottom line is complete control. It is evident his employment background literally dictates his management style. Yes, his background and experience bailed us out of a computer registration snafu that we never should have gotten into to begin with. And yes, he has kept a firm hand on the financial tiller, but AKC is about more than just focusing on the balance sheet.

AKC is a service organization serving its clubs and the individuals who participate in its activities. It should be dedicated to a win/win philosophy. This cannot occur until there is greater participation in the decision making process at the club level by the fancy in general.

One approach that may aid our situation in the long run is by spending money to help local clubs perform their function. With more and more ultimatums from New York, small local clubs are finding it harder and harder to meet these dictates and still remain viable. A perfect example is the creation of new clubs in an area where existing clubs are penalized by their appearance. At one time, as the sport grew, this might have been a good policy. Today, with the graying of the fancy, new members are hard to come by and new clubs tend to deplete the possible new member pool. Another thorn in the side of local fanciers is the addition of fees from an organization that already has a reserve fund of over 30 million dollars and a retirement fund in the same amount while still showing a profit even though registrations have steadily gone down.

Monies can best be spent in helping local clubs promote their shows to the general public. Most local clubs lack the general know how and money to advertise their show or issue press releases to local media. I recognize there is a new PR program available to local clubs. It includes media ads and ideas. Unfortunately few, if any, small clubs can possibly afford to do these things. I would be willing to wager that at least 7 out 10 members of the public do not know about their local kennel club and what they do. Sponsoring the Classic show is fine for AKC per se but does little to support local clubs. How about sharing the wealth?

Another positive step would be to begin to really support the sports of Agility and Rally for it is becoming evident that these activities are becoming more and more popular with the general pet owning public and can really be money makers for local clubs. It is apparent that the more we monetarily support these local club activities, the greater number of registrations it will generate. It’s the old axiom – you need to spend money to make money.

2009 will bring four new board members to the table. Perhaps the new members will lead the way to more positive thinking and help to rewrite our constitution to make the club more democratic and responsive to its user base.

Dr. Grossman, an international judge, was the publisher of Doral Publications, one of the leading dog book publishing houses. Upon selling the business to Bowtie Press in 2004, he began work on a new concept, “The Professional Dog Mentor.” His website is chockfull of killer tips on breeding and showing purebred dogs and is found at www.winningsolutions.info. See the advertisement in this issue.

Dr. Grossman, a long-time judge of Sporting Dogs, and publisher of Doral Publishing, is now the president of winningsolutions.info, a website devoted to developing the Professional Mentor concept via killer ideas and vital information for the breeder who wants to a high degree of success in his efforts. This information can be found at http://www.winningsolutions.info