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MARCH 2, 2012
the editorial
DOG NEWS ENDORSEMENTS FOR BOARD ELECTIONS This is one of the more unusual Board elections within the last decade since term limit restrictions prevent both the Board Chairman of the last 10 years and his Vice Chairman from running this year. Both, however, are eligible to run next year should either so choose to do. As a result of these two openings to be filled immediately after the election there is a major shift in priorities when it comes to endorsing anyone for the vacant Board seats. A new Chairperson could affect the very viability of AKC for the next decade or so. Which makes it all the more important to support people who will vote into this position the most progressive and positive of thinkers. A person with a vision for the future, an eye to the past and an understanding of the needs of the present is what the Board must be on the alert for. He or she must be someone whose interests are corporate oriented and not personally motivated! And there is just such a person seeking this seat from his fellow Board members. Unfortunately not one of the candidates running for the Board are willing to take a public stand as to whom they will vote for should they be elected notwithstanding the fact that the camps are evenly divided and the choice is as plain as can be! Not only that but one camp of sitting Directors refuses to state publicly whether they are in favor of an open or closed Board voted to determine who is to become Board Chair. Let’s hope that the Fancy is not going to be faced with the repeat shenanigans of years ago when in a closed vote it took over seven hours to decide between Bob Berndt or Jim Smith to be Chairman without the Fancy ever learning who voted for who! Why Gladstone, Ashby, Amen and Battaglia insist upon remaining silent on this point is inexplicable except to presume they are up to no good in the matter. At least the Kalter team of sitting directors has openly taken a position of an open vote while ALL the candidates running from the floor were willing to go public on their stands except for Mr. Finney as of the writing of this editorial (See this WEEKS QUESTION OF THE WEEK ON THIS SUBJECT). As far as these pages are concerned without a public stand as to whom they will vote for we withhold any endorsement of any candidate for the Board whether nominated by the Nominating Committee or individuals running from the floor. Some people running from the floor are playing both sides in an effort be re-elected and to them we say a total fie on you all. Those willing to say privately for whom they will vote deserve some support one would suppose but if they are not willing to go public on this issue what makes you think they can be trusted on future issues as well. What these pages will endorse however is Alan Kalter as Board Chair and any candidate who is willing to support him as well. Keep in mind this election is about who will become our new Board Chairman, which will determine the future of our sport and hobby for years to come. You know you are in capable and proven hands with Alan Kalter for sure!!
MANIPULATING THE ELECTION Some Internet Chatter led by a Judge from Texas who may or may not be a delegate-one hopes for the sake of the Delegate Body she is not one- has accused DOG NEWS of attempting to “manipulate the elections”. Well if running 22 pages of Questions to the Candidates is what she is referring to these pages happily plead guilty to her charge. If she is referring to the fact that editorially these pages have not taken a stand on any one candidate again we plead happily guilty to her charges. If we have attempted to get people to speak out publicly on as many issues as possible again we happily plead guilty to her charges. What individual writers write in their columns are their opinions and in no way reflects the editorial stand of DOG NEWS. Indeed in this week’s issue Connie Vanacore endorses three people—they are not necessarily our choices but are hers and hers alone. Is this manipulation of an election or the common practice of freedom of the press and freedom of speech? THE RE-ALIGNMENT DEBATE Most reasonable people understand the need for some kind of Group and Breed realignment. The problem, which has existed for years now, is how to implement these changes. Indeed when the original Committee in 1984 was formed with Herman Felton as Chairman not even the heady weight of an Anne Rodgers Clark, Jack Marvin, Council Parker and Donna Hausman serving on that Committee, to name but a few, could push through its comparative mild changes as compared to today’s more radical ideas. Of course in the ‘80’s there not over 150 breeds with which to contend but the resistance to any form of dog show change is so inborn as to almost prevent positive progress from being made on any level whatsoever. Which is one reason these pages frequently take the position that the word democracy cannot and should not apply to AKC operations. AKC is much more than a registration body it is a regulatory body as well and as such has the obligation and power to make changes to its internal structure as best meets the needs of its constituents. Sure input is needed from the constituencies on most everything but there is a difference between input and input. Input, which starts off negatively and refuses to recognize the need for change, must be ignored. Look at Tennis—Is the Tennis of today the same as the Tennis of 30 years ago? Absolutely not and if the powers in charge of that sport were not given a complete leeway it probably would have become a dying sport. The same thinking applies to dogs and dog shows. Either we trust and believe in our leaders or we do not. Change is both necessary and inevitable in the Group alignment area-to sit back and criticize each and every idea without giving it an opportunity to be played out results in a replay of 1984 with nothing ever getting accomplished. CRUFTS Next week is the great and powerful dog show of them all - the Crufts Dog Show Event will take place not in London but in Birmingham at the NEC as usual. With its over 21,000 entries Crufts remains the largest drawing dog show in the world notwithstanding FCI’s hopes of topping it with its show last year in Paris. This fact may very well have motivated the evil intent on the part of the BBC and Jemima Harrison in producing and airing PDE II just the week before Crufts began. In its attempt to produce an audience and to give Jemima another “15 Minutes of Andy Warhol fame” this misguided and unfair program self-proclaimed as a documentary when in fact it is not one at all hardly created the stir of its predecessor. It did however produce the usual reaction from the animal righters of the UK as the shotgun effect of its producers made its usual unfair accusations against breeders everywhere without distinction. Here’s to Crufts however and its staying capacity and its successes to come in 2012 and beyond. And to the BBC and Ms. Harrison, get a life and leave the concerned breeders of the world alone. THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK Why the sudden confusion about when to award the RBIS starting in July? Is it before or after BIS? After is the answer but who really cares-what an unnecessary award and foolish thing to have implemented at all is the reaction of these pages to it for sure!
10 Dog News