Edd E. Bivin
Thomas H. Bradley lll
Organizing, defining, securing the future, trust
Years of building and growth Starting and maintaining a grassroots organization is often a labor of love. It is one that causes those involved to look at their accomplishment with a great deal of pride, knowing they’ve had an effect on the lives of others, but also watching willing volunteers step in and help the organization flourish. Such is the legacy Messrs. Bradley and Bivin, as the first and second chairmen of Take The Lead, can see with great satisfaction as the baton passes to new leadership. For Bradley, becoming the “chief cook and bottle washer” was happenstance. In an interview in 2010 he told me about the beginning of TTL. “Take the Lead started as a result of a few people who saw a need to assist others who were in the sport, suffering from AIDS. So, we held a cocktail reception at Westchester Kennel Club, our first organized event. It brought in $35,000 in donations and income. Immediately an organizational meeting was held. Everything fell right into place with a lot of volunteers and organizing. The board of trustees was populated with a variety of people from around the country.” From that simple start, Take the Lead became a major cause in the dog world. Tom continued: “There is a group (the Assistance Committee) who reviews the applications. No one else ever knows the details of who applies. It’s kept strictly confidential. Often, people are embarrassed to apply for help and it usually requires a lot of work by their friends to move them to do so. Oftentimes we have to scurry to provide help because by the time the application reaches us the situation has turned desperate. We pay bills. Money isn’t handed directly to the recipients. This has been the toughest year (2010) in terms of the people we’ve helped. During the first 11 months of 2010, $305,000 was disbursed. This is a record year--which is one of those good things/bad things. We’ve been blessed with many, many benefactors--major and minor. Checks come in ranging from $10 to $10,000. People are being more generous than usual this year because they realize this is helping members of their ‘dog family’. We’re all volunteers--none of us take anything for salaries. People with life-threatening and terminal illnesses are assisted. Disasters such as fires, floods, etc., are terrible but are not something addressed by Take The Lead.
As mentioned earlier, in time Bradley recognized the need to have a more structured organization to carry on the work of Take The Lead. Enter Edd E. Bivin. Early on Bivin was asked to join the original Board, although he was not part of the original founders. He found a focus in Take The Lead that ignited his passion for what they were doing. He told me, “Because I believed so strongly in TTL and what it was doing, I was asked to take over the job of chairman which I agreed to do.” He would serve in that capacity for seven years, from 2004 to 2011. For Bivin, Take The Lead utilized his secular skills in the university arena. Bivin was an educator in his working career. A teacher for a time, he became a Vice Chancellor of Administration at Texas Christian University, where he spent most of his career. The considerable skills he possesses were applied to Take The Lead—a bonanza for the organization and indeed for the dog world. He told me, “I really enjoyed what that original board was able to do, and enjoyed being able to help people in need. When I became chairman, I thought a little about what I wanted to do—particularly with changing the demographics. We needed to make the organization more widely known across the country. People needed to know our efforts were not directed at a specific geographic area, but was available nationwide. We needed to secure support from people throughout the country. With the help of a wonderful board, we were able to achieve that. Another problem we had was that TTL had little in the way of endowment, and I knew that was imperative to build that up. I learned in the ‘university business’ (writer’s note: See my June, 2013 article on Edd Bivin) that while you were dependent on the capability of people to give support, you also needed a back-up no greater than the ability of the endowment to produce income. In other words, you don’t want to use up the income of the endowment until you really have to. So, that was the major goal when I was chairman.” The formation of a structure of committees was another important accomplishment for Bivin. He recalled this effort, “I also saw the need to establish committees to accomplish certain work so that no one person or group had to do everything. These initiatives were greatly supported by the board.” Time flew by for Bivin, and Take The Lead became what its leadership had hoped: A force for good works to benefit the people in the dog show community. Being the sort of man he is, Bivin is not one to hang on to a title or position when his work has been accomplished. He brought Take The Lead to a new plateau and made a
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Dog News 69