First off, an apology to the Club as I, at the last minute canceled my trip to Raleigh. I ran into some problems here with a whelping last week, resulting in 3 live (and still thriving puppies), a stillborn and a rush to the Vet (VCA Lynwood Vet and Emergency facility) with a puppy with a heart rate of 150-260, which fell to 40 by the time they did a less than emergent C-section :needless to say, lost that one too. Plus then spoke with Dee about some worrisome behavior by the bitch, since resolved, and probably innocuous, but I just couldn't leave her and them under Doug's care while he tried to maintain a limited work schedule. Sooooo...here I am.

The meetings in Raleigh are over, but I have been soliciting and getting reports all day. Let me summarize:

1. An amendment is forthcoming form AKC Staff to cause a club which does not have a show at least every other year in its territory to lose date. This I will find out more about, it will probably fail or be modified, as many clubs, for any number of reasons, economic, etc etc, move form their territory.

2. There will apparently be no in-ring observers any longer, but rather a 1 to 1 ringside mentoring will now occur, with approved parent club mentors. this will be policy, not amendment, and once presented and promoted I'll get this to all direct bearing on show chairs.

3. The amendment to allow professional judges as delegates was handily defeated, and needed a 2/3 vote to proceed. Failed to muster 50% (136 yea, 157 nay), but I suspect will be visited periodically, and I would like us to continue from time to time to talk about this.

4. The next big topic will be conflict of interest in judges, restriction on other judging for other organizations, etc . Let me see if I can explain this. Judges who judge working dogs for AKC will not be allowed to judge working dogs for say UKC. But I believe that if you are invited to judge toy breeds by another organization (and don't judge toys for AKC), this would be okay. So a lure judge would also find the same restriction, but would be allowed to judge say a Seiger show. This is just starting to come up, and I believe Walter Pede is trying to take this down, insisting that it is up to Delegates (he is not one) not AKC Board. Others disagree with this interpretation of chain of command. See you in Court anyone? I'll try to stay on top of this on the list, and continue to forward pertinent posts.

5. Change in process of nominations for AKC Board (Judy Daniels project) withdrawn this time around for retooling: a bad idea I think. Plus would really drag out the "Campaign" We'll see, but going nowhere now.

6. New improved AKC Website- check it out.

7. Finances in good shape. Goal is to build an endowment of $100 million so that AKC can be self-sustaining. Now I think in excess of $50 million, which was earlier goal. Always takes more money doesn' t it? Events continue to be revenue losers, but publications, registrations,etc etc, taking care of the store.

Bo Gloster, AKC Delegate