Thursday, June 12, 2014

ABC MEMBERS: A Call to Action!


The most important decision an ABC member can make regarding the ABC shows – the Futurity, National and Regional – is nominating and electing the judges for those events. Unfortunately, when it came to the 2015 Regional nominations, the ABC blew it.

Here’s what happened: The ABC Judges Selection Committee (JSC) posted the criteria listed at the bottom of this page (Appendix A) to the ABC website sometime in February 2014. These judging criteria were also included in the nomination packets for the 2015 Regional that were mailed to every ABC member and member club in March or April. Take a look at Item 2 in Appendix A, and then look at Tom Latta’s analysis of how these criteria would have affected past judge selections (Tom's analysis is also at the bottom of this page).  

Now look at Item 5 in Appendix A: “Must not have judged the Futurity, Regional BOB and ABC National BOB within the 10 years prior to his or her nomination for any assignment.” That means that the judge who did the Futurity this year cannot be considered for the National or Regional till at least 2024, even if she applies for an AKC judge’s license today!

But that’s not the worst of it. Not only is Criterion 5 absurd, it’s not the requirement the board approved! Somehow, in translating those criteria from the boardroom to the website, the wording became hopelessly scrambled. On top of all that, apparently the JSC has known for a while that the wording was not correct, but even though the deadline for the 2015 Regional nominations was May 31, 2014, an “explanation” wasn't posted to the website till May 29. Also, there’s no link to the explanation from the criteria and the unapproved judging criteria are STILL on the website! Oh yes, and only five (5) nominations were received for the 2015 Regional. If you’ll take another look at Tom Latta’s analysis, you can see why. A nomination would require some serious research, and most people simply don’t have the time to do that. 

You know, everyone makes mistakes and everyone realizes that the ABC directors and committee chairs are unpaid volunteers. But the Judges Selection Committee has been working on these criteria for over two years! And actually, the only thing ABC members asked them to do in the first place was to set a reasonable limit (5 years? 7 years?) on how often someone could judge each of the three ABC conformation events. At the very least, these criteria should be removed from the website while they’re being revised, and once they've been revised, the membership should be allowed to vote on them.

Bottom line: The 2015 Regional nominations need to be reopened ASAP.  If the board can’t come to a swift consensus, then the ABC President needs to make an executive decision.

Email your ABC directors and let them know that you want input into this supremely important ABC policy:

Barry Wyerman                    wyerbr@sbcglobal.net
Beth Downey                        amityhallboxers@yahoo.com
Bridget J. Brown                   jackeye@bellsouth.net
Bruce & Judy Voran            bjvoran@gmail.com
Diane Kowalchyk-Morris    aboxabiz@aol.com
Ginny Shames                     Arribatali@aol.com
Jill Hootman                          tealcrst@gmail.com
Karen Emerson                    kaemerso2003@yahoo.com
Korinne Vanderpool            korvpool@gmail.com
Linda Abel                             strybkbox@aol.com
Linda Middagh                     lrmboxers@comcast.net
Sharon Steckler                   steckler@swbell.net
Stephanie Abraham            landmarks.properties@snet.net
Teresa Kaminski                  tckaminski@sbcglobal.net

APPENDIX A
CRITERIA FOR JUDGES FOR THE ABC NATIONAL SPECIALTY, REGIONAL & FUTURITY

Judges wishing to judge the ABC National Specialty, Regional or Futurity must meet the criteria set out below. If at any time a Judge fails to meet the criteria, including the time period after their selection and before the assignment, he or she will forfeit the assignment and the Judge receiving the 2nd most votes will be awarded the assignment; similarly, the Judge receiving the 3rd most votes will be awarded the remaining classes.
No Judge will be placed before the ABC membership as a candidate who does not meet each of the following criteria.
A candidate:
  1. Must be an AKC-approved regular status Judge in good standing with no disciplinary issues with AKC in the past 10 years.
  2. Must have been an AKC-approved regular status Judge for at least 5 years prior to their nomination and have judged at least 3 shows with MAJORS in the Boxers.
  3. Must not be a permit Judge, active handlers, or Boxer breeder who is not AKC approved regular status judge.
  4. Must not have judged the Boxer breed in the US within 6 months of the ABC assignment and cannot judge in the regional cluster prior to the nationals.
  5. Must not have judged the Futurity, Regional BOB and ABC National BOB within the 10 years prior to his or her nomination for any assignment.
  6. Must abide by Ethics and Honesty, Conflict of Interest and Gray Areas in AKC Guidelines for Conformation of Dog Show Judges (pages 2 - 5). Furthermore, once nominated, must not have posted comments on social media or other public venue.
  7. Must abide by the AKC one year period for co-ownership restriction. (Rules Applying to Dog Shows -- (Chapter 11, Section 13).
  8. Must, if selected, excuse any dogs, handlers or exhibitors upon entrance to the ring when a possible conflict of interest or unfair advantage appears to be present. (AKC guidelines will be used.)
  9. Must provide written critique of their judging to the ABC before any publications in print or online.
Nominators must personally assure that candidates who are nominated to judge the National Specialty or Regional meet the criteria in this document. The nominators must supply a statement signed by their nominated candidate that the candidate meets these criteria. Additional reviews may be done at the discretion of the ABC Judges Screening Committee.
NOTE: Criteria 1, 2 and 3 do not apply to a Futurity nomination.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tom Latta's analysis of the judging criteria:

How would the current criteria have affected past judge selections?

Year
Show
Judge
Qualified if 2014 Criteria had been applied?
2003
ABC Futurity
Christine Baum
Yes
2003
ABC National (Bitches & Breed)
Betty Mentzer
Yes
2003
ABC National (Dogs)
Cindy Meyer
No (approved Boxers 9/8/2000, ineligible under Criteria #2)
2004
ABC Futurity
Melvin Holloman
Yes
2004
ABC National (Bitches & Breed)
Stephanie Abraham
Yes
2004
ABC National (Dogs)
Tom Hutchings
Yes
2004
ABC Regional
Janet Sinclair
No (approved Boxers 12/10/1999, ineligible under Criteria #2)
2005
ABC Futurity
Robert Phillips
Yes
2005
ABC National (Bitches & Breed)
Billie McFadden
Yes
2005
ABC National (Dogs)
Dixie McCauley
Unknown
2005
ABC Regional
Sandy Orr
No (approved Boxers 6/10/2004, ineligible under Criteria #2)
2006
ABC Futurity
Gary Steele
Yes
2006
ABC National (Dogs & Breed)
Monika Pinsker
Yes
2006
ABC National (Bitches)
Larry Sinclair
Yes
2006
ABC Regional
Jack Ireland
Yes
2007
ABC Futurity
Daniel Buchwald
No (judged 1998 Futurity, ineligible under Criteria #5)
2007
ABC National (Bitches & Breed)
Alberto Berrios
Yes
2007
ABC National (Dogs)
Sandy Orr
Yes
2007
ABC Regional
Judith Voran
No (approved Boxers 7/9/2003, ineligible under Criteria #2)
2008
ABC Futurity
Virginia Shames
Yes
2008
ABC National (Dogs & Breed)
Janet Sinclair
Yes
2008
ABC National (Bitches)
Rufus Burleson
Yes
2008
ABC Regional
Maureen Boyd
Yes
2009
ABC Futurity
Mary Lou Hatfield
Yes
2009
ABC National (Dogs & Breed)
Elizabeth Gunter
Yes
2009
ABC National (Bitches)
Pat Healy
No (approved Boxers 4/10/2007, ineligible under Criteria #2)
2009
ABC Regional
Larry Sinclair
Yes
2009
ABC Regional
Sharon Steckler
No (approved Boxers 3/12/2008, ineligible under Criteria #2)
2010
ABC Futurity
Clifford Steele
Yes
2010
ABC National (Dogs & Breed)
Jack Ireland
Yes
2010
ABC National (Bitches)
Tom Perret
Yes
2010
ABC Regional
Patricia Mullen
No (approved Boxers 6/15/2005, ineligible under Criteria #2)
2011
ABC Futurity
Michael Shepherd
Yes
2011
ABC National (Bitches & Breed)
Shirley Bell
No (approved Boxers 8/6/2006, ineligible under Criteria #2)
2011
ABC National (Dogs)
Sharon Steckler
No (approved Boxers 3/12/2008, ineligible under Criteria #2)
2011
ABC Regional
Sandy Orr
No (judged 2005 Regional, ineligible under Criteria #5)
2012
ABC Futurity
Bridget Brown
Yes
2012
ABC National (Bitches & Breed)
Peter Baynes
Yes
2012
ABC National (Dogs)
David Abraham
Yes
2012
ABC Regional
Cheryl Robbins
Yes
2013
ABC Futurity
Wendy J Morawski
Yes
2013
ABC National (Bitches & Breed)
Alberto Berrios
No (judged Breed @ 2007 National, ineligible under Criteria #5)
2013
ABC National (Dogs)
Ann Gilbert
No (approved Boxers 1/13/2009, ineligible under Criteria #2)
2013
ABC Regional
Joe Gregory
Yes
2014
ABC Futurity
Tami Mishler
Yes
2014
ABC National (Dogs & Breed)
Butch Engel
Yes
2014
ABC National (Bitches)
Pat Mullen
Yes
2014
ABC Regional
Evalyn Gregory
No (approved Boxers 4/1/2013, ineligible under Criteria #2)

Based on the above analysis, the newly established 2014 Judge Selection Criteria would have had the following effect over the past 11 years:

1 of the last 12 Futurity Judges would have been ineligible
7 of the last 13 Regional Judges would have been ineligible
6 of the last 24 National Judges would have been ineligible 

No comments:

Post a Comment