DON’T FIX IT!
A week or
so ago, I received a package from the ABC, containing ballots for the 2014
Specialty and Futurity judges and a nomination form for the ABC Board of Directors.
Coincidentally, there are two hugely important issues before the ABC board at
this time: 1) whether ABC members will be able to continue to nominate judges
of OUR choice in the future to judge our Specialty and Futurity; and 2) where
our National will be held in 2015.
1) Let’s
talk about nomination of ABC judges first: at the 2012 Regional, the ABC president
announced at the membership meeting that a new ABC Judges’ Selection Committee
(JSC) had been created, but didn’t explain who the members would be or what the
JSC would do. Apparently all the details
hadn’t been worked out yet. However, I had heard this issue discussed before I
went off the board in July 2012, and from what I understood at the time, was
strongly opposed to it.
In the
meantime, I got a phone call from Phillip Koenig, the co-chair of the new
committee. Phillip called to try to
convince me that the new JSC was the fairest and most efficient way to select
judges for our National & Regional Specialties. He explained that the JSC
would be co-chaired by two people appointed by the ABC president (or the ABC show
chair?) and would consist of the 5 unelected Regional Directors, who would
accept “suggestions” from ABC members, and would then winnow those suggested
judges’ names down to three (3!) names that would appear on a ballot for us to
vote on. In other words, even if ABC members “suggested” 12 names for the
Specialty, as we did this year, only 3 names would make it onto a ballot. Needless
to say, despite that I have the greatest respect for Phillip and all the hard
work he does for the ABC, I was not convinced.
Take a look
at the 12 names on the 2014 Specialty ballot. Most of the candidates are
well-known breeder-judges and the rest are respected all-rounders who often
judge our breed. Which 9 names would YOU eliminate from that ballot?
Now look at
the 8 names on the Futurity ballot – which 5 or 6 noted breeders would YOU
consign to the “circular file”? Which of the people on either ballot did not
deserve the honor of being nominated to judge our National Specialty &
Futurity? Could you have chosen which people to eliminate? I couldn’t have. But I do have an idea that might allow all of
us to have our cake and eat it too:
There is
currently a nominating committee appointed by the ABC president that is
responsible for nominating 3 or 4 people to run for the ABC board each year. The
committee’s nominees are frequently elected, but not always. ABC members can
also nominate candidates (hence the nominating form in the package I received),
and the membership is thereby given the opportunity to infuse some “new blood”
into the board, if a majority of ABC members agrees with the nominations from
the floor.
If the ABC
leadership doesn't think the current judges’ selection process is fair and doesn't trust ABC members to nominate good candidates, why not set up the proposed judges’ selection committee like the BOD nominating committee? Let the new judges’
nominating committee nominate three judges for the Specialty and two for the
Futurity each year, but let the members continue to make their own nominations
as usual, and may the best man or woman win!
And to make it even more of a win-win situation and introduce some fresh
faces into the ABC show rings, make a rule that an individual cannot judge the
ABC National or Regional more than once every 6-8 years (or 10 years, or
whatever). But please, please, PLEASE, don’t give 5 unelected directors and 2
appointees the authority to decide who’s going to judge at the ABC!!!
2) The
second issue we need to consider is the fact that most airlines have banned air
travel for our boxers, and the ones that still accept “snub-nosed dogs” charge
prohibitively expensive shipping fees even for excess baggage, and change their
rules and regulations on what seems to be a flight by flight basis. Will the
ABC BOD *finally* put the show in the center of the country in 2015 (it’s only
been 15 years since we voted to do that) and make the ABC National accessible
to western ABC members and exhibitors?
In the
representative democracy that is the American Boxer Club, the solution to the above mentioned urgent problems lies with YOU, the ABC membership. We’re about
to elect 4 new board members. Contact the board nominees and ASK if they are
committed to making the ABC accessible to western members and exhibitors by
moving the show to Topeka or some other central location by 2015. Then ASK if
they will vote for or against allowing an unelected committee to determine who
is allowed to judge at the ABC Specialty, Futurity and Regional.
If you
don’t like their answers, then nominate a candidate who represents YOUR best
interests. Board nominations must be in the hands of the ABC secretary by
Feb 1. It’s as simple as all that!
