I have asked around and talked to old timers and searched
the AKC website and what I have come up with is the goal or mission of a Parent
Club is to Promote the breed. Light bulb moment, I did not know that. I have
also discovered it is to Protect and Preserve the breed. I am pretty sure those
objectives have been around for a long time and should not be arbitrarily
tossed out the window in favor of developing a pet following HOWEVER...... We
can add to those phrases and we can figure out how including ALL of our puppy
people in fact, does help to promote and protect and preserve.
Here is some food for thought....
**there is only so many ready willing and able volunteers
per 100 members. We have just over 200. That gives us a finite amount of help.
Imagine if we had 400. We would double
our ability to bring value to all members.
We are talking about 1214 puppies
from 2018. The club is not going to be
for all of them, we know that. But
what about 100, that is less than 10%.
We are now including a bit of an intro with all new members. Thank you Dianne! This is a huge ice breaker. We need to get to know these people and put our club arm around them in. Members in their area can step
up and say "hi, you come here often?" or better yet “hi, ever been to a Fast Cat”?
**Ever feel like you are preaching
to the choir? I have heard a 100 times on FB “my dog’s
friendly” followed by “that is fine but mine is not” I have heard say no to dog parks over and
over. I know we ALL would love new people to share
our experiences with, to help thru tough times, and teach about one of
our biggest passions, Staffordshire Bull Terriers. I know for a fact WE all love to share
knowledge and offer advice. I see it
every day.
**We have a magazine and multiple events all around the country. There is plenty of room there for pet families
to have value. I love the Pet Corner idea
in the Magazine. We are planning a “Meet
the Member” for the next issue and all subsequent issues. I would love more information on after purchase
support of your new puppy. First 1 ½ years
of puppy activities. How many
of your new homes were shocked when their dog social puppy became a sharp with
other dogs when he/she hit two. Not every breeder has time
for every new needy puppy owner, but guess what, WE DO!!
**The Magazine needs help. I
would like to see a team instead of one person. This is a lot of work to put together and
extremely costly for the club. We need
to breathe some new life into it. We
are working on it, but we need help.
**The Website needs a facelift.
Just know, we are ON IT DOT COM!!
The fact of the matter remains we need more members. We need breeders to feel safe and comfortable
and trusting about referring their new owners which means ensuring all puppies are
registered and that we play nice with ALL breeders and all new owners. We need to bring back people we lost. We need to add value to our club for these
people. We need a reason to stay when
things are not soft and fluffy. Having
members who are purely pet people can also fill the void for volunteers at
trials and shows. Those are also gateway drugs to entering said shows and trials and getting another Stafford. Being better support to all Stafford owners,
not just your own, is to me what it is all about.
When we were campaigning this last fall you all asked a ton of
questions. I have not forgotten. From those questions and my answers I came up
with these goals for my term. I believe
working on these 3 goals will cover most of membership concerns.
Improve
Finances: Hold revenue
generating performance events which makes us financially healthier and also highlights
and includes performance people and their dogs as vital and important to
us. Getting more members will increase our pool
of potential volunteers and also increases our financial health. Those volunteers bring ideas and elbow
grease with them. More members mean
more volunteers. Seriously, what is
more enthusiastic than a new puppy owner, other than their puppy?
Be
better Educators: The Judges
Education is on fire right now. They
have also been tasked with educating membership right up with the judges. They have been given a beefy list of goals and objectives. From now on whatever judges get we get. This absolutely leaves a hole for Pet and
Training and General Stafford husbandry but it is part of the education
plan.
Faster Information / Communication: The dissemination
of information and how we do it is perhaps the most important. Do what we say and say what we do! The magazine is great and has an important
purpose but we are missing so much time sensitive information because it will
be too late to us. We have
had 3 pseudo club newsletters since my term began. This newsletter
will evolve over time. People and
regions can and should submit things for us to include. We may make a judgement that something should be
in the magazine but the odds are high we can get it out to members right away. As President I want to get your show and
event information, out to members. I
want to get that educational seminar we are having at a show out to all of you before it
fills up and especially before it is an article in the SS about its
success. You all need to know what's up as soon as possible.
All of these things will make us a more value added club. I am sure the board will tell you that we are
working at light speed behind the scenes.
There is a chicken or the egg thing going on
here, though. We can’t attract and keep
members until we do certain things but we can’t do certain things until we have
more participation and volunteers (members). This is not to discount the volunteers who
are working tirelessly now. They are doing
amazing with the resources we have in place.
Imagine doubling it!!
We need this AKC Pilot Program. Really we do.
We will give them stats from last year and they will provide a program with
our breed specific advice and then when the year is over we will have the stats
to compare its success. It costs us nothing except to register our puppies
which we should be doing anyway. As
Judith says in today’s world a person needs proof of ownership. Thanks Judith, spot on!
Ask not what your club can do for you but what can you do for your
club! We do need help right now.
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