An Open Letter to Parent Clubs from Upstairs in Orlando

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166 – February, 2023

By Sandy Weaver

Dear Parent Clubs,

Thank you for the work you do on behalf of your breed and your club members. As owners of your breed’s Standard, we know you take seriously the education of those who will be judging your breed and we appreciate the gravity with which you choose your Judges Education Committee members.

Most of you do an outstanding job with your 90-minute seminars and 60-minute hands-on sessions. Most of you share your passion for your breed, share what makes your breed unique and why, and do that while showing us the places in your Standard that speak to those special characteristics. Most of you are adept at weaving the history of your breed into the characteristics which allow your breed to do the job for which they were designed. Kudos–it’s no small thing to be able to be efficient, enthusiastic, and educational in such a short amount of time.

When you allow your JEC members to share stories–historical as well as personal–you spark the desire to learn in the hearts of your audience, because people learn through stories. When you bring in dogs to illustrate an important point and then reiterate it in the hands-on session with more dogs, you create a meaningful picture of what we should be looking for. When your presenter(s) is clearly comfortable with the slides and the presentation it allows the participants to focus on the message, not the messenger, making learning easier. It also makes the DJAA volunteers and the staff of the AKC Judging Ops department feel heard, because they have provided you with the guidance you clearly followed.

Congratulations and thank you to the clubs that get it right–we appreciate you SO much!

There are a few clubs who don’t get it quite right, and it’s in the spirit of improvement that this part of the letter is offered.

Click here to read the complete article
166 – February, 2023

Short URL: https://caninechronicle.com/?p=256370

Posted by AnthonyA on Feb 19 2023. Filed under Current Articles, Featured. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.