AKC’s Incredibly Bad Start

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84 – August, 2023

By Amy Fernandez

According to the IRS, AKC falls into the 501 (c) (4) nonprofit category: “Civic leagues, social welfare organizations and local associations of employees, created to promote community welfare for charitable, educational or recreational purposes.”

That fairly vague definition says almost nothing about its day-to-day function, possibly because from the get-go AKC has struggled to define its actual purpose. Their power structure and role in the sport seemed to unfurl randomly, and most of the directed action occurred in response to problems and conflicts as they arose, or as AKC created them.

But we’re not talking about some school kid discovering a path in life. This is a multimillion dollar organization with global influence. That kind of money and power does not, or definitely should not, suggest a random approach to anything. Looks can be deceiving. Reviewing an early slice of AKC management in action illustrated their floundering, disconnected and generally ridiculous decision-making. In retrospect, it seemed to foretell a lifetime pattern.

Founded just two years earlier, after several failed attempts, by 1886, to the astonishment of all, AKC appeared to be gaining a legitimate foothold in the dog world. Following the first big blowup about organizational structure, they had settled on this “club of clubs” format and 13 clubs were going along with that plan. Better yet, a few of those member clubs reported successful shows held under the newly established AKC banner. Successful doesn’t imply profitable. Essentially, it meant that exhibitors and judges were actually showing up and competing without any catastrophic or embarrassing incidents to mar the proceedings. Of course, that encouraging report from the March, 1886 board meeting was based on shows given by five clubs–including one in New Brunswick, Canada. By then, the organization was on its second president in less than a year. After ejecting James Taylor eight months after electing him, VP Elliot Smith reluctantly took over. And his hesitance was understandable.

Click here to read the complete article
84 – August, 2023

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Posted by AnthonyA on Aug 10 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.