40 Saber Tails Spring 2016

Petit Basset Griffon Vendéen Club of America

serve of roughly - $50,000. The club has 312 members but 

needs 484 members @ $50 to cover annual expenses.  A 

$7,256 loss is projected for 2016, not including any income 

from the 2016 Specialty or Hunts.  To date we have a loss 

of $11,311, but with income from Hunts, Eukanuba and 

Membership dues, the club is projected to end 2015 with 

a $5700 loss. Lindley explained that the General Rule is to 

keep cash on hand to cover expenses of the next National 

Specialty should a catastrophic event happen before en-

trees have been received. Jo reported that in year 2000 the 

highest membership was 382. We have experienced a 25% 

decrease in membership that is consistent with other AKC 

clubs due to members aging out or moving on and breed-

ers not breeding as many litters.

It was discussed how an Associate Membership might be 

of benefit to bring in new members. The goal would be 

for the Club to reach out to these Associate members with 

fun activities, education, mentoring and get them actively 

involved. Hopefully this would lead to their continued full 

and lasting membership. 

The club could take advantage of Social Media to promote 

activities. It was suggested the Club directors should be 

available to and/or responsible for making new members 

feel welcome and answer any questions they might have.  

We need to actively involve our new puppy owners.  Create 

events for fun at National Shows to introduce new mem-

bers to different activities they can do with their dog.  The 

use of an Outreach Person whose job is to create these 

fun activities and invite local dog owners who don’t show 

was discussed.  Nose work (tracking), barn hunt, mock 

dog shows (like Cameron and Katherine did in Texas) are 

possible activities.   Several board members volunteered to 

research what other clubs are doing at their specialties to 

make the event more fun/meaningful for non-conforma-

tion members.

Tiffany suggested we add articles to Saber Tails for pet 

owners, as well as show dog owners, such as Senior dogs 

and their needs, recipes for treats, rescue articles and pho-

tographing dogs indoors and out. 

The general consensus toward membership is that the 

Club needs to:

  

Stop loss

 

Increase membership

 

Retain membership

 

Consider an increase in dues  (Dues have not 

changed in 15 years.)  

Tiffany asked if there were any other topics to discuss now 

or refer to tomorrow’s Sessions.

A general discussion about whether Hunt fees cover 

what is spent on each entry.  For Mid New Jersey and N. 

Carolina hunts we get $3 per entry. For Wisconsin and 

Indiana the Club gets $6 per entry. The Mid New Jersey 

hunts were cancelled due to lack of a venue with avail-

able rabbits. Vickie explained how the Hunt Medallions 

had been handled in the past. Gloria expressed the need 

for better inventory control and information on Hunt/

Show entries.  The possibility of creating bid sheets for 

obtaining bids for inventory needed for hunts/shows 

would help.  The need for a complete accounting at the 

end of each Hunt/Specialty that would make compari-

sons easier to track and help each successive Hunt/Show 

Chair with budgeting and logistics was discussed. 

Concern was expressed about a BOD motion and ap-

proval several years ago regarding awarding lifetime 

membership. A member nominated another member to 

receive a life membership.  The BOD decided to award 

all past PBGVCA Presidents life memberships. As a result 

these individuals’ membership dues were waived. Dis-

cussion on this will take place tomorrow evening.

Bob suggested that the Club encourage breeders to 

distribute membership forms to their new puppy buy-

ers. The possibility of the breeder filing out an associate 

member’s membership form and paying their dues for 

a reduced price to the breeder. An associate member 

would not need sponsors, but to become a full voting 

member they would need the two sponsors required. 

Further discussion on these two subjects will continue 

during the By-laws Session.

Gloria asked if anyone had gotten an invoice for 2015 

Eukanuba medallions. The Board had decided to order 

medallions but since no invoice was received and the 

club was not listed in the Premium List we believed the 

AKC might not have gotten our request to be included.  

Anne will discuss with the AKC.

Bob in conversation with Sue Smyth, suggested a list 

of contacts in each geographical region of the country, 

to provide points of information about the Club.  We 

could ask AKC to include this in our New Puppy Flyer 

that is given out new puppy owners when they register 
their puppy. Sue will be asked to check with

 

AKC if there 

would be any additional cost to add that to our flyer.

Session ended at 9:36 p.m. CDT.