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.