Saturday, June 13th--Annual Meeting

The day began early for some and earlier for others...the last day of pre-National training, Mother Nature cooperated and provided sunshine and a cool Minnesota breeze. The headquarters, Hibbing Park Hotel, was a flurry of activity with last minute preparation for the event and a frenzy of shopping and meeting old friends. The handlers returned and picked up their packets and were greeted with smiles by the Hostess and Merchandise committees who were busy selling many splendid items emblazoned with the National Amateur Retriever Club logo. The choices were varied and abundant. Shopping doors closed at 11:30 for a lunch break. The first meeting at 1:30 pm will be the Retriever Advisory Committee meeting, followed by the General Meeting. Updates to come...




Here are the highlights from the General Meeting...we will fill in the blanks and cover the RAC meeting later.

-6:30 am the first ten contestants will follow the Traffic Committee vehicle to the site of the first series (double with land blind with hen pheasants).

-7:30 am Test Dogs to the line; Lake Countrys Sunshine, LM, Gary McIlwain and AFC Flatland's Fanny Brice, CF, Lorraine Sarek.

-8:00 First Dog on the line #87 FC-AFC Chippewa Wilson (Wilson), O/H Barbara Furlano

-Rotation for the first four series 87-117-25-55... (30 Plus).

-2 Scratches #18 Griz (Volwood's Yellow Griz) and #111 Angel (FC-AFC Volwoood's Angel), both O/H by Jack Vollstedt.

Handler Instructions

-Any carry-over series: Test Dog 6:45 am and Running Dog 7:00 am.

-Handler on the mat.

-Handler will have 15 seconds once they are on the mat before the judges will call for birds.

-Holding blinds: 2 mandatory next to the line and 1 optional.

-First ten handlers can view the line for 2-3 minutes and after that the remaining handlers can also view the line for 2-3 minutes.

-No Birds: Any no bird will be a rerun. 1st no bird, come back in 6 dogs, 2nd 6 dogs and 3rd go to the end.

-No partial callbacks. Callbacks will be posted in the lobby at HQ, on Working-Retriever.com and at the hostess wagon.

The 2010 National Amateur Retriever Championship judges. They are: Eastern: Judy Rasmuson; Central: Dr. Judy Powers; Mountain: Larry Morgan. The trial will be in Klamath Falls OR with Arnie Erwin Chair and Linda Erwin Co-chair.

Back to the Retriever Advisory Committee meeting this afternoon:

The meeting was called to order by Bill Daley with Jerry Mann (AKC), Lisa Carroll (AKC), John Goettl, Doug Lundgren (AKC), and Katharine Simonds on the dias in the Arrowhead Room of the Hibbing Park Hotel. The following are the results of the proposals that were from the 2008 NARC that were voted on at the 2008 NRC:

Proposal #1 PASSED AND IN EFFECT. Chapter 14, Section 3 of the Field Trial Rules has had the following added to the end of the first paragraph:
“Any person asked to judge an Open, Limited, Special or Restricted Stake in which it is likely that a professional with whom the person has had a training relationship for compensation within the preceding year will be handling dogs should use care before accepting the invitation and should, if possible, seek to judge the accompanying amateur all-age stake. Note: this is not mandatory. Vote was For 29 and Against 26…many felt a mandatory rule would compromise integrity and availability of judges even further.

Proposal #2 DID NOT PASS. This would have provided for mandatory elimination on blind retrieves for dogs when given a delayed forcing command. Barely defeated 28 to 27.

Proposal #3 PASSED, but with the footnote that this needs to be read and approved again by the AKC Directors on their September 2009 agenda. This provides a new paragraph to replace the old paragraph Section 9 of Chapter 8 as follows: “Section 9. No dog shall be eligible to compete at any field trial, no dog shall be brought into the grounds or premises of any field trial, and any dog which may have been brought into the grounds or premises of a field trial shall be immediately removed if, it: a) shows clinical signs of any contagious/communicable disease as determined by the field trial committee, or their designated advisor; or b) is known to be a carrier of any contagious/communicable disease.” This was overwhelmingly passed 50-5.

Proposal #4 PASSED AND IS IN EFFECT NOW…Regards changing the word “should” to “shall” in a number of areas in the Rule Book in Chapter 14, Standard Procedure for Non-Slip Retriever Trials, including: Paragraph 8, Paragraph 10, Paragraph 16 excepting the first “should”, Paragraph 20, Paragraph 23, Paragraph 25, Paragraph 35, Paragraph 37 excepting the first “should”, Paragraph 38, Paragraph 39, Paragraph 44, and Paragraph 46, which is also in Section 6 of Chapter 14. Passed 38-17.

John Goettl announced the new Field Trial Rules and Standard Procedure for Retrievers (yellow cover-Amended to May 2009) and thanked and acknowledged Lisa Carroll's compilation of the index starting with page 59. John introduced the new Chairman, Kate Simonds, of the RAC. Kate took the podium to introduce the three new proposals under consideration.

Proposal #1. To add the following "It is prohibited to gut, pluck, skin or shoot birds on the ground...such misuse of game birds...is prohibited by Fish and Game Laws in many states". This generated MUCH animated discussion from the floor including the distinction between true 'game birds' and those which are domestically raised for training and trialing. There was also concern expressed about allowing Fish and Game more power to control our ability to use birds. Kate wanted a general feeling from the floor about this and attendees offered strong support to remove the word “pluck” and change verbage to “shoot dead birds.”

Proposal #2. The refund of entries if there is a judge substitution before the start of the stake. Discussion about what if persons are not aware of the substitution before they arrive and if they arrive after the start because they have a late number. Also what if a pro has a truck of 15+ dogs and pulls all the entries...a refund could put a small club in the red.

Proposal #3. Clarification of the 2007 rule change allowing Canadian All-Age titled dogs to participate in the AKC equivalent trial and preventing the same dogs from running in AKC Qualifying stakes. The new wording would prohibit any Canadian dogs that have an All-Age CKC placement from entering an AKC Qualifying stake. Some discussion: some were for and some were against.

Full details will be in the published Retriever News NARC report.

The Cocktail Party

After the meetings were adjourned, everyone continued to meet and greet old friends. At 6:30 pm, the group all met again at the Mesaba Country Club. Everyone was dressed in their finery and enjoyed the cool refreshments as much as the company. Old friends were reunited and new friends were made. The setting was spectacular overlooking the lush golf course grounds. The buffet of finger food was amazing…cream cheese filled fried wontons, filo dough cups filled with brie and raspberry puree, sweet and sour pork strips, shrimp cocktail, reuben roll-ups, fresh vegetable trays with various dips, four cheese pate with buttery crackers and more…to top it all off, there was a splendid chocolate fountain surrounded by an array of fresh fruit including pineapple, strawberries, honey dew, cantaloupe and grapes…so delicious! The evening continued with the traditional Calcutta where everybody got the opportunity to bid on each page of the catalog. The object was to determine on which page the winning dog’s name might appear.