# Questions for other retriever club board members



## Alaska7133 (May 26, 2011)

1. We had this come up at our retriever club board meeting last night. Does anyone know if AKC has a person like Jerry Mann doing FT judge/handler classes? We were thinking that our judges could use a little help. 2 weekends ago we had our Open with gunners in a laydown blind. Which is illegal. But without having a better handle on how to judge... Learning how to judge hunt tests is covered better by AKC with Jerry Mann's HT judging/handling seminars.

2. Does anyone know of 2 clubs merging their boards? We have 3 AKC retriever clubs in Alaska. One in Fairbanks and two down here in the Anchorage area. The two down here are thinking of merging the boards into one. The books and everything would be kept separate, but the idea is that one person would be in charge of all 4 hunt tests and another all 4 field trials. There are several people like me that see it as more work for less people. But I'm curious if anyone out there has seen this happen and whatever pitfalls they may have had.

3. I made the mistake of volunteering to look at the books for both local clubs. Anyone out there also a treasurer for their club? I'm interested in communicating on what paperwork needs to be done. 

4. What is everyone paying for ducks these days?


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## FTGoldens (Dec 20, 2012)

1. Not to my knowledge. Unfortunately, things like the layout blind prohibition is something that shouldn't have to be covered in a seminar. (BTW, I disagree with that particular rule, but nonetheless follow it.)
2. I've not heard of any clubs doing the board merger thing.
3. Been there, done that ... but it was too long ago for me to be helpful.
4. Clubs are paying $12 - $15 per delivered duck. I don't know if the bird virus is going to have an effect on the price of ducks or pheasants for trials this year ... I won't be surprised if it does. I know that the price of chicken eggs is about double from just a month ago and there is now a limit on the number of eggs you can buy at the grocery store.
FTGoldens


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## Claudia M (Aug 8, 2012)

Wow, here delivered ducks are $20, if I go and pick up the ducks I do not charge for transportation and that brings it to about $15 per duck.


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## Alaska7133 (May 26, 2011)

We ship our ducks up from the states. You can't imagine what they cost us. We are trying a guy claiming he can raise ducks and provide them for our events this year up here. For someone that has never raised ducks before that's a very difficult under taking. So far he has been unable to provide us with ducks.


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## boomers_dawn (Sep 20, 2009)

1. some area clubs offer the seminars to anyone who wants to take them, but don't target judges or make anyone take them. My impression is in your area your club has judges they use every year because they're the only judges around? 
The clubs in our area use different judges from year to year, so it's not like "the club's judges" that the club asks to do this. AKC has criteria for all judges to remain current, I think it's up to the individuals to remain current and I *think* it's the HT chair's or secretary's responsiblity to ensure they obtain qualified judges for their tests (current, right points, qualified, etc..) - it's all spelled out in the HT Rules and Procedures .. I'm too lazy to go look it up at the moment ... and supposed to be working 

2. Not that I've heard of

3. Not now, but I have in the past. First you have to figure out if you have tax exemption status, hopefully you do so you don't have to deal with taxes. I think I applied for a non-profit # - after that I got some spreadsheets to fill out for income/expenses reports and would just fill them out for the meetings. They were ancient, I don't have them anymore. One of my other club uses some kind of accounting software such as Peachtree. I had to take care of insurance too and any annual renewal items.

4) ballpark $14 or $15 for ducks
Not only bird flu but the cost of gas and feed has risen dramatically over the past few years.


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