Dear Delegates,

The Dog Show Superintendents Association (DSSA) understands the reasoning behind the move to re-align the Variety Groups and sees its merits but believes the proposed rule for expanding Groups should be delayed for an indefinite period of time.

We ask you to vote “no” if the club you represent has left this decision to your discretion. Our concerns at this time include.

• Need: Adding the "new" breeds should have little impact on most shows at the Group level. Few shows have most or all breeds represented at that level. For those occasions where the Group Ring available is too small for the number of breeds the Judge can divide the dogs as they do now with a large class in a breed.

• Time: Three more Groups will extend the length of shows. We already have complaints from all involved (clubs, judges, AKC staff, AKC field staff, superintendents and exhibitors) that shows are lasting too long. And, remember, the majority of the FCI shows (which have 10 groups) are multiple day events.

• TV: We are seeing fewer televised shows. Increasing the number of Groups and length of time to judge them could have even greater negative impact on production issues.

• Costs: Additional rosettes and, for some clubs, additional trophies must be purchased. More multiple Group Judges must be hired. Implementing a revised Judge Approval process will consume numerous AKC staff hours. Rule books, judge panels and a great amount of forms and paperwork must be updated and printed, resulting in AKC and Superintendents having to throw away current inventories. Major amounts of programming must be changed and/or replaced. The AKC, Superintendents and Show Secretaries are all faced with preparing new systems while still conducting business with their current operations. These are all very real costs that affect all involved and must be paid for by someone. Often that someone is the consumer, in this case it will be the club and, ultimately, the exhibitor. With entries continuing to decline we have no way of knowing how badly entries will suffer even more if a change is made that could result in higher entry fees.

As you are aware the DSSA accepted the invitation to join the committee appointed by the AKC Board. We appreciate the opportunity to be involved and offer the opinions above based on today’s realities as we see them.

The time will come when this should be reviewed and implemented under more favorable conditions, however that time is not now.