New Breed Club To-Do List
Well, I know many people here have been involved in setting up the Shikoku Club + other groups. So I think this is the best place to ask for advice.
For setting up a new breed club:
What would be considered critical tasks to get set up in beginning stages of a breed club?
What would be mid to long term critical tasks?
Does anyone have any advice in general for how to go about setting everything up?
Lastly, non-profit status such as JACA, has anyone had experience getting that set up and has any helpful links to related resources?
edit: said Akiho instead of JACA
For setting up a new breed club:
What would be considered critical tasks to get set up in beginning stages of a breed club?
What would be mid to long term critical tasks?
Does anyone have any advice in general for how to go about setting everything up?
Lastly, non-profit status such as JACA, has anyone had experience getting that set up and has any helpful links to related resources?
edit: said Akiho instead of JACA
Comments
I think a multi-breed club can be *more* valuable than single breed clubs, especially if it is still specific breeds (as opposed to all breeds) and they are related/similar.
1.) Reach out to existing Hokka owners in the U.S. and create a subcommunity that you can call your own
2.) Gather thoughts and ideas on what common goals are for long term (5-10 years)
3.) Create agreeable goals for the short term (yearly)
4.) Start looking for ways for you to locally educate and inform the general public of the existence of the breed (local pet expos, UKC shows, etc.).
http://www.ukcdogs.com/Web.nsf/Breeds/NorthernBreed/Hokkaido
Good luck!
Jesse
We have plenty of multibreed organizations already they're called kennel clubs. So my first suggestion is to focus on one breed only. Keep your membership focused on that breed and it's development. What may seem like commons goals now can quickly become uncommon goals later. For example only 1 club can be a parent club of 1 breed in AKC. While AKC might not be high on your list now it might be important later on.
It is easy easy easy to get non-profit status it is a fair amount of work to get designated as a 501c3. You can convert from one to the other so that's not a concern. I would start non-profit and then look at it again a year or so later. Plus that will give JACA a year or two under its belt and I can tell you first hand if its good or it sucks.
Short term this is what you need to do:
Establish club mission and figure out if you have the base membership to do warrant a club. I would say 25 initial paying members would be enough to get an organization off the ground.
You're going to need to incorporate your organization. Along with that you'll need bylaws and take meeting mins.
Establish banking relationships under the new clubs name and have a club insurance policy issued.
Mid range goals:
Website AND please take this part very seriously -come up with a communication system that is easy use so members can quickly talk to each other.
First early events: Are you looking to do expos, or picnics, host shows etc?
Long range goals: Don't worry about these until you get your first year out of the way.
What Sean is referring to is called a National (Breed) Club in AKC or Parent Club in UKC. While a club of this type is important in order to secure AKC/UKC recognition and control over the breed standard, it really only matters to serious show people. I don't get the impression that folks are chomping at the bit for the ability to show in more venues or that the desire to form a club is primarily focused on conformation and show homes.
Instead, it seems like this is meant to be a more official organization (as opposed to semi-anonymous social networking) for owners of pets and those hoping to import, with official bylaws, rules, dues(?), and club sponsored educational events and activities. As such, I don't think being limited to one breed is necessary, especially when it may limit the number of potential members. ie. I would probably join a Nihon Ken club, I would not join a Kishu club.
Of course, having a parent club to control the breed standard(s) in addition to a multi-breed club would be most ideal. And there is nothing to prevent both from existing...
I think the Nihonken Invitational is awesome. But it's only ever going to happen where it is now. There some kind of disenfrachisement with Nippo classic- and nobody sent any medium NK last time. NK owners enjoy gathering and performance events (like coursing, barn hunt, some agility, rally, cgc.) and showing is needed to cast a net for new Dog People to become importers and breeders.
When I went to a Match Show last year, it was organized by two all-breed clubs, and there was a breed club also holding its specialty in conjunction over in one of the rings in the morning. There was agility and ATTS going on.
Is there any value to a Nihon Ken Club?
Are these kind of clubs (like the Hairless dogs club) regional, or national? Is it easier to start, say, an East Coast NK Club- and create an annual event close to where NK owners are (mid-atlantic) and see how it goes?
What makes a club an official club? Do these kind of clubs go thru AKC and similar paperwork that a parent club goes thru? Non-profiting?
Im not meaning to derail Charles' thread- HANA needs mentoring to get its house in order, and Sean knows what stuff needs doing. But I am wondering if these small breed clubs can benefit by also uniting under an NK club for certain purposes, including help navigating the development of all our breed clubs, or maybe I mean formalizing the network we have so we can do more together and include everyone. These little clubs end up becoming one person's thing and it's overwhelming and clubs lie fallow. I think the West Coasters do a good job coordinating who's going to expos booths, the big show, crashing the lure coursing days together, but we in NK East aren't doing that so well yet.
I think there is merit to an East Coast NK club. We have a number of JA people that are east of the Mississippi who are more or less left out of doing JACA and AKIHO events because the distance is too far. They've been wanting to do more, have meetups, do booths at PetExpos, etc. But - though JACA conceptually supports this idea, there isn't much we can actually do to help them from so far away, and they are still few in number.
If there was another NK club of any type, even if for a single breed, then at least it might be possible for our east coast JACA folks to partner up with them for some events. But it becomes somewhat complicated when its two or more clubs involved with regards to taxes, liability, booth/reservation fees, etc. One club simplifies this matter, and makes it more likely that more diverse members will participate. (As opposed to, "Oh, the Hokkaido and Kai are running an event, well I have Shikoku so its not about my breed and I'm not going to go...")
Maybe i can do some research on an East Coast NK Event club- what's involved, what can reasonably be attempted...
@Calia I'll message you about how the 2014 show site was.
I still think the single breed club is the way to go. That doesn't stop your club from making a union with other Nihonken clubs. I just feel that your message might get lost in the shuffle with a bigger club. But it's your club and that is something you and your future members need to figure out.
One other bit of advice is this - look at other clubs outside of doggy world. Take a long look at their bylaws and mechanisms to expand and contract. I would take a long look at the corvair club of america(CORSA). In fact that is the template that I would like JACA to follow. You have your main club and then chapters/branches. Events are listed on a Calendar for each chapter so that the club insurance covers them. Each chapter has 1 person who reports to the main club's board. There is not a lot of $$ in the Corvair car world so it's perfect example as they target hobbyist. After all it's a poor mans Porsche.
As long as there's someone taking on the role of "national coordinator" to oversee the overall showing responsibility for organizing the proceedings, and then someone locally to take those already laid out plans and implementing it... then I think it would make things a lot more simple. Having 5 clubs for the same purpose just complicates it in my eyes. That's expanding the amount of work on orders of magnitude , when it's all the same functions being generated. That could be a fun project for you and some other "Easties" Chrys
As for myself, HANA is definitely going to be a single breed focused club, with the intention of taking ownership of responsibilities pertaining to a national club. I'd like to get Hokkaido pups to all regions, and hopefully to the popular level that Kai are at (not too popular, but nicely populated). That'd make it a lot easier to set up an East cost event/co-event, on top of a planned West coast yearly meet (it would be a friendly conformation event + sports (lure coursing, agility, things like that) depending upon what members are interested in.
I'd been asking Tara and Jesse (@CrimsonO2) about project management software. The reason for that is because I'm approaching this on the same level as a start up business. The first step is getting the website and social media handled, but then the second step is to get media prepared for Pet Expo and wherever Genko, Yezo, and other Hokka are taken to. That way all someone has to do is go to a resources index and download premade information flyers and business card templates. Within 2 minutes (download -> print) any member should be able to have all of the necessary resources going to man an information booth anywhere in the country/world with the same information that everyone else will have. It's extra time to get it into place, but in the end it's the "entry effort" required that stops most people from being involved.
The same can be scaled up to holding Meets, where the Meet template is in place to make it easier for people to decide to hold an event > get the event cards that have details and requirements for each event > make a resources list from the desired event cards > allocate time and locations. Presto, Club Meet is planned, everyone knows what resources need to get put together for the actual event related items. The rest is all extras.
@*JackBurton* Whoops sorry about that typo. It was 4 or 5am for me at the time lol. We straight up don't even have 25 Hokka in the entire continent yet, so we just ended up getting the ball rolling almost a year and a half ago. Applying for membership is paused for the moment while we get everything well sorted and planned out instead of being a hodgepodge of different things that we've all put together.
Being the standard setting club for the breed has been the priority since day 1, even though I place more importance on the breed being an "active" breed (sports, working, adventuring with owners) over shows and ribbons. Either way, they'll almost all be picking up a ton of Best In Breed awards as a default, due to simply not having any competition. So just by showing up the breed will have "show clout" when it comes to potential owners who just want to see that the dogs have parents worthy of being shown. I'll obviously be getting into the conformation and show scene by necessity, but imo it's a self fulfilling achievement as ribbons are a result of well bred dogs with good temperament + conformation training. I'll be more focused on having an appropriate Standard to be breeding towards that matches with the Hokkaido Ken Hozonkai (who I will need to be contacting in the relatively near future for introductions and to work together).
As for the incorporation of the club, banking, and insuring. I'm assuming those are to be done in that order? I've never registered a business or incorporated, as my personal ventures in the past have all been face to face/e-face to face transactions on the equivalent of cash. Also, is there a benefit, as a non-profit, to be registering in a state with no income tax, such as Washington or Texas? Or for non-profits is it not so much of an issue?
Thank you for the advice guys. It's incredibly helpful
Ask anyone in our club and they'll tell you that I'm not a huge show person. It's assumed that shows = ribbons and wins. Instead shows can be seen as educational and more of an exhibit. More people were wandering around the invite socialization that they were at the ring. Shows don't have to be conformation based either, you might have people who want to do agility or nosework. The trick is to balance your events, (expo, meetup, and shows).
" It was 4 or 5am for me at the time lol. We straight up don't even have 25 Hokka in the entire continent yet, so we just ended up getting the ball rolling almost a year and a half ago."
I didn't say 25 Hokka, I said 25 initial members. People who are interested in your cause and are interested in getting the breed established here. How do you grow your membership? Well one way I did was to include a year of membership when I sell a puppy. So I write the check for them to join the club..
Good perspective on shows too. I wonder what the ratio is in competitors to spectators. Are shows basically the dog version of comic/movie conventions, where people who just want to have a good time show up as well/purely to socialize or were those social areas only breeders that were mingling? My expectations of shows are definitely biased by my South FL experiences, but I'm certainly open minded to any kind of positive events to hang out and talk to other owners/breeders. The outside-looking-in view just seems very cutthroat lol.
CORSA seems like an excellent example also. I'm going to look into them more tomorrow night and do some research.
@sjp51993 @poetikdragon Mind pm'ing me about your experience with them?
Has anyone given an incentive like this a try? One of my primary focuses on placement is to get the Hokka into homes where they won't just be couch decorations, and this could be a great way for "once every 2-3 months" activity participation to become once a month activities.
(Obviously some sports require a lot of long term attendance for particular title upgrades. This is a simplified explanation)
This was @sangmort's idea by the way, she's a smart cookie
So I changed the carrot and used co-ownerships. I stay on until the health tests are done.
The way they have it, a person could essentially work their way to getting back the amount they paid for the dog, though in the process they would be spending more time and money than that to get to that point.
I think the main thing that will be driving how much can be incentivized is how many pups are birthed per litter. If Genko ends up having 5 per litter like her mom, then that'll give a lot more flexibility as more pups = much easier to recover vet and care costs + have money set aside to take care of any possible returned pups, but if she has 2-3 like Seta then a good deal more of the money, percentage wise, will get taken up.
Is that who you got Titan from?
@ayk Are there that many Jindo breeders in the US that the pushback would affect you very much? You're the only Jindo breeder that I know lol. Co-ownership makes me nervous, but when they work then they're great!
The pushback is from other Jindo owners/prospecting puppy buyers. The kind of people who get Shibas from puppy mills, despite the abundance of warnings, are the type of people that dominant the Jindo scene. Sometimes I think their motivation is that they don't want their conscience tweeked in knowingly getting a dog from a subpar breeder.