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AWDF
President's
report 2007
I would like to start by thanking
our 2007 championship host club, the St. Louis Schutzhund Association,
and the good people of Farmington, Missouri for under taking this
event. Thanks are also in order for all of our members who
are not only supporting our championship, but also those who are
working hard to make our federation the best working-dog organization
in America.
It has been a busy year for our
organization as we continue to build our working relationship with our
FCI counterparts, as well as undertake new challenges here in
America. Our federation continues to expand, and as such we have
been invited to become more involved with our friends in
Europe. As examples, the AWDF was invited to attend the FCI
judges
workshop last December in Nova Gorica, Slovenia. At that
meeting, four of our own American judges became FCI recognized
judges. We were also instrumental in working with the
SV and USA to bring the RH program here to
America. Several American judges now are eligible
to officiate RH1 events. Mondioring was recently voted in as a
sub-commission of the FCI working commission. Ann Putegnat
from our Mondioring club has been named to be involved with this
sub-commission.
I would like to thank each and
every one of our membership for working to make the inclusion of
DVG America into our federation a reality.
We continue fight against
anti-working-dog legislation throughout our country. We
have been active in our opposition of any and all anti-working-dog
legislations, and I am quite pleased with the number of our
fellow dog friends who are getting involved with our committee.
In the coming year I plan to
research new and innovative approaches to funding our organizational
needs. We are growing and we need to develop a better cash
flow so that we can continue to create new programs and offer new
opportunities to our membership.
The FCI FH team is an example of
some of the funding
options I have had the chance to work out.
Taunya and Josef Mravek of Eurosport Dog Training Supplies have
agreed to purchase team uniforms for our team. USA again
will
be donating team shirts for this all-GSD FH
team. Additionally, a deal has been made with Bill
Campbell of K9 Koncepts regarding AWDF logo merchandise, as well as
for uniforms for our FCI IPO teams. Other potential relationships
are in the works as of this writing.
While the host club did a fantastic
job putting this years' championship event together, our organization
needs
to improve its efforts to improve the event.
Simply
put, the AWDF championship has to be run in a more efficient
manner, and in such a way as to better serve our membership. This
means we will be looking into potentially moving our trial dates
and doing
a better job working with our hosting clubs, particularly in the
area of keeping costs down. Numerous options will be looked
into. One small addition is that we will allow our older
friends a chance to participate in the event. Dogs over 6
years of age are allowed to compete at a lower level, without
placement or team consideration. I believe this opens our event
to a broader group of competitors, as this would be basically a
non-competitive class.
Several projects in the
works include the development of a teaching-club program, a
tracklayer program, and the further development of our own
working title.
I will continue to look for areas to
expand into, with the hope of uniting all working-dog enthusiasts here
in America.
Best regards,
Al Govednik
President AWDF
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