I was reading the January 20th issue of OUR DOGS, a weekly contemporary in the UK, when I came across what was for me a startling headline (which I will go into later) containing information and figures about AKC of which I was totally unaware. Now then I sort of pride myself about being up-to-date in matters AKC so I called up the New York office to find out from whence this information emanated. Candidly the person I called was as surprised as I was at what was printed and after a few minutes got back to me and said it was information contained ONLY IN THE DELEGATE PORTAL. What in the world is a Delegate Portal I asked and why would this sort of information be contained there. Well it seems that since 2006 two types of Board Minutes have been released and posted it was explained to me. The Delegates receive what we call "Verbatim Board Minutes which are not released to the general public." The reason being as told to me was to keep critics of AKC unaware of exactly what AKC is doing as well as giving the Staff and Board the opportunity to work on new ideas without letting competitors know what they are up to. To me it sounded like a form of censorship, which thought I kept to myself. Admittedly I had heard of AKC's desire to keep potential critical information away from adversaries as well as the business desire to keep secrets but I never realized it was being done on such a selective basis. No wonder I keep questioning what is in the Board Minutes as they are published and have been complaining now for years about the lack of information—IT IS JUST NOT BEING RELEASED TO WE THE CONSTITUENTS OF AKC!!!! Just to the Delegates who violate this trust by posting the information to the foreign press!!!

If there is one area in which I have totally disagreed with the Menaker-Sprung administration it has been in the lack of press releases and the refusal to hold press conferences initially banned by David Merriam. I periodically have written about these problems, which are now even further highlighted by this Verbatim Board Minute policy. In this day of instant communication there is no way in the world anyone can partially release anything. Either one has to keep completely quiet about something or go the whole hog and release everything. The KC in UK tries to put a date embargo on certain press releases and information and this works or does not pending upon the philosophy of the editors and/or publisher. Personally I find this Verbatim Board Minute release a disgrace and cannot help but wonder what other little games are being played in these areas.
Now for what was released in OUR DOGS-a $6.1 million loss in the first 11 months in revenues for AKC—of course $1.7 mil was an investment loss, which probably by December accounted for a major gain the way the stock market has been going. Nonetheless there was a $4.4 mil operating loss, which cannot be denied! No wonder that was not included in the so-called public board release. Jim Stevens was quoted as saying 'The major sources of our revenues continued to be adversely impacted by a shrinking number of breeders, limited sponsorships and licensing opportunities' and a dwindling number of affinity credit-card holders spending less money. Successful ongoing cost containment efforts resulted in total year-to-date expenses being slightly less than the previous year". Of course if one adopts Mr. Finney's philosophy about registrations even more dollars will be lost but more of that to come.

Also Mr. Stevens announced that the lease for New York headquarters expires in 2018. He confirmed that a few years ago a number of factors had been reviewed in substantiating the benefits of having a headquarters location in New York as well as an out base in Raleigh. He confirmed that AKC management would be conducting a further comprehensive review in 2016 of the feasibility of combining two offices into one location as the current lease expires. Fascinating to think this kind of info is for the Delegates only—shocking is perhaps a better word to use. Insofar as North Carolina is concerned keep in mind one of the original purposes for the move was to reduce costs, which according to what I hear has not happened at all! Indeed I am told salaries in the Raleigh area are competitive with New York with a much smaller talent pool to boot! The golf maybe better, which was an original sub linear reason Raleigh was pushed so hard, as well as possibly some racial considerations as well, but those too were sub linear at best.

As to Mr. Finney I am most disappointed with his most recent letter to the Delegates about his stand on registration. Whether his motive is health induced or not it remains clear that his kind of philosophy will in the long run not only make AKC less effective as a force representing the dog but also will result in an even greater diminution of income. I still have not ruled out supporting him but I anxiously await his answers to the Mandeville Questionnaire. Meanwhile I wish he would concentrate on AKC and not Steve Jobs and Apple. It's just not an orange to orange analogy no matter how hard he tries to make it one.