New Breed Club To-Do List

edited March 2015 in General
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

Comments

  • I have a related question- is there such a thing/is there any value to having a multi-breed club? I would think to pool resources as far as having events is concerned in breeds with a such small numbers...
  • edited March 2015
    JACA recently got non profit status thanks to our awesome tax guy. I recommend you ask Sean for advice, and maybe he can put you in touch with the guy who set it up. I don't believe AKIHO is non-profit however.

    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.
  • I actually inherited the Shikoku club, but my suggestion for critical tasks for this year are:

    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

  • First off Akiho is a Japanese HQ club where as JACA is a 501c3 organization. JACA started life as a 501c7 non-profit.

    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.

  • Oh and this is very important and in the early section - hold your first general meeting.
  • Im new to dog clubs. I don't belong to any. I know nothing. I was imagining a Nihon Ken Club, in addition, not instead of - a breed club. Claire understood what I meant. Maybe JACA can hold events, or various Shiba clubs, but the NAKA never does, NASC never does, the kishu club doesn't, HANA won't- they are all too small. While I don't know much about clubs, a medium size NK club might be able to do things to help the individual breed clubs- like coordinate importing/shippings, have a show or a barn hunt, get a judge, help each other with breed club shepherding through paperwork/fomralities of clubbing, connect mentors. or maybe I'm talking about that which i know nothing.
  • edited March 2015
    There are plenty of multi-breed clubs that are not kennel clubs / registries like AKC and UKC. For example, in California we have Action Dog Sports (Sean's favorite club, hahaha), Coastal Kennel Club, Gold Country Hounds & Hunters, San Diego Dog Fanciers, and Hairless Dog Club of America. All that really matters is that there is some focus to the club, whether it be a breed or group of breeds, a certain dog sport, locality, etc.

    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...
  • nstead, 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,
    exactly!

    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.
  • Well, even "national" clubs have their headquarters. If nothing else, they have the state in which they are registered and pay taxes. For instance, though our President is in So Cal now and we hold events here, JACA is based out of Texas.

    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...")
  • To be even more OT (sorry!) I am going to UKC Premier in June at Kalamazoo, Michigan. I would like to run a breed info booth at least one day of the event, though I am having a little trouble figuring out the details. Once I know for sure if the booth will be feasible I will post about it. If anyone is interested in helping out, that would be awesome. I can't speak for JACA, but I would certainly ask if its alright to have info on and help from other Nihon Ken.
  • There some kind of disenfrachisement with Nippo classic- and nobody sent any medium NK last time.
    This feeling of disenfrachisement will eventually happen in any show though. Whether that merits the pulling of future entries will depend on the individual person and their expectations/goals for showing.

  • I am not privvy to the details, but maybe because I just liked going to it and seeing the dogs and everybody in real life, i had nothing at whatever particular stake got people upset- I just find when i mention that show a coating of ice develops ;) but it doesn't HAVE to be that show, or the shiba club people or whatever.

    Maybe i can do some research on an East Coast NK Event club- what's involved, what can reasonably be attempted...
  • I thought the issue with NIPPO Classic last year was more the dislike of its location than the event itself, not too many people wanted to deal with a crowded building with 3 other dog shows going on at the same time.
  • edited March 2015
    Deleted because I keep going OT.

    @Calia I'll message you about how the 2014 show site was.
  • That's the beauty of making clubs you can make a club for whatever you want. Whatever you choose your club to be if you are planning on going non-profit the one thing you don't want to get into is anything that smacks of commerce. I would be very cautious of setting up a club that as part of that club helps import dogs. Now don't confuse that with having a club who's members now how to import dogs and can give advice to other members.

    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.
  • @WrylyBrindle I wonder if that can just be approached by just growing an existing club. PAX is a huge gaming convention, but in order to reach areas of the US that can't necessarily make it out to Washington for the main show (PAX Prime) they started a slightly smaller show called PAX East to reach the East Coast market.

    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 :D



    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 :)
  • "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). "

    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..


  • NAKA use to hold a UKC show yearly. It has not been done the past several years. As for the Nippo show, I will never get that club another penny of my money.
  • A multibreed club would be a good idea. Especially if it focused on several of the Japanese breeds.


  • 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).

    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..


    Maybe I'm not familiar with how enthusiastic NK people can be, outside of the NKF, but I don't see 25 people shelling out for memberships without owning Hokkas. We don't have the benefit of people already being familiar with Akitas, and then discovering that there's a similar, yet separate breed that shares the name. So it just makes sense to get the ball rolling and just get growing as a collective imo. That's what I meant by that. Especially as Hokka litters are averaging 2-3 pups per litter, with the largest being 5 + only having one female being bred on the continent. A membership with each puppy is definitely a solid plan though, and will definitely be paired up.

    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?
  • Something else that I'm considering is to upcharge the pups by about $200 after the first litter, and then for every accomplishment title (sport title that requires multiple attendance/competing) and/or conformation title the owner will receive a $50 check, up to the $200 upcharge. That way it's an incentive for the owners to really get out there and both have fun with their dogs (and take pics and share with other owners) & also get the dogs out and visible for new owners to take interest in.

    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 ;)
  • I've thought about it and included health testings, but I got too much pushback in my breed for my initial pricing even though through the incentives they could technically get a dog for free in the end.

    So I changed the carrot and used co-ownerships. I stay on until the health tests are done.
  • @cezieg - Depending on how serious you are about "keeping" the puppy purchase price money, you might want to check out this breeder's puppy rebates: http://www.tajasiberians.net/cashrebates.html

    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.
  • @Calia Woah that is really awesome! I won't be able to give back quite to the point of having a free pup lol, as even though not many would go that far with their dogs, I'll be most likely self-funding HANA for a good bit of it's early development + will be reinvesting proceeds from litters right back into promoting the breed. That's really awesome to see though and a great list to reference!
    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!
  • aykayk
    edited March 2015
    The situation with Jindos is likely to be different than Hokkaido. More like Shibas than any of the other medium-sized NK breeds because we do have shelter dogs, bybers, and one mass breeder. I'm no threat to the other breeders because the majority of the instant gratification, no application/contract puppy buyers go to them.

    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.

  • @cezieg - No this was not the breeder I got Titan from, I wouldn't mind getting a pup from them if I'm ever out that way (they don't ship). Titan came from a mushing breeder up in Maine.
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