The following email was sent by the AKC to USKBTC President, Tom Rogers.

Subject: AKC Registration Pledge Challenge
From: "AKC Registration Pledge"

An important message to the Delegates and Officers of AKC Member Clubs:

Announcing the AKC Registration Pledge Challenge – A call to action for AKC Member Clubs

AKC Member Clubs bring together knowledgeable breeders and fanciers who carry forward AKC's message of responsible dog care, who value and understand the importance of purebred dogs, and who introduce new dog owners to AKC educational opportunities, events, and programs.

As a leader of your Member Club, you know that AKC relies on fees from litter and dog registrations to fund those programs and to remain the leading advocate for purebred dogs. But too often, new owners forget to register their puppies. Currently, fewer than half the puppies from AKC litters become registered.

We can change that. We ask you, the leaders of our Member Clubs, to enthusiastically support the AKC Registration Pledge, which states:
As a responsible owner of purebred dogs, I pledge:
I will encourage, assist, and follow up with my puppy buyers to ensure that 100% of the puppies I produce are AKC registered.

To introduce the Pledge to your club members, we invite you to participate in the AKC Registration Pledge Challenge, a contest for AKC Member Clubs. Accept the AKC Registration Pledge Challenge on behalf of your Member Club.

Accept the AKC Registration Pledge Challenge on behalf of your Member Club.
> AKC Registration Pledge Challenge

For questions about the AKC Registration Pledge, the contest, or how to sign up your Member Club, please send an email to regpledge@akc.org or call (919) 816-3645.

Editor's Note

More information on this pilot program can be found in the June 2009 Delegates Meeting. The minutes of the entire meeting can be found in the AKC Gazette. The excerpt below was taken from those minutes.

To read all of the minutes fron the Delegates Meeting in June, please visit June 2009 Meeting

Excerpt from the June 09 Delegates Meeting

Ms. Van Sicklen: I would like to introduce the AKC Registration Pledge Challenge. This is a pilot program for Member Clubs and it calls on you, the leadership of AKC Member Clubs, to issue a call to action to your members. Member Clubs include many of our most involved, best informed, and most influential fanciers. We ask every member of every Member Club to take a pledge:
“As a responsible owner of purebred dogs, I pledge:
I will encourage, assist and follow up with my puppy buyers to ensure that 100% of the puppies I produce are AKC registered.”

It’s simple, it’s direct, and it’s achievable. We hope that your club members will embrace the Pledge and rally to this call to action. Because dog people enjoy competition, we’ve added a contest. In Round 1, Member Clubs with the highest percentage of members who sign the Pledge will be honored at the December Delegate Meeting.

In Round 2, Member Clubs with the highest percentage of dog registrations, either full or limited, from among litters born June 1 through December 31 will be honored and awarded $1,000 at the June 2010 Delegate Meeting.

We are relying on you to make this work by using your club’s communication channels to take the Pledge to your members. Shortly after this meeting, we will launch emails to presidents, vice presidents, corresponding secretaries and delegates of Member Clubs with a web link to go online and accept the Registration Pledge Challenge on behalf of your Member Club. Club opt-in will be available through July 31. As part of the club opt-in process, you will need to provide the number of individual members of your club. This is individual members, not households.

When the club is signed up, your next step is to encourage every club member to go online and individually accept the Pledge. The online Pledge will be available to your members on August 1st. To assist you in communicating the call to action, there are links to a flyer and to newsletter inserts that you can use to promote the Registration Pledge Challenge among your members.

Starting August 1, your individual club members can go online to take the Pledge.

We hope most people will take the Pledge online because that is more efficient and cost effective for us to administer. But if any of your members do not have Internet access, there will be downloadable paper Pledge forms that they can send in.

Your members have until November 30 to take the Pledge. This allows time for your club to promote the Pledge through your newsletter, web site, email groups, and other club communication channels. And the message should be two-fold: encourage your members to sign the Pledge and to make sure all puppies become registered.

You may hear the question, “Why should I take the Pledge if I’m not actively breeding dogs?” The answer is, as members of Member Clubs, we are the “dog people” in our communities. We need everyone to carry forward a message about the importance of AKC registration and responsible dog care. The contest will include four competition categories. Please remember that this pilot program is for Member Clubs. Awards will be available to large Parent Clubs, small Parent Clubs, large Member Clubs other than Parent Clubs, and small Member Clubs other than Parent Clubs.

At the December Delegate Meeting, the clubs with the highest percentage of members who accepted the Pledge in Round 1 will be honored and presented certificates. So to recap, in Round 1 a club officer or delegate goes online to opt-in on behalf of the club, and then starting August 1, your club members can go online and take the Pledge. In Round 2, we will track the percentage of registrations completed by your club members who took the Pledge. We will look at litters born between June 1 and December 31 of this year. Your members will have until April 30, 2010 to get the dog registrations completed. The Round 2 winning clubs will be those clubs with the highest based percentage of dog registrations. The winning clubs will receive $1,000. The reserve winning clubs will receive $250.

Based on the participation and response to this pilot program, we may then extend the Registration Pledge Challenge to licensed clubs and other AKC fanciers.

And please remember, the contest is the fun part. The focus of this pilot program is education and outreach, and to keep this goal top of mind: to get every eligible puppy AKC registered.

Look for an email that with links to the web site and program details.

Thank you.

Last Updated: 07/03/2009, 5:07 pm