If your club is heavy with members who wish to pursue the MN, you're giving them an additional opportunity to get a qualifying pass at their home clubs event.
If your club does not have a significant portion of members who are trying to pursue the MN, then your perspective is very different. Membership in the MNRC means your clubs members can deal with the aggravation of limited entries while trying to obtain a Master title and spending lots of extra man-hours busting their behinds so the traveling roadshow can chase master passes in pursuit of the MN.
There is no doubt that this is an issue that many clubs will be giving serious consideration this year. It would be far easier to drop membership in the MNRC and instead offer an O/H Qual at both our spring an fall test. Our entry numbers would be about the same and it would be much easier to manage for our club members.
My intention here is fact finding so that I may vote accordingly at the local club meeting.
To the 1st 3 responders, Those are all true and beneficial in some way.
However what is the benefit to the local club members ? Does the Master Natl. club do any funding for grounds improvement such as a PRTA grant ? Any educational seminars ?
I think if you really wanted to analyze how your club would be affected by dropping MN affiliation, you would have to look at the data involving the MN. Look for how many pro handled versus amateur handled dogs attended the MN for the past several years. My guess is that those percentages are rising, but I don't know for sure. Look at how many pro versus amateur handled dogs have attended your club event over the past several years. You might want to pay particular attention to events that occurred before the limited entries concept was accepted a couple years ago. Look at similar data for clubs in your region. And lastly, be sure to incorporate how many or your club members are pursuing the MN. That is probably just a start, but might give you some ballpark answers. I'm a member of an isolated club (closest club is over 300 miles away), so it's not that much of an issue for us and I've never felt the need to look at data...but it can be done.
Most importantly, I think, is how many of your club members want to qualify for the MN.
Edit...I just took a look at the MN page and some of this data is available for 2010-2012. The pro vs. handler trend over just these three year is quite astounding.
Guys the MNRC is not the evil empire, i'd ask what benefit do you get from belonging to any club, why not stop not stop paying dues to the National Open and National Amateur clubs. We may have a better chance at a title
You guys bitch, moan and complain about everything. You sound like Republicans with your party of "no" attitude
I'm just a guy that trains, hunts, chairs , enters and works events If you dont want to go to the MNRC dont go! I and others like us ( i think) have dog friends across this continent and this is a once in a year time to see them and yes compete and yes when I get tired of going well I wont go but to me your position is an infringement on my values and the worst of it is your attempting to influence others that may be trying to grow, learn and expand
Again my view
Dk
Just like a good Democrat, someone doesn't agree with you so you vilify them and their opinion because they simply ask a question or answer a question someone asks?? When you create a huge problem you shouldn't be surprised that people call you out on it, especially when you sit on your hands and do nothing to help those funding your boondoggle yearly meet up with your buddies. Maybe you should just go hunting with your buddies like the rest of us?
All I am a little bit out of line and while I cannot retract what I wrote , I can apologize if I offended your politics.
The sport is about dogs, birds, comradarie and our mutts could care less about a ft, ht , hrc or Nara. The dogs just want to work and do their thing - we add all this other.
In my prefect world I get to do my thing and you do yours. That thought has some complications and just wont work but try to understand the meaning
Dk
I think this is a very good discussion. I belong to a breed club that is a member of the Master National and so far I have not found one valid reason why they should continue their membership. It looks to be a waste of funds that could be used for health research issues, etc.
I belong to a club that is not a master national member and the world hasn't ended. We fill up entries in masters. Yes less pros but more amat who just want to run their dogs and maybe get a leg on a title or just title. The other stakes run smoother because we are not waiting on certain handlers who are running numerous dogs. We are not making less money and speaking as a worker we seem to finish earlier on Sundays which makes me Happy Happy Happy. For my club I think it has been a nice transition. The best part is we do not hurt Master National by not being a member. So everyone is happy all around
I’d like to elaborate on one of the “benefits” of membership to the Master National Retriever Club, MNRC.
ONLY Master National member clubs can propose amendments and vote on changes to the MNRC Constitution. In fact, just this year an amendment was submitted by Sooner & Tulsa Retriever clubs and sequentially voted upon.
If your club is a MNRC member club, every individual member within your club will/should be afforded the opportunity to vote upon MNRC amendments in accordance with the club’s bylaws. Thus, your club members have the opportunity to have a voice in what is going on within the MNRC.
I think many are missing the point of the original question. Put simply why would a club wish to join or continue membership in the MNRC? What's in it for a club to be a member of the MNRC?
My point is not to take sides on an issue that has been decided upon by the majority, but to highlight the benefit of being a member club. For those who are not familiar with the recent proposal see the attached link. You can make up your own mind as what it was intended or not intended to do.
Any HT club or participant can make suggestions to the RHTAC, which makes recommendations to the AKC based on the decisions of the committee. RHTAC is not part of the MNRC. MNRC makes its own operating decisions based on votes by the delegates of MNRC member clubs. Very few, if any, HT clubs are members of the AKC. They are only licensed by the AKC to hold events.
No need to be a member but they do have a meeting at each years MN that affects all clubs. I don't know if they send the minutes to the non MNRC clubs or not.
So then a voice with RHTAC is NOT a benefit of belonging to MNRC.
So Drakehaven's question is very valid. Our Lab club just became a member. Someone else here stated theirs did too. Other than filling up Master Tests, I don't see the point of joining. Our junior/senior tests always fill and then some as we have a lot of club members wanting to ensure their dogs work and just enjoy competing. We usually have one or two tests a year without a master stake. Which is fine. We, as a club, don't need MN to ensure we have the lower stakes full.
This question just came up from members or our club. I certainly didn't have an answer. Maybe Drakehaven can share the results of this thread? I'm sure there are PMs too.
Some clubs think they need it to pull particular entries into master, to some clubs it becomes a hindrance (master test filling up in 20min etc.) The purpose of any particular club is to best serve ITS members, thus MN is Completely up to the club and completely club specific. If your club is comprised of several WORKING members who's goal is the MN (it might be important). If your club is mostly WORKING members with no MN interest, or your having issues of too many flights and club members unable to get in to your tests, you might consider losing it. If your test had normal # etc. and everyone was is content no reason not to keep it. Best way to keep a club Healthy is not to run it as a profit making enterprise, just got break even and keep a bit of money in the bank so you can run events (for YOUR members), but above all keep those who are running the club and WORKING HAPPY. Best not to listen to those "members" who don't WORK your events, they can come up with a bunch of things "we should do" but they aren't out in the field when "you have to do it" .
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Related Threads
?
?
?
?
?
RetrieverTraining.Net - the RTF
1.4M posts
32.1K members
Since 2003
A forum community dedicated to retriever owners and enthusiasts. Come join the discussion about breeding, training, health, behavior, housing, adopting, care, classifieds, and more!