I went to my first ever agility club meeting last night because I wanted to propose that the club get a set of 24" weave poles for their upcoming DOCNA shows. I am on a mission from dog, 24" weave poles baby. It's great that DOCNA allows 24" poles but they don't mandate it so it's up to those with a big enough bug up their butt to try to get the clubs to use them. So despite better judgement and an extreme dislike of meetings I went to one last night. For the sake of big dogs everywhere slamming their shoulders against those cramped little poles. Like my big pony girl.
Thanks but if you have to go on a mission I'd prefer 'More tennis balls' or 'Kill all squirrels'
Most of my meetings in real life involve negotiations along the lines of, 'Can you please move this wall 6" so it stacks on the wall below? Trust me, everybody will love you for it.' Or, 'Pretty please can I put another column somewhere? If not you will have a 40' long beam weighing over 100 lbs per foot and trust me nobody will love you for that'. Aside from one unfortunate client with serious anger management and competency issues I've never had a meeting degenerate into shouting in my 15 years on the job. But there was some shouting last night. Apparently the issue of dry erase boards vs big printed out sheets from Kinko's for the worker's schedule was controversial, at least for one guy. He had some passionate viewpoints on the subject. Or maybe he just yells a lot in real life anyway, some people yell and speak in harsh tones and don't even realize it or mean anything by it. Then we had the part of the meeting where somebody tried to create a controversy where one did not exist and we spent about 10 minutes vehemently agreeing with each other. Then we came to the really horrifying part of the meeting where I somehow might have ended up in charge of the club's seminar for next year. Somehow I went from making some suggestions for seminar presenters via an email discussion to being in charge for next year and don't ask me how that happened. I did this sort of thing back in another life organizing punk rock concerts and when I gave it up I swore never again. And after last night I'm thinking that punk rock gigs are easy compared to crazy dog agility world. I'm hoping everybody else's middle aged memory is as bad as mine and they'll forget all about me by next year or preferably next week.
And after all that, turns out the club was planning on getting 24" poles anyway.
Good for you for attending the meeting! Summit and Sage say, "Thank You!"
ReplyDeleteI have never attended a FRAC meeting and almost thought about it last night but I live too far South. Glad I stayed home!
We wanted to use the 24" poles for our DOCNA but the judge never got back to us as to whether its OK or not. She would have to incorporate the extra length into her course designs, so we need her thumbs up before just deciding on our own. Oh well, at least we will have the breakaway tire and rubber coated contacts.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if the judge would be willing to alter her course on the day of the trial if it was possible. Of course if the obstacles are arranged such that it's not possible then that's that but it doesn't hurt to ask.
ReplyDeleteI am excited about the rubber coated contacts and those breakaway tires are awesome. It saved a dog from a terrible injury at one of the last DOCNA trials I was at. I decided to splurge on the second trial day (normally I only do one day) and a hotel room to take advantage of the rubber contacts.
The nearest agility club is one hour away and I found it too stressful to attend the two required yearly meetings on top of driving for lessons, ring time, and trials. So I'm not a member of any club now! Wheeeee!
ReplyDeleteThis club is actually a pretty good deal. The meeting was a less than 20 minute drive (albeit in an apocalyptic rain storm) at a member's cafe and there was the option to go for dinner which I imagine was amazingly good. Meetings aren't mandatory, all you have to do is work at 2 trials which I do anyway and pay a modest membership fee. The discount you get on the yearly seminar more than pays your fee. I paid $40 for a 1/2 day session with Marco Mouwen, can't beat that. I wouldn't have gotten a working spot either if I hadn't joined the club so it's not a bad deal. It's a good club, I think meetings with a lot of diverse people are going to have some wasted time by their very nature no matter who is hosting them.
ReplyDeleteOh, no, never go to meetings--I went from being a happy Bay Team member for the 1st year of agility and never doing anything, until I went to a meeting. Then it was webmaster to worker scheduler to ribbon czar to show secretary to trial chair to club president. If only I could stop going to meetings. At least I've gone back to saying No on a regular basis.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on convincing them to buy 24" poles. ;-)
Speaking of controversies: Whether to have some sort of membership requirements other than paying dues and getting approved by the board. I don't even want to go there. We do have over 200 members and maybe a third of them never do anything, but that's fine, they pay their dues.
I'm betting big money* that USDAA will move to 24" weave poles soon despite Ken's adamant opposition. And I'm thinkin' that UKI has something to do with it.
*well, actually, no one will bet against me.
So right now I have I think 20" poles. Should I splurge and buy 24"? Hard to fit them in my yard now; the extra 3' will be a challenge!
I can't take credit for the club getting the 24" weave poles. Turns out they were already planning on it, I never had to say a word about it.
ReplyDeleteDo you really think USDAA will cave? That would be awesome. Now if only they'd do something about the jump heights. That same club is having a UKI trial in place of a trial that used to be USDAA and the USDAA numbers are way down, over 50% lower than last year for the upcoming May trial. Could have gone to one ring probably if only they'd know ahead of time.
Yeah, I was being facetious about the 24" decision. Somehow that font never comes out right in comments.
ReplyDeleteWell, I don't see how they can't. As far as I know, they are the only organization in the world that hasn't gone to, or doesn't allow, 24" jumps, and I'll bet they're losing business to UKI. And if there's anything that speaks to ken,it's his wallet.
This made me laugh. Maybe it's all these years being self-employed, but I have a HARD time sitting through mtgs like that.
ReplyDeleteI attended our community-quasi-HOA up here a couple of times and wanted to stab myself in the eye.
Great punchline to your post, I wasn't expecting it. That second photo is so cool. Something about it, the dogs jump right out of it. Very very neat.
ReplyDelete