CKC Annual General Meeting

Hello Folks

The 2010 CKC Annual General Meeting will be held in Winnipeg in late March and I am looking for input from you and/or your Club.

The CKC, like many other not-for-profit organizations is facing a challenging time - both financially and strategically. While we have recently completed the CKC's first Strategic Plan, the Board is new and the changed significantly from the previous representation at the table. In recent weeks, many of you have heard of a Board decision to add a surcharge of $3.00 to non-CKC member entries, beginning this summer. The conversation around this levy has been strident and the concern expressed will no doubt have the Board revisit the Motion at the regular March meeting. A change in this decision is not financially huge for the CKC but it does point up the difficulty the Board is having in moving the bottom line to a sustainable position while at the same time not increasing costs to members.

Our revenue stream is not complicated. The majority of CKC revenue is derived from registrations. Our second revenue stream is from events. The CKC is not a large nor is it a complex organization. The staffing level is decreasing, largely as a result of improved technology, and numbers in the order of 60 people. We occupy one floor of a building outside the downtown core of Toronto. Our largest expense is salaries and these are in line with Ontario salary levels, not far different from salaries in much of the rest of the country. A move from Toronto was considered by the previous Board and with extensive analysis was found to be counterproductive to our operation. Because of the type of organization and our demographic, remaining in this area currently is our best alternative both operationally and financially.

So, I am reaching out to you as 'dog people', as business professionals and as Atlantic Canadians in Zone 1 to receive advice. You have a sense of the CKC business plan, of our profile and of the work we are doing.

Last year fees were increased across the board. Our bottom line was tight, even with that increase going in to 2009 but it was enough to offer a balanced budget going into the year, a year that recognized the significant downturn in the economy. As 2009 has played out, while shows and trials remained fairly static (no significant change in entry numbers), our registration fees declined beyond all expectation in this one year. This is a new and unpredicted challenge. We have been told by staff that historically when the economy softens the CKC's registration numbers have always increased. Our concerns, therefore, had been in the shows and trials area and while there was some unease at the board table with respect to registrations, we were inclined to feel that the history of our business would support our business decisions. The first half of the year was challenging in the registration area (by far our largest revenue stream) but the first half is generally slow. Then the other shoe dropped and numbers did not increase as the year went on. History has not repeated itself as we thought it would and in December we found that the third quarter financials remained very soft with a significant deficit facing the organization. What that will be at year end, we are uncertain but I am very concerned that the bottom line is not going to support the activities we are undertaking nor will it improve without significant changes.

As a start, there had been a Motion for a review by staff of the impact of the addition of the non-member surcharge. We have been aware for years that there are many areas where if we were to go to 'user pay' there would be increases in fees. That is what drove the increase in listing fees a number of years ago. These are the entries where manual intervention is necessary and cost is higher than for the regular entry. The increase does not fully cover the cost but puts the procedure in a better financial position than was previously the case. The non-member fee is somewhat similar. Rather than again increase event fees, the decision was taken to try to retain the member fee as it now is, giving the members, if you like, a benefit, and add a surcharge to non-members who participate in our events but do not support the CKC's programs in any other way. The discussion around the Board table referenced many sports including minor hockey, golf etc. where there are member and non-member fees as a matter of course and where fees are far, far higher than with the CKC. We are receiving significant push back on this decision and the likelihood of it changing is high.

When I came to the Board, there were few significant initiatives on-going in the office outside the normal administrative functions. Additionally, we had not been faced with DOLA in Ontario nor was there real concern being expressed for the future of our purebred fancy. PETA was working at its' agenda but had not made major inroads in the purebred dog world. In a few short years all of that has changed and the membership wants and expects the CKC to be present, vocal, organized and visible. They expect that we will testify in courtrooms across the country, that we respond to the FCI challenge, that we manage the challenge from the veterinary community with their position on purebred dogs including the bans on cropping and docking and that we, of course, continue to offer shows and trials, keep rulebooks relevant, add new events like Rally and Earthdog and manage the media. They want better computer service and systems, better client service, faster information flows and cheaper costs. They expect that we will work against the proliferation of commercial breeding facilities, will work with governments to offer better animal-focused legislation, that we will partner with the airlines to ensure CKC members are acknowledged and supported in our movement of puppies and show dogs, that we will work with the ferry services to offer support in the dog carriage policies and that we will challenge and push back the PETA agenda. Every bit of this is new. Every bit of this is important to the future of the Fancy and it all is relevant, topical and needs to be addressed. The membership wants it done. So do I. But we don't have the money to make it happen. (Phil the pheasant just scooted across the front lawn - thought you all would want to know that)

So where do we go? With the pressure for increased services, no cost increases, less breeding and a need for additional staff to respond to all of these challenges, the situation has moved from simply challenging to one of great concern. We are not increasing salaries at the office and we are constantly cutting expenditures. At some point, there is no place left to go in that equation. It isn't a big staff. It actually isn't a large budget given the scope and demographic of the organization. So I look forward to your input and that of your Club/Association as I prepare for this upcoming meeting.

Any thoughts you have would be welcome