The Official Forum of the Ameraucana Breeders Club > Exhibiting & Promoting

Regional Meets to augment the National region

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Don:
I'm going to try this one more time to try to generate discussion.  I hope we can stay on topic.

"Any chance of holding a National near us folks in the western part of the country? lol"

Cesar asked a question, and it was answered regarding the National rotation.  But it raises a question that has been on my mind for some time. It does seem to feel like some areas are isolated for several years because the rotation takes 5 years to come around to each district.

One of the other Breed clubs has a system where they also have Regional Meets each year. So as example, when the National meet is in the East, they have a Regional Meet in the Western and Middle portions of the country. These meets are not as attended as the National and the awards are much more along the lind of the District type meets. But the point is to give the breeders in those areas a place to gather and promote the breed while they wait for the National to return.  Anyone else have examples from other clubs that they think works well? 

Lindsay Helton:
I think there are pros and cons to potentially adding regional meets.

One pro is that it would help maintain, and potentially increase, participation and involvement of club members at ABC shows on a yearly basis. It also may help draw in more members. The more visible you are at shows as a club, the better.

One con is that it could potentially pull numbers, and involvement, away from the yearly National. Members that might have otherwise made plans to attend the National may settle for attending only their specified regional meet. I would think that there would need to be specific criteria and requirements in place regarding regional meets to not take away from the National, such as placing regional meets a certain number of weeks away from the scheduled National. If regional meets and the National landed on the same weekend, I would think it would definitely impact participation at the National.

Another pro is that with the amount of travel involved for some members to the National, as well as the differing NPIP requirements among the states, it could boost club moral. It feels like due to NPIP requirements, we are becoming increasingly limited as to where the National can be held to try to include members outside of the hosting district. Maybe these regional meets would help soften the blow of not being able to attend the National due to the high costs involved with meeting the NPIP requirements of the hosting state.

A con would be that we would be increasing the workload of the district directors further, as well as spending additional monies of the club to host these regional meets. Hosting four regional meets a year could get expensive and add up quickly.

We would want to be sure that by adding regional meets, we are not taking away from the “special nature” of the National.

Hopefully these thoughts can help with getting the conversation started. :)

Paul:
Don,
I do not see a benefit to booking more special shows since we have enough trouble getting excellent attendance at the district and national meets.  I think the problem is too many people don't understand what the national and district meets are suppose to be, due to so many club meets now.  Years ago, before the Ameraucana breed became so popular, meets were scheduled to encourage Ameraucana breeders to show at them so there would be more than one person showing with theirs in a back corner of the show room.  The district and national were really special shows that many breeders would make an extra effort to show, and these meets were promoted all year long.

Birdcrazy:
I agree with Paul. If more emphasis is needed for a special show, why not promote the District Show as a more special show held no less than 2-3 weeks away from that years National Show.  That buffer of time would help those that would attend both their district show and the National Show. The Ameraucana Breed has came a long way in shows in the last 10 years. Let's keep it moving forward supporting the National and District Shows, and I feel that the club ABC Meets will follow suit.

Susan Mouw:
I agree, as well.  At our SE District meet last weekend in Knoxville, we weren't even listed in the catalog as having a meet - more or less a District meet.

I think we need to do more to encourage participation in the District meets and promote them more.

The expense of adding more "special" meets would be prohibitive, as well.  The cost of the trophies alone for the National was over $1500, and that's been pretty par for the course over the last 4 years.  That doesn't include the rosettes, the special banner, and various and other sundry expenses.  While the club does take some money in, through the various raffles and trophy donations, we have yet to even break even on a National meet.

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