Schutzhund USA proposed bylaw Change - Page 4

Calvin,
I was National Secretary from 1999-2004. I was told by the Presidents, Mike Hamilton and Jim Elder that I was to accept Delegate Letters until roll call at the General Board Meeting.  Granted this took a bit of work on my part to verify club status and membership but working with the Office it was do able.  I also tried like heck to get at least the Bylaw Changes and a first draft Agenda out to the clubs by mid-September.  Sad, but this last minute wait on deadlines has become the norm.
Pros and Cons for changes were also included along with financial impact and reasoning behind any change

From an earlier post from Wallace's original discussion II wrote:
I think Johannes' proposal is an exercise in fear based aggression. They are worried that GSDCA-WDA will put on a better WUSV championship providing them with more income. Hence, GSDCA-WDA will be able to host MORE member benefits like National Seminars without needing to shell-out tens of thousands of dollars in attorney fees for not treating their members as promised. This is the same Johannes that refused to register his litters with AKC. Now if that's not shooting yourself in the foot.....Maybe this will be next year's proposal under the guise of "For the good of the breed"

Speaking of the breed, how does this proposal help? How does this proposal bring all GSD enthusiasts together? How does this attract new members to USA? There will still be GSDCA members that get hip ratings, identify their dogs, title their dogs and show them for conformation, herding, S&R, therapy, agility. This proposal isolates USA members, and will set the sport back in this country.

I'm sure the supporters of this proposal are thinking, "This is great, we found a way of getting rid of So-And-So or a competing club down the road." I've always thought, "USA can only get along with 5 people at one time." Their programs especially the Judges have not grown in decades.

I remember when John Mulligan was asked if he would sign a GSDCA-WDA Scorebook. His response, "Yes this is an organization that is for the German Shepherd". I'll sign all of them and let God sort it out.
Amen...

Diane Madigan 
USA Lifetime Member

If you want to read the letter it's posted on the USA-GSD  forum, but you need to be a member of the forum.

Wow, so what are those of us living in the middle of no where who don't always get a breed survey or trial within reasonable driving distance with one organization supposed to do if this passes?  Mr. Grewe needs to realize the US is not like Germany, we don't have five clubs within a twenty minute driving distance.  We don't have the opportunity to trial/show every weekend like the SV does.  I am lucky to find one a year that would fit my and my spouses schedule, due more to the lack of trial/show options than anything else.  I am looking at a choice of driving to either Boise, Seattle, or Portland.  Two of those are five hours away and one is three if there is not city traffic to contend with.    I am sure I am not the only one who finds themself in this situation.

C. Neubert

Someone posted on another list that the GSDCA and WDA are both "one vote, one member" clubs and that everything is decided by a direct vote of the membership. (I don't know the accuracy of this statement...) If true, the point was that instead of cutting off ties with GSDCA/WDA and forbidding cross membership, the UScA should be encouraging every UScA member to *join* then vote for change, that such an effort would be the best way to effect the preservation of the working GSD that is cited for the proposed bylaw amendment.

-Calvin

C.Neubert, exactly. Diane, beautifully said.


I understand fully the concern over the AKC taking any kind of control over schutzhund. But lets be realistic. Breeders who stick to the SV standard will still want SV koerungs, SV judges, and SV rules and standards. If the AKC sticks their nose in too far and tries to make changes that the SV won't approve, it will kick them in the behind. They will have no one to control, because no one will show/trial/etc. under their rules if they differ from the SV. WDA functions because they offer an SV system. Change that, and everything changes for the WDA. We all know we won't see any AKC Ch. on the WUSV team in our lifetime, so who cares? They aren't even the same breed, imo.

The bottom line is, if this passes, everyone has to choose. And for everyone, it means less trials, less koerungs, less conformation events, less chances to ensure our dogs conform to SV standards. Everyone who wants to stick to the standard will suffer, and sooner or later, so will the breed in this country.

I am fortunate enough to live in an area where there are a fair amount of shows and trials, but cut that in half, and things will get rough. For many who do not live in hotbeds for SchH, there is only one or two clubs in driving distance.  Unless each and every WDA clubs drops WDA and becomes a USCA club (what are the chances of that?) this will hurt working GSD enthusiatsts all over this country, just like the current scorebook headache.

I am going to throw my two cents in here.
First, like most I was very against this. I thought it was a stupid idea.
Why should we have to choose one organization over the other?
I thought that it would get voted down (and still think it will get voted down.)
However, after reading Lyle's letter, I am not so sure this is as bad an idea as I once did. I am more on  the fence now and leaning towards backing it.
Lyle explained that his reason for backing this is that he and Danny (WDA Pres) had agreed to merge the WDA with UScA (meaning WDA would secede from GSDCA) and Lyle had set that process in motion by working on bylaw changes that would allow this. After this process begun he was informed that Danny had signed a letter agreeing that the WDA and the GSDCA would continue with their relationship. I believe that Lyle feels that this was a slap in the face and that he had been duped by the WDA.
If we go back in history and look at the reason why UScA exists it is because the stupid old farts running the GSDCA did not believe in the true working German Shepherd Dog. (By the way these are the same old farts running the GSDCA, but, they are now 35 years older and just as, or more, stupid.)
Lyle's belief is that the UScA is the only organization in this country that has truely sought out to protect the true working GSD over the course of its existence and that the WDA, by being a part of the GSDCA, does not promote those ideals and standards for the breed.
Is UScA perfect? No! It also needs improvements, but, the thoughts behind it are to promote the working GSD, not crippled, worthless American Line GSD's.
There has always been a well founded lack of trust in the GSDCA in this country by those who feel that their version of the GSD is the incorrect one. After the duping by Danny over the proposed merger it has renewed that mistrust in a way that will take many years to overcome.
The choice that Lyle is asking people to make is not so much between WDA and UScA, but, between UScA and what it has and does stand for, and the GSDCA and what it has and does stand for, including which, in my opinion, that they will eventually do away with the WDA altogether.

Article 1 section 2 of the  GSDCA WDA bylaws state: 

"The GSDCA-WDA is a corporation separate and apart from the German Shepherd Dog Club of America (“GSDCA”) but shall be closely allied and associated with the aims, purposes, and pursuits of the GSDCA..."
http://www.gsdca-wda.org/forms/GSDCA-WDABy-lawsRev1503.pdf

Section 2 item B of the GSDCA bylaws states:

THE OBJECTS OF THE CLUB SHALL BE:

b.  To urge members and breeders to accept that standard of the breed, as approved by the American Kennel Club, as the only standard of excellence by which the German Shepherd Dog shall be judged
 http://www.gsdca.org/gsdca_joomla/images/pdf_items/bylaws.pdf


I would have more of  a problem aligning myself with  an organization that  tells you that I must accept the AKC standard as the ONLY STANDARD BY WHICH THE GSD SHALL BE JUDGED than I would aligning myself with USA.

Then wouldn't the WDA be in violation of the GSDCA's bylaws, as at every WDA event any of us has ever attended, it the SV standard that it followed there, NOT the AKC standard?

This stuff gives me a headache just looking at it.