Musical chairs at the American Kennel Club?
Fri, 10/21/2022 - 1:00pm

Editorial: October 21, 2022

Term Limits or Turn-Around Limits?

Well done to the delegates who had the courage to face down the seated board of directors and defeat the proposed amendment to do away with term limits. Realizing the power that they would be relinquishing, they saw through this thinly veiled attempt for the board to retain power. The present rules allow for directors to be seated for two four-year terms (consecutive or not). But there is a loophole that allows them to run again after sitting out for one year. So they sit out one election cycle (one year) after their two consecutive terms of the board, which is eight years, and run again for another term. At best the rule is self-defeating in terms of the purpose of term limits. So let’s review how some of the present board members have served. Each has used this recycled term-limits rule to come back again and again. Let’s start with the board chairman, Tom Davies, whose rise and fall and resurrection are unique: He served and lost a regular election to regain his seat. He was then appointed by the board of directors to replace Harvey Wooding when Wooding resigned only a few months later. So though the delegate body didn't re-elect Davies, he was appointed back by the board. Because the AKC bylaws state that such an appointment is only good until the next annual meeting, Davies ran unopposed to fill the last year of Wooding’s term, which did not require a vote. That same day, the board made Davies chairman of the board. Other directors, including Carmen Battaglia, Tom Powers and Charlie Gavin, have also run after two terms (eight years) on the board. There are more than 600 member clubs that are eligible to have a delegate represent them. Out of those, are there no other qualified delegates to run for the board? It’s not rocket science that the sitting board selects the nominating committee. As was the case this year, the nominating committee nominated the seated board members. Maybe that’s another procedure — who selects nominating committees — that needs to be addressed. As of this writing there is one delegate running from the floor: Eduardo Fugiwara, the delegate from the Two Cities Kennel Club. That brings the total to four delegates running for the three vacant seats. Three are seated directors, renominated by the nominating committee, and one lone delegate running from the floor. Now that the vote on term limits is over, it is time to a rewrite the existing rules from Turn Around Limits to true Term Limits for board-of-director seats. Term limits should be just that: a limited time to serve. Not skip a year and rerun for the same position. If a two-term limit, with no other extensions or deviations of the rule, are good enough for the president of the United States, certainly it should be for us, too.

 

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