Party Like It's 1999

If I was a person who paid much attention to signs, I likely should have heeded those thrown up in my face when I first interviewed with AKC, a little over 14 years ago. 

A plane ride from hell, trying to race – and losing to – a line of strong thunderstorms from Atlanta to Raleigh. I am admittedly not a good flyer, but that trip still ranks among my top five worst of all time. 

A cab driver who had no idea how to get from RDU to the AKC’s then-location in the Cary Crossroads area, and had to exit the Beltline and turn around, multiple times, to get me to my destination in time for my first interview.

An HR director who was suddenly overcome with illness and had to abruptly get up and leave her office mid-interview, never to return. I, instead, had to be escorted to my next interview by her associate, who offered no explanation, other than the HR director had to “leave.”

But largely because I have gone through life often sticking a sock in my inner voice, I ignored those omens.

But the one I should have paid attention to — The Graph.

Early on in my interview with COO John Lyons, he showed me The Graph. It depicted AKC registrations from the early 1930s through the present day. What started out looking like a smooth Sherpa-guided ascent into the Himalayas, peaking in 1992 at 1,528,392 registrations, turned into a dramatic and rocky tumble. 

He characterized the loss of registrations as AKC’s biggest challenge. Which commanded an all-out effort from executive staff to reverse. 

I thought it was interesting information, but, again, I was undeterred. Challenges didn’t scare me. And I was naïve. 

Boy, was I naïve. 

In the January 2022 board meeting minutes, the president told the board that for the first time in 14 years, or since 2007 — the last year on The Graph — AKC registrations exceeded 800,000 dogs and 325,000 litters. And also, that net operating income was expected to make 2021 the “best year ever,” with $28.5 million reported through November 30. 

Those comments brought back memories of The Graph. But also of the AKC I saw at the end of 2007. 

Coming from the federal sector, I had no experience working for a corporation, much less a not-for-profit. So I was surprised by a number of things. A company that had lost, according to The Graph, almost half of its registrations — at that time, its primary revenue source — in a 15-year time frame, and yet, I saw a build-out and transition in progress to a state-of-the-art facility in Raleigh, and in New York, Madison Avenue digs with, among other things, a museum-quality art collection. (Wait, what? But I thought there was a Museum of the Dog … why is there this art collection in the office?)

And the expenses — the meals — breakfast, lunch and dinner (and drinks, lotso drinks) in NY for the board. Car service for everyone, everywhere! What was a car service, this Southern girl asked? We barely had reliable cab service (see my comment above). And perfectly working video-conferencing service in both offices (again, see my comment above), and yet, once I was made general counsel, I was expected to travel to NY for board meetings. 

I will never forget when the president’s assistant called me, after my first early visits to NY, to chastise me — not her, mind you, because she would never chastise anyone, but at the direction of her boss — for giving cab drivers too large a tip. I was directed to stop. Which of course I didn’t, because I am not a tightwad who treats working people with disrespect, so I started tipping them in cash out of my own pocket and quit submitting tips as a part of my reimbursable expenses. I saw it as part of my personal effort to offset The Graph.

But perhaps I was most gobsmacked by the excess and extravagance of the travel itself. Travel to fulfill the mission of the AKC? Essential. Send Inspectors into the field to visit breeder kennels and put eyes on dogs and conditions. Send reps to shows to support the clubs in the holding of events. Send GR legislative analysts out to the state federations to train them to build relationships with local elected officials. 

But send everybody and their brother to Long Beach for a week-long show? Send executive staff to hang out in a room for an entire delegates’ meeting? And my favorite — send a “delegation” to Crufts for a week? A crisis at AKC, with registrations below 800,000, and yet, a whole gaggle of people headed off on a junket to England.

So when I read registrations topped 800,000 last year for the first time in 14 years, I can only wonder, how many people is AKC sending to Crufts this year?