The Gossip Column: March 14, 2025

The election of the four delegates to the AMERICAN KENNEL CLUB board of directors for the CLASS OF 2028 from a field of nine candidates took place at the Tuesday annual meeting. It required six ballots to finally come up with four winners. They were TOM DAVIES, ROBIN STANSELL, SYLVIA THOMAS and EDUARDO FUGIWARA. Once the elections were finally finished, the board convened and re-elected TOM DAVIES as chairman (even though it took six ballots to get him elected back on the board) and MICHAEL KNIGHT as vice chairman. Two very sad commentaries on the meeting: Not one delegate asked the board members why the president and CEO DENNIS SPRUNG was fired so suddenly without any explanation as to their decision. An explanation that we are still awaiting. The question lingers. The exception was that two delegates made statements expressing their objections to the way that DENNIS was treated. The other is the disrespect of the delegates who represent us at the kennel club. It is a responsible position, as the delegates vote for board members and for rule changes that affect us all. So why with every ballot taken did the number of delegates voting drop? Were they bored? Did their choice for the board drop out so their interest waned? Or did they have a plane, train or ride to catch? For every delegate who does not vote, the percentage of votes needed to elect lessens. They have no excuse: Bad enough that the other delegate meetings throughout the year start and end before noon; at least they can stick around for the annual meeting. ...

As this yearly election was taking place, others were flying home from a weekend at CRUFTS DOG SHOW. Among the those were DENNIS SPRUNG, GINA DINARDO and MARK DUNN making a short visit, as they had to return for the delegates meeting. Also in attendance were REBECCA CROSS, ERNEST LARA, LISA CROFT-ELLIOTT, ANDREW GREEN, LYDIA COLEMAN HUTCHINSON, BRUCE SCHWARTZ (on his way to Switzerland, leaving his good friend LINDA CLARK to navigate the show on her own), CINDY VOGELS, BILL MCFADDEN, SUE GOLDBERG, GUSTAVO MOLINARI, CRYSTAL & PAUL CLAS, RYAN WOLFE, NIKKI RYAN, AMBER BECKER, MIA & FABIAN NEGRON, ERICA VENIER, RACHEL VENIER and SICILY CONIGLIO. ...

Celebrating Birthdays ... GABRIEL RANGEL, MERRY FITZGERALD, TERRI MEYERS, MIKE PITTS, DENISE FLAIM, ALLISON ALEXANDER, CINDY COOKE, MARJORIE MARTORELLA, TIFFANY SAXON, PLUIS DAVERN, GEORGIE COVEY, SHIRLEY BOXER, SUSAN DEPEW, NICOLE FISHER, REGINA KEITER, CINDY SMITH, NICK LOMBARDI, MEAGAN ULFERS, LISA STRUMPET, BLADE KILBOURNE, HONI REISMAN and PEGGY MCGILL.