Regional Director's Email
October 16, 2010
Split Format Shows - Follow-up

Dr. Glen Newton Dr. Glen Newton,
North Central Regional Director

Fellow ACFA North Central Members,

In my October 10 email to ACFA North Central members, I presented the big picture of split-format shows and discussed some of the possible consequences of voting for or against the proposal. If you no longer have that email, you can find it (along with all my previous emails) on the ACFA North Central web site in the “Regional News” section (https://acfanorthcentralregion.org/newsletters/newsletters.htm). Look at the far right-hand side for Regional News Archives and scroll down to the section with links to previous newsletters. Some of you sent me questions in response to that email, and since I think they were excellent questions whose answers would be of interest to everyone, I've included my answers in this email to all North Central region members.

Q: So are you saying that you do a morning and evening session?  Where you and the cat get a break for a few hours in a hotel room to run around before the next session?  If that is the idea, then it may work out. 

A: The timing of the sessions is up to the sponsoring clubs, and although the discussions centered around a morning and an afternoon session with as little time in between as possible, it would also be possible to hold morning and evening sessions.

Q: And what do you do with cats that don't like to be pushed that many rings in a day?  Not fair to those who only have limited cats to show.  Or is this a push to be like TICA and put on 12 ring shows?  I'm totally against that for any cat - far too many rings for a cat in a weekend!

A: Cats who don’t like to be pushed that many rings in a day would probably be cranky. For someone who only had limited cats to show, it might come down to a tough decision to not attend a split format show. I think today’s exhibitors who have tried the 6-ring TIMACS one-day show, for example, would have a pretty good idea of how their cats would do at a 6-ring split format show.

Q: A few years back, we proposed that ACFA allow six-ring back to back shows to be sponsored by two clubs.  We were told at the time that the Board would not allow a 12-ring weekend because it would be too hard on the cats.  What's different this time?

A: The concern about a long show or a long weekend being hard on the cats came up at the board meetings as we discussed this proposal. That’s why part of the proposal says that if one has a split format show it can’t be combined with any other formats. In particular, it can’t be used for one day or both days of a two-day show. Thus the total number of rings a cat would have in a weekend would be at most 8 but in the more typical case would be 6.

Q: Some judges can't complete their judging by the time the show is supposed to close.  Wouldn't that be a bigger problem for a split-format show?

A: The issue of pokey judges was part of the board’s deliberations, too. In the successful experiment in the NW region, the show manager was very skilled and kept things moving along, and the judges kept up, too. Without this, the show day could drag on, just as it does sometimes today. In the discussion of the split format shows on the ACFA list, some judges commented that they could finish earlier but have been asked to stretch it out to a certain time because of the spectators. Keep in mind, too, that with only three simultaneous rings, the conflicts that often cause one ring to wait for another, thus prolonging the judging, are much less likely than in our usual shows that have 4, 5, or 6 rings in a day.

Q: What about vendor space in a small show hall?  

A: The tradeoff of the income loss of having fewer vendors vs. the savings of avoiding a second day of show hall rental comes out in favor of fewer vendors and saving the rental money. In addition, the clubs that are most interested in using this format have not had the vendor resources that we have in the NC region, so even with limited vendor space due to a smaller show hall, they would (probably) have as many vendors as usual.

Sincerely,

Glen Newton
North Central Regional Director
www.acfanorthcentralregion.org

Email me at glennewton@comcast.net or call me at 651-688-9504.