Page 128 - ShowSight - November 2019

Breed Education: It Starts With You BY CELESTE M. GONZALEZ continued
“IF YOU ARE PRESENTING ON A BREED THAT DOES (OR DID) A JOB FOR A LIVING, HAVING AN ASSISTANT IN ATTIRE CORRESPONDING TO THE TYPE OF CANINE WORK DONE...
MAY GIVE THE LEARNERS ANOTHER REASON TO GET EXCITED AND BE ENGAGED WITH YOUR PRESENTATION.”
a back-up of the presentation. This means having your presentation in MS Power- Point and Adobe Acrobat on a USB stick in case one or the other software system is not functional or congruent with your software version used to produce the pre- sentation. The presentation should be dupli- cated onto a separate USB stick. Both USB sticks should be virus-free. Do not count on WiFi availability if your presentation is wholly web-based. Download it to a USB stick into a format compatible with the hosting group’s software. It doesn’t hurt to send your presentation, well ahead of your seminar, to the seminar coordinator on the USB stick type you intend to use so that it can be tested with the hosting group’s hard- ware and software. I hesitate to recommend having your own laptop for presentations, as the technology of the venue’s connec- tions may differ from what your laptop can accommodate.
Gather the approved handout materials your parent club has authorized and have sufficient copies made, or burned onto a sufficient number of USB sticks to accom- modate all attendees at your seminar pre- sentation. The use of unapproved materi- als is discouraged; however, if you must, clearly mark those as not approved by the parent club. You are obliged to so inform the learners and your parent club that those materials are not parent club approved. If you have older historical material produced by the parent club and now retired in favor of newer versions, ask if it may be used and mark the material as retired or obsolete. Be prepared for learner questions as to why the retired or obsoleted material is being used. In order to know how many copies of materials to bring with you, or ship, keep in close contact with the seminar coordi- nator regarding paid registrations received for your breed’s seminar. Most presenters will pad that number by 5-10% to ensure
they have a sufficient number of handouts for all attendees. If you have multiple paper handouts, they are most easily managed when assembled as a per attendee package in a presentation packet with letter size pockets on the interior. Some parent clubs go so far as to affix their logo to the exte- rior of each presentation packet. This makes for easy discernment at the seminar and at home when filed away by the learner. Please do not assume the seminar coordinator can receive and transport your shipment of pre- sentation packets. Ask if that is a possibility, timing for delivery, delivery location, etc. If you must ship materials, and the seminar coordinator cannot receive and/or transport them, please make arrangements for deliv- ery to the hotel at which you intend to stay, or some other trusted repository. Please do not trust a seminar venue to receive, track and store your materials. Many do not have staff available on weekends when some seminars occur, and the staff they do have is usually stretched pretty thinly.
Ask the hosting group seminar coordina- tor if you are responsible for making an ade- quate number of copies of seminar attendee sign-in forms, participant evaluation forms, hands-on workshop breed evaluation forms, and seminar and hands-on workshop report forms for your breed’s presentation. The most up-to-date forms can be found at the bottom of the AKC web page at https:// www.akc.org/clubs-delegates/clubs/resources/ seminars/. Please go all the way down to the bottom of the web page to Reports and Guides and click on each of the four links located thereunder. Each link opens to a PDF version of the forms that need to be used for seminars and hands-on workshops as well as the introduction. Your parent club may issue individual attendance certificates or not. It is incumbent on your parent club to provide those to you as the semi- nar presenter. The hosting group seminar
coordinator usually has attendance certifi- cates that cover one or multiple breeds. Ask the seminar coordinator which method they use. Ask the seminar coordinator ahead of time who will turn in the attendee sign-in sheets, participant evaluations, and hands- on workshop breed evaluations to the AKC.
Be prepared to wear comfortable profes- sional clothing and footwear to your pre- sentation. You are representing your parent club, your breed and its history. If you are presenting on a breed that does (or did) a job for a living, having an assistant in attire corresponding to the type of canine work done (e.g. riding or foot huntsman/woman, fur or feather hunter—leave the ammo at home please) may give the learners another reason to get excited and be engaged with your presentation. Many venues have vari- able ambient conditions depending on their ventilation systems or hold the workshop portion of the presentations outdoors. Be prepared for variations in temperature, humidity, and precipitation.
The first and foremost aspect of the hands-on workshop endeavor to be consid- ered by the seminar presenter is the gather- ing of the best breed examples possible so that learners can fix in their minds what is proper type, exemplary construction reflec- tive of the breed standard, typical movement and typical temperament for the breed. For those breeds that go through obvious devel- opmental differences through the matura- tion cycle, it is helpful to have a couple of 6-18-month-old representatives of the breed available. These may or may not be used in the hands-on workshop depending on their quality, mental maturity and steadiness. Learners should have the opportunity to see immature specimens of the breed in order to know what is normal and acceptable at the different maturation stages.
Hands-on workshops and the live exhib- its requested to be present for the learners to >
126 • ShowSight Magazine, noveMber 2019