Page 186 - ShowSight - January 2020

Breed Education Fourth in a Series: It Starts With You BY CELESTE M. GONZALEZ continued
of which attendees are registered for which breed seminar.
Be prepared for a multitude of questions from presenters and potential attendees regarding the seminars, lodging, restau- rants, transportation, room conditions, location of the meeting room in relation to the concurrent dog event, etc. You probably will want to have all that information avail- able to send with the acknowledgement of receipt of their registration, or most of it on the registration form itself. Obtaining a brief bio on each presenter will allow you to introduce the next breed and presenter and bring the class to order.
As you prepare for your bulk copying, it helps to have as many fields pre-filled on the forms as possible. This reduces the chances of errors and having to repeat your- self at the beginning of each breed seminar. Usually the name of the club/group offer- ing the seminar(s) and city/state location is information that can be prefilled. Attend- ees find it useful to have the breeds’ grid of days and time slots printed along with the seminar coordinator’s cell phone number, location of lunchroom (if on premises) and restrooms, location of hands-on area, etc. as they rarely have copies of their completed registration forms with the seminar sched- ule grid with them.
As registration is nearing its limits, schedule your bulk copying and buying of seminar supplies, both administrative and those for creature comforts. Who will bring supplies and equipment to the seminar and when? If the majority of items can be stored securely, they can be brought in and set up the evening prior to the start of the seminars. If not, plan on getting there early before the first seminar to get things set up the way they need to be. The evening before the seminars is a good time to review the room set up, or get some help in setting up tables and chairs, demarcating the hands- on workshop area, testing AV connections, etc. You may want to bring in bottled water and snacks on a daily basis, rather than hav- ing it all available at once, as it becomes messy rather quickly.
A two-week lead before the scheduled seminar is a good lead time to give each seminar presenter a final count of enrollees per breed session. A written briefing of the expectations and mechanics of the seminar presentation, where the hands-on workshop will take place, time at which hands-on workshop dogs will be needed, comple- tion of the seminar presenter’s paperwork including signing of the Attendance
Sheets and each learner’s Hands-On Breed Evaluation Form at the completion of the workshop, etc.
Most learners are very good about fol- lowing directions, arriving on time, focusing on the presentation, following directions for the hands-on, etc. Then there are those that need a bit extra encouragement, shall we say. Study methods to get learners to focus on the presentation, if needed. If two or more learners are in distracting conversa- tion, or if one or more seem to be distract- ed by their smart phones or smart tablets, standing behind the distracted individu- als sends a quiet, but firm message to pay attention. Signal the speaker if they need to hurry up so as not to run out of time. It helps to either hold up ten fingers or five fingers before ten minutes and five minutes till then end, respectively. Or you may wish to have signs with time remaining printed on each and flash them to the speaker from a discrete area as time winds down. Be pre- pared to interrupt an argumentative learner so that the seminar can continue on a posi- tive note and the presenter is not having to pause the seminar to respond.
The seminar day has arrived and the seminar coordinator has now moved into an implementation mode while still being in a preparatory mode. Preparatory, because the paperwork for the next breed seminar needs to be prepared while the current seminar is going on, the learners need to be informed of what’s coming next, and the next seminar presenter can be reminded of the presenta- tion and hands-on administrative and pro- cedural aspects. Seminar coordinators may appreciate help in this phase, as there is pro- cedural and administrative repetition per breed. It is probably the most persistently busy time for the seminar coordinator.
Coordinator/Presenter/Learner commu- nication is important during various facets of each breed’s presentation as they are occurring simultaneously on various levels. Communicate to the presenters well ahead of time when they should arrive before their breed is scheduled to begin their semi- nar presentation. If it is the first, or only seminar of the day, the coordinator has the benefit of running a short test session with the presenter’s electronic media (USB stick with breed presentation in PowerPoint format and PDF format) in order to work out any oddities that may occur. This is a good time to instruct the presenter (or an assistant) in slide advancement, use of the microphone, review of where the hands-on will occur, when, and the expected format.
Some presenters are quite experienced and won’t need any assistance, others will wel- come the coordinator’s assistance. Let the presenter know that the coordinator can assist during the hands-on portion, if that is the case. This may be as simple as handing out the lettered armbands to the handlers of the example exhibits, or more involved if the presenter needs the extra help.
It’s useful to have a folder dedicated to each breed’s materials as they are com- pleted: sign-in sheets, hands-on workshop breed examples evaluation forms, learner seminar evaluation forms, presenter evalu- ation form. Have the sign-in sheet(s) at a convenient spot in the seminar room for learners to sign-in as they come into the seminar. Once the seminar is underway, the coordinator should collect the sign in sheet(s). How tardy is tardy for late-comers? The seminar presenter should be able to guide the coordinator in that respect. Lean- ers who arrive half-way into the presenta- tion miss many of the essential elements of the breed’s presentation. While the seminar is underway, the coordinator should be loading a hands-on worksheet and seminar evaluation form onto each clip board in order to have them ready for each learner prior to the beginning of the breed’s hands- on workshop.
Think ahead of how teeth, and testicles on males, will be examined. You don’t want twenty people going over each example exhibit’s bite and testicles, do you? A sim- ple way is to have the learners close to the dogs and then the presenter, or coordinator, announces the age and sex of each exhibit, examines the bite/teeth/mouth in a breed- specific manner, checks for two normal descended testicles in males, and announc- es the results. The presenter or coordina- tor should do this for each exhibit to be examined by the learners. If a breed has a full mouth examination, e.g. Doberman Pinschers, Rottweilers, assure that your pre- senter has a demonstration dog that will tol- erate having its mouth kept open for a suffi- cient amount of time so the learners become familiar with examining and counting teeth in sets. Likewise, for those breeds that have a thumb exam across the front of the lower lip, e.g. Pugs, Brussels Griffons, assure that the presenter’s demonstration dog will tolerate having this type of exam done sev- eral times in demonstration.
Be sure to inform the presenter to dem- onstrate the execution of the breed-specific hands on examination and examination of coat, where required. For those Terrier
178 • ShowSight Magazine, January 2020