(The following article, written by Donald Wilde, was printed in the Montgomery Update, which was distributed Montgomery 2003 weekend and mailed to USKBTC members not in attendance at the annual meeting.)

For several years now, the USKBTC has been working toward production of a new Handbook. The going has been slow. While an abundance of preliminary work was completed early on, the Club ran into some difficulties.

Primary among those difficulties was that folks, who agreed to write articles, didn’t. Much of this is understandable. Many of the most knowledgeable Kerry breeders and judges are not comfortable with a pen. Give them a dog, a lead, or a whelping box and they do just fine. Hand them pen and paper and...immobilizing fear. Understandable.

Then, too, the Club recently had to face the issue of an internet presence. Some Club leaders believe the future, and to some extent the present, belongs to the worldwide web. Others long for a book that they can hold in their hands and carry with them anywhere they go. Some rightly realize that printing costs are nearly prohibitive. Some wish we could have both a hard copy book and a web presence.

Perhaps we can have both–the Handbook in book form and a presence on the web–thereby satisfying more of our members. The Board of Governors gravitated toward this approach. As it turns out, the dual Handbook works well. Here’s how.

Kerry fanciers, including the eleven Chapter Clubs, will draw up their kennel advertisements or Club advertisement. Up to two pictures or graphics may be included per page. The advertisement will be laid out and uploaded onto the website, www.uskbtc.com, and each person with an ad will then be given their own website address. The same ad will also appear in the paper Handbook at no additional cost. That’s right, no additional charge will be made to have the website ad included in the paper Handbook! What a great deal!

How can we offer this two-for-one combination? Luckily, the work that will be done to set up the advertisements on the website will be transferred to the Handbook. We can download the advertisements for printing in the paper Handbook with just a little extra work. To make this two-for-the-price-of-one combination work, we will need to enlarge the Handbook up to the size of a typical school yearbook. The Board of Governors believes this minor adjustment is well worth the trade off. The pictures will be larger and clearer with the enlarged page size. We hope most of you will agree this is the wisest path for us to follow.

You may have some questions. Can a person choose to have their kennel ad only in the paper Handbook and not on the website? Yes, the cost will stay the same, but you have that option. When should a person or Club draw up their advertisement? Right now would be a great time. The absolute deadline for ads is December 31, 2003. The sooner you send in your ad, the sooner you may see it up on the website. Remember, there is no additional cost for putting your ad on the website and the creation of your own web page with web address. The sooner folks get their ads together, the easier it will be on our website/handbook staff. Do it now, if you can. Can we handle color photographs? Indeed. If we get forced to print the paper Handbook in black and white, so be it, but your kennel or Club ad on the website will be in color. How much will advertisements cost? Each ad page/web page is $125. You can put up two graphics per page and 75-100 words. Each additional picture is $25, but remember the more pictures you put on a page, the smaller each one becomes. If you want an original logo created for your kennel/web page ad, we have professionals who can do that for you for and extra $50. All ads can be emailed to a special email address set up to accept your pictures and text. Send your handbook/web page ads to. . . ads@uskbtc.com . . .by December 31, 2003. No late ads accepted after that date.

New Governor, Bryan Kincaid (GA) and Club President Donald Wilde (MI) will be co-chairing the Handbook Committee. Bryan will be coordinating the advertisements and printing. Donald will work to promote the Handbook and encourage potential contributors of articles and advertisements.

Printing the paper Handbook before our National Specialty in 2004 is a high priority for the Governors. Let’s all do our part to ensure an excellent publication is printed in a timely fashion. (Please refer to the website article for additional information and specifications for your webpages and ads.)

Last Updated: 10/09/2003, 11:24 pm