CFA Cat Registry

Date: Wed, 03 Oct 2012 16:59:48
Postings and Attitudes are Bad Publicity for CFA

Hi -------, I think you have made some valid points in your ----. I have seen some of what you describe take place in the showhalls. I was at the regional show when a very well know region 4 clerk was extremely nasty to a new exhibitor and her family. They have a child in the youth program, are starting a new breeding program in a breed that really needs new people (nope not either of my breeds) and now they are fearful when they encounter this clerk.

This is not the first time this clerk has done this and I am aware of people that actually avoid shows where this person will be because they always clerk for the same judge. This means that now we have people avoiding a specific Judge because of what his clerk did to them and I can't say as I blame them. How do we fix this? People said "file a protest" can you imagine a newbee wanting to file a protest? Seriously, we have long time CFA exhibitors unwilling to speak up because "I do not want to make the judges angry, then they will not use my cats" fear of retaliation seems to silence a great many people, how unfortunate.

In the private email exchange I have had with this exhibitor I also believe she was likely given some bad advice, on what was allowed in the CFA HHP class. however, this still does not relieve her from the responsibility of reading and knowing the show rules as she stated when she signed the entry form.

One of your points was we need to educate new people, part of the eduction if they are coming to a club as a 'newbee' is to make sure they are given correct information regarding show rules, etc especially if they are from another association. Consider, as one of the master clerks for QCCC, you were charged with the job of recording the finals for that show according to CFA rules. If a final had come to you that day from your Dad's (not saying ---- makes errors, just the easiest example to come up with ), ring and it had errors you would not just have looked the other way, would you? knowing you as I do, I expect you would have gone to the clerk explained why it was not acceptable in a professional manner and it would have been corrected. Because that is part of your job as master clerk. It would be a disservice to the club, judge and exhibitor if you did not do this,no?

So if we look at what happened with this exhibitor in another way, she was done a disservice by not being educated properly about CFA show rules by the very people charged with enforcing those rules. Did this exhibitor get good customer service from the get go? We should all take responsibility for what happened and make a determined effort to not repeat the mistakes and move forward.

The Bengals I have been in close contact with have always been lovely animals. My friends that breed them love their animals the same as any breeder I know of any other breed. When I have exhibited in TICA and ACFA Bengals are just about always the majority breed. I remember being at one TICA show and was amazed to see just 1 Persian entered in the show, it was an alter and it had come from a CFA breeder we all know and love in Ohio:-). Can you imagine, a show with only 1 Persian!

To put into perspective your experience with seeing all the Bengals at their annual and thinking how those numbers entered in CFA shows could help our clubs. Imagine a TICA person that had never been to a CFA show coming to the World Show this year and seeing the number of Persians we have entered, might they not come away with the same impression? Only difference is that Persians are an accepted Breed in TICA and are in the same breed group as Exotics. I often see people I know from CFA at shows of the 'other' associations.

TICA and ACFA are facing the same challenges as CFA with declining entries etc( I am on the TICA list and the ACFA list). I can also tell you that they have some of the same issues etc pop up on their lists , and it is not all 'nice and friendly' exchanges either. No, that does not make it right but I am sick and tired of hearing how only CFA people can be unfriendly and bickering on the lists and in the show halls. ----