Vital administrative role which will receive full advice and support from dedicated Kennel Club staff
The Kennel Club has written to all breed clubs and councils to ask them to appoint a Breed Education Coordinator (BEC) in their breed by 1st June 2018. The BEC will be responsible for overseeing the breed’s programme for educating its judges under the Judges Competency Framework (JCF), which will go live in January 2019.
Enclosed with the letter was a copy of the BEC role description, which emphasises the importance of the candidate having good administration experience, including report writing and use of computers and spreadsheets. Good people skills are also important.
The role will encompass managing the information for the breed clubs/council in all breed educational opportunities, i.e. breed appreciation days, multiple-choice breed standard exam, mentors, observers, as well as the assessors and exhibits for the subsequent Kennel Club-organised breed competence assessments. Dedicated Kennel Club staff will assist the BEC in carrying out their role and provide them with advice and support throughout all stages of the JCF education process.
The role is essentially administrative and requires good coordinating skills. It is not intended to replace the vital role of a judges’ education process which the Kennel Club still expects breed clubs and councils to provide in order to meet their obligations under the JCF. The training of judges by breed clubs and councils is absolutely central to the JCF and its aim of producing suitably-qualified judges for future generations of dog show exhibitors.
In breeds with a large number of breed clubs, it may be that each club and the breed council (if applicable) will wish to appoint a representative with the sole purpose of liaising with the BEC. This will ensure that all clubs and councils are involved in the education of judges and will also help with the distribution of workload. Once again, Kennel Club staff will be on hand to offer full support and advice to any volunteer offering their services under the JCF.
The Kennel Club recognises that many breed clubs and councils already have someone working in a similar role to that of the newly-created BEC. It is therefore hoped that this experience can be used when appointing the BEC, which is a much-enhanced position.
Caroline Kisko, Kennel Club Secretary, said: “The Kennel Club recognises 220 pedigree dog breeds, and we look forward to recruiting a BEC for each of these by the summer. We would emphasise that the role is not intended to remove the responsibility for a judges’ education process from breed clubs and councils and, in fact, is a coordinating role on their behalf in order to help them meet their obligations under the JCF. For this reason, it could well be that some breeds will appoint someone who is not a championship show judge but who has strong administrative and people skills. With 2019 just around the corner, it is very important that each breed has someone at the heart of coordinating its breed education in time for when the JCF begins.”
The Kennel Club will be inviting all appointed BECs to an event on Sunday 15th July at the Kennel Club Building at Stoneleigh, Warwickshire where they will be briefed fully on the role and have the opportunity to ask questions.