Increase Judges Release Authorization Fee

EB # 26-15

Motion: Presented by Nathaniel Roque, DOJ, and seconded by Frank Phillips, Vice President.   To increase the Judges Release (Authorization) Fees for all non USCA Member Clubs and organizations (excluding the German Shepherd Schutzhund Club of Canada, GSSCC) to $ 100.00 for club events and $ 200.00 for championship events, effective 9/1/2015 .

Backround: USCA already has this process in place to release (authorize) a USCA Judge to a non USCA Club or Organization Event. The current fee is $ 50.00 for club events and $100.00 for championship events. This motion increases the fees to $100.00 for club and $ 200.00 for championship events.

This fee is paid directly to USCA to approve the release of the USCA Licensed Judge to another organization or club event, The purpose of this fee is to help recover (offset) the costs of training our USCA Judges by adding a fee for their use by a non USCA organization or club that has not shared in the overall cost of our Judges Program . USCA spends approximately $ 20,000 a year for education of our Judges by way of bi monthly conference calls, continuing education, review programs, tests and our yearly Judges College. These services are funded by our USCA members.

Currently, our Judges are not approved to Judge outside of USCA until they have met their minimum required yearly USCA Trials since their first responsibility is to provide as much availability as possible to USCA clubs and Events. This will continue as our organization grows, as well as our total events, and the need for judges. Our first priority is to provide service to our organization. We should have an additional three judges licensed by early 2016 helping to meet the needs of our organization.

This fee has not and will continue to not be applied to the use of USCA Judges for GSSCC Events, The USCA and the GSSCC have a long standing agreement of reciprocity between the use of our judges. Both organizations are WUSV members with similar judges program requirements and both organizations’ judges provide breed suitable titles in trials. The GSSCC also has waived any fee for USCA to use their judges.

The USCA Judge College will continue to offer our support to our AWDF member Clubs and foreign FCI and WUSV clubs as requested and needed. We are honored that they request the use of our judges at their events but with the shortage of judges within our organization and in the US for working dog sport that have our level of internationally recognized license, training and acceptance it is only fair that the cost to maintain this standard be shared with any organization using our resources.

Nathaniel Roque
Director of Judges – United Schutzhund Clubs of America (USCA)
USCA – Working / Performance Dog Judge # 30,
USCA / SV – SV Licensed Trial Judge

VOTE RESULT:  20 YES Unanimous

Motion Carried:  August 20, 2015