Thursday, May 19, 2011

KC Chairman Ronnie Irving Stepping Down

Ronnie Irving is stepping down as Chairman of the Kennel Club in the U.K.

So what?  Good point!

At best Irving was a bowl of warm porridge -- a mosh of  half-measures apologies, weak leadership and tenuous conviction.  More than two and a half years ago, I noted that history would judge whether Ronnie Irving led.  The answer is that he did -- if you count being dragged kicking and screaming as leadership.

Yes there has been small change.  Let us stress, however, that the change has been small and that Ronnie Irving has not been a very visible agent of that change.

If one were looking for a single metric of how little has changed at the Kennel Club, it's the fact that Caroline Kisko is still there -- the Baghdad Bob of the Kennel Club.  One of the first things the next Kennel Club Chairperson should due to signal a real change in leadership is to empty that seat and fill it with someone who will at least acknowledge the obvious, which is that a lot of pedigree dogs are in trouble (do they need a list?) and that it's not all "due to the Victorians" (would they like a list of dogs in trouble and admitted to the Kennel Club since 1920?), and that the Clarges Street has the power to force change now.

Irving's stepping down, of course, is now an opportunity for stronger leadership. 

The Kennel Club has come to the first big fork in the road since the first airing of Pedigree Dogs Exposed back in August of 2008. 

Will it stumble on down the road to wreckage it has been on for the last 120 years, or will it veer off and take the High Road to Health and Real Work for Working Dogs?

Time will tell, but I would keep my expectations low.
Labels:

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)