Breed
Standards
Breed Standards have been debated by breeders
aggressively for over 4 years now. There have been
quiet rumblings pro and con for much longer but New
England Alpaca Tours brought Breed Standards to the
forefront in their inaugural North American Alpaca Show
in 2001. Since that time breeders have spent many hours
and amazing amounts of energy defending each of their
points of view. The Boards of NEAOBA, EAA, PAOBA, AOBA
and ARI truly feel that the time and energy of the
breeders of this country could be better spent by
accomplishing other tasks and not waffling here in the
middle for years arguing and getting angry with each
other. The time has come to bring this to a head and
move on.
So to that end, the Boards of New England Alpacas Owners
and Breeders Association, Empire Alpaca Association and
Pennsylvania Alpacas Owners and Breeders Association are
announcing the joint creation of the Northeast Alpaca
Type Conference, this will be the first of the Regional
AOBA Type Conferences. The Conference will be a one day
event December 10, 2005 at the Sheraton in Springfield,
MA.
There will be many details to come, some of them are not
final yet but the basic format follows:
- The Conference will be moderated by Dr. Brett Kaysem, PhD from Colorado State University. Dr. Kaysem
will be present to facilitate the discussions of the day
and to make sure everyone's opinion is heard; to make
sure there is fairness and ground rules for manners.
- Our panel will consist of 2 AOBA Judges and 2
Veterinarians. Also a Member of the AOBA Board and a
Member of the ARI Board will be there to comment on any
By-law questions that may arise.
- All AOBA Members will be invited from all
parts of the northeast from Ohio to Maine and South to
Virginia for a minimal cost. The conference will be
almost entirely underwritten by the two affiliates.
- Continental Breakfast followed by
presentations by the Panel of Experts, a question and
answer period, then a discussion lead by the Moderator.
We will then take a lunch break, finally participants
will break up into small groups to discuss how the
guidelines for each part of the body should be written.
Lastly, all of the groups work will be put together to
create the Northeast¹s position paper.
The purpose of this event is for as many people as
possible to come to one event and let their views be
heard, for the yeas and nays to sit together and agree
on a position statement on Alpaca Breed Standards that
reflects the majority view of breeders in the north east
region. Parallel meetings will be held throughout the
US early in 2006, and all of the regional position
statements will be brought to the Fiber to Fashion
November 1 & 2, 2006, where they will be melded into a
single statement reflecting the position of North
American alpaca breeders on the merits, and the
definition of, a National Alpaca Breed Standard. It
won't end here though, the most important part of this
process will occur early in 2007 when the Boards of AOBA
& ARI ask their members to vote on adoption or rejection
of the resulting unified position on a National Alpaca
Breed Standard.
If we don't take on this process folks, we will stay
here in the middle forever arguing amongst ourselves and
not getting anywhere. This has gone on long enough,
come participate, have a voice and vote. The AOBA and ARI boards have created this process so the Membership,
if they choose, has 100% of the voice of this document
and ultimately whether it is approved or not.
Of course many more details will be forthcoming and we
hope that you will mark this date in your Calendars and
plan on making the short trip to Springfield to take
your part in this process.
Sincerely,
The Boards of NEAOBA, EAA & PAOBA |
About EAA