Hello Team Organizers/Captains
We are happy to see that some of you have been working in the online Team Entry Forms!
This has prompted a few questions for either Jen or me about the DACOF Entry Fee being $150 inclusive of the Membership fee.
Effectively, in efforts to make the entry process easier on Team Captains and the Trial Secretary, and to facilitate simplifying the Financial Entry Form, EACH entry will be $150, less any Super Early Bird or Regular Early Bird Discount, inclusive of the Membership fee, regardless of if the Handler is running two or more dogs.
The main purpose of the change is to simplify the entry process for Team Organizers, the Trial Secretary, and the Treasurer. Significant errors occur annually by Team Organizers completing the Financial Form, and the largest factor in those errors seems to involve when handlers are running more than one dog. Indicating/deducing on which Team, or sometimes on which Organization (when a Handler is running dogs for more than one Organization) the Handler has paid the Membership fee seems to always create difficulty and confusion for both the Team Organizer/Captain completing the Entry Forms and for the Trial Secretary deciphering the Entry Forms. And although we’ve been trying annually to make the Financial Form more descriptive, intuitive, and user-friendly, our efforts have been counterproductive because the numbers of errors have been growing year after year.
The Trial Secretary and Treasurer dedicated significant time, effort, emails, and phone calls last year trying to resolve the many DACOF Entry issues, most of which were related to Handlers running multiple dogs on different Teams/Organizations, and where on the entry form(s) the “Membership” fee was paid.
The easiest way to simplify the process to reduce the errors was to go to a “Flat Entry Fee” per dog entered, inclusive of the Membership fee.
Many on the Board also run more than one dog and are subject to the same entry fees as the rest of the DACOF Membership, so it is certainly not our intent is not to be “unfair” to Handlers running more than one dog but to make the entry process easier for everyone involved.
And to answer another follow-up question, yes, each “Entry” will be receiving a T-Shirt and Pin, so Handlers running multiple dogs will receive multiple T-Shirts and Pins. The new updated online entry system will also facilitate streamlining this process, as it is a HUGE undertaking.
The DACOF Board values all our Members, and we appreciate the financial decision of allocating money towards the fun and camaraderie that is DACOF.
Thank you for your questions about the new Online Entry Process and we look forward to receiving your DACOF Entries.
Bill, Kathy, Jen, Erica & Ashley