2025 NRC: 11/07/25

2025 NRC General Annual Meeting

Friday, November 7th at 3:05 pm (ET) – Americus, Georgia

Meeting Start: 3:05 pm
Opening Ceremonies
Welcome to the 85th National Retriever Championship
Location: Wolf Creek Plantation, Americus, GA
Led by Mark Menzies

Mark Menzies opens the meeting by welcoming participants, volunteers and attendees to Americus, GA.

Honorary Test Dog - 2023 NAFC FC Beaver Runs Raymond For Sheriff (Runs after Test Dogs)

Veteran Recognition - Asked to stand and was applauded!

Pledge of Allegiance and Prayer

- Pledge led by Bubba Joiner

- Prayer led by Bubba Joiner

Trial Dedication

*Jeff Talley introduced Marhsal Dunaway to whom the trial is dedicated and in Memory of Tom Strickland and Bruce Hall.

Nomination of Club Officers for 2026

Any Nominations from the Floor? – No

Announcement of the 2026 Club Officers will be ...

President: Mark Medford
Vice President: Kirk Naisbitt
Director: Wayne Stupka
Director: Bert Windham
Secretary/Treasurer: Tom Vaughn

Proposed all in Favor - Passed.

AKC Representative

Russ Reavis introduced as the on-site AKC Rep for the event.

Russ gave a presentation on the AKC requirement to take the Darkness to Light or alternative to Judge. Course is still available. Only 45% of Judges have taken the course. (697 people) Dec. 30th is the LAST DAY - any judges that have not taken it by then will be moved to the inactive list.

AKC Economic Impact Study for dog events

2023 350 Field Trials 35,465 entries

2024 347 Field Trials 33,902 entries

2025 311 FT to date 27,524 entries

Sponsor Recognition presented by Mark Menzies and the Board.

Landowner Recognition - Landowners were called up to be recognized and receive gifts in appreciation for providing our grounds for the event.

Pine Tree Retriever Club - Betty Hall
Bert and Leigh Windham
Wayne and Terri Curtis
Jack and Larraine Unbehaun

Betty Hall

Secretary Report Given by Tom Vaughn

New Clubs, Returning Clubs with past dues.

162 Clubs currently, 4 clubs no longer there. There are 6 New Clubs going the the AKC process.

A motion to accept the Secretary's report

Financial Report Given

NRC Land Grants

Up to $10,000 for improvements to land to be used for a National

A motion to accept the Financial report

By Law Change Discussion

Workers lunches or snacks available

Roll Call conducted by Tom Vaughn

Quorum

Retriever Hall of Fame Update presented by Mark Medford

New Inductees for the Retriever Hall of Fame to be presented on Monday.

PRTA Update presented by Becky Eckett

New Land Grants will be announced on Sunday after the PRTA Meeting on Saturday Evening.

2024 Grant Recipients

Madison Retriever Club
Del Bay Retriever Club
Mid Florida Golden Retriever Club

The PRTA hopes to award 5 grants this year for $3000 each.

Announcers Recognized

Mark Menzies thanks Alex Washburn and Kathy McGinn

Gwen Jones who works with our Sponsors

Judges with their judges gifts - Joel Harris, Missy Bell, Mitch Patterson

2024 National Champion Recognition presented by Ray Voigt, Purina

Ray presented a portrait to the owners and trainer of the 2024 National Champion '22/24 2xNFC-3xCNFC-AFC Truline's Just Floyd

Owners: John and Amie Henninger
Handler: Amie Henninger

Ray Voigt presenting portrait of "Floyd" to Amie Henninger

Close up picture of the portrait

Dog #64 will Start

Rotation will be 64, 91, 9, 36.

Meeting was adjourned at 5:45pm

RAC Meeting

2025 Retriever Advisory Committee Meeting

Friday, November 7, 2025

John Russell, President RAC, called the meeting to order at 2:03 pm

#1 Sport is at 42% compliance on taking the Darkness to Light training - we have to start figuring out how to make this work. It will be addressed at the General Meeting also.

#2 Question: Looking at the Scratch Policy. Mandatory is what it is and the balance is up to the club. Current rules are 90 years old. No one is monitoring it now. The AKC has contracted clubs. AKC only gets a fee on starters.

#3 The rules state that a dog should be able to see in air. Change would say "shall" instead of should. We have excuses for illusionary stuff. It is an issue.

#4 Complaint about distance retiring guns move. Common sense does not seem to prevail, so the suggestion is made that a distance should be put in the rule book. "Intentionally deceive the dog" is a concern and they will address it.

#5 Stronger field trial committees need to be addressed. Better command of the rules and confidence in their decisions. As a contestant - you can write a note and the FT Secretary can submit it with their report.

#6 Increase in past few years - gunners retiring while the birds are still going down. Common sense is not showing up at Field Trials.

John has affirmed that we (we as contestants) should write to him about what a rule change should look like.

Meeting closed at 2:42 pm.

Retriever Advisory Committee - Bill Goldstein, Larry Morgan, John Russell, Missy Bell and Rus Reavis (AKC Field Rep Director)

Jim Rickoff and Randy Spangler

Front: Joel Harris, Sammie Thompson and Mitch Patterson

L to R: Bente Kongsore, Randi Johannis, Delma Hazzard and Phil Heye

L to R: Michael and Paula Wallace, Kathy and Johnny Armstrong

Photos

Joel Harris and Sue Reynolds

Videos from Registration

AKC Presentation

NRC – AKC Presentation

First from AKC, congratulations on Qualifying for this year's NRC and being here to compete, good luck to all!

There are a couple of topics I want to give you an update on.

The updated current trends in Retriever Field Trials

Events Held 2023 350

2024 347

2025 311 have been approved to date

Entries 2023 35,465

2024 33,902

2025 27,524 to date

Here are the current status and paths forward with the Stewards of Children course requirement for Judges by the AKC Board.

The deadline of September 30, 2025 has passed.

For any applications received after this date with a judge that has not taken the course, the application will be put in a pending status until they have taken the course or been replaced.

Any approved events and judges prior to this date will not be disapproved nor rescinded.

The course is still available to judges and will be in the future. New judges will be required to take this course before they can judge. Apprentices are not required to take the course.

Any judge who has not completed the course by December 30, 2025, will be placed on the inactive list.

You can contact Performance events to see if a judge has completed the course. Connie Thomas at 919-816-3907 or Christy Silkas at 919-816-3308.

There is a shorter version to take that is less than an hour to complete and is called From Bystander to Upstander. Contact Chelsea Horton at 919-816-3457 or judgecompliance@akc.org for an access code.

As of September 30, only 45% of the 1549 eligible FT judges have take the course. (697)

Good Luck This Week Everyone!