You gotta love people who think, nay KNOW, that
they are above the law. In this case 'the law' is rules that the rest of
us are held to, but others are not. We see it every day. At home, at
school, at work, in the store, on the road, and say it ain't so...yes, even at
a dog show.
One current example:
Topeka dog shows. 5 days one weekend, 2 days off, 4 days the next
weekend. Reserved grooming. If you reserve grooming by the
deadline, for both weekends, you can leave your stuff, and even your dogs in
the building on the 2 days off between shows.
When the judging program was published the entire main floor grooming
was shown as reserved except for the glass walled entryway, which was free
grooming.
As observed in the grooming room at Topeka:
On Thursday, August 16, Scott Sommer whines his way into the reserved
grooming room and gets the people in charge to move spaces and shrink some
people’s reserved space down, so that he can be in the main room. Spaces reserved for one weekend were outlined
in one color tape. Spaces reserved for
both weekends were outlined in another color.
Well, come Monday evening, anyone that has not paid for both weekends,
has to leave the building. Scott gets
into a heated discussion with the club people trying to get the room set up for
the upcoming show. He refused to leave,
again saying that he is entered for both weekends, and why not just move these
people, and these people, and he could put his stuff in Spot X. This still did not work for the guy in
charge, as he had not reserved space and that room was full. Yay, for the guy in charge!
But, that is not the end of the story. Scott was NOT going to take "No" for an
answer. He went in search of Jesse James
Show Chair and AKC Judge Karen Mc Farlane.
Mrs. McFarlane arrives, has a chat with the grooming room guy, and then
they move around the spaces that were already reserved, Scott gets to stay in
the building, and gets the space he wanted, without making a reservation. Some of us paid well in excess of $200 for
grooming space smaller that he used. This
has been standard operating procedure since these clusters started doing the
back-to-back weekends at the Topeka Show Site.
This is not a new policy, nor is Sommer new to this arrangement. So Scott Sommer got the space he wanted, got
to stay in the building, didn’t have to send a reservation, and who knows if he
even paid for the space? Maybe he did, maybe he didn't. I didn't see that part. This is a
factor because the clubs have to pay for security and insurance for the
building with all of our equipment and dogs there. I guess if you know who to suck up to, as
with anything, you can get what you want.
What these people, especially those with ‘the power’ don’t stop to think about is how bad this looks to those less seasoned (or grizzled). The other people that were in the same situation, were forced to leave, and did so without any argument BECAUSE THOSE ARE THE RULES. How does this look to those new people who still think that this ‘sport’ is fun, or even the old people who obeyed the rules only to see someone getting preferential treatment, AGAIN?
It just makes me sad.
Well, before noon on Sunday, Scott took all of his toys and went home.
Scott was heard to say "I'm so sick of this building and this show..."
Gotta love those good sports!
Ya know...I think there are other shows this same weekend closer to home for you Scottie boy. If you choose to go there next year, I can't express how much you, and your cheerful attitude, will be missed by all.
