One hundred and twenty years have passed since the day 12 dedicated sportsmen converged in Philadelphia to examine the state of the sport of purebred dogs in America. The resulting club of clubs was the foundation of the venerable institution we know today as the American Kennel Club. As we commemorate our 120th anniversary, we not only look to our history and heritage, we embrace the changes that have launched AKC to the leadership position we enjoy today.

2004 was a very successful year and, from a financial perspective, was the best year in our history. But we are ever mindful of the challenges of the future. The enhancement of our registration systems, and improvements in our Competition Management System, are among the strategies we engage to stabilize a seven-year decline in registration. Over the past year, we have put new infrastructures in place to ensure a thorough audit and control of our services and to introduce new systems of support for our core constituency.

Founded as a governing body and registry of purebred dogs, AKC is proud to count among our new services online registrations for litters and individual dogs. Within only a year of implementation, online registrations accounted for 30 percent of litters processed. We continue to see an upward trend in our newly introduced online dog registrations as well. It is encouraging to observe the fancy embracing technology with us, as we add enhancements to our services.