Club Development Department

The AKC Club Development Department supports AKC clubs. Our dedicated team has extensive dog sport and club experience and acts as a resource for clubs to tap into to receive guidance on holding successful events and growing membership.  Whether through sharing best practices and educational materials, providing event planning support or directing clubs to AKC subject experts, Club Development is here to help clubs achieve success.

The AKC Club Development Department is available to provide support for:

• Event planning:
  • Evaluate prospective event dates for availability and competition.
  • Address issues related to loss of show site or cluster partnerships.
  • Answer questions on changes, such as updated rules or optional events.
  • Advise on additional sports and attractions clubs can hold to enhance their existing events, including resources needed, costs involved and potential revenue generated
  • Clubs working with other clubs to hold special attractions or events on the same date, here is a: Sample Letter of Understanding.
  • Provide clubs with post-event feedback about any issues that occurred.
  • Help with your next match: Best Practices to hold a match
• Educational materials:
  • Create guides for new show chairs and event committee members, such as holding an AKC event, scheduling best practices and event checklists.
  • The AKC All-breed Committee and Parent Club Committee have developed a series of best practices to help clubs as they grow.
    • All-breed Committee best practices
    • Parent Club Committee best practices
      These documents have information to assist all clubs.
• Membership:
  • Help improve club flyers (e.g. Parent Clubs registration inserts).
  • Work with Clubs to develop individual club communications on upcoming membership events.
  • Membership Best Practices developed by the AKC All-breed delegate committee: Best Practices for sustained membership
• Club communication:
  • Join the conversation or follow us on Facebook and Twitter at AKC Club Development
  • Share the successes being experienced by other clubs.
  • Facilitate communication between clubs to share first-hand accounts of implementing new sports and activities
• Mentoring:
  • Mentor new clubs and new show chairs during their event start-up process.

The AKC Club Development Department can provide feedback and guidance on many other issues related to events, show sites or cluster partnerships. Don’t hesitate to reach out to us at:

American Kennel Club
8051 Arco Corporate Drive, Suite 100
Raleigh, NC 27617
tel: (919) 816-3705
email: clubdevelopment@akc.org

If you are interested in forming a new club or need help with internal issues, please contact AKC Club Relations.