Following is Lew Bunch's March 2006 article printed in the Review, this article explains the Purina Alliance Program. Ya'll send in those breedings now, ya hear? Presidentâ??s Message Purina Alliance Program How would you like to be the person responsible for finding out the cure for cancer in the German Shepherd Dog? It actually can happen with your participation in the Purina Alliance Program for the German Shepherd Dog Club of America. Last month I told you about the National Sponsorship Agreement we signed with the Purina Breeder Enthusiast Group, sponsorship value is in excess of $25,000 which includes cash donations to pay for all Futurity/Maturity Trophies, the Wednesday evening Welcome Dinner, 500 Customized Tote bags to be distributed to National Exhibitors, and over 500 pounds of Purina Dog Food, Coolers, Directorâ??s Chairs, Grooming Bags to be awarded to the National Winners and all Junior Handlers. And that is just the first step in this wonderful agreement with Purina. The Purina Alliance Program is an enhancement of the Futurity Program which has been in effect for several years now but I truly do not feel all of our members realized just how important this program is for the health of our Breed. Sure, we have all seen the large checks proudly displayed at the National and the Victory Dinners but do you know what was involved in receiving these checks? Didnâ??t think so and now I will explain the Purina Alliance Program to you and if anyone has any question, please let me know because I want every GSDCA Member to participate and just maybe it will be your participation which triggers the Grant to find the cure for hemangiosarcoma, DM, or LS. Wouldnâ??t that be wonderful. Here is how the Purina Alliance is structured: Laura Gilbert, is GSDCA Coordinator for the Purina Alliance Program, Lauraâ??s email address is Purina _Alliance@xxxxxxxx (mailto:Alliance@xxxxxxx) , her mailing address is 2448 Johnstown Road, Chesapeake, VA 23322 and her phone number is (757) 421-7854. Laura will be answering questions, collecting data, sending reports to Purina and everything else required to make this program a success. Your participation starts with your nomination of a litter you have bred but has not whelped yet. There is no cost for this nomination but a litter number will be assigned and that litter will be entered into the first phase of the Purina Alliance Program. You could wait until you know your bitch is in whelp but the sooner you are entered into this program the more the GSDCA will benefit. Data collected is NOT sold nor shared with any outside agency, your privacy is important and totally respected. The form that Laura will ask you to complete for this initial nomination is the date the litter was bred, Sire and Damâ??s name and Registration Number, Breederâ??s Name, Address, City, State, Zip, Phone, Email Address and Purina ProClub Number. Now before you think that you MUST feed Purina Dog Food to participate in this program, the answer is that you do not. However, If you are a member of the Purina ProClub and if you do feed Purina Dog Food and if you do send in weight circles, you can double the amount of payment Purina makes to the GSDCA IF you have declared the GSDCA as the Purina Parent Club Partnership (PPCP) on your ProClub Account. Speaking of your ProClub Account: How long has it been since you have updated it? I bet we have some members who have not declared the GSDCA as the PPCP so we are not getting credit for the weight circles they are submitting. Take a few minutes, call !-877-776-2582 or go to the web site _www.purinaproclub.com_ (http://www.purinaproclub.com/) to update your information and make sure you have identified the GSDCA as your PPCP. Just for updating your ProClub Account information you and will receive 500 Bonus Points credited to your account, call or email them today. And of course you may also call this same number to create a ProClub Account. Back to the Purina Alliance Program, the next step in this process is for you to contact Laura Gilbert and let her know that your litter has whelped, the number of puppies in the litter and the Futurity Region that you reside. You MUST report this to Laura BEFORE the litter is three months old, doesnâ??t cost anything, just a phone call or an email to Laura. Might as well go ahead and Futurity Nominate your now whelped litter, you will be supporting the GSDCA Futurity System and the Purina Alliance Program. The GSDCA Futurity Committee any improvements to the Futurity System including proposing a discount for Futurity nomination fees if you are a participant in the Purina Alliance Program but since that requires Board approval and the next Board Meeting is not until April I cannot talk about discounts yet but I bet there will be something to encourage your participation. Remember this is a Letâ??s Encourage, Not Discourage Board. Now you have completed two of the steps, you have nominated your litter after it was bred, you have notified Laura that your litter was whelped, and now it is time to enter a Futurity because we are assuming you have also Futurity nominated your litter. It doesnâ??t matter which Futurity, just enter one of them, maybe you will even win it but I guarantee you will have a good time with all those other breeders who are showing off their puppies too. The final step is winning that AKC Championship on that puppy you nominated even before it was born, you have now completed the journey and here is what you have generated for the GSDCA. The Purina Alliance Payout is as follows: $10.00 for each litter that has been nominated according to the above steps. 2.00 for each puppy in the nominated litters that are entered in a Futurity. 25.00 for each nominated puppy that completes their AKC Championship. And for those of you that are members of the ProClub, the GSDCA will receive an extra 10% redemption payout in addition to the 10% being paid by the PPCP. So actually it is double the normal payout from Purina while your ProClub payout is the same, you still recveive all the benefits and payouts too. I will get to the projection figures in a minute but first I want to add another piece of this total package, the PPCP. The Purina Parent Club Partnership (PPCP) is the weight circle redemption program that all of you who are ProClub members have been doing for years. You feed Purina Dog Food, you clip the weight circles, you send them to Purina ProClub and you receive checks for food, merchandise, gift certificates, vet checks, and other items relating to our dogs. However, the GSDCA receives a cash payment equal to 10% of the total value ProClub Members who have designated the GSDCA as their PPCP. Anybody who claims affiliation with German Shepherd Dogs contributes to this program. If you are also a participant in the Purina Alliance Program, the cash payout from Purina increases to 20%. It is that easy, clip and send in those weight circles and it might be your mailing that contributes to finding a breakthrough for a certain health issue, BECAUSE the funds Purina donates are paid as follows: · Half of the Amount goes to the GSDCA to be used for: o Canine Health o Rescue o Education o Other projects that positively impact the well being of our Breed The other half of the generated funds are donated to the Canine Health Foundation (CHF) and hopefully everyone knows that for every dollar donated directly to the CHF the American Kennel Club (AKC) matches that donation which means that any amount donated to the CHF automatically doubles. Here is what you contributed by sending in those Purina Weight Circles in 2005: $13,207.23 â?? Directly to CHF $13,207.23 â?? Matched by AKC $13,207.23 â?? Directly to the GSDCA $39,621.69 â?? Total Funds generated by redeeming Purina Weight Circles Bet you didnâ??t realize those little Weight Circles meant so much. This is totally in addition to everything redeemed personally by those who are ProClub members. The Weight Circles control this whole Sponsorship and Alliance Programs, and yes it is up to all of us to make sure we keep it going and growing. But wait, there is more, sorry if you are tired of reading all this but it is so important and it is something we all can participate. At the January Board meeting when Correy Krickeberg, the Purina manager who is responsible for accepting and presenting this wonderful opportunity for the GSDCA, showed the Board the slide explaining how we earned the $8,805.42 from the 2005 Futurity I was surprised that we only showed 31 Futurity Nominated AKC Champions. Remember when I said Purina was willing to pay $25 for each Futurity Nominated puppy that earned their AKC Championship? Well here is the slide that Correy showed us: 2005 GSDCA Futurity Earnings * Litter Nominations (448) $4,480 ($10 per litter nominated) * Futurity Puppies Entered (764) $1,528 ($2 per entry) * Nominated Champions (31) $ 775 ($25 per AKC CH) * Futurity Weight Circles $2,022.42 (2,022,420 lbs x 10%) * Total Futurity Payout $8,805.42 I looked at the slide and immediately thought there should be more AKC Champions and more $25.00 checks. I said something to Gary who mentioned it to Kris and Paul, we came up with 10 or so that probably were not on the list. Then Correy made the following statement that Purina would be willing to go back to 2002, the year the Futurity Program started and if there were AKC Champions that were in the Futurity Program that had not been reported, they would in fact let the GSDCA go back and collect $25.00 for each one who were in the Futurity Program and who have finished their AKC Championship. So get ready, Laura will be compiling a list of all those Champions, if you have finished a puppy that was Futurity nominated, they did not even have to been have shown in a Futurity, just nominated, then email, write or call Laura and give her all the information, Dogâ??s Name, AKC Number, Futurity Litter Number, Date Finished, Ownerâ??s Name, Address, Breeders Name and Address. At the International Kennel Club in Chicago, Purina announced their contributions the Canine Health Foundation from all of the Breed Clubs who are participating in the PPCP, came to over $400,000 and I think that is fantastic. We have projected the GSDCA could earn in excess of $60,000 in 2006 if we participate in the PPCP and the Purina Alliance Program at the levels we think are possible. Please be a part of this exciting effort that just may result in the discovery of the cure for the disease that will ensure your dog will live a long and healthy life. If you have any questions at all about the PPCP or the Purina Alliance Program please contact me or Laura, we are ready to answer your questions. Letâ??s Encourage, Not Discourge. Lew ============================================================================ POST is Copyrighted 2006. All material remains the property of the original author and of GSD Communication, Inc. NO REPRODUCTIONS or FORWARDS of any kind are permitted without prior permission of the original author AND of the Showgsd-l Management. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. ALL PERSONS ARE ON NOTICE THAT THE FORWARDING, REPRODUCTION OR USE IN ANY MANNER OF ANY MATERIAL WHICH APPEARS ON SHOWGSD-L WITHOUT THE EXPRESS PERMISSION OF ALL PARTIES TO THE POST AND THE LIST MANAGEMENT IS EXPRESSLY FORBIDDEN, AND IS A VIOLATION OF LAW. VIOLATORS OF THIS PROHIBITION WILL BE PROSECUTED. 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