SV elections: Change - Page 1

It was a close vote but Heinrich Messler was elected new SV president a few weeks ago. I didn't see a thread on the topic, so posting though it's ben a few weeks. It is worthy of note for those who have expressed justified concern about midnight trails and biased show results.

In 2012 Heinrich Messler wrote a letter to the SV leadership critiquing the commercialization and concomitant actions that, politely expressed, required legal and fiscal scrutiny, including judging decisions in favor of lucrative deals for a few that left no chance for the dogs of the small, non-commercial breeders. I.e. he took on everything that went wrong with the SV since 2002, since his late brother Peter Messler was replaced by W. Henke & Co. http://gsd-legends.eu/VWA6.pdf

This is not SL vs WL. I doubt anything will change in favor of WL. I see Heinrich Messler as standing for an attempt to bring back basic integrity. I don't know whether he can succeed. The election result was close, and the old network is still strong and hasn't given up. But it is a turn to the positive that would benefit from support, and I certainly wish him success.

I hope he is strong enough to make some changes

Any change that is substantial and positive will take time but it,s good to see.

A few weeks ago? Isn't that about when GSDCA and USCA were notified they were the sole, recognized WUSV members in the United States?

they have always been the "sole, recognized WUSV members in the United States". nothing changed there

ILMD: You are right! There has never been a 3rd WUSV member in this country. I believe I am right in saying the GSDCA was one of the founding members of the WUSV and was followed in membership a few years later by The USCA. That being said, it seems the WUSV/SV under the Henke administration gave a bit of a long lease to another organization in this country which sought international recognition and status. It didn't take the SV but a few days, under Herr Messler, to correct the situation as most folks are now seeing. The WUSV acts on behalf of and to the benefit of its member clubs solely.

 

The issues at stake in the SV elections were and are core to the future of the GSD at large, among them:
a) The many problems that came with the commercialization of breeding, judging, and trialing,
b) Suggested revision of breed requirements
c) Suggested revision of qualification criteria to BSP
d) Dog welfare and disputes about training tools and methods
We will see whether and how the partly renewed board and the new president will address genetic diversity and health.
These are crucial issues.

No offense, but the squabbles between GSDCA and WDA seem marginal to Germans, as important as they are to those involved in the US. Besides, if I remember correctly, the letter from the SV to WDA informing them that GSDCA and not WDA is a WUSV member was written in March already, way before the SV elections which took place at the end of May.

 

The March letter gave GSDCA and WDA a July 31st deadline to find a solution to their differences or neither would have judges released to them. Sanity was only restored at the end of July with the WUSV recognizing its own member.
Schaeferhund, you are probably correct that this was insignificant in Germany, and that mindset allowed Henke's backing of the WDA to do great damage here in the States short term.

Schaeferhund1:

Admittedly, I am not conversant on all the issues the SV faces internally. I have heard that a number of issues of differing severities were facing the new SV Board however.

The letter in July clarified the earlier, albeit less specific, position taken by the WUSV. It declared that no judges would be released in this country to any organization not belonging to, or approved by, a member club of the WUSV within the United States of America. As I understand the letter, it also made a point to say that the WUSV supports and provides benefits for WUSV member clubs only. The truth which was almost universally known by those who were interested in reality was, as you pointed out, that there were and had been only two recognized/member clubs in the USA. It is my belief or assumption that the coincidence of the WUSV position letter and Herr Messler's election to the Presidency was quite possibly a result of Herr Messler's desire to have the issue resolved once and for all and without further delay.

 

Thank you, Markobytes and Richard Medlen, for adding this information about SV/WUSV and GSDCA and WDA, and for pointing out that Heinrich Messler took this on early on in his presidency to get the US WUSV memberships finally settled.