This article is from the WSSF 2016 AFRMA Rat & Mouse Tales news-magazine.

By Karen Robbins

Cassi Anderson, Kobold Rattery, WA, Facebook
Q So to become an affiliate club, you have to attend a show. Shows only in Cali, it is not possible to attend for a lot of people. So what are other options? Is it possible to become an affiliate club, without travel expenses to California?

A We have both official and unofficial affiliations (see the Affiliate page; unofficial affiliates aren’t required to come here). To be an official affiliate we only require one training here to learn how shows are run, the classes and how they are judged, and to get some basic judge training. We have had our members come from Washington, Colorado, and Texas to get training for their new groups (either by driving or flying).

One option, if you don’t want to be an official affiliate, is to bring in a judge to your area to give your new group training in setting up shows, classes, judging, holding seminars, etc.

With the U.S.A. being so large and so few groups that actually hold competition shows, it will require some travel to get to these shows to learn so this can then be implemented in your area.

Q Bringing a judge in, does one just cover airfare? All travel expenses? Can one person be flown out to cover mice and rats, in same show?

A Yes, one person can take care of both mice and rats and do training on running a show, health checking, show sec., etc. Airfare and hotel expenses would need to be taken care of with someone on your end willing to transport to/from airport/hotel and show/training location. There are several fund raising options a group can do to get together the money—getting sponsors, getting items donated then selling/auction/raffle them off, have a seminar and charge a nominal fee per person, have a car/dog wash, etc. (see the article Some Ideas On Forming Your Club). My recommendation is to have the event cover more than one day to cover both species adequately if you did both mice and rats.

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