Dear Ring Sport enthusiasts:
In order to help promote the growth and development of French Ring in North America, and specifically in the eastern United States, we have formed a new Ringsport association called American Ringsport Federation / Alliance Ring Français – or ARF. ARF will be run under the auspices of the American Canine Association (ACA) in the United States and we have requested assistance from the CUN, and the GTR in France. It is our hope that we can work in an atmosphere of friendly competition and cooperation with all the other Ring associations in North America in order to generate more interest in the sport to the benefit of all of our organizations.
It is not our goal or intent to compete with other organizations for members or to take away any members from any other group. Rather, it is our philosophy and approach that people can belong to and compete with more than one organization. We will recognize valid scorebooks and decoy books, from any organization that operates under the SCC rules of French Ring. At this time we are not planning to expand our clubs beyond the eastern United States. It is our feeling that one of the main issues that has prevented the growth of Ring in the United States has been the sheer size of the country. Geographical issues and logistics have made it difficult to reach any sort of “saturation point.” We believe that focusing on a single region will help promote interest in the sport and help it grow.
Our trial season and format will mimic that of France. Our championship will be in June beginning in 2010, and our selectifs will be in May. The remainder of the trial season will be for club trials and pre-selectifs. It is our hope that this will not conflict with NARA’s schedule, but rather complement it. We will be having a “Coupe of Champions” at the end of September (26 – 27) at a location to be determined. This will be an annual invitational event and we will to invite North American champions to participate. We will also extend invitations to champions of other countries which practice Ringsport. We believe this will be a great weekend of Ringsport where the best dogs from all corners of North America will be able to compete head to head.
Again, we would like to reiterate that the goals of ARF are to help grow French Ring on the east coast of the United States, and, in conjunction with the ACA, to help improve the breeds that compete in this sport which we all love. We hope to be a complement to the other Ring associations in North America and we look forward to friendly competition on the trial field.
