Today, I’m going to apply with the AKC for the four Fast CATs in July at Monroe—I just won’t yet submit payment for them. It seems logical that would be the approach for obtaining these events using the fees that were paid for the cancelled Maumee Fast CATs.
After logging in to the AKC’s online event management with MGA’s credentials, we have the distinct pleasure of using their Online Competition Management System (OCMS) rather than the Classic Online Event Management System. The OCMS is tailored to simpler events like the CATs and Fast CATs. We’ll step through each of the events in sequence by their event number, starting with 2020261009.
For the event details tab, I just need to make sure everythings is as it should be, which it pretty much was other than the chairperson’s address. The Fast CAT tab has the event information, which gets the fee and closing date and time. I usually refer back the advertisement to remind myself of that information. The ad lists the hours as 8:00-2:30 each day. On the event application, I usually mark the first event as a morning event and have it close at noon, and the second event, I mark as an afternoon event and have it close at the end of the day. Ultimately, what is the premium will be what really matters, as I am not sure where this information appears after the application is submitted. For these Fast CATs though, no gate entries are being accepted, so the closing date and time is a fixed date (1 July), and 6:00 PM seems a reasonable hour.
With the event details completed and no other information (e.g., judges) to enter, time to press the “Save and Submit to AKC” button. The AKC web site tends to be quite slow in response (except for when submitting payment, curiously enough). It’s easy to lose track of what one is doing when your mind moves on to other things on the computer while waiting. Still waiting. Checking email. Piece of junk—delete it. Ah, that action completed at last.
When it does come back, the screen will have a small message at the bottom for validation failures. The big one at this point will be that the fees are overdue. Normally, I’d pay the fees at this point, but, as I explained at the top, that’s as far as I want to go with this event today.
To loop back for the next event, I click the home icon in the upper left. Repetition for the other three events involves just as much delightful wait times. Once that’s been done for all four events, the event list shows them all to have advanced to a “Pended” state.
I’ll wait a few days and see if the AKC replies to my inquiry on fees.