The Executive Secretary is responsible for taking, maintaining, and disseminating minutes of Board of Directors meetings and quarterly Delegate meetings.

On average, Delegate meetings include more than 300 attendees from the 584 AKC member clubs. Minutes of Board and Delegate meetings are published in the AKC Gazette and posted at akc.org. In 2005, the January Delegate meeting was held in Tampa, Florida; the June meeting was held in Chicago; and the March and September meetings were held in New York City.

The AKC Lifetime Achievement Awards, Awards for Canine Excellence (ACE), Breeder of the Year Award (BoY), and Community Achievement Awards are administered by the Executive Secretary's office. ACE and BoY recipients are honored at the AKC/Eukanuba National Championship, and ACE winners are saluted also at dog shows in their home areas. Staff coordinated the National Championship poster-art contest. Prints of the winning design were sold at the show, with the proceeds benefiting the Take the Lead foundation.

Eight 2005 Community Achievement Awards were given to honor outstanding public education and canine legislation efforts. The AKC donated $1,000 to each honoree's club or federation.

The AKC has launched initiatives reaching out to breeders, the backbone of the sport of purebred dogs.

"AKC Breeder" made its debut in 2005 and will become a quarterly newsletter in 2006; and, after a trial run in Raleigh in summer 2004, The AKC/CHF Breeders Symposia kicked off a new and expanded program in 2005, with several symposia slated for 2006.

The Executive Secretary oversees relations with foreign registries and directs the activities of the Club Relations department, which maintains files on approximately 5,000 member, licensed, and sanctioned clubs, and hundreds of other clubs seeking permanent AKC affiliation.

Club Relations manages the accreditation of these clubs and oversees their progress from sanctioned to licensed to member club status. The department assists clubs with bylaw revisions and helps clubs in resolving bylaw-related internal disputes.

Also in the Executive Secretary's domain are the AKC Archives and AKC Library. The Library collection-more than 18,000 volumes, bound periodicals, foreign and domestic studbooks, videos, stamps, bookplates, and photographs-is America's most comprehensive of its kind, and is considered to be one of New York's finest private research libraries.

The Library is located at AKC headquarters in New York and open to the public five days a week (212-696-8245; library@akc.org).

In 2005, the Library installed a "Wall of Fame" exhibition recognizing AKC award honorees and AKC/Eukanuba National Championship winners. In addition, the AKC Lifetime Achievement Award, a sterling silver Tiffany bowl inscribed with the names of recipients, is on display, as are perpetual exhibits commemorating ACE and BoY recipients.

The Executive Secretary directs the Conference and Travel department, which coordinates transportation, catering, and lodging for meetings and events.