As Winston Churchill once said:

"This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning."

During December and most of next year there will be a series of long overdue "Regional Type Conferences" to start the process of discussing what a North American Alpaca breed standard should look like. As President of SOJAA the local AOBA affiliate I can tell you we are planning to partner with one or two other AOBA affiliates in order to host a breed type conference in Oregon.

AOBA affiliate organizations are encouraged and requested by AOBA to invite everyone within their region, whether they belong to an affiliate or not. Type conferences are an important
and critical means of education on the subject of alpaca breed standards. So we will be inviting all the breeders in this neck of the woods.

Click here to go to the Mulberry Alpaca Library and read a A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF ALPACA BREED TYPES AND STANDARDS By Jude Anderson, Maggie Krieger, and Mike Safley.


Regardless of the total number of affiliates that ultimately host a regional type conference, the
position papers will be collected by ARI and AOBA to form an aggregate document. Once an
aggregate document is compiled, the final, jointly hosted Type Conference can be performed.
Currently, the final conference is scheduled for November 1 and 2, 2006 with the location to be determined.

The first regional Type Conference scheduled for Dec 10, 2005 in Springfield Massachusetts. The conference is sponsored by the Empire Alpaca Association, NEAOBA and PAOBO. Steve Purdy, DVM, University of Massachusetts, Susan Johnson, DVM, Private practice in VT, Brett Kaysen, Jude Anderson and Mike Safely will be among the presenters. The cost is $50 and includes breakfast and lunch. For more details click here.

By Adrian Stewart