ESQHA General Membership Meeting

 

President Gayle Farr-Moore called the membership meeting to order on March 18, 2007 at 11:05 a.m. at the Holiday Inn, Waterloo, NY. Those directors present were: Tom Hatch, Ed Brenkus, Regina Kernin, Charlotte & Larry Jaynes, Ginger Tomassini, Wendy & Gene Bingman, Patti Hole, Dave Phillips, Mike Bednarek and Sylvia Farr. Those directors absent were: Sandy Burback, Lee Davidson, Rick Kenyon, Dan Bergstresser and Ann Manion. Karen Kulha arrived late after attending the youth meeting.

 

Minutes from the February 18, 2007 meeting were approved.

 

Treasurer’s report showed an ending balance of $42,109.26 as of 2/28/07. Ed noted that even with increasing our annual dues, receipts for memberships are well below last year at this time ($2.095 to date vs. $4,135 in 2006).

 

The youth have a balance of $9,877.44 as of 2/28/07

 

Communications:

• Letter from Cazenovia College requesting a $75 donation to continue to hang banner in their arena
• NYS Parks & Recreation sent a notice that they are accepting proposals for a concession license to provide guided horseback trail rides and related concessions at Letchworth State Park. Deadline for proposals is 4/18/07 at 2:00 p.m.
• Nationwide Overnight Stabling Directors & Vacation Guide is available for $29.95
• E-mail bulletins from AHC were forwarded to Tom and Alicia
• E-mail from Fiona Farrell at Cornell University with upcoming equine events was forwarded to Tom and Alicia
• National Agricultural Statistics Service sent a bulletin regarding NYS equine inventory

and values in 2000 and 2005. Regina also received a bulletin indicating there are 38,800 Quarter Horses in NYS, which is an increase from five years ago

• Genesee Valley Equine sent thank you for sharing a vendor table in Batavia
• Syracuse Invitational is looking for vendors for the show in October 2007. In the past they have hosted 20,000 spectators and 450 horses. A 10 x 10 space is listed for $600. Ginger will look into getting a better rate to make it possible for us to participate
• Another invitation to purchase vendor space at the May 13, 2007 Expo in Syracuse. Patti Hole will try to get a rate reduction before we commit. Ginger will contact Roger Fenimore and see if he is available on that date.

 

A motion was made that if we get the price of a vendor spot at the May 13, 2007 Expo in Syracuse reduced to $200; we will set up our information booth. Motion seconded and carried.

 

It was also noted that AQHA will no longer send us boxes of promotional literature for distribution at events, but will have postcards available for people to mail in to AQHA to request a particular pamphlet

 

 

 

 

Committee Reports:

           

Marketing/Sponsorship: Dan Begstresser said once the cover page is done the sponsor package will be ready for the membership to take out and try to get sponsors for the club. If people would like the package they can e-mail Dan at KCIJ99@aol.com for a copy.

 

Membership: Ginger will be starting to get information from AQHA for the CNYRA reining in June. Renewals are trickling in.

 

Chemung Area Horse Council: They are waiting until the snow is gone to take a look at the rings and to redo the footing.

 

Breeders: Kim Connors reported that the show program is at the printers. Judges hired include Ken Copenhaver, Debbie Kail, Scott Buckwalter and open hunter specialty judge, Gary Duffy. Kim will bring some programs to the next meeting.

 

Novice Show: The date of July 22^nd has been approved by AQHA.

           

Trail Ride: The first ride is scheduled for June 16, 2007 at Danaluk Farm, Rts 5 & 20 in Camillus, NY.

 

Spring Show: The dates of June 28 and 29^th have been confirmed with AQHA and the show will continue at the Chemung County Fairgrounds. Our shows will be added to the youth’s dates of June 30, July 1-3 to make a six-day run. Charlotte would like to purchase six saddles priced in the $500-$600 range as circuit awards. There was discussion concerning whether to have all six saddles on display, give gift certificates, and have an English saddle available. Consensus was to have all six saddles on display. Perhaps at the time of purchase an inquiry could be made as to whether someone would be able to exchange their western saddle for an English style.

 

A motion was made to put a half-page ad in the QH Journal for the May and June issues and to share the cost with ESQHYA. Motion seconded and carried. Regina offered to do ad.

 

A motion was made to share the cost of saddle circuit awards with the ESQHYA. Motion seconded and carried.

 

Some discussion was held about ways of dividing expenses with the youth club. Charlotte will come up with a list of expenses both clubs will incur for these shows. This accounting list will aid in determining what percentages of expenses each club will bear. To help the bookkeeping process, Ed asked that exhibitors be required to issue separate checks for ESQHA and ESQHYA when they settle their horse show bills.

 

Region 5: Gayle reported that stalls for the Regional show will be $100 for the entire show or $30 per day. The next meeting has been scheduled for April at the Eastcoast Championship show. Lynn Palm and Kurt Pait have been hired as clinicians. Larry brought a display of various major sponsor awards. He noted that volunteers are still needed and any volunteer who commits for an extended period will be given a hotel room. A raffle fundraiser is being proposed for all states in the region except Delaware. $10,000 cash will be raffled off. Each ticket will cost $100. It has not been determined how many tickets we will have to sell in NY. Ginger suggested Ed keeps a list of who has tickets because if the unsold tickets are not returned in a timely fashion, Empire will have to pay for them. There was a discussion of the benefits of the Regional show versus the World show and what impact the Regional has on the World.

 

Motion was made to accept the committee reports, seconded and carried.

 

Old Business:

• Comments on the previous day’s board workshop were shared by several directors. It was felt that the workshop was productive; even though indications were that no improvement was reported since the last workshop in 2003. Gayle intends to review the board status annually. Gayle also indicated that she intends to reinstate the amateur committee and will contact all committee chairs shortly about changing the structure of their committees. Comments were also made on the budget process and if the ways we spend our money is representative of our mission statement. Gayle will get a summary of the workshop out to all board members.

 

New Business:

• Gayle shared some of her experiences at the AQHA convention, including a new approach to meeting organization which she will implement in our club.
• AQHA is considering a proposal concerning the right of an affiliate organization to approve or disapprove any horse show in conflict with an affiliate show after AQHA has reviewed and approved all the show’s standard criteria for acceptance, such as the mileage requirement.
• Gayle has been accepted into AQHA’s leadership program.
• Karen Kulha made an appeal for formation of a youth committee within ESQHA, whose purpose would be to encourage all young people to become Quarter Horse enthusiasts while developing programs for them not specifically found in ESQHYA. These programs would target non-horse show activities such as recreational riding, leadership, horse judging, etc. Karen will chair this committee has asked any interested person to contact her if they would like to work with her.
• Dave Phillips will head up a secretary search committee that includes Charlotte Jaynes and Wendy Bingman.
• The youth club had obtained permission from Naomi Blumenthal to host a fundraiser spaghetti dinner at the Breeder show on Friday. Since the youth decided to pass on this opportunity, the directors voiced interest in pursuing it. Kim Connors will check with Naomi and make sure there is not problem with our club taking over the fundraiser. Karen Kulha will organize the event. All directors are requested to work at this function.

 

Future meeting dates:

May 20, 2007 – Board meeting, location TBD

August 19, 2007 – Board meeting, location TBD

September 30, 2007 – General membership THIS WILL BE OUR ANNUAL “OCTOBER” NOMINATING MEETING.

November 4, 2007

December 2, 2007

 

Meeting adjourned at 1:10 p.m.

Catherine S. Reetz, Secretary