ESQHA General Membership Meeting

 

President Gayle Farr-Moore called the membership meeting to order on January 20, 2007 at 2:40 p.m. at the Holiday Inn, Waterloo, NY. Those directors present were: Karen Kulha, Ed Brenkus, Linda Connors, Regina Kernin, Charlotte & Larry Jaynes, Ginger Tomassini, Wendy & Gene Bingman, Dan Bergstresser, Patti Hole, Lee Davidson, Dave Phillips, Sandy Burback, Ann Manion and Sylvia Farr. Tom Hatch was absent and Mike Bednarek attended the youth meeting.

 

Treasurer’s report showed an ending balance of $57,492.47 as of 12/31/06. Ed pointed out that we are $6,415.63 over our budget for 2006, but did show improvement of $5,000 from 2005.

 

Ed also advised that any checks written on the Ontario National account must be cashed before 2/28/07 or they will not be honored by Community Bank, NA.

 

Correspondence:

• AQHA acknowledged our letter concerning special events and indicated that it will be placed on the convention agenda
• “Horses 2007” will be held at Rutgers University March 31-April 1, 2007
• American Horse Council Tax Bulletin
• E-mail from American Horse Council concerning the immigration reform bill being reintroduced

 

Committee Reports:

            Convention: There were 27 lunches served and we have 138 dinner reservations.

 

            Incentive Fund: The checks are ready to be distributed at the banquet.

 

            Fall Show: Committee met in the morning and worked on minor scheduling changes as well as expanding the exhibitor’s party. Gigi Bailey, Pam Scott, Stephanie Lynn and Debbie Cuvelier have been hired to judge.

 

            Novice Show: Mike Bednarek has agreed to judge if AQHA approves the July 22^nd date. Julie Young offered to co-chair the show with Sandy Burback.

 

            Region 5: Larry Jaynes and Gayle Farr-Moore will be our contact people. Gayle will chair the hospitality committee. Charlotte will be hiring the judges. It was suggested that sorting and team penning be added to the program. The Virginia group will need to take the majority of responsibility for obtaining volunteers.

 

            Awards: Regina indicated that some awards have not been delivered.

 

            Directory: The deadline for ads is this weekend.

 

            Newsletter: The December issue was late and the January issue was just mailed. No cost information was available.

 

 

 

            Spring Show: Committee met in the morning and reviewed the schedule. Select and performance halter will be added to the program in 2007. Charlotte has requested that the rings be worked a couple days prior to our shows. June 30 and July 1^st are the dates and Sarah Bradley has been hired to judge. AQHA has not confirmed our request for a special event.

 

            AIM: No word on grant money from AQHA. Regina obtained a quote of $900 to fix our booth, but will not go forward with repairs until we see if any grant money has been allocated for it. Some discussion continued about what repairs are needed versus replacing the entire booth.

 

            Marketing/Sponsorship: Dan is using information from the membership survey and updating the marketing packages. The committee is targeting the end of February for this package completion. It will then be available on the website and in the newsletter for the membership’s use in obtaining sponsors. It was pointed out that our membership ad should start up again in Horse Bits. Regina will e-mail the information to the magazine for our 2007 ad.

 

            Membership: Ginger suggested selling jackets, t-shirts or sweatshirts as a fundraiser and she will get some cost figures. Sandy suggested purchasing raincoats and selling them at our horse shows.

 

            Finance: Ed distributed the 2006 budget results along with the proposed 2007 budget. Even though our budget showed us ending in the red, we did 50% better than last year. There was only one check in the amount of $215 that was not recovered. There was discussion about accepting credit cards as payment, but again it was thought to be too costly. The idea of using PayPal was discussed and Ed will do some research. The 2007 finance committee will consist of Ed, Patti Hole and Gayle. Any expenditures over $500 must be approved by the committee.

 

            It was requested by a member that we publish an itemized financial report for all horse shows in the newsletter. All committees are reminded to give detailed financial reports and make them available to our membership.

 

            Promotion/Trail Riding: Wendy reported that tabulations are complete for continuum awards. Team sorting will be added to the program. Packets will be sent to various farms so they are aware of our program.

           

            Breeders: Kim Connors asked if we would like to purchase an ad for the Breeders show program. A full-page ad is still $135. There were comments concerning the poor print quality of our ad last year and Kim promised to bring it to Naomi’s attention. Motion was made to purchase a full-page ad in the Breeders’ horse show program in the amount of $135, seconded and carried.

 

            Ride 2007: Lee is still looking into planning a second ride, but no location has been finalized.

 

            Youth: Gayle spoke to the youth club earlier in the day. They are confused about some rules concerning team competition and award criteria. Todd Bednarek reported that the youth have re-evaluated the team requirements for the World Show and the pointed shows required for this team in 2007 will be the first and second April shows in Pittsford, Saugerties, the youth June show (which is double pointed), the Breeders show and ESQHA June show. The Congress team will obtain their required points at the ESQHA June show, Breeders show, and both June and July youth shows. Meeting attendance and work hours are still required to qualify for awards. Todd also advised that they are drawing up contracts for their horse show’s trail courses and food vendor.

 

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

 

Old Business:

• Barbara Moran is still interested in hosting a novice show. She will incur the costs, but asks that we recognize it for state points. We will be able to set up our promotional booth and also qualify for the saddle AQHA makes available to affiliates who have more than one novice show per year. Barbara is considering a date in May. A motion was made to allow Barbara Moran to petition AQHA for a second novice show in the name of ESQHA, seconded and carried.
• A facilitator is still needed for our board workshop. Scott Perkins will get a cost estimate. The workshop has been set for March 17, 2007 at the Holiday Inn Waterloo.

 

New Business:

• Mike Bednarek notified us that the Central NY Reiners are not holding their September reining. They would like to put up $250 toward the required $500 to have a reining alliance with us at the fall show. This proposal must go to the fall show committee for consideration.
• The CNYRA would like our support at their Ride N Slide in June. A motion was made to donate $250 to the CNYRA June Reining in Syracuse, seconded and carried. This sponsorship allows us to hang our banner and set up our booth. Dan Bergstresser will be responsible for setup and teardown of booth.
• Cathy Reetz was appointed as secretary for 2007.
• Gayle requested that all committee reports be forwarded to Cathy Reetz five days prior to the meeting. They will be forwarded to all directors by e-mail with the agenda and hard copies will be available for members at the meeting. We will no longer address each committee at the meeting unless someone has a question.

 

 

Future meeting dates:

 

February 18, 2007, Holiday Inn, Waterloo, NY

 

March 17, 2007, Board assessment workshop, Holiday Inn Waterloo, NY

March 18, 2007, Holiday Inn Waterloo, NY

 

Meeting adjourned at 4:15 p.m.

 

Respectfully submitted,

 

 

 

Catherine S. Reetz, Secretary