NWSA

Meeting Minutes

May 18, 2015

  1. Call to order

Doug Cross called to order the regular meeting of the NWSA Board at 2:43 p.m.

  1. Roll call:

Present

Doug Cross: President

Ginger Failor: Vice President and Website

Jeffrey Frechette: Secretary

Heidi Cuddeford: Treasurer

Stephanie Schoenborn: Youth Group

Pam Christenson: Silver Circuit Points

Cathy Sauer: outreach

Mel Lueck: Futurity

Ben Lachman: Membership and Outreach

Absent

Dana Paparo: Trainer’s Representative

  1. Youth of the Year Presentations

Grace shared her essay with us about her introduction to Saddlebreds. She gave her account of rescuing her own Saddlebred and although she isn't able to afford fulltime training she does her best on her own and with the help of others. She loves to ride and has fallen in love with the breed. For her art project she made an exquisite ceramic box with beautiful etchings of Saddlebreds strutting their stuff on the sides.

Sydney Coover from Corbett Stables read her history of horseback riding which eventually lead her to this great breed. Sydney is a very passionate rider and great competitor. Sydney made a photo collage of her riding with pictures of horses and her friends all artfully pasted to an English saddle.

Savannah Livingstone, also from Corbett Stables, read an intriguing history of the World's Horse Show at the Kentucky State Fair in Louisville. She had some great historical facts to share and I think we a learned something new about the historical event. Savannah passed around a ceramic horse she made and glazed herself.

All three of the Youth of the Year applicants did an amazing job presenting their hard work. They were very composed, focused, and charming. The board will vote on the 2015 winner at the retreat in November.

  1. Fall Classic Planning

Martha Keck and Peggy Kelber attended the board meeting to share some of their thoughts and concerns regarding the planning of the annual Fall Classic.

This year the show was down 15 horses from last year with a total of 122 entries. 3 barns did not attend the show.

The dates for the show were moved up to the great delight of many but did make it difficult for the trainers and exhibitors who had the opportunity to go to Louisville. Perhaps next year the show could be one week later. This would require an existing Arabian show to be moved to another date. The crew assembled for the show is amazing and some of the best in the industry and therefore an important consideration that any date changes also work with the professional staff.

The Oregon Horse Center has been a great facility to work with. Next year the judge will be certified in both Saddlebreds and Morgans in order to include Morgans in the show.

It was brought up that the USEF adjusts their calendar yearly altering the dates of the Louisville show so some research required to determine how those dates and the future dates of the Fall Classic would be affected.

Martha suggested that there be a board position for the Fall Classic. It is so much work and there needs to be a way to make the task a shared experience but not necessarily done by committee.

The board expressed great gratitude to Martha and Peggy for their incredible efforts making the Fall Classic such an amazing event!

  1. Convention

Jill Anthony was present to discuss this year's convention and awards banquet.

Dates: January 29th & 30th

Location: Heathman Lodge, Vancouver, Wa.

Costs: Rooms $119.00 & $129.00 a night

Guest Speaker: Elizabeth Goth

Jill would like people to start thinking about some questions to ask Elizabeth. She will have a lot to share about both breeding and showing Saddlebreds.

There was some discussion on how to improve this year's convention. There is a consensus that the awards should move along as well as the raffling etc. Some people would like to see music and dancing return to the event.

  1. The formal NWSA board meeting was called to order by Doug Cross at 2:43
  2. Approval of minutes from last meeting: Meeting minutes from August meeting were approved. Ginger pointed out a typo which will be corrected.
  3. Treasurer’s Report

The board approved the financial reports provided by Heidi.

There seems to be some confusion regarding the Atwood Scholarship funds: There is no record of a check or funds being deposited from the Atwoods for the 2014 award. At this point the attempts at contacting the Atwoods have been unsuccessful.

  1. Ginger Reported on the NWSA Website

The number of "hits" on the NWSA website average around 1000 monthly. With this knowledge perhaps some interest for advertising would be generated.

X.  Bylaws

There has been no feedback from the NWSA membership regarding the proposed changes to the bylaws therefore the new bylaws will be voted on at the convention.

  1. Membership

At the August board meeting there was discussion regarding a late NWSA membership registration by Raven Scott. At the time with the facts as known at the time it was decided that Raven's back dated registration would not be allowed. Mel Lueck clarified the situation and took responsibility for the late entry. In order to not penalize Raven it was decided to allow the back-dated entry form.

  1. Silver Circuit

Pam passed out forms which showed both the members and the non-members and their standing in this year's Silver Circuit Awards race. It was very helpful to see who was participating and was not an NWSA member; in most cases the riders may not be aware that they are not up to date on their membership and would potentially join up or renew if it was pointed out to them.

  1. Meeting adjourned at 3:30 p.m.