Meeting held at the Century Hotel, Tualatin OR
Started at 12:30pm
Board Members Present: Gay Adams, Dallas Bolen, Sharon Harper, Kathy DeFazio, Nancy Eidam, John Shaver
Board Members Absent: Karen Breckenridge, Kathy Christensen, Carol Dombrowsky, Anne Margaret Korver, Diane Pixlee, David Silver
Quorum not present.
Guests: Open to all MHAO members and their guests, and to anyone interested in the Spring Clinic, MHAO, or the MHAO Stallion Service Auction.
Secretary’s Report: We are attempting to get minutes approved by the Board & out to members more quickly via the newsletter. No minutes to look at or approve today. Last meeting minutes were approved by the Board and then published in the Stable Sheet prior to this meeting.
Treasurer’s Report:
General Checking $1,813
General Savings $25,481
OMC $3,989
Futurity $3,019
Total = $34,302
A full financial report is distributed to the Board for every meeting. The budget currently has a negative net total, so we are watching our pennies. Hopefully today’s Stallion Service Auction will help us with that. We need to at least breakeven on our show this year.
Oregon Morgan Classic - Show Committee Report:
This will be the last of the all-Morgan shows. In future we will have to include another breed[s] to survive.
We will have 2 dinners at the show. On Tuesday there will be a free spaghetti dinner and on Friday we will have the exhibitors’ party where the show picks up half the fee for each attendee.
All the Hall of Fame banners from Far West will be displayed. They also plan to have a sponsors’ banner naming ALL the sponsors for the show.
There will be a trainers’ meeting on Tuesday and also an AMHA rules forum.
The 3 judges will be Donna Longacre for dressage, Larry Bolen, and Richard Petty for working western.
The premium books will be out shortly.
Show High Points: Three are planned for jr. exhibitors [hunt, western and overall] with a possibility of others. There will be a versatility award – must show in 5 of 8 divisions. A costume class with a Disney theme is planned. There will also be a
Judge’s Choice Award.
Two rings will be running – the main arena and a dressage arena.
Youth of The Year will be held on Thursday afternoon.
Trail will run on Friday morning in the Emerald Ring.
Amateur, ladies and jr. exhibitor classes will all count as qualifiers for the championship classes. Futurity performance classes will qualify for the junior horse championships. The 3 year old futurity classes will be walk – jog/trot only.
Stalls are available for $50 for one day or $140 for Tuesday thru Sunday. Those coming in earlier than Tuesday must pay an additional $25 per day. Unfortunately the show cannot provide free bedding this year but it will be available for $10 per bag.
Dave Lionberger will be making TV loop ads for our sponsors for viewing on a large screen TV in the area of the arena. Close date is June 1.
Promotion:
The Washington Expo was a success. Many thanks to Diana Pyle, Erica Parker-Trager, Dannette Cook, Susan Karagianes, Elaine Rosenberg & her friend Miriam, Anne Robitaille, Karol Forner, & John & Gay Adams from MHAO who filled in when the Washington club members had an emergency.
Kathy Christensen is handling the
MHAO booth at NW Horse Expo. She still needs volunteers to help with the booth.
The Youth and Promotion committees are working together to focus on outreach to schools, 4H, FFA, OHSET and any other groups they can think of to get them to come to OMC. Also looking at coordinating an Open Barn day function for around the State to go along with the Day of the Morgan program out of AMHA in October.
Youth:
Ann Lowden had a job change that requires more traveling and a heavier work schedule. She has stepped down from the Board.
Diane Pixlee will now serve as co-chair with
David Silver. They will be working with the Promotion committee. See Promotion report for more information.
Membership:
Membership is in transition. We are getting the club computer set up so we can pass it from one Membership Chair to the next going forward.
Kathy Christensen is the Chair of the membership committee and is the primary contact for any questions. She will pass membership information on to the other Board Directors who need it.
Currently we have about 70 members renewed out of 124 we have listed in the 2015-2016 Directory. Looking for ways to get reminders out to those who have not renewed yet. New membership directory will come out in early November.
Open Incentive:
No actual report available today. The club offers open incentive funds to members who take their horse to anything other than a show on the Morgan circuit where they pay a fee. That could be expos, clinics, parades, demonstrations, all-breed shows,, etc. Members keep and turn in receipts to Carol Dombrowsky to receive up to $25 per event for a maximum total of $100 per year per membership. Forms and an explanation are available on the MHAO website.
Trail Program:
At one time MHAO offered a Trail Program. It has not been active. The board will be revisiting this area in the future. It is thought that perhaps we could set up a program similar to the new one AMHA offers now,
My Morgan & Me, which replaced the AMHA Pathways program.
High Point Awards:
Nothing to report at this time.
Website:
Everyone is encouraged to check out the new website. Dallas would like to have members send in history information and pictures. She will have the sponsorship form available to view and possibly be able to accept payment for sponsorships via the website. Once the premium booklet is available, Dallas will see that it is available on the website.
New website is:
www.morganhorseoregon.com.
Facebook:
Kathy DeFazio reported on the 2 different Facebook pages for the club. The MHAO site is for club business and the stallion auction has its own page. Members are encouraged to post their Morgan activities on the club page as well as their own. Sales can be posted from the 1st to the 5th of each month. We want to use our club Facebook page to encourage club discussion.
Stable Sheet:
We still need an editor for the Stable Sheet. We cannot continue to no have communication between the Board and the MHAO membership. Right now Gay is collecting info & publishing it monthly via email only. Until we get an editor, that is the best we can do. The close date is the 20th of each month. Every quarter Gay will put out an edition that focuses on membership. Members are encouraged to send in information anytime. In between the quarterly editions she will publish club oriented information and things that need to be published before the quarterly version due to timing.
Advertising is available for $25 for a full page and goes down from there. Classified ads are free.
Futurity:
We are hoping for 43 renewals, right now we have 31 with 7 still working on it. We are working with those who have not renewed due to some hardship situations. Some not renewed yet are for horses that have been sold that may not be renewed.
FYI to Futurity horse owners and for any MHAO member who sells a horse: if a horse is sold to a non-MHAO member, the new member gets a free one year membership in MHAO. If the horse has been nominated to the Futurity, its status in the Futurity goes with the horse. Please encourage the new owner to be a part of the club and to remain in the Futurity. All Futurity participants must be members of MHAO.
Send your ad requests for the Futurity booklet to Gay. The booklet goes to all the exhibitors at the show and are also distributed up and down the West Coast and to Grand National. A full page ad runs $75. Half page ad is $50, and the rates go down from there.
Close date is June 1st so people need to get their ads in now.
If you see anyone throwing the Futurity booklet away at OMC, please encourage them to return the booklet to the office. The booklets cost a lot to produce and we use them for promotion of our Stallion Service Auction and our Futurity. We don’t want to waste them.
2-yr Stallion calendars are still available for sale featuring our 2016 SSA Stallions. Proceeds are used to support the Futurity. We still need to breakeven on our cost to print them. If you would like to purchase one please call Gay. (503) 936-4276
Stallion Auction:
The website had 1,000 more hits than last year. The SSA Facebook page was also more active. We offered 20 wonderful stallions this year and numerous other items. Final results will be published in the newsletter. Our goal is $8,000 for bids on Stallion Services.
Adjourned at 1:30pm
Respectfully submitted by Sharon Harper, MHAO Board Secretary
