Present:
Gay Adams, Julie Nygaard, Kathy Christensen, Paula Hague, Shirley Champion, Karen Breckinridge, Grace Martin, Martha Woodland, Natalie Woodland, John Shaver, and Erin Silver
Not Present:
Nancy Eidam and Diane Pixlee
Quorum Present
Meeting called to order at 7:35pm
Reminder to Board members to get your ‘Code of Conduct’ letter signed and forwarded or mailed to Gay Adams as soon as possible. Schedule of meeting dates and locations for 2019 was accepted. Board member information was adjusted and okayed.
Julie Nygaard accepted the position of Secretary.
A discussion of Committee assignments was okayed after corrections.
Kathy will be Chair of Silent Auctions for OMC & the Award Banquet. Erin, Gay & Martha will help.
Gay will revise the lists that we reviewed and get them back to the Board.
Karen motioned to approve the minutes for the General Membership meeting. Kathy seconded. Minutes approved.
Financial Report as of 12-31-2018 – Karen Breckenridge
$6,276. General checking account
$25,490. Savings account
$3,464. Futurity account
$13,765. Nancy Falk Trust Donation-Restricted Funds
$8,940. OMC account
$2,838. Fixed Assets equipment (signage) less depreciation
$399. Misc.
Total Assets after reconciliations $61,172
.
Each month there is a printed Profit and Loss statement and a Balance sheet sent out by Karen before our Board meeting. All Board Chairs are to monitor their numbers & let Karen know of any changes needed.
Great strides have been made in our Accounts Receivables, some dating back to 2015. Karen has whittled it down from $2,500 to $824. She will continue to work on them.
1099’s are out as of 1-7-19.
Karen has talked with John Shaver and Dallas who are working on our internal audit. Once completed the tax return will be completed & mailed.
Our club has not had an official audit for a number of years (not cost effective) but does have an internal audit every year as required by our By-Laws.
The AMHA Youth Club application and Medal applications for OMC have been sent in; deadline is 1-31-19. Insurance application has been sent to Blue Bridle.
COMMITTEE REPORTS: DISCUSSION OF FUTURE PLANS & BUDGET
Show Committee- Paula Hague
Discussion about changing the dates of the show from Wednesday thru Saturday to Thursday thru Sunday. Sunday is never a full day so this will require some major changes in how the schedule is set up. It is very difficult to revamp the schedule in such a short time so the dates for the 2019 OMC show will remain as June 19
th
-22
nd
(Wednesday thru Saturday evening). Work on a revised schedule for 2020 will start right away and input will be requested from trainers and other exhibitors.
This year’s contracts have all been signed: AMHA and USEF approved. The judge is Matthew Roberts.
Discussion of Corporate Sponsors:
Show manager Joan Shelton-Palelek can get some Corp. Sponsorships for us. We want to get some queries out now for other corporate sponsors. It was decided that Paula will make a list of potential Corporate and Patron Sponsorship people to contact and coordinate who will call each one so no overlap. Paula has a personal unofficial goal of $20,000 in sponsorships. She would like to increase Corporate sponsorships & see more support from Saddlebred people this year. Sponsorships help us keep costs down for exhibitors. Officially Paula's goal is $15,000 in sponsorships this year.
Also discussed new goals on numbers of horses at the OMC. Last year we had 94 Morgans and 36 Saddlebreds. Hoping to increase to 95 Morgans and 50 Saddlebreds in 2019.
Despite increased stall fees to us, the cost of stalls to exhibitors has remained the same to encourage people to come back.
Goal is to drop expenses to $67,000 this year with a $2,000 profit for the show.
Hi –Point Awards- Erin Silver
Erin will get a registration form out for members to sign up.
All participants/MHAO exhibitors are asked to register for Hi-Point.
They will only need to turn in points for shows not listed in the PNW Morgan Horse Show booklet. Awards will again be usable items. Suggestion for this year is to condense some of the non-Morgan categories so it is more competitive.
No change to last year’s budget of $1,500 for awards. Clinic & Award banquet have an additional budgeted amount of $1,500.
Youth - Natalie Woodland and Grace Martin
There has been a proposal for a newsletter for the Youth and Natalie and Grace will look into getting this going. Discussion of Cyber Shows was brought up. Erin shared her knowledge of these shows. A pattern is posted 2-3 weeks prior and you may practice it and submit a video. There is a virtual judge for the month and the placings are posted each month. Maybe 1 show a month with a fee of $10- $15.00 to sign up. The number of months we are thinking about offering was not decided. This type of show is good pattern practice. It was suggested that Amateurs could also compete in Cyber shows. Natalie will check with Allison Deardorff & maybe Rhea to see what is involved and typical expenses for them.
Youth Budget is $1,000 from MHAO and $500 toward Youth of the Year from the Nancy Falk trust account.
Stallion Service Auction (SSA) - Gay Adams
With the help of Leslie Arnould doing networking at Nationals & outreach last year we have a nice line up of 20 stallions so far as posted on our website. Leslie has secured Minion Millennium which should spark lots of interest. Advertising is on track with using ‘The Blast’ and TMH. We are also looking into using HorseShowWire to help us offer on-line bidding. A good goal going forward for each year is to offer around 30 stallions. Nominations will remain open thru January 31
st
.
Goal this year is to contribute a net of $3,000 to the General Fund after our 60/40 split with the Futurity.
Futurity - Gay Adams
Before renewals we had 42 horses in the futurity. By June we were over 50 horses last year but several of the horses have been sold outside the area. Renewals are in process and were due December 31
st
. Reminders going out. If paid by January 31
st
, no late fee will be charged.
Goal is to increase to 45 horses for 2019 after new foals are entered.
Budget is breakeven.
Membership - Kathy Christensen
Kathy would like to see the member directory be online to reduce the cost of printing the hard copies. But if there are still people needing one, a fee of $5.00 could be applied to the request. The point was made that online is more up to date when new members are added and horses are sold. A question was brought up that the directory is included in the membership fee and we should not attach a fee to the request for a hard copy. No decision was made. Membership was at 97 last year and so far renewals are at 45. Reminders will be going out shortly.
A new idea is to develop an Academy membership as well as other categories of membership. A recommendation will be finalized and brought before the Board.
Budget goal is for membership to contribute $3,000 in membership dues to the General Fund. Directory budget whether on line or in print is $800.
Promotion - Martha Woodland
Martha is planning 3 events to promote the breed in 2019.
Harrisburg 4
th
of July Parade
– well attended by 10,000 people, so a great way for people to see beautiful Morgans and for us to share information with the crowd.
OMC-
the night before the show encourage youth including those from various organizations (FFA, 4H, Scouts, OHSET, etc) to come for a presentation about Morgan horses and an open barn type tour. Our youth to be the presenters.
State Fair-
Rent 1 stall and have a Morgan there to show and visit with curious fans about our breed.
Promotion Grant has been applied for. Budget is $500 plus amount of the grant if we receive one.
Ride/Drive Program – Shirley Champion
Shirley asked where the patches are located for when someone reaches a certain level of achievement. A contact name was given as Leanne Roth. This is a new program. We need to promote it to our club members.
Rules, flyer, & enrollment form are not consistent in what they say. Work needed before promotion can start.
$200 budget was agreed on for 2019. If more needed, Shirley can bring a request to the Board.
Open Incentive – Gay Adams for John Shaver
When you take your Morgan to Non-Morgan shows, clinics, poker rides, schooling shows or anywhere other than Morgan shows and you pay a fee to participate you are able to request up to $25 be reimbursed to you per event to a maximum of $100 per year per membership from MHAO. The thought process being that it is great advertising and promotion for the breed.
Budget set at $250 based on historical usage of the program. If more needed John can come back to the Board for an adjustment.
GENERAL DISCUSSION ITEMS:
Sponsorship was discussed again - Karen Breckenridge agreed to donate $500 for OMC Dressage. Thank you Karen for getting us all thinking about our sponsorships this year. Question was brought up about if it was possible to have Wine tasting at the Oregon Horse center during our show. Cannot bring anyone else in for that, but we will check with the facility. The progressive dinner was a hit with everyone including the Saddlebred folks last year. Discussion was had about the restaurant at the Oregon Horse Center having new owners.
Motion was made by Erin to approve the budget & business plan. Seconded by Martha. Approved.
NEW BUSINESS:
The USEF new Safe Sport requirements of testing was discussed. USEF says that it takes approximately 90 minutes to test online but members mentioned it is closer to 120 minutes. Erin is going to the AMHA convention and is going to take great notes on this topic and enlighten us at the February 20
th
meeting.
Next meeting February 20, 2019, 7:30pm Conference call.
General Membership Meeting is with the Spring Clinic & Stallion Service Auction event on March 9
th
at Northwest Morgans in Hillsboro OR.
The meeting was adjourned at 9:39pm
Respectfully submitted,
Julie Nygaard, MHAO Secretary
