Present:
Gay Adams, Julie Nygaard, Karen Breckenridge, Kathy Christensen, Erin Silver, Karen Weiderman, Doana Anderson and Becky Bean
Not Present:
Mary Grimes, Grace Martin, Diane Pixlee, Martha Woodland, Natalie Woodland, Shirley Champion and Nancy Eidam
Quorum met
Meeting Purpose:
Focus was on planning activities for the year and setting a budget
Meeting was held at the Shilo Inn Suites Restaurant at 11707 NE Airport Way, Portland Oregon. At 12:06 the conference line was opened in case absent members were able to join the meeting. The meeting was called to order at 12:10.
There was an introduction of our 3 new board members to the Board - Doana Anderson, Karen Weiderman and Becky Bean. We welcome them and appreciate their offer to serve.
The 2020 schedule of board meetings was approved. Unless needed there will not be meetings in the months of August, October or December. Martha has indicated she cannot lead the promotion committee this year. Kathy Christensen volunteered to fill the position. The Stable Sheet will have Becky Bean as the lead and Karen Weiderman assisting to handle membership news. Karen Weiderman will work with Kathy DeFazio to learn about managing the club’s facebook page and will take over that duty.
Minutes from the November 10, 2019 General Membership meeting were approved via email prior to the January meeting with no corrections.
TREASURER’S REPORT – Karen Breckenridge
General Checking Account - $14,772
Savings Account - $25,495
Futurity Account - $ 4,570
Nancy Falk Trust Donation - $12,765
OMC Checking Account - $18,962
Total Fixed Assets - $ 2,007
Paypal Online Account - $ 160
Other Current Assets - $ 273
TOTAL ASSETS - $ 79,004
There are 4 more accounts receivables to collect for a total of $492 (2 are old and 2 are for current accounts). Karen has done a wonderful job of collecting outstanding funds. Thank you Karen.
Karen has sent in the AMHA application for our Youth group. The 1099’s were sent out on January 9, 2020. Taxes will be sent by the end of January.
There was a discussion about audits. Internal audits are done each year by our audit committee separate from our Treasurer consisting of at most 1 Board member and at least two outside club members with a report going back to the Board.
Note to Board members – Per Policy & Procedure Manual, all committee chairs need to track their expenses. If they find they need more funds than budgeted, they need to come back to the Board for approval. Treasurer is to monitor committee expenses against the finalized budget. Also per our procedures, all requests for grants, reports to AMHA, club advertising, etc needs to get approval from either the club President or from a person designated for that purpose before it goes out.
COMMITTEE REPORTS
SHOW COMMITTEE – Karen Breckenridge
The budget for the show last year was $73,000 and Karen requested an increase of $2,000 for a total of $75,000. We will be looking at providing more food options for people on the show grounds because of anticipated crowds at restaurants due to the Olympic Trials. We were not happy with the restaurant service or food last year. Karen is working with the Oregon Horse Center to see what can be done about that.
OMC show updates-
Nancy Becker will not be able to judge the show in June because of a prior commitment she had forgotten. We have now hired Ron Bartholomew from New York. He is certified as a Saddlebred and Morgan judge.
Avalon will be our center ring photographer. So far Working Western and Trail will not have a photographer. Karen will continue looking for someone including asking Kathy Carlson. Melody DeLapp is moving away from being a show photographer.
The Silent Auction at OMC will be headed by Kathy Christensen and Erin Silver.
There will be 3.5” pewter Medallions on a neck ribbon for 1
st
place awards rather than plaques & a ribbon. They were designed by Leslie Arnould. Working Western will have a Belt Buckle. Glassware will be given out to winners in Dressage and other Championship classes. There is a possible vendor, Debbie Hutchinson, that might be a good source for the glassware. Gay has her contact information and will give it to Karen.
The staff contracts have all been sent out. We are still looking for gate people. It was suggested that we reach out to a local 4-H group or OHSET group to encourage them to volunteer as gate helpers. An event to welcome 4H, FFA, & OHSET members will be considered designed to introduce them to the Morgan horse.
Debbie Probst volunteered last year to handle the ribbons at the show. She is the daughter of Dick & Kathy Van Dyke who have done it for us the last couple years. Debbie helped them last year. Karen is checking with her.
One hundred ‘Save the Date’ cards have been sent out to past exhibitors and trainers encouraging them to get their hotel reservations made. Seat Medals have all been ordered.
Thank You Sponsor Baskets need a new person to step up. There were 17 given out last year at the show. In the past couple years Kathy has been able to get a portion of 2 cases of wine donated. Doana will check with a pourer she knows about donating some bottles for the Sponsor baskets for the June 2020 show.
The OMC Silent Auction profited $2,200. last year. Kathy Christensen would like to increase that amount and for 20% of the profit from the auction this year to be donated to the Alex Mooney Scholarship fund. More discussion to follow.
Karen Weiderman will keep the Promotional booth at the show stocked with brochures, water and snacks. Kathy Christensen will get the initial set-up done and get the supplies there. She will get in touch with Martha to pick up what we already have on hand. Last year Martha took care of this. Thank you, Martha.
ALEX MOONEY SCHOLARSHIP - Gay Adams for Mary Grimes
The Alex Mooney Scholarship will be awarded for $500 at the OMC show to a current member of MHAO. We should be open for applications no later than March. Erin will include information on the OMC sponsorship/donation request letter about the scholarship. That letter will be going out soon. This scholarship is able to be used for College or a Trade school tuition. So far the fund has $1,000 in it from 2 different donors. Mary has asked for fundraising ideas to build this fund for the future. Budget is to pull $500 from reserves to be awarded during the year plus $100 to cover expenses from the general fund.
.
HI-POINT – Erin Silver
The categories will remain the same as last year for 2020. Erin has 17 award prizes to carry over from last year. The Hi-Point Overall prize was a directors chair in 2018 and Jackets in 2019. Erin noted that it was difficult to get the correct sizes in the jackets.
There was some discussion of when a person has multiple awards if s/he can choose one big award instead of a few small prizes. In another breed a competitor racked up $350 to spend on a prize. It was felt that this could be harder to administer but will be looked at.
A question was brought up about whether points earned at Nationals should be included in the Hi-Point awards of our program or if Hi-Point should just be for local shows. Hi-Point has always been handled on a calendar year basis and has included all shows through October 31
st
. No change was made.
At the meeting the hi-point award budget was increased from $1,500 to $2,000. But after the meeting there was further discussion via email. The Hi-Point budget will remain at $1,500 this year. The other $500 will be spent on advertising the club & some of its activities thru the NW Rider magazine.
EDUCATION/SPRING CLINIC COMMITTEE – Erin Silver
The Spring clinic will be on March 14, 2020 at Kardia Equestrian Center located at 36887 Wallace Creek Rd., Springfield, Oregon 97478. Julie Adams from California will be presenting a Western Dressage Clinic. There will be two sessions offered with 5 participants in each. 9-12:00 and 1-4:00. 7 slots are already filled. Julie Adams is not charging for her time to MHAO. We will pay for her expenses such as fuel, meals and 2 nights at a hotel for an estimated total of $800.00. The clinic will offer a discount for MHAO members. The clinic will cost $130 for non members and $100 for members for riders. Lunch will be provided. There will be a short General Membership meeting during the break. Auditors are welcome. The cost for auditors will be $25 for MHAO members & $30 for non-members. Riders can contact Rhea Turner about reserving stalls during the day. If we can, we would like to pay Julie something which we can decide after the clinic.
Erin was asked to come up with 3 topics for future Clinics. She suggested:
1- Working Equitation
2-Tips on showing in a Trail Class
3-Extreme Trail Riding
The budget for the Spring Clinic is a net of $750.
AWARD BANQUET – Erin Silver and Kathy Christensen
Plans for the 2020 banquet are in the works. The same location has been secured; Willamette Heritage Center, The Dye House, 1313 Mill Street SE, Salem, OR 97301. The cost is an initial cost of $630 less $135 security deposit that is returned making the total $495 to rent. The date is set for November 8, 2020 from 1 to 4 PM. It was brought up how to get more attendance at this awards banquet. Possible idea was to have a speaker come.
The budget for the banquet is a net of $750. It will be a Pot Luck event.
(Note we look at the Spring Clinic and the Award Banquet together for budget monitoring purposes)
YOUTH- Gay for Diane Pixlee
With Diane’s okay, Leslie Arnould has volunteered to create online Cyber shows for Youth. The Saddlebred group has provided these classes in the past led by Allison Deardorff. Leslie has received approval from Allison Deardorff who has agreed to be the judge for our February session. The Youth do not need to be an MHAO member to do these shows, but do need to be on a Morgan horse. It was initially communicated by Gay that riders would have 48 hours after the pattern was posted to turn in their videos. After the meeting that was found to be a misunderstanding. They would have two weeks to complete their video after the pattern is posted. Usually there is a minimal fee of $10 per show but Leslie would like the first year to be free to drive interest in the program and to give us an opportunity to be more knowledgeable on conducting them. In the future we could charge a $10 fee per show to non-members. Leslie would also like to create a Facebook page to keep youth informed of upcoming shows and events. Over time Leslie has offered to provide education for our Youth of the Year participants using the AMHA program for that purpose. Karen Breckenridge mentioned that our Youth committee has a budget of $1,000 that they haven’t been using. Cyber shows are not estimated to have much of an expense. No increase in the budget seems necessary at this time.
Diane & the Youth Directors (Natalie and Grace) will create a Youth newsletter this year. If needed, they can use the same program used for the Stable Sheet so they will have no additional costs. Gay will get Diane set up to access the Constant Contact program.
Julie made a motion to approve the Cyber Shows and Karen B seconded. Motion passed.
Budget for Youth is $1,000 from MHAO plus $500 from the Nancy Falk Trust for the Youth of the Year competition.
STALLION AUCTION – Gay Adams
The Stallions offered this year are coming along nicely. Gay would like to have a total of 24 horses. Currently have 20. Nominations are open thru January. She is also looking for “other items”. Online bidding will be available again in February. The close date for the auction will be March 28, 2020. Phone volunteers are needed for the close date. The budget for 2020 was upped to an income of $4,400. After the meeting that goal was increased to $5,400 to offset the cost of a storage unit to store the historic information that Nancy Eidam has been collecting and storing for a number of years. She is moving and can no longer offer storage space for it.
The budget is for the amount of funds paid to the general fund to cover the cost of Futurity classes held at OMC. Income of $5,400 is after the 60%/40% split off to the futurity for prize money.
FUTURITY COMMITTEE – Gay Adams
We have a total of 34 horses nominated to our futurity before renewals are processed. One of our main participants is closing down her breeding operation so we anticipate a drop in that number going forward. Most participants have just a few mares and do not breed every year. All Board members need to encourage anyone they know in the Northwest or Northern California that has a foal in 2020 to enter our futurity. The futurity is a 5 year program requiring a $45 nomination fee in the year the foal is born and a renewal fee of $25 each year thereafter. Class entry fees are $25 each. There are Sweepstakes classes during the foals yearling and 2-yr-old year as well as a hi-point award given out the during the foals 4-yr-old year. If auction get wins champion or reserve champion in a sweepstakes class, a bonus payment goes back to the stallion donor and the breeder. We offer the only remaining futurity in the Western region. The Futurity budget is always breakeven so there is no expense to the club’s general fund.
PROMOTION – Gay Adams for Martha Woodland
Martha has stepped down from heading the promotion committee due to an expansion to her accounting business. Prior to stepping down her plans for 2020 were as follows: (1) a table at OMC that will have pamphlets about our club and the Morgan Horse as well as water and small snacks, and (2) a booth at State Fair which was to be our main focus. Karen W. has agreed to help keep the OMC booth stocked during the show. Erin & Kathy have stepped forward to work on our display and attendance at the Oregon State Fair. It was suggested that we give double points for our Hi-Point program to members that compete at the Fair to encourage a strong showing of Morgans (no vote needed). Last year the people that went to the show won the “Battle of the Breeds” with their Morgan horses. Erin would like to see a banner made to educate people on what a Morgan horse really is. It was suggested that we look into different companies that make them. Gay suggested we check with Tony Lee who makes the banners used by AMHA. They need to be sturdy enough that they won’t fall over easily. At the fair we will promote & offer an opportunity for visitors to get their picture taken with a Morgan horse.
The club currently has an ad in the Oregon Equine Directory put out by the Oregon Horse Council, but it was mentioned that there are magazines such as Flying Changes & NW Rider that we could also run an ad in to get more people interested in our breed. There was further discussion via email after the meeting, and $500 was budgeted for additional advertising with NW Rider. Kathy Christensen agreed to Chair the Promotion committee and does see the State Fair as our main focus for the year.
It was brought up that having a booth at the Horse Expo in Albany does not seem to reach the right market for us in our attempts to promote our breed. Attendance there also seems to be dropping. The Oregon State Fair offers a larger market, higher interest, and more visibility to families interested in becoming horse owners.
We will again apply for an AMHA Promotion Grant. Gay and Kathy with work on it and get it off to AMHA by January 15
th
. The budget for promotion will be $500 plus whatever we get from the AMHA Grant, and from donations we receive for promotional purposes.
MEMBERSHIP – Doana Anderson
Doana plans on getting an automatic online membership renewal system in place and will work with Karen B on that. An Online program could be embedded into our existing accounting program for an additional fee of $29 per month or $350 per year.
We are looking at moving our membership list to our website in an area that only members can access with a password. It will have horses as well as our member's names, address, phone & email. There is also the ability to have ads included. The plan is to print a limited number of directories each year for those who do not have computer or phone access, or that just want a paper copy. We will save a couple copies for historic purposes as well.
As of this meeting we have 62 members who have signed up or renewed. This includes life members and members we have added who are first time owners of a Morgan horse that have a free membership for this year. Doana is still working on renewals.
Doana will use her own computer to maintain membership information with info stored securely on Dropbox. She will clean and dispose of the old clubcomputer used for accessing the ACCESS program. The computer is too outdated and slow now to be useful. We will be changing from the ACCESS database to the online directory that will be housed on our website.
Doana is also looking at encouraging some activities to happen around the State for members to get together with each other for fun, mentorship, education, etc. These will be small events with very little if any cost to the club.
The budget for membership covering new software for the online directory, an online renewal process, automatic renewal process, and the printing of a small number of printed directories is a net income of $2,200 (membership fees of $3000 less expenses of $800).
STABLE SHEET NEWSLETTER – Becky Bean
Becky is in charge of membership news for the Stable Sheet going forward. Karen Weiderman will assist her. Becky talked about creating articles on Board members and club members. Gay said she would enjoy seeing stories about our new members too as a way to introduce them to the membership. Becky also mentioned having some fun articles such as answers to a question like “What was the worst horse experience you ever had?”
Gay will continue to provide information from the Board for the newsletter and from our associated groups like the Oregon Horse Council, USEF, AMHA, etc.
The Stable Sheet budget is $450 for the cost of the newsletter program we use through Constant Contact allowing for multiple users less any ad income received. We will work toward providing printed copies for members who are without a computer or email address.
NEW BUSINESS
HISTORY COMMITTEE – Gay Adams
Nancy Eidam has boxes of information on club and Morgan history that needs to be stored. She is moving and can no longer store it. Gay is looking into different storage units to keep the miscellaneous items safe and dry. The cost per month that she has found in her area is between $130 & $150 per month. Julie Nygaard made a motion to budget for a storage unit to store our club’s historic information, Kathy Christensen seconded. It was approved with the understanding that we will look for a better storage solution.
We have not done a good job as a club at preserving our club history, or the history of the Morgan horse within our State & the Northwest. Gay will lead a committee consisting of Nancy Eidam, Mary Anne Morrison and Brenda Tippin to create a history. The information that Nancy has collected all these years will be important to that effort.
After the meeting the budget was altered to cover 6 months of cost for a storage unit, again with the idea of finding a better and more economical way to keep this info. Karen B has agreed to pick up what Nancy has been storing and to make a determination of how large a unit is needed before we rent one. Final budgeted amount via email is $900 for 6 months of storage.
Creation of a Non-Profit Arm of MHAO
The 501c3 tax designation that the club was investigating will be laid down. Watching the current lawsuit that the AMHA is involved in has raised concerns. Gay has learned that should a new 501c3 arm of MHAO need to close down, any of its remaining assets would need to be donated to another 501c3 association - they could not go back to MHAO. Having another association to monitor and account for would also raise the complexity of monitoring and controlling funds for the club. Additionally, the new tax laws do not make the benefit seem great enough to make a difference to most individual donors, and Corporate or business sponsors can take their sponsorship as an advertising expense.
The meeting was adjourned at 3:49 PM
Respectfully submitted,
Julie Nygaard – MHAO Secretary
Final budget after email approval attached
FINAL APPROVED BUDGET FOR 2020
Oregon Morgan Classic - $77,000 income less $75,000 expense - Net $2,000
Nancy Falk Colorful Morgan Award - $500 income, $500 expense - Net $0
Hi-Point/Awards Committee Expense - $1,500 expense
Spring Clinic & Award Banquet Expense - $1,500 expense
Youth - $1,000 expense
Nancy Falk - YOY ($500 in and out) - Net $0
Stallion Auction (after split with Futurity) - $5,400 net income
Futurity (breakeven) - $0 expense
Stable Sheet - $450 expense
Directory - $800 expense
Membership - $3,000 membership dues income
Promotion - $500 expense (net expense after promotion grant)
President's Fund - $150 expense
Open Incentive - $400 expense
Scholarship ($500 in and out + $100 misc exp) - $100 expense
Ride/Drive Program - net expense $100 expense
History Storage ($150 per mo/6 mo) - $900 expense
General/Fixed (fixed costs + club advertising) - $3,000 expense
NET BUDGET TOTAL - $0
