• Via email just after the Board meeting – our dates for the show next year are June 20-23, 2018.  Our time slot at Oregon Horse Center is confirmed. 
• Goal for show was family orientation and comradery.  We think we achieved that.  Heard lots of laughter.  Lots of barns helping each other out and sharing resources.
• Show went very smoothly.  This was the result of having very qualified people on our operating team.  Any problems that arose were taken care of very quickly before they became anything major.  Great team! 
• People loved receiving the Premium book in the mail. 
• No financial information is yet available, but some numbers were noted:  89 owners participated, up from 50 last year.  20 trainers came 2 of which were from California.  We think they all liked the show and will spread the word.  We had 111 horses compared to about 77 last year.  Oregon Horse Center has 242 stalls in the configuration we had.  We used 204.  Stalls can be added in the boarder arena area behind the Emerald arena.  We have room to grow.  Nancy made a concerted effort to get every class sponsored, and succeeded.  We have a good feeling about the financial outcome of this year’s show, but won’t know for sure until next month’s meeting.  We offered 242 classes.  We estimate we had 474 class entries.  Dressage had 26 rides, Western Dressage had 30.  Carriage had 26, Classic pleasure Driving 14, Classic pleasure saddle 17, English Pleasure 17, Equitation 44, Leadline 5, Futurity was 18, Hunter Pleasure was 62, In Hand & Sport In Hand was 30, Park Harness 2, park Saddle 1, Pleasure Driving 13, Walk/Trot 14, Western Pleasure 70, Ranch Pleasure 19 (exciting for a new division), Reining 9, Trail 24, Miscellaneous 30. 
• Special thanks to our team and all who stepped forward to help.  Nancy went thru the many contributions made by so many.  Even at that, we know there were more.  Everyone worked hard and long hours to make this show very special. 
• We were very pleased at the number of youth we had.  Some youth were impacted by the lengthening of the school year due to snow days and couldn’t come.  Hopefully we will see them next year. 
• Diane Pixlee set up the Youth Center and lead the Youth of the Year contest which went well.  She kept coloring pages stocked at the Youth Center, and even adults came by asking for coloring pages.  Diane also organized a scavenger hunt for the Youth that was popular. 
• Martha provided a pizza party for Youth, and handled the Silent Auction.  There was also an ice cream social. 
• Good coverage by New Country Radio in the Eugene area.  Nancy didn’t know if it brought an audience to the show or not, but there seemed to be more people in the stands the last two days of the show.  We need to keep doing that & looking for ways to draw a larger audience. 
• 3 magazines had people there to cover the show:  The Morgan Horse Magazine, Saddle Horse Report, and National Show Horse. 
• Spotlight added a nice touch Friday & Saturday nights.
• Pony club slow at first, better last few days.  Facility only licensed for wine & beer.  We don’t know if that was a factor or not.
• Rob Hess photos are up on his site and available.  www.robhessphotos.com
• Other Board Discussion about show: 
  MHAO may need to invest in more signs to go around the ring and other areas.  People loved the large Far West sign just outside the warm up ring.  Lots of selfie and magazine pictures taken there. 
  On Facebook, some voiced confusion as to whether it was the Far West show or the OMC show.  Fine to have signs for both since both were putting on the show, but signs were predominately for Far West.  Oval signs around main ring added a lot of class.  There were signs in Sport arena too.  Very few signs for OMC. 
  Need to be sure the name of the show – whatever it is – is predominate at the event and in any promotional material. 
  If both entities or multiple entities are sponsoring or putting on the show, both/all names need to be included on everything we put out.  It took awhile to get the OMC flyer we circulated totally updated to include Far West. 
• All activities will be evaluated for ways to improve them.
• If/when we add other breeds, we need to be sure they participate with sponsorship funds as well as entries.  Saddlebreds and Friesians were mentioned as possibilities. 
• Gay asked what people thought of the Wednesday night Futurity, halter, & Sport classes, but with the Futurity Sweepstakes being on Saturday night.  All attending Board members which included some that were in the Futurity, liked it. 
• Our show manager, Joan Shelton-Palelek was somehow everywhere she needed to be when she needed to be there.  She also took over helping with vendors due to Gay’s unexpected absence.  Joan has said she will be available again as show manager next year, as will Kelly McFaul as show secretary.  By all feedback received, Kelly did a fabulous job, too.  We will start working on other officials. 
• Joan even went thru both MHAO trailers, sorting, cleaning, and creating an inventory list aided by two young men hired by Nancy to help throughout the show.  Those two young men were great.  We need to do that again.  It made it a lot easier on show management and exhibitors to have them to call upon for a variety of things. 
• Marli Perry was instrumental throughout the planning and the execution of this show.  We so appreciate her help.  Nancy called her the budget gremlin, keeping us on track.  She also helped score the dressage tests and was there to stop any potential hic-ups spotted during the show in their tracks.  So was Joan. 
• Rollie spent hours to get the Hall of Fame banners up “just so”.  It turned out great!  He also looked ahead for ways to make it easier to do next year.  Hall of Fame presentations went well.  Dinner out on mezzanine seemed to go well.
• Nancy went thru name after name of those who contributed their time and energy to this show.  Getting the two trailers to the showgrounds was a concern.  The Breckenridge family took care of that (two trips to get trailers to the show grounds) as well as the dressage ring set-up, paddock area etc.  Carole Bradford & Sally Plumley took care of decorating center ring & setting up the pony club.  Martha Woodland handled the pizza party for youth, the youth table, & silent auction.  Anne Margaret Korver did all the scoring for the high point calculations and took care of the futurity.  Marli Perry created spreadsheets for the ribbons and awards for the VanDykes to follow.  It was wonderful to have the VanDyke’s there.  Marli also helped with scoring on dressage tests.  Patty Jackson kept center ring set up for each session, and did the same for the Dressage arena.  Kathy Christensen set up the Celebration Dessert Party, set up the MHAO informational booth, and took care of the sponsorship thank you baskets.  Carole Bradford and Tim Arcuri took care of the Hall of Fame presentations.  There was a special presentation of Festival Calypso and Stephanie Connors.
• Vern Serex was honored in the Hall of Fame.  He also received a special award from MHAO that said “Thanks for the Memories”.  He blew his horn to welcome in the first class on Friday night.  It brought tears to many an eye. 
• Another special award went to Beverly Olson who drove her stallion with the colors for the Saturday night opening.  Bev is 89 years young and has been a lifetime supporter of the Morgan Horse as a breeder and exhibitor. 
• Color guard was done by different people each night.  We opened with a flag presentation by our Youth and closed with one of our oldest, Beverly Olson. 
• The age of our exhibitors ranged from 2 for our youngest to 89.  Another 89 year old was Bill Nicks who rode in the Jack Benny class and won it.  This show offered something for everyone. 
• Paula Hague took care of stall assignments which required quite a bit of juggling this year. 
• Board discussed if we wanted to keep the show in June or not.  Board recommendation is to keep the show in June.

• Chiropractic presenter was mentioned.  Discussion was that would be a great topic for the Spring Clinic.  Need to consider the audience we have at each event (Spring Clinic vs Award Banquet).  Award Banquet is more around showing or competing.  Board agreed Chiropractic is a great idea for next Spring.  We will work on that.
• Board would like Carol Fletcher-Churchill or other AMHA representative there to talk about what is going on at AMHA.  Gay will contact Carol.  We should always ask her to come. 
• A panel discussion was brought up with possible topics of Ranch Pleasure, Cowboy Dressage, Gaming, Extreme Trail, cattle sorting & penning, etc.  Leanne will investigate possible topics for a panel around the new disciplines that are developing around us.  She was encouraged to invite someone to help her. 
• If we need entertainment, David suggested Georgianne Ireland who is a singer.  She was previously a member of MHAO. 

• Clinics and Award Banquet planning
• Oregon Morgan Classic
• Membership Growth
  Adding a lower level of membership was mentioned to get people started with us.  An idea was an  “associate membership” for people who just want to receive the stable sheet, etc. and to come see our activities.  Targets mentioned were 4H, FFA, etc.  More discussion to follow.
• Youth outreach
• Futurity growth
• Stallion Auction
• Promotion

• No one had time to review pages 10-15.  Approval of those pages tabled for this meeting.  If we are to be able to not have a Board Meeting in August, all Board Members need to review pages 10-19 prior to the July meeting.  Send any suggested changes to Gay via email prior to the July 19th meeting.  We have to stay on schedule if we are to complete approval of the manual prior to year end. 

• Tabled until next meeting.  Qualifications are a part of what will go into the Policy & Procedure Manual.  Committee is currently Nancy Eidam and Diane Pixlee, more people may be added later.  Committee was unable to meet this month. 

• The futurity has hit its first milestone goal.  There are over 50 horses in our Futurity this year.  18 were at the show, our highest number at a show so far.  Gay noticed that the AMHA numbers for registered foals went up this year instead of down - a very good sign for our breed. 
• Gay will be working with Karen to collect on the invoices sent out for the ads put in the Futurity booklet.  We need that money to come in so we will have the funds to payout for this year’s prize money. 

Trail Riding Program:  Tabled until next meeting.  

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                                                                  Rob Hess

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