American
Endurance Ride
Conference
BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING
held at John Ascuaga’s
Nugget, Sparks, NV
March 17, 2005
President C. Mike Tomlinson called the
meeting to order at 6:03 pm. Also present: Vice
President
Susan Kasemeyer, Secretary Jan Jeffers, Treasurer Terry Woolley Howe,
Roger
Taylor, Barney Fleming, Randy Eiland, Stan Eichelberger, Dane Frazier,
Jim
Baldwin, Roberta Harms, Bob Morris, Nick Warhol, John Parke, Robert
Ribley,
Gail Williams, Jan Stevens, Duane Barnett, Connie Caudill, Mike Jaffe,
Patti
Pizzo, Mike Maul, Vonita Bowers, Howard Kent, Stagg Newman, and
Executive
Director Kathleen A. Henkel. Also present, board members elect
Jerry
Fruth, Laura Hayes and Dinah Rojek. Absent: Maggy Price.
It was properly moved and seconded to accept the committee reports from the Finance, Convention, Ride Managers, Technical and
National Championship committees
as
written. Motion passed.
Discussion of the sanctioning of the Smokey Killen ride was postponed until the Sunday meeting, 3/20/05.
Motion from the Sanctioning Committee to approve the pioneer sanctioning of the White River Fall Labor Day ride, 9/3-5/05, a 25/55
25/50 25/50, Midwest Region, with Wayne Gastfield listed as ride manager. Roberta Harms, Midwest Sanction Director approves
the ride. Motion passed.
A Power Point presentation regarding online services and a statistics update was given by Mike Maul, Chair, Technical Committee.
Stan Eichelberger, Chair, Drug Testing Committee, advised 30 rides were tested during the 2004 ride season, utilizing 18 different
veterinarians. The
National Championship ride was not tested as
it was held in California and the State of California runs its own
testing
program for rides. It is proposed that 50 rides will be tested
during the
2005 ride year.
Jan Jeffers, Chair, Awards
Committee, presented the following proposal from committee:
To establish a Hall Of Fame Volunteer Service Award that would represent long-term service, honoring a member's longtime
achievements by recognizing outstanding volunteer
contributions to the AERC.
Nominations to be made by ballots submitted by members to the Hall of
Fame
Committee.
This award to be kept secret until the annual Awards Banquet.
Award not intended to be a yearly award but only awarded for
special
circumstances.
Award given would be a lifetime membership to the AERC.
After discussion, a motion to remand to
committee was moved by Duane Barnett and properly seconded.
Motion
passed.
Meeting adjourned at 7:35 p.m. to begin work
on the Strategic Planning process.
Respectfully
submitted,
Jan
Jeffers,
Secretary
Committee
Reports:
Finance Committee
3/16/05
Prepared by Chair
Terry Woolley Howe
The report is
appended to the minutes of the March 17, 2005 meeting and is available
in the
National Office for perusal.
Convention Committee Report
3/11/05
Prepared by
Robert Ribley, Chair
For the purpose
of encouraging all AERC members to support and be active in the
organization through attending the National Convention, the
committee is
discussing a proposal to AERC. The proposal would
address adopting a policy to not sanction regional rides for the
same
weekend as our National AERC Convention. The National Convention
is a once
a year opportunity for members to directly communicate with their
directors,
directly communicate with committees, and learn more about what
the AERC
has to offer.
Offering regional
rides the same time as the National Convention is a direct conflict for
riders
that are considering attending the convention but do not want to
miss participating in a local ride.
Ride Managers Committee Report
3/14/05
The
ride managers committee has been very active in discussions.
-We
have been promoting the vet video to all ride managers and vets.
-We
have been preparing the new ride managers clinic to be held at the
convention
-We have discussed having non-rider/ride manager discount membership fees, similar to the veterinarian membership fee, but haven't
been able to agree
or come to a
consensus on this issue.
-We
feel the Equisure insurance program is working great and most ride
managers are
having an easy time with it.
-We
felt that sanctioning directors should make ride managers aware if
there is a
conflict with the AERC convention or National Championship but if the
ride
manager still wants to use that same date, that is their option.
-We
had discussions on sanctioning directors respecting dates of rides that
are in
the same region or adjoining region. Really important to communicate
with the
ride managers if there is a conflict.
-We
had a great discussion about 100 mile rides earlier in the year and
would like
to see some outcome to having more 100 mile rides available.
Technical Committee Report
3/10/05
Prepared by Mike
Maul, Chair
* Upgraded all the office PCs for the staff
to new Dell systems with
Windows XP Pro, flat LCD displays, larger hard drives, and
faster, more
reliable hardware and software
* Upgraded the office server with improved hardware and software.
Installed enterprise anti-virus program on server
* Transfered more of the AERC home page responsibility to the
office
staff
* Updated the online sanctioning to include clinics/fun rides and
increased oversight of pioneer/special sanctioning new rides
* Achieved over 50% share of all ride sanctioning requests from
ride
managers using the online submission program
* Added a photo gallery to the AERC website
* Transferred ownership of the Doublejoy portal (calendar,
rider/horse
history, ride results, annual statistics) to AERC
* Supported 1500 requests by members for help with online services
* Added online forms
- Member feedback to ride managers
- Online registration for equine mileage program
- Online form for new member/renewal of membership
* Added the top 100 mile rider/horse lists and interviews
* Added the new LD regional mileage award to TomCat and online
* Transferred the AERC members only forum from the Teeter s/w to
Yahoo
groups