American Endurance Ride Conference
BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING
held via telephone conference call
June 27, 2005

President Stagg Newman called the meeting to order at 6:02 p.m. Also on the line for the call: Vice
President Mike Maul, Treasurer Patti Pizzo, Vonita Bowers, Mike Jaffe, Roberta Harms, Connie Caudill,
Jan Stevens, Howard Kent, Stan Eichelberger, Gail Williams, Bob Morris, John Parke, Susan Kasemeyer,
Duane Barnett, Randy Eiland, Roger Taylor, Nick Warhol, Barney Fleming, Jerry Fruth, Laura Hayes,
Robert Ribley, Dinah Rojek, Mike Tomlinson, and Executive Director Kathleen A. Henkel. Absent -
Secretary Jan Jeffers and Terry Woolley Howe.

It was moved and seconded to excuse Secretary Jan Jeffers from this meeting. Motion carries.
The rewrite of the motion regarding research grants funding before the board from the finance committee
was deferred until the August conference call meeting.

Veterinary Committee Chair Melissa Ribley joined the call to discuss Rule 13. She advised the
veterinary committee is currently discussing Rule 13 along with AERC's current drug policy and hopes to
get the legal and rules committees involved with a rewrite of the rule. She stated there are two paths that
can be taken: 1) Allow a defined list of drugs that are not considered performance enhancing and 2)
Prohibit the use of all medications during competition. Discussions are ongoing within the committee, assessing

the upfalls and downfalls of both of the above paths. Input is welcome from the board. President Newman asked

the board, the veterinary committee, the drug-testing committee, the horse welfare committees and the legal

committee to rethink AERC's position on this issue - "What is the right rule?" President Newman advised the

committees involved in this issue will work together and will report to the board on their discussions. This will

be a careful, deliberative process.

Sanctioning Committee Chair Vonita Bowers advised two rides have come to the committee for
discussion and are now before the board for approval.  The first is the Land of Enchantment ride, a new
ride and pioneer status is requested.  Annie George is the ride manager and the ride is slated for May 19,
2006 through May 21, 2006, SW Region, taking place in Tyrone NM, holding a 50/25  55/30 and 50/25.
Southwest Sanctioning Director Randy Eiland has given his approval of this ride.  This ride takes place
one week from another ride that takes place in the same region. Rides are approximately 350 miles apart.
Both ride managers were contacted and possible date changes were discussed.  Neither ride manager could
change their ride dates and the committee exhausted all efforts to come to a conclusion that would be
positive for all concerned.  Motion from committee to approve this ride.  Motion carries, with Dinah
Rojek and Barney Fleming abstaining.  President Newman requested Randy Eiland to send an email to both

ride managers involved explaining the position of the sanctioning committee and the Board of
Directors regarding the approval of the Land of Enchantment ride.

The second ride is the Eastern Mojave Pioneer, the second year as a pioneer, February 3, 4, and 5, 2006,
50/55/50, Pacific Southwest Region, with ride location east of Baker, CA, and Karen Chaton listed as ride
manager.  Sanctioning Director Terry Woolley Howe has given her approval of this ride. Motion from
committee to approve this ride.  Motion carries unanimously.

The sanctioning committee also put forth a ride change request past the 90-day time limit for a ride in the
Midwest Region, Nisbet Forest Ride, located in Manitoba Canada for a ride 8 hours from the United
States border and the ride date needs to be changed due to extreme flooding problems. Committee
recommends this change be approved.  Motion carries.

Regarding the Caja del Rio ride in the SW region, Sanctioning Director Randy Eiland advised the ride
manager found it necessary to change base camp location shortly before the ride at the request of the
Forest Service due to road problems due to weather conditions and are requesting a mileage change from
50 to 55 miles.  The sanctioning director approves the change and wants to advise the board.

Mike Jaffe, Chair of the Trails Grants Committee, presented two motions from the committee.  Jerry
Fruth spoke regarding the first motion, relative to the Trails Master Course to be held August 24, 25, 26,
and 27, 2005 at the site of the LBL ride on the border of Kentucky and Tennessee.  15 slots are available
for this course. Jerry gave the board a briefing regarding the success of the last course and further advised
two or three of the seats for the course will be filled by land managers that are not able to obtain this
training from their own agencies. Those that participate will also be given a logo shirt and/or jacket for
their efforts in participating in the course and furthering AERC's trail work. Motion carries unanimously.

The second motion involves the Gold Country Trails Council and their request for a grant to be used to
fund their efforts in the Tahoe National Forest to move the trailhead off the highway so it is in a safer
environment for horse and rider. The total amount needed for the work is $9,000 and the Gold Country
Trails Council has raised $3,000 to date and is requesting any amount AERC can grant up to $6,000.
Motion from committee is to publish the proposal in the Endurance News and after feedback is received
from the membership, discuss approval at the next board meeting.  Motion passed with Jerry Fruth and
Robert Ribley abstaining.

Mike Jaffe would like the Board to keep in mind that as a trails grants activity that AERC begin investing
in rides that for many members of AERC define the sport of endurance.  Many rides want to be certain
they retain rights to the use of the trails in their area for their rides and AERC should be able to support
this effort. This will be further explored at the midyear meeting.

The board entered Executive Session at this point in the meeting.

The board returned to regular session with a motion before the board to combine the media and
membership committee with Nick Warhol as chair.  Motion carries unanimously.

Randy Eiland was contacted by an individual from Columbia with questions regarding junior riders. This
led to discussions with President Newman regarding possible set-up of some sort of an association,
separate but related to AERC, to work together with other AERC friendly groups with similar rules and
welfare concerns and try to develop some unity with these groups and institute an assistance program in
which AERC might aide them in tracking their miles and assist with other issues until they are able to
tackle things themselves within their own group.  This type of association would most certainly build
goodwill and spread the word regarding AERC. There is support among board members and Randy was
encouraged to continue with this idea.

Roger Taylor presented a briefing regarding a BLM Recreation Wilderness Workshop where Roger spoke
to the group regarding AERC's involvement in trails and AERC's association with BLM. 

President Newman would like to set up an AERC endowment fund.  John Parke volunteered to present to
the board a workshop at the midyear meeting regarding endowment programs.

Jan Stevens thanked all the board members that attended and assisted the National Championship ride
and advised the ride was a booming success, with 41of 56 entrants in the 100 mile distance riding the FEI
portion of the ride. President Newman thanked Jan for putting on an excellent event.

Bob Morris reminded everyone that is a current regional director that the election will take place in
November and it is time to get nominations and statements to the office, due by September 30, 2005.

Next meting is August 1, 2005.  It was moved by Susan Kasemeyer and seconded by Roger Taylor  to
adjourn.

Meeting adjourned at 7:56 p.m

Respectfully submitted


Kathleen A. Henkel, in the absence of Secretary Jan Jeffers

Committee Reports

Membership Committee Report

Prepared by Nick Warhol, Chair, 6/15/05

Our initial phone conference meeting help last month, attended by Mile Maul, Randy Eiland, Nick Warhol. Several topics were discussed that can be categorized into two main areas of concentration for the committee:

1) Attracting new members

2) Retaining existing members

We are going to try and spend an equal amount of time and effort between these two broad categories to begin with. We brought up several ideas and areas to attack for each category, and will do some prioritization. We also need to come up with a budget for next year very quickly; it will obviously be pretty rough.

Attracting new members: Some of the ideas discussed are listed below:

• Advertising: Starting an advertising campaign in equine publications. We would be sure to have a trigger or a response code to be able to track the number of responses from each source to help determine if it is working. Write articles and stories for publications.
• AERC booth: Set up an AERC recruiting booth staffed by volunteers at major equine events. Like the NATRC does at our convention. I like this idea. Randy found a comment in a 2000 BOD minutes report: R. Eiland reported on an AERC exhibit and booth at the Scottsdale Arabian Show. It generated a good deal of interest and was deemed successful. Plans are under way for similar displays at Equitana and Western States Expo. I want to create a basic budget for this idea and try it at a large show.
• Membership materials: Make sure there are easy to get new member packets that can be sent to rides, events, clinics, fun rides, etc. I’d like a one page, really nice, color printed with great pictures, membership handout.
• New member sponsorships: Like the Sundowner member discount program.
• Discounted first year membership: Possibly provide an initial discount for new members.
• Special campaigns- like the “every member go find a member” program. Randy might be able to help with a corporate sponsored member drive.

Retention of existing members: Two areas- assist new members, and retain/ get back non-renewing ones. This is an area where we may get more return in actual increase in membership year to year, since so many people seem to leave each year. Some of the ideas discussed for retention are listed below:

Assisting new members

• Initial contact: Welcome to the AERC. This effort would require coordinated volunteers, since there are a lot of new members per year.
• Mentorship program: Explain, promote, and invite new members (and mentors) to take part.
• Promote Fun Rides and Clinics: Make sure the new members know about these events. Get members to help at current rides.
• Membership services: Be sure new members know what services they have with the AERC today. Create a how to and what’s available sheet for all new members. (web site, members forum, etc)

Retention and Getting old members back

• Understand the problem: Mike Maul has done some high level metrics so we can really understand what the retention trends are, before making any decisions. This is critical to insure we are focusing on the right people.
• Typically we retain about 90% of our regular members each year.
  We only retain 60% of new members the next year and by two years -
  that's down to 54%.
  So gain 1,000 new members a year - lose 400 of last years new members -
  lose about 420 regular members - for a net gain of about 200 members a year.
  Our membership growth rate has been about 3.5% a year which matches the 200 member a year gain.
  If we increased our new member retention rate from 60% to 85% - this
  would make our growth rate double to about 7.5%.
  This would increase our dues revenue by about $16,250 plus some from the rides they attend.
• Targeted response: The office is currently doing a lot of this today. Send non-renewing members a renewal notice. Add phone contact to see if we can convince them to renew, or find out why they are not.

Our first deliverable will be to create a budget, and then prioritize which of the areas we want to attack first. Please forward me any comments, suggestions, recommendations, or if you are willing to assist in any of the areas listed above.

Veterinary Committee Report

Prepared by Melissa Ribley, Chair, 6/24/05

1) The veterinary committee met via conference call on May 23, 2005 to discuss the issue of Mr. Tom Dean’s proposal to allow the use of omeprazole during AERC competition.

The following letter was written to Mr. Dean as a summary of our decision based on this meeting:

May 25, 2005

To: Tom Dean

From : AERC Veterinary Committee

Re: The use of omeprazole during AERC competition

Dear Tom –

The AERC Veterinary Committee met on May 23^rd via conference call to discuss the modification of the current AERC drug rule to allow endurance horses to compete on omeprazole. After much discussion of the benefits and drawbacks of such a modification, the veterinary committee has come to the decision not to recommend a modification of the current drug rules to allow the use of omeprazole while competing.

This decision is based on several factors:

1) Allowing the use of a testable drug during competition is a far deviation from AERC’s long-standing policy of absolutely opposing the presence of drugs during endurance ride competition.

2) The reasoning for allowing Omeprazole during competition could, and we anticipate will, be used for other existing drugs such as anti-inflammatory agents. For example, flunixin (Banamine) certainly has beneficial, protective effects in the horse and is not considered performance enhancing in the normal horse.

3) The affects of long-term use of omeprazole are not known and the veterinary committee will not recommend nor endorse off label (very long term) use of the drug.

4) Horses symptomatic for gastric ulcers should not be competing.

There is current research to explore causes of gastric ulcers in endurance horses other than stabling/feed such as the overuse of electrolytes. The veterinary committee will recommend AERC support research in these areas of ulcer cause/prevention so we can benefit endurance horses and help prevent this problem without the use of medication during competition.

Sincerely,

AERC Veterinary Committee

June Veterinary Committee Report, page

2) The veterinary committee is working with a veterinary liason, Dr. John Davis, who is the program director for several national veterinary conferences. This is in order to obtain sponsorship for a standard continuing education program on the topic of the veterinary aspects of working endurance rides and treating endurance horses. This presentation will then be given at various national conferences throughout the country to educate veterinarians interested in learning about endurance riding.