19 Jan 2006
Those is attendance: Shannon Fowler, Terry O’Brien, Angie Honeywell, Ann Saylor, Jim Hundley, and Randy Fowler
Excused – Mark Turner, Terry Smith
Shannon Fowler called the meeting to order at 6:30 pm on Thursday January 19, 2006 at Boone Mutual Insurance Company in Lebanon, IN.
Ann Saylor, Treasurer, reported that the club now has $7,366.46 at the present time. Ann also stated that Accountant Richard Marshall has volunteered to assist Ann with any 2005 tax/financial items that need to be completed for the year. Ann also reported that the expenses we have coming up in the near future are: Henry County Fairgrounds deposit, NRHA Affiliate Renewal, and the 2006 NRHA Show Approval and trophy costs. The INRHA insurance policy is good until April but will need to be renewed at that time. However, it will most likely be cheaper this year due to only needing insurance for one show at New Castle.
Henry County Fairgrounds was the topic of the next discussion. Shannon Fowler stated that Henry County told her last year at the end of our last show that our dates for 2006 would be July 1-2 and August 5-6. However, when we received the contract at the end of December it had the dates of June 24-25 and July 29-30 listed on it. When Henry County was contacted regarding the dates on the contract they stated that the dates were changed due to the AQHA’s dates for the Indy Circuit that is held at New Castle as well. The only available dates all summer at Henry County Fairgrounds are the June 24-25 and July 29-30 weekends, so it was those two weekends or nothing for the INRHA shows. Shannon also contacted other associations that have shows there to see if anyone would be willing to trade weekends with us, but no one was interested in that offer. The June 24-25 weekend is a problem because of the numerous shows in the near vicinity that we would have to compete with. Some of the other shows that weekend are: Springfield, IL, Roscoe, IL, Lexington, KY, and Midland, MI. The MWRHA, who co-hosts our June show with us, also had a conflict because they also approve the Springfield, IL show. It was unanimously approved to cancel the June 24-25 show at New Castle, IN and instead approve the Springfield, IL show on June 23-24th. It disappoints the entire board to have to cancel a show, but we felt it was in the best interest of the association financially. We are currently looking for other facilities in the area, in addition to New Castle, for 2007 so that we may have more options in setting up the show schedule. There is a new facility being built in Danville, IN that we are going to obtain more information about, and we have also been in contact with Gordyville about the possibility of having a show there in 2007. This discussion has been tabled until a later date.
The INRHA Circuit approval had already been turned into the NRHA by the December 1st completion date so Angie Honeywell will contact the NRHA to make the necessary changes.
MWRHA has now agreed to co-host the July 29-30 show at New Castle with us, and ILRHA is also going to approve it as one of their shows. The MWRHA association voted at their meeting to keep the money the same as last year. It also unanimously approved by the INRHA also. Therefore, the money for the July show in New Castle will be the same as the money for last years shows. MWRHA also said they would be interested in possibly co-hosting a show with INRHA and possibly the ILRHA in 2007 at another location earlier in the year (such as end of April or May). This is being researched by all three associations at this time, and has been tabled until a later date.
Due to the length of the show last year when we co-hosted with MWRHA and were approved by ILRHA, various options of trying to make the show go faster were discussed. Last year the show ran until midnight on Saturday night causing the INRHA to have to pay overtime for the judge, and being hard on the exhibitors. It was approved 5 to 1 to have the Ladies and Mens Class on Friday night at 7:00 pm. This class will be judged by a volunteer NRHA judge, will be jackpotted, and will assist us in cutting about 1.5 to 2 hours off of the show on Saturday. The arena will still be open for riding up until approximately 6:30 pm and immediately following the class for the rest of the night.
It was discussed that we need to do a membership push about once a month in order to recruit members for 2006. A newsletter with membership forms, show dates, etc will also need to be distributed in the near future. The website has also been updated with the 2006 membership form as well. Angie Honeywell also reported that the website has currently had 14, 393 hits!
The NRHA has paid for the booth at the Hoosier Horse Fair and have agreed to let the INRHA use the booth as well. Bonnie and Terry Smith have always worked the booth in the past, so we will contact them to see if this is something they are going to do again or if they would like some help. Brose McVey has volunteered to be the lead for the Hoosier Horse Fair project and will be in contact with Bonnie and Terry Smith. Terry O’Brien has volunteered to take the membership forms and show bills to the Horse Fair for us since he will be going with the Buckaroo Boot Company anyway.
Angie Honeywell has been trying to contact the AQHA about the possibility of having an AQHA class run concurrently at our show but there is a mileage conflict between our show and a show in Crown Point, IN. Therefore, we will not be able to do that at this time. The other downfalls that were discussed are: finding judges that are NRHA and AQHA certified, along with other AQHA rules that apply.
Randy Fowler brought up the discussion of year end awards for 2006. Since the INRHA has now approved the Gordyville and Illinois State Fair shows he wanted to be sure we protected our IN members by requiring the year end winners to be a current INRHA member, and show at a minimum of one day at the New Castle Classic in July. Year End Awards will be based on the most money earned in each division for the three approved shows, with a minimum of one day of showing at the INRHA show in New Castle, IN. Therefore, a person could not show only in IL and win an INRHA year end award. This was unanimously approved.
Green Rider rules for the INRHA were decided upon. A Green Rider must run the NRHA pattern as written, may ride one or two handed but have to stay which ever way is started, must have earned a $100 or less in total earnings as of January 1st.
Green Horse must have $100 or less total earnings as of January 1st.
It was approved to sponsor a class or a weekend high point award for the Illinois State Fair show. We will be in touch with ILRHA to discuss this and determine what is needed.
Brose McVey is working on trying to get the Indiana State Fairgrounds to work with us more on: ground, parking, rates, etc. in order to have another facility option in Indiana. Brose serves on a couple of committees with these individuals and they are trying to promote more equine events in the future. This discussion was tabled until a later date.
The possibility of having a clinic was discussed. Recruiting a “big name” trainer and renting a facility to have it would help bring in some sponsors as well as help our members who are interested. Other associations combine their banquet and clinic in one weekend in order to accommodate everyone and promote a better turn out for the banquet. It was also discussed to possibly combine with MWRHA for one big banquet and/or clinic. This will be discussed with MWRHA to determine their interest level, and was tabled until a later date.
Event Sponsor – Terry O’Brien has agreed to do this again, but if we would like to talk to some other companies about this he is also open to that as well (then he could bring his horse and show with us!). It was decided to talk to some others and get back with Terry after more info is collected.
Meeting was adjourned at 9:15 pm
Submitted by:
Angie Honeywell – Secretary
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