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--------------------------------------------------------------------~-> There are 3 messages in this issue.
Topics in this digest:
1. to moderator
From: "honikonranch2000" <honikon@...>
2. cool new feature on USDF website
From: "Joann Messersmith" <JoannM@...>
3. Some GMO notes from the USDF convention
From: Sarah Patrick <slp4mag@...>
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Message: 1 Date: Mon, 05 Dec 2005 17:10:30 -0000
From: "honikonranch2000" <honikon@...>
Subject: to moderator
I'm trying to sign up for the group using a new yahoo ID. Can you email me the link to join the group? Thanks for your assistance! Lyn Huffaker
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Message: 2 Date: Mon, 05 Dec 2005 13:34:46 -0600
From: "Joann Messersmith" <JoannM@...>
Subject: cool new feature on USDF website
Now available
search by person or by horse for standing in the adult amatuer & open lists... http://www.usdf.org/programs/awards/2005/Search.asp sorry, it does not work on all breeds awards standings yet
our thanks to Bill, the IT guy at USDF for making this happen! great job Bill!
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Message: 3 Date: Mon, 5 Dec 2005 19:12:25 -0800 (PST)
From: Sarah Patrick <slp4mag@...>
Subject: Some GMO notes from the USDF convention
Hi, Everyone,
I had hoped to send you messages throughout the convention to make it more 'Live!', but my purchased wireless access at the Hilton only worked in the lobby and the restaurant. Geeze, I spent most of my time in meetings and social events. My only time in the lobby was in line for Starbucks!
First of all, I would like to thank Sherry Guess for doing a fantastic job organizing the GMO sessions and for being there representing GMO interests in each and every meeting she attended. In so many Committee or Council meetings I attended, there was Sherry, representing the GMO Council. Way to go, Sherry!
Plus, I loved how active the GMO Council meetings were and appreciated members' willingness to speak up and to share great ideas. I'm sure I missed some of them unintentionally. Please forgive me and send your ideas to the GMO Prez listserve, too.
Lastly, I was able to attend the meeting (for the first time ever) with another member of my GMO, Joann Messersmith. That was really fun and we appreciate the Ruth Arvanette scholarship she was given to attend. Two other friends were supposed to join us but got blocked by the 'Blizzard of 2005' and the roads weren't open from their neck of the woods when it was time to head for the airport. Sorry, Teddie and Lacey!
I also attended the Gala Salute for the first time. Selfish purpose: to accept the Region 4 Volunteer of the Year award. I typically am rather (ok, very) shy about these kinds of things and never feel like I really know what to do, say, or feel (I am very emotional and feel a million things at once typically). The GMO awards were given out at the beginning of the evening, shortly after dignitaries in the room were mentioned (owners of Olympic horses, Olympic riders past and present, people who started and shaped the sport and art of dressage for decades, etc.). Hearing about them and then having my own name announced shortly after, my knees almost buckled, plus I was about to burst into tears. I had been humbled, amazed, and thrilled with the award from the second I learned about it since there are so many dedicated volunteers in every GMO and region, but sitting in that room and feeling connected to a very big and multilayered system established to benefit the horse, I was
practically overwhelmed and so very thankful. For once in the presence of dignitaries, I was NOT embarrassed to be a 43-year old First Level rider or ashamed to say my riding time is limited due to other demands on my life. We all still have our place in the system and, frankly, our horses depend on it.
My notes from the entire convention are lengthy, so I'm going to condense them into specific meetings. I hope they are of interest to you. Sometimes I write in a bit of shorthand, so if something doesn't make sense, please let me know.
Cheers,
Sarah Patrick
Dakota Dressage & Eventing
GMO Round Tables
There were approximately 7 tables with 12 seats each. Most tables had facilitators assigned to them and some had a special topic (fund raising, membership retention) based on the special knowledge of the facilitator. The plan was to 'speed chat' and go from table to table, every 5-10 minutes, but most people started talking and didn't leave their original group. We had representation from most regions at my full table, which was on general GMO topics. We started our discussion about use of the GMO President's listserve. Only two of us had been on it! That site is www.yahoogroups.com/group/GMOPrez. Like this listserve, you can receive a digest version once a day if that helps you manage your emails. Several people were interested in joining it and suggested we add the web-site link to the GMO page on the USDF web-site. I talked to Ross Creech about this after the meeting and he thought this could definitely be done. Still, it stressed the need to make sure to keep 'talking up' the listserve, for instance, at your regional meetings, or when you meet people from other GMOs at shows/clinics/educational events. There was some general confusion about who could join the listserve (pretty much anyone in a GMO who is interested!). Paul Cormier, NEDA President (and USDF Volunteer of the Year) presented to all at the meeting a grassroots movement to raise money for the USDF building by having USDF's 'leading men' (remember: there was a Hollywood theme) wear a t-shirt he designed that said 'Dressage' on the front and on the back said, 'Where real men don't have room for a saddle horn' (or something close to that). If Sam (USDF President), George (USDF Vice President), and Stephen (USDF Executive Director) all wore the t-shirts for the entire day of the Board of Governor's meeting, NEDA would contribute up to $5,000 in matching funds to funds raised from people wanting to encourage the t-shirt use. By the way, Sam, I guess, NEVER wears t-shirts at shows/meetings. More on this topic later when I or others post information on the BOG, which was the WILDEST event at a USDF activity I've EVER been to!! By the way, my GMO, Dakota Dressage & Eventing, contributed $50 for NEDA to match.
Topics of current importance to GMOs in attendance at my table included updating bylaws (where to get examples, how to get members to read, understand, and apply them); revamping scholarship programs; and trouble getting children/youth started in dressage. The GMO Prez listserve was again discussed, since these topics had been discussed and the listserve used to connect people to resources outside their area. The Morgan Dressage Association was complimented for having wonderful scholarship program, plus Morgan dressage shows, and a distance-based mentoring program. Some GMOs (or Regions) had scholarship dollars but had trouble giving scholarships or grants away (take home message: ask your GMO or Region--there may be scholarship $$ there you aren't aware exist). Even when the application ccriteria were not difficult, people did not apply for some GMO/Regional scholarships. Suggestions included continuing putting notices in newsletters, broadening to newsletters other than the GMO newsletter, or making the scholarship program a part of an assigned elected position in the GMO. One participant said her GMO's scholarship program was part of the VP job description and thought that helped the VP focus on educating members about what was available. Replacing funds in a scholarship program was also mentioned and some examples given were (a) broadening beyond your current membership, through silent auctions or sales to a more general horse (or non-horse) crowd, (b) on-line buying clubs that contribute funds back to non-profits (e.g., Amazon.com,
www.countrysupply.com which as a Country Cares program, even Wal-Mart). These are helpful because they give something back to the GMO for items the person would have likely purchased anyway.
Recruiting and Developing Leaders--One participant was a member of a chapter-based GMO and although they had 230+ members in her chapter, it was always difficult to get people to run for office. One participant said that when her GMO set up term limits, more people were willing to run for office because they felt they wouldn't be 'stuck' for a long time. Another GMO starts passing around the USDF GMO Handbook in the summer to members who have been identified to have 'leadership potential'. The Handbook gives them guidance and some reassurance about the duties of running a GMO, plus they feel honored to have been identified as having potential. Another GMO has a Nominating Committee that divides up the entire membership list and starts calling members in the spring to ask them to run for fall elections. Another GMO member had this suggestion for GMO's who do not have monthly meetings for the general membership. Pick half the members who have board member potential. Invite
them to a board meeting, so they get involved before they are asked to run for office. She said their board meetings were always open but no one but board members came unless directly ASKED.
Another topic are was about cross activities with other GMOs and other organizations (4-H, Pony Club, IMOs). One participant was in a GMO in a very (geographically) small state that had another GMO. She mentioned how joint educational activities could benefit both GMOs and share volunteers. CSDEA has a very active High school dressage program that helps reach kids who are members of hunter/jumper clubs/barns and breed associations. State horse fairs were also mentioned as a way to let people who like horses know about and possibly experience a little dressage. It was stressed that BAD dressage could do a lot to turn people away, too. To help POSITIVELY attract people to dressage these clinicians were suggested Janet Brown, Trip Harding, Kay Meredith, Lilo Fore, and Rachael Saavedra, to name a few. Work with the very top organizer at your horse fair to try to insert good dressage. Outreach to other horse clubs--it was mentioned that people with 'alternative horses' would really like encouragement from dressage clubs/shows to join in the fun. One participant gave the example of the Morgan Nationals in Oklahoma City, OK, which had 2.5 days of shows. Dressage competition was through GP and had about 80 horses (all levels) participate (of the 1200 present). A suggestion was made to write an article for Connection with tips of what to do to reach other equestrian clubs/groups/breed associations to make them feel more comfortable and enhance participation in dressage (if they aren't already).
Lastly, we talked about GMO members, especially the adult amateur. A great quote from one of our participants was " We are the algi in the food chain-everything else would die if it wasn't for us." Leslie Weiss, CT. If we do outreach to people doing other activities we need to realize the common ground is the lower level-not the glamour. Clinics - some GMOs felt you have to have some glamour names to draw people in. One participant mentioned a great demonstration Lilo Fore and Lendon Gray had Courtney King, Lendon's working student at the time, do for a clinic. She started with a canter pirouette and then would devolve it to see what every level and horse/rider would be able to do and what it would look like. I mentioned a videotape Lendon showed at a banquet we held. In it, her working student rode the same horse in the frame/movements from Training Level through Grand Prix AND THEN BACK DOWN. It was not a commercial video--just something Lendon had taped at one of the
demos at her junior riders event.
Another clinic along that line was at a private barn where a local AQHA judge heard that Axel Steiner was going to give a clinic. He had been having some trouble with flying changes with a western horse and asked the clinic organizer if he could come. Axel treated with him with the respect of one judge working with another and the man rode in with a curb bit and western saddle, appropriate for his area of expertise. The clinic was audited by many other western riders in the area and this helped build a bridge. We talked about gaps that sometimes happen-people who only show at schooling shows and feel they simply are not 'good enough' to move up to a recognized show. Or, the situation in which a handful of GMO members get accepted as the riders for all the the clinics with the big name trainers. Some suggestions given were: hold amateur only clinics, allocate a clinic or recognized show ride-time slot to schooling show champions, organize clinics so each chapter sends someone for free to the big name clinic. There was a WEALTH of great ideas over topics for unmounted clinics-pilates, getting ready for shows, braiding, first aid (horse and human-offered with local fox hunt club), Hilary Clayton session on horse biomechanics, winter on-line book clubs, training scribes, 'Its all in Your Seat' series (did involve demo riders and everyone got to do some pilates, stretching), lateral aids (50-60 people showed up 2 weeks before the first schooling show)., managing fear in sport performance (could be given with another sport club), ring geometry. [I apologize because I think I missed some of the great suggestions given!--SLP]. Lastly, one participant reminded us all, 'Know what your club's mission is, who you are serving, and what they want and need. Then your activities will be successful.'
It was a great pleasure to serve as a facilitator for a GMO Council Round Table. I had a fun bunch of old and new friends participate and I look forward to reading your messages on the GMO Prez listserve and seeing you again, face-to-face in Kansas City, my home region, next November.
Cheers,
Sarah Patrick
Dakota Dressage & Eventing
Sioux Falls, SD
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