Starting Saturday, September 19, 2015 at 9 am
Called to order at 9:14
Roll Call: Present: Pat Johnston, Cathy Leddy, Jas Shearer-McMahon, Betsy Wandler, Catrina Quantrell, Eron Owens, Madeline Lucroy, Caroline Dudkowski, Tish via Skype.
Reading of unapproved minutes of the previous General Membership Meeting and taking any necessary actions, Secretary, Cathy Leddy
Motion: Betsy motions to approve 2014 meeting minutes. Jas seconds. Approved.
Presentation of Officer and Committee Reports:
President’s Report – Catrina Quantrell- We are a small group, but it was a good BOD year, lots of good conversations. We had our first Conference call and it was a success.
Treasurer’s Report- Amrita Ibold (read by Cathy Leddy and Catrina Quantrell) – We should start on next year’s budget in November. Have budgets for standalone events, such as the Rare Breeds Show. Report: Beginning balance in checking of 568.63 Income as of 9/14/2015 5283.88, Expenses 3170.11 = 2113.77. Savings on 1/1/2015 4611.47 + 800 transferred = total in savings 5512.59 balance 9/14/2015, CD of over 10,000 still in bank. Total assets as of 9/14/2015 = 17,000?
Secretary’s Report – Cathy Leddy – all filings have been done on time, including insurance, annual report, IRS, etc.
Registrar’s Report – Amrita Ibold (read by Cathy) 52 finished certificates as of 9/14/2015, including registrations and transfers. We have about 20 new pendings (from 2014 and 2015) that need more information to complete. At this point, if all information is sent in correctly, we issue certificate as soon as we get DNA results back.
Website Report – Amrita Ibold- Cathy read Amrita’s report ‘Biggest change is Betsy Wandler taking over the color page. She did a great job updating it. The news page I have neglected. It would be great to have a volunteer take over the news page. On Facebook, Cathy is doing a fabulous job having daily news. I know not everyone is on Facebook, so having the News page updated as well is important to keep the website fresh.” We then discussed: have website archives to research links, such as other websites, old links such as The Turanian horse website. We’d need to cache these sites so links don’t go bad. Caroline offers to research old Teke links. Eron asks for a PDF of all addresses in the registry. Cathy thinks she can do that, not sure. Cathy bought the domain name akhaltekebreeders.com as it’s on the brochures we send out. Pat suggests we buy akhaltekebreeders.org also. We talked about articles on site and in newsletter about sporthorses. Pat mentioned Molly’s article in ALBC news, will send to Cathy (almost exactly what we published in the October 2014 issue of the ATAA newsletter). Will put on the website. Pat asks if we are ready to have a marketing person look at our website and give us ideas. We say yes, Pat will ask her contact to do a quick pro bono look and give us feedback. Idea of a map where locations of Tekes (ATAA registered or not) can be put up so people can find horses near them.
We then talked about membership – some members feel that sporthorses are treated as second class citizens – discussion on how to talk about them – Jas will try to contact Jon Hockensmith, photographer for Rare Breeds show (?). Suggestion of grading for sporthorses alongside purebreds.
Newsletter Report- Cathy Leddy – published 3 issues so far this year, would like more input from membership.
Awards Committee- Catrina Quantrell/ Betsy Wandler- We talked about Incentive Awards – maybe do another email blast, could put ad in USEA magazine about awards. USDF still very difficult to go through – expensive and complicated. Catrina getting and sending out clarification emails to people. We should revisit ‘sanctioned’ vs ‘non sanctioned’ shows. Tish suggests 2 categories: sanctioned and non-sanctioned. Pat suggests including all competitions.
Motion: Cathy motions to revisit Incentive Program Directives after the 1st of the year. Send an email to the membership about this. Catrina seconds. Approved.
Member awards – Catrina had to be the tie-breaker on several categories. Betsy asks that people say WHY they nominated people. Have another awards blurb in newsletter with criteria (which we have published almost every newsletter)
Promotions Report – Tish Saare – The DVD is out, we spearheaded a KHP breeds day in May, only 2 participants. Should we put the DVD on Ebay? Tish has had no luck getting hold of KHP gift shop. Cathy will try to contact Cindy S on Facebook to see if she can talk to them. Need to get our website shop up and running with Paypal buttons. Send DVDs to libraries.
Catrina suggests $150 box of promotional materials with DVDs, brochures, CD w/PDFs – discussion of having a $75 box and a $150 box. Can put this on Store Page with Paypal button. People can get a box for their $150 promotion money OR buy the box and we will put the $150 or $75 back into Promotions. Cathy and Tish will figure it out and bring to BOD for approval. Pat suggests the 2 sizes, $75 and $150 including shipping – use Flat Rate box? Only applicable in continental US, will need to go on a case by case basis in other countries.
Nomination and Elections Report – Jas Shearer-McMahon/ Pat Johnston – 3 nominees for 2 posiitions, Amrita Ibold, Tish Saare and Joanne Hodeen.
Passing of Ballots, voting and announcement of New BOD members, Jas Shearer-McMahon/Pat Johnston: Jas counted votes, new BOD is Catrina, Jas, Cathy, Betsy, Pat, Amrita and Tish. Thank you to all candidates for being willing to serve!
Farm Reports during ballot counting
Silent Auction-Cathy Leddy – we made $965 on Silent Auction. Jas suggests we use money from Silent Auction to defray cost of Conference.
Old Business
Logowear for sale: Put each on website with Paypal button.
What else to do to retain members/get new ones? Discussion of retaining members and getting new ones. We need to shift emphasis to being about the horse, not what we give members. Have had several not renew this year as they weren’t ‘getting enough for their money’. Need to be more about promotion of the breed, what members can do for the breed. For next year’s General Membership Meeting, Jas suggests we change the names of the membership levels to: Member (now called Friends), Owner Member (now called Individual) and Ranch Member (Ranch and Family now). No junior membership anymore. Think about letting international members onto committees. These will be bylaw changes so will need to be done at meeting next summer per our bylaws.
Ask Gus if DNA can match offspring to grandparents?
New Business
Survey and Results – Cathy read Survey and results, will put on website also. Pat suggests that Survey guides our discussions on BOD – preface results with actual things we have refocused because of member replies in survey. Refocus some of our attention.
Pat asks when last time website has changed – possible to update image on front page? Been the same since 2012? Logo needs to be there. Survey is a good tool for future projects – use sparingly but listen.
Talk of how to make Conferences better attended – have with major events, such as Rare Breeds show, Expos and/or? Also talked about possibly going overseas for Conference in conjunction with something like the European Championships – airfare would be about the same as middle America.
Eron suggests Flickr account for large amounts of photos. Discussion of just using Facebook for this.
Awards and what people want: member ideas? Next year awards? When? As Rare Breeds show is in the middle of the c
ompetition season, how to do ATAA awards? Award Committee to work up proposal.
2016 Rare Breeds Show: decided to do Meet and Greet with all show participants, AMG meeting will be Tuesday 6-10 pm.
Motion: Eron motions that we take Victoria up on the offer of Conference rooms at the Virginia Horse Park for our meeting next year. Tish seconds. Approved.
Paypal button on website
Fund Raising: Idea of having t-shirt for sale, proceeds to go to Rare Breeds show. Should also have something for volunteers at the show. Ask some artists if they could do something up? Have ATAA logo prominently displayed?
Judge?
Class sponsorships; might require a price per class to cover ribbon cost (all ribbons should be similar) and then donor provides 1st and 2nd places in their class with the award of their choice.
Talked about having a trail/obstacle class – ridden and in-hand, classes to be figured out by Show committee over the next few months.
Rare Breeds Show Committee: Eron Owens, Cathy Leddy, Tish Saare, Madeline Lucroy, Amrita Ibold and Caroline Dudkowski.
2016 Annual Conference- should it go to every other year- Pat suggests every other year and plan ahead. Could do video conferencing. Should have a personal invitation from the host, early payment discounts. Pat suggests a ‘Best Practices’ from other Conferences and hosts to help upcoming hosts. Suggestion of opening speakers to local people. Structures, checklist and going on local listserves to publicize.
Strategic Plan- Pat suggests we look backwards and do a 10 year accomplishment retrospective to let people know what we’ve done. Cathy and Pat will start with an outline and fill in contents. Celebrate what has worked. Pat suggests that BOD be actively involved. Pat will facilitate. Tish thanks Pat. Need something short for a website retrospective – powerpoint? Look into website form and function.
Should we offer PDF Membership Directories and Bylaws to cut down printing and postage costs? Discussion: Send snail mail only to new members, not renewing members? Idea: for 2016 regular mailings but let people opt out of receiving snail mail via email. Or, regular mailings and let them know in packet they can opt out.
Talked about window clings, suggested by Jennifer Newman, talked pricing, BOD will look into and decide for 2016.
For 2016 – send out last packet saying we’re going electronic? Opt out via email, savings will help us promote breed, go green.
Breed Standard and Grading; Pat will gather and send to committee to start procedure.
We need to copy old Conference tapes onto DVDs – find them first!
?
Motion: Betsy motions to adjourn at 2:10. Jas seconds. Approved.
Action Items:
- Caroline Dudkowski offers to research old Teke links to include on the ATAA Website.
- Pat agreed to meet with a marketing (branding) expert to assess the webpage. She will seek a pro-bono contribution for an initial assessment of our current webpage.
- Cathy and Tish will figure out promotion boxes and bring to BOD for approval – $75 and $150
- By next year’s Conference, have vote to change names of membership levels.
- Amrita ask Gus if DNA can match offspring to grandparents
- Awards committee will work up proposal for next year’s ATAA awards.
- 2016 Conference will be at the Rare Breeds Show
- Pat agreed to start a process of developing a 10 year report. This is similar to an annual report, but capture 10 years of accomplishments. The first step will be a framework to seek input from other board members to capture accomplishments. Everyone should be thinking about what the ATAA has accomplished over the last ten years.
- Cathy suggests something short for the website – Powerpoint on the 10 years report?
- Pat agreed to start a strategic planning process. Part of strategic planning is “looking back” to inform moving forward. The 10 year report will help as a foundation to build the strategic plan and thinking forward.
- For 2016 regular mailings but let people opt out of receiving snail mail via email. Or, regular mailings and let them know in packet they can opt out. Must follow bylaws.
