Connecticut Dressage Association

I find that when I return from the USDF Annual Meeting, it takes me about a week to "decompress". I’m in meetings all day every day from Tuesday through Saturday, and when asked what was accomplished, it takes me a moment to respond. Actually, the Executive Board (made up of the elected officers of USDF and the 9 regional directors) only meets two times a year, so we really do have a great deal of business to take care of. For example, the terms for the council and committee chairs are one year. Therefore, we have to make sure that each has either a continuing or new person in charge as of January 1, 2001. The new "grid" will be published in either the February or March issue of Connection.

As a region, each meets 2 times during the convention: Wednesday morning and then again Friday morning. At the first meeting, we talk about what might be the major issues of the convention, and decide how we might feel either individually or as a group. We also, with the agenda handy, go over the council and committee meetings and make sure that each has a representative from our region. Then, at the latter meeting on Friday, we go over what was covered in those meetings so we know what issues were discussed, what the committee or council feels important, and whether or not there are any major items to come before the Board of Governors for a vote.

As many of you know, one of the hot topics was the proposed recommendation from the AHSA dressage committee to require a minimum score at the highest test of the level before an individual had a right to ride a freestyle at that level. Ann Guptill, CT, chair of the Freestyle Committee, did an excellent job of handling that issue and presenting it to the Board of Governors. The vote by the BOG was in favor of supporting AHSA’s recommendation. The issue will be brought to the AHSA meeting in January, and we will know the results after that. The interesting part of this issue was how passionate each side felt, and how hard both worked to persuade others to support them. The vote of the BOG was a roll call, whereby each delegate (either PM or GM) had to vote yea or nay. Those who supported the proposed rule change easily won the vote. It was, however, democracy at work.

There was a small committee that worked on dues restructuring, and again, Region 8 had a representative on that with Irene Greenberg, NH. This committee deserves praise for having come up with a rather simple, but effective suggestion that was passed by the BOG. That is, that PM’s (participating members) who are not GM’s (group members) will pay an extra $10 for the membership. So many of us are both: we join USDF individually for $40.00, and we also join our GMO, which has to pay $10.00 per each of its members. So, in effect, we in that group pay $50.00 for our USDF membership. By charging those who join USDF directly, but who do not belong to a GMO that extra $10.00; it is, in effect, making the 2 groups more equal. One of the hoped-for results of this membership dues restructuring is to encourage GMO membership. Without GMO’s, so many USDF programs would never exist!

Thanks for re-electing me to a three year term as Regional Director. I really do enjoy representing Region 8 for USDF.