The first of November marked the new ODS membership year and ODS awards year. We are caught up on our awards for the previous years now and John Craven (Licensed shows) and Gene Hall (League shows) will soon be hard at work tabulating the awards for 2007.

I have just sent the document for the new, updated ODS By Laws to the law firm to be reviewed and they will be ready for presentation at the November 3 board meeting. Hopefullly by the time you read this we will have new ODS By Laws. Thanks to Donna Thayer for her work on this project and to Ed Miller and Corinne Stonier for their help and advice. Also, a big thanks to Vic Pagel (Mid Valley Chapter) and his wife Martha for making it possible to have the document reviewed as a pro bono project by Schwabe Martha’s law firm.

All chapter presidents have been mailed a letter explaining the assessment each chapter will receive for their share of the 2008 annual premium. The cost will be approximately $75.00 per chapter. Last year we paid the whole premium with ODS treasury funds. This year we are billing the chapter for their share as the policy covers chapter officers as well as ODS board members and some key volunteer positions. This $75.00 needs to be included in your chapter budgets for 2008.

The ODS Open and Championship shows have been scheduled for September 12-14, 2008. This moves them off the Labor Day Weekend which will have some advantages. However, we will need even more volunteers since some committee members with school age children will not be able to participate as strongly as they have in the past. Judges are tentatively scheduled: Dinah jo Babcock-S, Janet Curtis-S, Janet (Dolly) Hannon-R.

Region VI Director Donna Longacre has organized a mini convention for the same weekend as the Region VI meeting. This is scheduled to start Friday November 16 with a welcome reception and committee meetings followed on Saturday a.m. with a L-graduate continueing education presentation led by Trenna Adkins, lunch and in the p.m. the Region VI meeting to prepare for USDF convention. Please check the Region VI website for more information.

November 27 the ODS and Region VI delegates will be heading to Orlando, FL for the 2007 USDF Convention. There is no Symposium this year but there will be plenty of educational sessions involving horse health due to a Veterinary meeting go on at the same time. The USDF staff has worked hard to put together a variety of great speakers for us.

January 12-13 is the annual ODS Board Retreat at Silver Falls Convention Center. Chapter President’s or representatives and committee chairpersons are invited to attend as well. This is the major planning session of the year.

Most importantly on the local level is the Show Management and Volunteer training seminare scheduled for February 23-24 in Wilsonville. Thanks to Rose Newman for organizing these workshops. We really need more people trained to put on shows and this is a great opportunity. Please watch the ODS website for details

Please remember to renew your memberships early in order to receive all the publications without extra charge.

Have a safe and Happy Thanksgiving. We’ll have more to report after the conventions. –Marsha

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