The recent ODS Educational Event produced by Francy Haupt was a huge success. I have received so many letters and calls from people attending as riders and auditors. All with very positive remarks such as the following:
“I attended the Cynthia Collins Freestyle clinic last weekend (April 24th through the 26th) as an auditor. It was great! I feel much more confident about riding a freestyle with my horse when we get to that level. I also would like to participate in a clinic like this as a rider in a couple of years. This is just the sort of educational opportunity I feel ODS should support. Freestyle highlights the artistic aspects of Dressage, and I believe it can help all of us be better riders. I also believe that Freestyle is the key to getting a wider base of public support for our sport!”
I would also like to thank our hosts at Tanz-Pferde Dressage for their generosity in supporting ODS by offering the use of their facility for this program.
The ODS Board met April 25. There were quite a few topics on the agenda and the minutes have not been distributed yet so I am going on memory for a lot of the discussion.
The membership of ODS through April 20 is 1,053 members. We were pleased to hear this as we feared our membership would drop due to the economy.
The board is wrestling with ways to save money and still provide a quality product in membership to ODS. We talked a lot about publications. The response in our recent poll of the membership was very favorable toward the Omnibus and Test Booklet. There has been criticism about the Roster being put out so late in the year. Another drawback to this is the cost of publishing and mailing it as a separate entity. The Board decided to print and mail the Roster with the other publications. This will mean the Roster will contain the names of the members from the previous year who may or may not actually renew for the current year. Most board members feel the Roster is a valuable resource and not having the names of those who renew later forces them to keep the old Roster handy as a reference.
The League Shows were another item of discussion. The League Show Committee is trying to develop a program that will keep the various League Shows as consistent as possible in the way they are run and the way the rules are followed. The Committee has is working on a system whereby League Shows can be evaluated before they are granted League Show status for the following year.
The ODS Owned Show Committee report included the fact that we are in need of a Show Manager for the League Championship Show in 2010. Moving the show to Central Oregon for the 2010 season was also discussed. The Breeder Show will be held at Boring this year August 15 and 16. Riding Classes for young horses will be added. Barb Tuohino Funk is the Secretary and Manager of the show.
The Board is also looking at ways to make the popular ODS Rider and Horse Awards more cost effective. There were many suggestions and this will be discussed more before a decision is made at the next meeting so the information can be included in the 2010 Omnibus.
ODS is hosting the Region 6 Mini-Convention in November. Our annual membership meeting, board meeting and banquet will be held in conjunction with the mini convention. The Annual Banquet will not be held in conjunction with the Championship Show in September as it has been for the past few years.
“How we serve our members” is the overall theme for the ODS Strategic plan. The committee met following the board meeting and started to identify the strategic initiatives of the plan. There will be 4 initiatives which will be implemented over the next 4 years to improve our organization. The initiatives will be formally identified at the next meeting in August.
There are two Director at Large positions and all four Regional Representative positions coming up for election this fall. Ed Miller is acting as the Nominating Committee Chair. If you would like to run, nominate someone or get more information contact Ed.
