Big Sky Fox Trotter Association

Minutes for January 26, 2008 (Draft Version)

Legion Street Grill ~ Whitehall, Montana

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President Bob Womack called the meeting to order at 11:50 a.m., following lunch. Officers and board members attending the meeting were President Bob Womack, Secretary Karen Philips, Directors-at-Large Bill Free and Rick Padgett. Others attending the meeting were Earl Philips, Karyn Conner, Neil Peterson, Penny Peterson, Linda Penn Johnson, Linda Henne, Edna Bohannan (guest), Thea Gervais, Jack Womack, Jerry Christison, Nicole Miller, Bill Inama, Gerd Michaelis, Randy Olson, Cathy Olson, Mark Goss, Annette Padgett, Mariann Wheat. Twenty one members attended the meeting.

Randy Olsen Director-at-large, Sara Bohnen Eastern Director, Bill Free Director-at-large, Jerry Christison Central Director, Karen Tracer  Western Director,  Annette Padgett Secretary,  Donna Goss Treasurer, Vice President Mary Auger, President Bob Womack.

President Bob Womack thanked the past Board members and the new Board members for what they have done as volunteers and what they are going to do. Bob is looking forward to working together, and he appreciates all that they do.

Karen read a thank you card from Jane Zubia to all the members showing her appreciation for the Champion Plaque she received for sponsoring the Open 2-Gait Reserve Championship.

Karyn Conner thanked the club for the beautiful flowers we sent to her for Larry, her husband, who passed away. Karen Philips thanked Karyn for coming to the meeting.

Mark Goss made a motion to accept the minutes as published in the November-December newsletter and on the web site and Jack Womack seconded it. Motion passed.

Mark Goss presented the Treasurer’s report for Donna Goss who is out of town in Texas. The current balance is $3,512.53. There are no outstanding bills.  Mark just received an envelope from Karen with more membership checks that will be added to the balance. Bill Free moved to accept the Treasurer’s report as read and Pete Peterson seconded the motion. Motion passed.

For those that didn’t make it to the Banquet, all the members who attended had a good time, and they hope that the ones who didn’t make it will join us this year.

Bob announced that the Pacific Northwest Fox Trotter Horse Show in Moses Lake will be on May 23-25, 2008, which will be on Memorial Day Weekend. Utah Grand Show, Farmington, UT will be on June 5-7, Powell WY will be on August 8-9, 2008. Bob Womack talked to Oregon and they are trying to have a show. Our show in Helena, May 16-17, 2008, is called the Spring Point Show, and the BSFTA Show in Corvallis will be on July 10-12, 2008.  We will have the 2008 BSFTA Calendar on our web site and in the newsletter.

Bob asked Pete Peterson how the review of the By-Laws was coming along. Pete said he had reviewed them several times and had seen no areas for change, but we should send them out to all members and if they see any needed changes they should submit them to secretary Annette Padgett.  Mark said we should have the By-Laws published on the web site so everyone can read them.  Karen will send copies to members by email (and regular mail for members without email), and she will send them to Lauren for the web site. Pete said that the five directors must first approve any recommended By-Laws changes from members before they are sent to the entire membership for a vote; that is what is stated in the By-Laws. Bob will get all the changes together from Annette and then get the directors together to review the changes at one time. Bob set a time line for the members to respond to Annette within two months (March 26).  Then the BOD will get together with Pete Peterson to revise the By-Laws and submit their approved changes to the membership for a vote, preferably at the same time as 2009 ballots are mailed, in order to save postage.

Thea asked for members to help to get some trail ride together. The National Trail Ride will be on August 16-17, 2008 at Elkhorn Hot Springs. Also, Thea is trying to get together a trail ride at the Indian Meadow Trail, but she doesn’t know the trail out there. Pete Peterson said that he could help since he has ridden that trail quite a lot. Pete stated that it is grizzly country up there.

Bob announced that Annette Padgett turned the reins over to Mark Goss who will be the new Newsletter Editor. Annette said that she enjoyed doing the newsletter for the past four years and hoped that all the members enjoyed reading it.

Mark said that here would be some changes in the newsletter.  He is putting in some professional columns; Thea and Jack will be in the next issue. Mark asked for the members to send in stories and pictures for articles for the newsletter. Bob thanked Annette for the great job she had done with the newsletter.

Karen Philips has graciously accepted the job of collecting sponsorships again this year.  For the members who do not understand what the sponsorships do, sponsors provide money to help out with the shows and because of that we are far ahead with our finances. Bob said that he had other clubs ask how we stay ahead and keep our show costs down. Bob told Karen that she does a super job on the sponsorships.  Karen said that she would start getting flyers out to people who had sponsored in the past and ask them to sponsor again this year. She thanked all the members who have indicated on their membership form that they will sponsor a class. We send a thank you card to every sponsor. Every person who takes first place in a class will get a thank you card for that class sponsor, and Karen requested that the competitors please mail them. It is real important to the sponsors that they hear from the competitors, and they really enjoy reading the notes. The thank you cards are filled out with the sponsor’s address and a stamp, so please mail them out. Thea has sent out her thank you cards with a photograph inside the card.

Jerry Christison, show chairman, informed club members it will be mainly a Versatility show, but he has added some Performance classes also, possibly 2 classes for the 2 gait, 3 gait, novice classes, and for youth. Jerry asked the members for some help and/or suggestions. The judge will be Jim Johnson.  Bob asked Jerry if the judge would do both the Performance and the Versatility classes. Jerry said that he would. As far as the cows for the Ranch cow classes, he will get the same people as last year. The cows have been worked on before.  Bob told Jerry that they will get together after the meeting to discuss the show. We will also have a meeting after the show on Friday.

Cathy Olsen, show chairman, told the members that Donnie Daugherty will be the judge for this year’s show. The cost for him being the judge will be $250 per day and Thursday night will be free. Cathy also stated he is bringing his wife, and he will pay for her plane fare. Mark Goss thanked Cathy for being the show chairman for this year’s show. Cathy said that she is adding novice classes to all the versatility classes.  She would like to raise the entry fees from $7.00 to $10.00 per class.  She checked around and all the other show are that much. Bob said that was the show chairman’s prerogative.

Cathy would like to change the All Around Championship to have the same required classes year after year. Karen brought up a concern about the Youth Hi-Point Championship, which is to have the option for youth competitors not to compete in every class. Cathy did say that was voted on last year. The youth can drop a class if they want to. Jack suggested having the youth pick the top 5 classes, out of the total number of classes for the Youth Hi-Point.  Karen said that the youth could drop the English Pleasure class if they wanted to due to the cost. Cathy said they could pick English Pleasure or Western Pleasure. Bob told the BOD that Cathy has put forth the idea to have a set list of classes required for the All Around Championship; this will be tabled until a later date.  Thursday will be Model and Showmanship classes which will start at 5 p.m. Cathy asked if she can get together also after the meeting to discuss the show. Bob said that would be a good idea.  Mark and Donna Goss have signed the contract for the show, and Cindy Stefka, owner of the Sapphire Arena, told them that the concession stand was included in the cost of renting the arena. Mark said if we could get some people to run it, it should bring in extra money.

Annette brought up the idea to have an All Women’s Trail Ride and all of the ladies to have some fun. Annette and her friend Heidi are looking into different places. This will be an overnight event. The ladies at the meeting liked the idea. Annette doesn’t have the date down as of yet.  She is just calling around to see what is out there.  She will get back to the club with more information.

Mariann thanked the club for the beautiful award she was honored with at the banquet. “What an honor it is to have been inducted into the BSFTA Hall of Fame” she said. She also thanked Bob and Mark for the award presentation at the banquet.

Karyn Conner has 15 horses for sale and if anyone is interested, please call or email her at. Mark asked Karyn to get him a list of her horses and he will put in the newsletter.

Nicole asked how many youth will be at the shows this year. Bob stated that we do will not know until they sign up.

Karen brought up what Mark suggested to the club: If you have a business or store that you patronize a lot (and it does not have to be in the Bitterroot area), ask them to be a sponsor at our show in May or July.  We will be happy to take those. They will get advertisement in the show program, and they will be announced at the show. Class sponsorships are $35, the Memorial Trail Ride is $50, and championships are $75.

There was a discussion brought up by Thea, Bob and Mark about MFTHBA and how the BOD is trying to bring finances under control, trying to balance the budget, and trying not to run in the deficit anymore. The financial problems did not happen overnight. They have been going on for years, making bad decisions that benefited a few people. The new BOD is trying to focus on the promotion of our breed to bring more revenue into the national association. Membership is down, and so is the advertisement in the Show and Celebration Book. It was unfortunate that they had to let a few people go. The BOD in Ava has, for the first time ever, scheduled a planning meeting for the future planning of our breed, and they are running into some opposition from some past BOD members there. So we as members need to make sure that we get good people running and that we vote.

Pete made a motion to send a letter of support to the BOD of MFTHBA for their financial responsibility and future business plans. Jerry seconded that motion. Motion passed. Pete will outline the letter, and Mark will write it.

Thea made a motion that we send a single letter of support from a coalition of the Western Affiliates, with constructive ideas to the BOD in Ava. Jerry seconded the motion. Motion carried. Thea will contact the Western Affiliates with Pete’s outline (or wording). Jerry seconded the motion. Motion carried.

The meeting was adjourned at 1:00 p.m.

Please note: The next meeting date was changed after the Jan. 26 meeting from April 12 to April 5.  Also, the Helena show date was changed from May 16-17 to May 9-10.

Annette Padgett

Secretary