January 2004 HAT Meeting Minutes
by Michael Bernier, HAT Chat Editor
The
monthly HAT meeting on January 8th was held at the Colonial Barber
Shop in
There
were no minutes from the previous meeting to be approved. Jenni Dougan provided a brief Treasurer’s report. There were no committee reports.
Guest
speaker for the meeting was Mark Arnold, Grayson County Extension Agent. He gave a presentation on Horse Theft
Awareness and Prevention, which included brochures and a short video.
In
old business were the following items:
·
Meeting Space – A solution appears to have
finally been found. Mark Arnold offered
the use of the Extension Office’s meeting room in the Grayson County Courthouse;
in return, he has asked HAT to assist him in developing equine-related programs
and offerings that can be shared with the residents of the county. Initially, this will consist of meeting with
him for brief discussions (perhaps 15-20 minutes) at the start of the monthly
HAT meetings.
· Scholarship Fund and Awards Process – 2nd Vice President Sandy Shiver recommended that a committee be formed to begin assembling the criteria for awarding the scholarship and contacting the schools in the area to get the word out to guidance counselors. A meeting was scheduled for January 15th at Sally Thomason’s house to go over the plan.
· 2004 Show/Event Schedule – Debby has been in touch with the manager of the Loy Lake Arena, and obtained a list of available dates for shows. The date of April 17th was selected to hold the first show of the season, and she recommended that additional show dates be discussed and selected by the Show Committee. Since many of the members of this committee are also involved with the Scholarship committee, they also decided to meet on January 15th at Sally Thomason’s house.
· Membership – Mike Bernier had printed the membership certificates for the youths who entered the Essay Contest, but had not brought them to the meeting; he planned to get them to Debby for signatures and mailing within a couple of days.
The following new items were discussed:
· Use of Loy Lake Arena for HAT Practice Area – Debby had briefly discussed the idea of securing use of the Loy Lake Arena for HAT members to use for practice sessions. Everyone thought this was a good idea, provided a set of rules could be written and procedures put into place to manage its use. Also, we would need to develop a way to determine who was a current member and a process for signing up new members on site.
· Membership Committee – The discussion regarding use of Loy Lake Arena led into a brief discussion of forming a Membership Committee to set up these processes.
· Fundraising – Two events were discussed as fundraisers for the Scholarship Fund: a garage sale and a raffle. Debby had asked Mike Bernier if HAT could use his place, the Lucky G Ranch, to hold the garage sale, and he agreed. Sandy Shiver has offered to donate an Equine Touch™ session as a raffle prize; the plan is to sell tickets up to the first show, and have the drawing sometime toward the end of the show to select a winner.
· HAT Merchandise – Mike Bernier has been in touch with Annette Welch, whose company DoubleStick Signs produces a variety of window decals, signs, banners, and so forth. She provided him with a sample window decal using the HAT logo to show at the meeting, and several members expressed an interest in ordering them for their use. Some were also interested in the other items she offers for sale, and Mike was asked to contact her regarding possibly coming to the next meeting and bringing samples of her work to show.
The
meeting was adjourned at approximately