February 2004 HAT Meeting Minutes

by Di Hopkins

The monthly HAT meeting on February 5^th was held at the Grayson County Courthouse in Sherman, and was called to order by Vice President Mike Scully at approximately 7:00pm (President Debby Van Nurden arrived a short time later).

There meeting minutes as recorded in the February issue of the HAT newsletter were read and approved.

Jenni Dougan provided a brief Treasurer’s report.

Sandra Shiver provided a report from the Scholarship Committee. She stated that the criteria for offering the scholarships had been established, and work was underway to develop the materials to be distributed to the local schools.

Debby Van Nurden provided a report from the Show Committee, stating that the dates for the first show of the season (April 17) and the Futurity (October 2) had been selected, but that a conflict with a previously-booked event prevented us from using the April 17 date. She was working with Loy Lake management to find another date for the first show – current options include pushing the date out to May 1 or looking at a Sunday show instead of Saturday.

In old business were the following items:

· Membership Committee – this was a return to last month’s discussion regarding the need to establish a consistent process of maintaining the membership rolls in order to support the proposed use of Loy Lake Arena for monthly practice sessions by HAT members. Debby Van Nurden, Jenni Dougan, and Mike Bernier will establish this committee and work out the required processes.

· Loy Lake Usage – continued discussions regarding the provisions of the proposed agreement to use the arena for practice sessions. Among the additional details were a requirement that all participants must be HAT members and pay a $10 grounds fee each time they used the arena.

· Essay Contest Memberships – Mike Bernier reported that the membership certificates had been printed, signed by Debby, and mailed out with copies of the current newsletter to all of the participants from last year’s contest. None were in attendance at this meeting.

· Garage Sale – Mike Bernier reported that preparations for the sale are in motion, with a full-page ad listed in the February newsletter, and some donations are already arriving. Sally Thomason also reported an ad is being placed in the Grayson County Shopper to ask for donations and offer a pickup service.

· Equine Touch™ raffle – Sandy Shiver suggested moving forward with this raffle by offering tickets for $5 each, with possibly an extra incentive by offering a free ET session to anyone who purchases 10 or more tickets.

The following new business was discussed:

· Membership Types and Dues – this topic was an extension of the Membership Committee discussion; specifically, the question was asked regarding how to handle on-site membership applications for practice sessions at Loy Lake. Several items were reviewed, including the need to clarify the definition of a Family membership, whether or not to offer separate Youth memberships, and whether to consider a change in the dues amounts and payment schedule.

· Education Programs – Sally Thomason brought up the suggestion of bringing in a clinician from Texas A&M to discuss vaccinations, worming, and possibly do a clinic on worm identification/counts from fecal samples, to be run in conjunction with a talk by a representative from a vaccine company and/or a vet.

The meeting was adjourned at approximately 9:15pm. The February issue of the newsletter was distributed as members departed.