GREAT LAKES DISTANCE RIDING ASSOCIATION MINUTES – NOVEMBER 8, 2023
(Via Conference/Video Call)

The meeting was called to order by President Carl Dosmann at 8:03 p.m. In attendance was Carl Dosmann, Linda Hamrick, Diane Meinders, Kathy Macki, Jan Wylie, Pat Weirengo, Becke Grams, Karen Jarvi, Lisa Germann, Barb Kurti, Bruce Birr and Audrey McMurry.

Linda Hamrick motioned to accept the minutes as presented (they were e-mailed prior to the meeting). Lisa Germann seconded and thus, the minutes were approved.

Bruce didn’t have a treasurer’s report but will try and get something together in the next couple of weeks.

Committee Reports:
There were no Executive, Veterinarian, Finance, Rider Reps (as a side note, Jan said that she was happy to see more competitive riders and that they are hoping for more competitive rides in Michigan in order to be more competitive in UMECRA and get more miles), Grievance, Awards, Membership, or Promotions reports.

Kathy stated that she is working on the points and mileage stuff.

• Michigan Horse Council, Trails – Karen has resigned from this position, so we will need to see about getting it filled. There was some discussion about getting a job description (Carl will talk to Amy Scharman and Karen to see what the job entails) to put on our FB page to see if we can generate any interest. See her message below.

As some of you will recall I have spent the last several years working on amendments to the so called Right to Ride Act which would prohibit bikes on equestrian trails as well as the occupancy of equestrian campgrounds/sites by non-equestrian campers. I regret to inform everyone that this legislation is dead in the water after being torpedoed, not by bikers, but by a couple of equestrians who were gaslighted by the DNR into believing that the legislation wouldn’t accomplish anything (because the DNR would supposedly have to use their land use order process to make these changes even if the legislation were to be enacted). This is blatantly false, and while its astonishing that anyone would take these claims by the DNR at face value, not only because they’re obviously self-serving but because they’re not informed by any relevant expertise in legislative analysis, these equestrians essentially told the senator sponsoring this legislation to never mind, and any waffling by the proponents of legislation will of course bring any legislative effort to a screeching halt. This all happened in May, after which I resigned from the DNR’s Equine Trails Subcommittee, so I’ve spent the last 6 months trying to interest a different group of proponents in starting over with a different legislator. Sadly, neither the BCH nor the MTRA have ever responded to my emails, and while the MHC acknowledged my initial email they have never made a substantive response or responded to follow-up emails. Somewhere along the way I obtained Farm Bureau’s support for this legislation as I’m on their Equine Advisory Committee, and due to how Farm Bureau is organized this required that policy in favor of separating the trail users and campers in question be voted on at their annual meeting and added to their policy manual. The Farm Bureau staffer who orchestrated this process predicted to me that the legislation was doomed because “horse people can’t agree on anything”, and in hindsight he was absolutely right. So, this is really just a very long-winded explanation for my resignation from GLDRA’s Trails/MHC committee as I’ve had my fill of trail advocacy.
Karen Bahrman

• Web Page – Heather was unable to attend but sent the following notes: Security has been remarkably better, with less incidence of scammers. That being said if any board member gets an e-mail resembling a bill for x-amount, please ignore it.

Ride results will be embedded as a PDF file on the site from now on. Thank Kathy for formatting said files, I will purchase Adobe PDF to convert and embed past results. Ride results were delayed the past 2 months due to having appointments and traveling to Kadena Air Force Base in Okinawa.

1. Calendar will be replaced by new one for 2024 season.
2. Need a cleaner design.
3. Mentor pages need updated.
4. Gallery is up and running. So far Audrey’s ride pictures that were sent to me are on there. More will be posted asap. Especially ones from Linda Hamrick’s facebook feed.

I would still like to add a blog/news area where articles pertaining to endurance riding, conditioning and horse care (plus rider tips) are posted.
Just need details on our banquet and the hosted UMECRA banquet so they can be listed. Please send me an email or message.
That’s it. Thank you. Heather

Diane said the entry form on the site is very hard to find and after a bit of discussion, it was decided that it should be in more places on the site.

Old Business:

• Awards – Lisa said she is just waiting on Kathy
• Insurance – Kathy will contact Shelley Dake to see if she is still willing to handle this.
• UMECRA Banquet – Carl gave a brief update on the plans so far. Bruce had a few things that he had to check with UMECRA on and now that he had answers, we were able to get people lined up. Diane Meinders will run the silent auction and Becke Grams will handle the meal registration stuff. Bruce will get the information to her. Jan offered to help with registration at the banquet and Kathy said she’d like to see at least two people on at a time and she will get the names of volunteers and contact them so she can work out a schedule. The UMECRA board meeting is this Saturday (11/11) and Bruce will try and get answers on our proposed speakers/entertainment so we can get that stuff worked out.

Diane wondered about getting something out about carpooling to see if we can get more Michigan people there. She said she was willing to coordinate if people contacted her. Kathy said she would try and get something out on FB. There was some concern that the post would get “lost” as they sometimes do, but all we can do is try. Interested people should contact her at diane.meinders@gmail.com, or by cell 616-706-6478.

• Incentive Program – Carl felt the results were mixed. He said we had 20 graduates, but he didn’t have Byard’s Cedar Creek Clinic information yet. He said that Jill had given out all the vouchers without reading the enclosed information and that may mess things up as she didn’t record the ID numbers. We had seven riders that went on to intro/novice rides. Audrey said her friend did Keweenaw and used two vouchers (yea!). There are still a few details to work out on this program but overall, it seems to be getting us some new riders.
  There was some discussion on the serial numbers (which was not expensive as Carl just printed Avery labels from a spreadsheet and then applied them to the vouchers). The problem with the serial numbers occurs when the numbers are not recorded by the clinic or ride managers. It is very time- consuming to contact the riders and find out what the numbers are. Carl feels this may just be a training issue. There was mention that the might not even be necessary as there aren’t that many of them out there and it shouldn’t be that hard to keep track of them.
  There was some discussion about using a receipt book type thing to keep track of the numbers, and Becke suggested having them fill out an entry form, which would get numbered, and then the person putting on the clinic could keep those. In the end, nothing was really decided, and I will add this item to the agenda for the February meeting.

New Business:

• Proposed Ride Schedule – At this point, we basically just went over the dates. No one was on from Detroit Horsepower so those will still need to be verified. There was also mention of a ride manager change for AHAM/Hopkins Creek (and there will be one for Grand Island too) and this will have to be verified.
• Banquet – We have a signed contract and it’s scheduled for 2/10/24. We will do a one-day format again beginning at approximately 9:30 a.m. and be finished by 7:00 p.m. Carl has the itinerary from last year and we will follow that, dropping the speaker, and doing the silent auction in its place. He will send the itinerary out to the board to check it over.
• Budget 2024 – Nothing on this and we will tackle it at the February meeting.
• Bylaw Change – We need to do something to have enough people at the board meetings to form a quorum. This will require a Bylaw change. Bruce will look them over and put out a potential change.
• Award nominations – Barb reminded us that we need to get something out so that people can get their nominations in prior to the annual banquet. This includes HoF person and horse and some others. Kathy will look them up and work on getting information out. The closing date for nominations will be 12/31/23.

Lisa moved to adjourn the meeting; Kathy seconded. The meeting was adjourned at 9:21 p.m.

Our next meeting is February 10, 2024, at 9:30 a.m. (approximately).

Respectfully submitted. Kathy Macki