It’s been a whirlwind week of great meetings here in Amarillo! Your 2016-17 American Quarter Horse Association Executive Committee members were in town, and they’ve been hard at work ensuring a bright future for the Association. Their meetings began on Tuesday and ended yesterday, and they’ve made significant progress on a variety of very important issues.
During the meetings, several AQHA staff members were invited in to review current project status and update the Executive Committee on future planning. Our organization is so vast that you can imagine we have a lot to cover in just a few short days. Here are some highlights of this week’s discussions:
Based on feedback from many AQHA directors and members, the affiliate advisory board is hard at work discussing future plans for improved affiliate communication and education. The board’s members are researching options and ideas to bring back the concept of the affiliate workshop and evaluating how to keep this at a low cost for both the Association and our affiliate leadership.
Ensuring the humane treatment of the American Quarter Horse remains a priority for this Executive Committee, and much discussion occurred this week on continuing to improve upon monitoring at competitions and the enforcement of an effective violations system.
International membership engagement and ease of doing business with the Association is a hot topic and an area in which the Executive Committee, AQHA senior leadership and I are committed to improving on throughout the year. A variety of issues were discussed that relate to how we can better service owners and members across the world.
The support and advancement of ranching programs and initiatives for our ranching-interested members is high on the list of priorities, and we spent time visiting with new AQHA Director of Ranching Kim Lindsey on some great ideas being discussed by the AQHA Ranching Committee for advancement in this area.
Great discussion occurred regarding AQHYA membership along with youth development and engagement and our need for strategic planning in these areas for the future. You’ve heard us talk about the need to engage youth and encourage involvement with horses for a lifetime, and to do this, we need a solid plan and the right folks on staff to make things happen.
The Executive Committee spent time reviewing and approving committee reports from the 2016 AQHA Convention in March. Final reports and more information on approved rule changes for 2017 will be posted online in the coming weeks.
As you can imagine, this is just the tip of the iceberg of all of the exciting things happening right now at AQHA, and I’m so proud to be part of the future of this great Association. Thanks for all your support!
AQHA News and information is a service of the American Quarter Horse Association. For more news and information, follow @AQHAnews on Twitter and visit www.aqha.com/news.
