Dear Members,On March 11, 2008 during the course of the monthly FHANA Board of Directors meeting, your Board of Directors voted on several issues, many of which a direct result of input from you, our members. They ranged from Regional Representation, to the Closing of the B-Book II, to the decision on whether to hold another Horse Show in the Fall of 2008.In every decision your Board realizes that when we represent such a diverse membership, our decisions may not all be popular with every segment of our membership. The fact that a portion of our members may not agree with Board decisions does not mean that we are not listening to our members, NOTHING COULD BE FURTHER FROM THE TRUTH. Every decision made comes after careful consideration of the ramifications and on how it impacts our membership as a whole.Your Board members realized that when it was decided to not hold another Horse Show in 2008 some members would be extremely disappointed. Now let’s look at the reasons for that decision. * Keurings- 2007 was a tumultuous year. After losing our Executive Director early in the year, the execution of Keurings in September were in serious jeopardy. Only after tremendous work done at the last minute were we able to execute the Keurings. Our current office staff is doing a very good job and we have no reason to believe that we will experience the same issues in 2008 that we did in 2007. This will be the first year where our office’s primary focus will be registrations and Keurings. We do not want our office staff distracted from what we believe is one of their primary focuses.* Registrations- In 2007, your Board members received dozens of calls regarding the slow processing of foal registration papers; a situation that, only now, in some cases, is being resolved. Our office staff has, again, done a very good job in working down the piles of registration papers that accrued in the absence of an Executive Director. While we do not expect to experience the same bottleneck in 2008, we again, do not want our staff to be distracted from one of their primary focuses.* IFSHA- There is a portion of our membership that very much wants to see FHANA and IFSHA work together to promote the Friesian horse. FHANA’s conducting of a horse show was viewed by many as a direct assault on IFSHA. Your Board has been in negotiation with IFSHA since the beginning of March to try to bring these two organizations together. Our shelving of a horse show in 2008 should be an indication of our sincerity in these negotiations.* 501c3 Status- For all intents and purposes, the 2007 show was a break even proposition. In order for FHANA to truly reap the benefits of conducting a horse show under our charter, it is in our organization’s best interest to attain 501c3 status. This status will allow us to solicit and receive sponsorships from corporate contributors that are tax deductible and could easily underwrite such an event. The changing of our organization from its current 501c5 to a 501c3 status is a monumental undertaking, which includes re-incorporation, a dramatic change to our by-laws and a vote by our membership to accept such a change.These are just a few of the concerns that came under scrutiny as we considered this very complex issue. Your Board hopes that in sharing this information with our membership, they will understand the many elements that we considered when arriving at our decision. We very much understand the disappointment that many have experienced over the decision on this show, but we now hope our members all understand that this is not a decision that we arrived at capriciously. Our thought processes are predicated first, on the well being of the Friesian horse and second the well being of the majority of our members and their Association. Your Board will always welcome input from our members, but hopes that the membership realizes that not all of our decisions may be popular. Your Board continues to work for the satisfaction of our membership and hopes that as decisions are rendered there is an understanding by our membership that it is the well being of the horse and our members that motivates our decisions.We encourage any of our members who, after reading this letter, want to discuss this issue further to contact their Regional Board Representative or any Board member for additional clarification on this complex issue. We want to thank you for your continued support and confidence as we take on the challenges of this most noble breed.Your FHANA Board,Arlene Deboer –President Marc Dileo- Vice PresidentBeth Sharp- Treasurer Scott Kelnhofer- SecretaryCarlton Everhart J.R. BlumenthalJohn Howard
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