August 24, 2024
AMERICAN MULE ASSOCIATION
Board of Directors Meeting August 24, 2024
Double Tree by Hilton
1150 9th Street Modesto, CA 95354
GENERAL MEMBERSHIP MEETING:
Meeting Called by: President Joy Valcheck Note Taker: Secretary, Jody Lowrey
Facilitator: Double Tree by Hilton Attendees: Board Members, Officers
Called meeting to order and flag salute: Time 10:08
Roll Call; Michele Chico, Joy Valcheck, Casie Fairbanks, Chris Lowrey, Becky Santucci, Kellie
Shields, Sue Wallace, Kristi Jorgensen, Claudia Stevens, Amy Mclean, Vickie Powers, Jody Lowrey, Michelle Kern, Deverie Montgomery and Maggie Moore.
Absent: Kerry Tracy. At a horse show in Bishop, CA. Jody Lowrey makes a motion to excuse her absence. Kellie Shields seconds. Motion passed.
Read Minutes of last meeting: Jody Lowrey, Secretary
Kellie Shields makes a motion to accept the minutes. Second by Michele Chico. Motion passed.
Secretary Report C Correspondence: Jody Lowrey, Secretary
Letter and check from American Mule Racing Association. Deposited the check of $200.00. Asked to try and get registration records from them. I brought up to make sure everyone is on the WhatsApp. We got Michele Chico on the App, so everyone is on it now. Amy Mclean to get everyone on the WhatsApp. Motion to accept the report by Michele Chico. Second by Michelle Kern. Motion passed.
Treasurer Report: Michele Chico, Treasurer
The amount in the checking as of July 31, 2024 is $27,05802. This is down from last year of $33,
449.54. We did have extra expense this last year for Amy’s study and also sponsoring youths class fees at the shows. We are still waiting for Bear Valley check of $540, Rand did say she put in the mail. A thank you to Kristi for setting up the Venmo for members to pay for the raffle and auction
items at the banquet. Aaron Schats overpaid the banquet $275 and asked this to go towards the banquet for the coming year for youth awards.
We need to make sure that the SSA/LEVA awards and the year end awards are kept separate,
Michele will reallocate the funds on the report. Motion to accept the report by Jody Lowrey. Second by Kellie Shields. Motion passed.
Old Business-Reports
Executive Report Casie Fairbanks, Vice President
No report
Performance C Judges Report Kellie Shields, Chairperson We have 10 shows this year. Four of the shows are double judged. Approximately $5600 in assessments, about the same as last year. Kathy’s check just came in yesterday. Blossom Spring
$1356 plus $70 application fee, Gold Country $700 plus $70 application fee, Western States $570 plus $35 application fee and Bear Valley $540 plus $35 application fee. Any help with reaching out to other shows to get AMA classes and reaching out to older shows to try and get them back. Very easy to get approval for AMA classes. We need to work on Bear Valley to get the donkey classes back. Every year Randi has been working with a different partner for the show and everyone comes in with different ideas. It was noticed that the donkeys were not at the show. Was brought we should have requirements for classes offered in our show packet, we will wait and give them a chance to fix this at Bear Valley. We have 28 judges signed up with 7 new judges. Kellie will get the new list to Chris to get on the website. Motion to accept the report by Michelle Kern. Second by
Michele Chico. Motion passed.
Youth Scholarship Michele Chico/ Michelle Kern, Chairperson No report. Need to put a reminder in the newsletter.
Memberships Chris Lowrey, Chairperson
Collected $2200, a lot of memberships from registrations. Youth are up to 17 last year it was 12, total membership down from last year of 201 to 175. We did get 32 new members this year. Motion to accept the report by Casie Fairbanks. Second by Amy Mclean. Motion passed.
Registrations C Transfers Jody Lowrey, Chairperson Total for year $1060. We did get a lifetime membership along with a registration and agree with Chris that we do get members from registrations. Motion to accept the report by Michele Chico. Second by Casie Fairbanks. Motion passed.
Points Committee Maggie Moore/Deverie Montgomery, Chairperson Points for the first three shows are completed. Will finish Bear Valley show very soon. All the show managers have been so quick to get the results to me. Both Gold Country and Bear Valley used
Showtime making it easier. WSMDS used something else but was equal to Showtime, they used
Show Pro. All points are on the website up to Bear Valley. Motion to accept report by Jody Lowrey. Second by Kellie Shields. Motion passed.
Newsletter Report Kristie Jorgensen/Sue Wallace/Maggie Moore, Editor
It is about $125 per mailing, saving $300 per mailing. The printing is free and pictures are in color. For the September newsletter need to get stories in by the end of August and Maggie will get the results of Bear Valley to her to post. Motion to accept report by Casie Fairbanks. Second by Jody Lowrey. Motion passed.
LEVA/SSA Casie Fairbanks, Chairperson
No report
Teamster Committee Jody Lowrey/Michele Chico, Chairperson There were 8 youth drivers at Bishop. Barbara came to a few shows and Chris came to a couple. Motion to accept the report by Michele Chico. Second by Casie Fairbanks. Motion passed.
Packing report Joe Gonzalez, Deverie Montgomery, Chairperson No report
Awards Committee Kellie Shield/Sue Wallace/Claudia Stevens, Chairperson Awards for 2023 cost approximately $16,500, sponsorships totaled $4220 budget was $13,000 carried over $1000 for a total of 14, 000. We will be carrying over $1720 for the upcoming awards.
Will check to see where we are with saddles. Will need to put our order in soon. As soon as Maggie gets points in from Bear Valley will know better where we are. Would like to get the sponsor money in sooner, it is hard to spend money when we are not sure what is coming in. As Board Members we all should help with the awards. Motion to accept the report by Michele Chico. Second by Sue Wallace. Motion passed.
Rule Change Committee Joy Valcheck/Maggie Moore/Lou Jacobsen/Kristie Jorgensen/jKellie Shields/Vicky Powers and Kerry Tracy, Chairperson
Non pro Showmanship was missed in the rule book. A judge read the book and noticed a lot of
mistakes that need to be corrected, will talk about this under new business. The Rule changes will need to be in by the end of year, will need to get form in the newsletter. Would like to move the date for rule changes to be put in, would rather change it to end of January. This to be talked about in new business. Motion to accept the report by Kellie Shields. Second by Michele Chico. Motion passed.
Election report Brian Morris, Chairperson Vicki Powers to help Will check with Brian to make sure he will still do it. Will get the ballot out in the September newsletter and check with out going Board if they want to run again. Nomination form is on the website, will remind members on Facebook about the form if they want to nominate someone.
Motion to accept the report by Michelle Kern. Second by Michele Chico. Motion passed.
Cattle Committee Joe Gonzalez, Chairperson
No report
Banquet Committee Sue Wallace/Michele Chico, Chairperson The banquet will be February 22, 2025, at the Double Tree by Hilton in Modesto. Total collected from last banquet was $11,150 total spent $6,836.23 with a balance remaining of $4,313.77. We did not meet the quota of rooms that we were to fill so was charged $1,521. Will talk in new
business about having a mixer Friday night to get more members to come the night before. Motion to accept the report by Kellie Shields. Second by Michele Chico. Motion passed.
Promotions C Website Chris Lowrey/Sue Wallace/Kristie Jorgensen
Ad for Mules N More $700 half page for 3 issues. Checked with Western Mule for half page it is $230 and you get a discount if you advertise in 3 or more. Can do stories for the magazines and put our contact information at the end of the story. Also do stories for the free magazines at the feed stores. We can reach out to Elegant Ears. Will talk in new business about advertisement and
maybe discount code for memberships. Also we should get a picture of the new Board to update our website. Motion to accept the report by Kellie Shields. Second by Sue Wallace. Motion passed.
Historical Committee Lou Moore Jacobsen, Chairperson No Report.
New Business:
Need to get a list to Sue Wallace of competitors that have only competed 2 shows and also list of for All Around to see who is missing classes. Sue will call them or send postcards.
Gymkhana Division Points: Joy Valcheck
Joy brought up why gymkhana points do not go towards her amateur points for high point. After
discussion Joy will put in for a rule change to have this offered under amateur classes so then they would count towards high point. This would make it four classes in amateur to chose from to go for high point. It was also discussed how show managers make their own rules for high point. Show managers always like feed back from competitors to help with getting more competitors, so always share ideas.
Budget for 2024 Awards:
The money collected from the raffle from last banquet should go towards the award budget.
Projected assessments the shows is $5600, there was a carry over from last year of $1720, which should be just a carry over. We all need to get out and see about getting sponsors for out awards. Maybe get something in the newsletter out to members about bringing something to the raffle.
Casie Fairbanks makes a motion to have the budget for the 2024 awards $14,000. Becky Santucchi seconds. Motion passed.
Advertising Budget:
Kellie Shields makes a motion for advertising budget for advertising and printing of flyers of $1500. Becky Santucchi seconds. Motion passed.
Communication:
Just need everyone on the WhatsApp. We got everyone on the App. Break 12:18 Back 12:50
Clarification of rules: Vicky Powers
Clarification of rules in Ranch Trail. 1. Drag requirements. Youth/Non pro no drag. Amateur dray. Non pro is not mentioned in the book. Kellie will look into this and make corrections. 2. Ranch Trail scoring: No mention in Rule Book of 3 refusals is a disqualification. If you are moved on by a judge or off pattern you can still place but you will be under the other competitors no matter how bad they do the trail, as long as they did the pattern. Kellie is looking into fixing all of this and will have this fixed in the rule book.
On page 36 Showmanship Nonpro is on the sheet for shows but not in our book. Also misspelled words that to be fixed. We should take AMR off our front page of the book.
At Bear Valley they had a Championship Ranch conformation for Nonpro and Amateur, talked about this class needs to be spilt, since it is a mule/exhibitor combination. This is a not an AMA class so no points will count for this class. Sue Wallace is expecting points for this class, but she will not be
getting these points. We need to be sure and tell show managers that grand and reserve are not AMA points.
Kellie would like to go over with the judge that found all the errors and then will go over this with the rule change committee to make sure all the changes are ok to make in the rule book. Everyone agrees with this plan.
We also need to make sure that the rules are pretty much the same between regular trail and ranch trail so there is less confusion for judges and competitors and rules should be par with other associations. Of course there will be some differences.
At Bear Valley there was an issue with a competitor using a bosal and someone was questioning if this was a 2 rein and should not be used. Show rep spoke with the judge and input from others and this was not a 2 rein.
Chris would like to offer $5 off membership if they sign up for the membership and the dinner together. This was agreed upon for the first 50 members. As soon as Sue gets the final cost for dinners, Chris will put online.
Amy Mclean will be in charge of the Friday night mixer at the banquet. As soon as she gets everything together, she will run it by the Board.
Jody Lowrey makes a motion to adjourn the meeting at 1:32PM. Second by Becky Santucchi.