September 2011 General Membership Meeting

Posted by Kelly Heiken in Blog, Minutes | 0 comments

MCHA GENERAL MEMBERSHIP MEETING

September 16, 2011 Corvallis, MT

Sapphire Event Center

The MCHA General Membership Meeting was called to order at 6:30pm at the Sapphire Event Center by president, Theresa Nelson. There were 25 members present along with Vice President Will Nuttall, and Directors Tom Campbell, John L. Dublin, Cody Lee, Gene Morris, Audrey O’Keefe and Secretary/Treasurer Kelly Heiken.

Reviewed:

The MCHA Financial Statement dated September 14, 2011 was distributed. The membership reviewed the Financial Statement. There was a correction from 2011 NCHA Days – Judge should read 2011 NCHA Days – Announcer. This was paid to book the announcer before NCHA days for 2011 was cancelled. It will count as a credit towards next year’s NCHA Days, Will Nuttall made a motion to approve the Financial Statement with the above mentioned correction, Tom Campbell second the motion. All present were in favor and the Financial Statement was approved.

The minutes from the August 19th, 2011 Board meeting have previously been approved by the board. There were copies available for members to review at the meeting. Theresa Nelson noted the minutes are also available on the MCHA website for members to read.

Reports:

Jann Parker and John L Dublin gave an overall NCHA National Directors report. Jann stated that you can look at the NCHA website or in the Chatter for what recommendations were made. The membership asked what is happening with the Western Nationals in Ogden. John L. Dublin discussed the NCHA is still looking into their options of where they can hold the Western Nationals. There has been much discussion of possibly moving it from Ogden, however, there is still a 2 year contract in place. Jann stated there has been a proposal submitted by Idaho to host the Western Nationals. It was very nicely done and she was encouraged they are looking at all options. Jann stated that everyone she talked with wants to move to ID, it is a nice facility and has a great staff to put on the event.

John L. Dublin touched on a few other topics discussed at the NCHA Convention including a change to the pay out, the World Finals, and medication used on your horses. If you want more information on items discussed at the convention please call and visit with either Jann Parker or John L. Dublin.

Old or Unfinished Business:

Theresa Nelson stated the membership will be voting on the Horse of the Year at the banquet on Saturday night as you come in, due to the close race in one class. The winner of the Non-Pro/Amateur Classes will be listed for the membership to vote on.

New Business:

Kelly Heiken stated we will be running an Early Bird membership again this year. The early membership will cost $45 and you can pay now at the show or send it to Kelly until January 31, 2012. After that, the membership will go back to the $50 fee. Kelly stated it helped last year to have so many people sign up early. This made it easier for riders to not forget when show season begins. Remember both horse owner and rider must be MCHA members for it to count towards year end awards.

Theresa Nelson discussed the Year End Banquet to be held Saturday night at the Skalkaho Lodge Steakhouse out of Hamilton. The Banquet will start at 7:00pm.

Saturdays Year End show will have the cattle in the arena at 7:30am and start cutting at 8:00am. Theresa stated Audrey O’Keefe and Gayle Weber have done a great job getting the awards for this year. Thank you to both of them for their efforts!

Audrey told the membership about the awards as follows, 1^st place to receive buckles, 2^nd place to receive a flank strap buckle, 3^rd place to receive horse sheets, and 4^th place to receive a bridle rack. This year there is also the new Kim Asay Memorial award which is a beautiful horse head sculpture.

Theresa Nelson thanked Michelle Van Dyke for being in charge of this year’s auction. This is the only fundraiser that the MCHA does throughout the year. There were several nice items up for bid including a Savage 17 Riffle donated by Ellie Rome, a Marilyn Mason Artwork from her Cowgirl series donated by Audrey O’Keefe, along with much more. There will be silent auction items to bid on tomorrow at the show. Some of the silent bid items will go to live auction, with the last written bid as the opening live auction bid.

Theresa stated there is another Ray Church Cooler to give away at tomorrow nights banquet. Every person who has entered a class at the year end show will get their name put in the pot for this drawing. But remember you must be present at the banquet to win. Theresa encouraged everyone to attend and have a good time.

Next on the agenda, Theresa discussed last year the Board decided to hire Jann Parker as the PR/Promotions person. During this last year the website was redesigned. Theresa asked the membership their thoughts about the website. Several of the members voiced they did not like the new website as well as before. They felt it was not as user friendly and a little harder to navigate to where they wanted.

Last year the board also decided to change from the Wrangler as our official Publication and go back to the Cascade Horseman. Kelly Heiken asked the members if they were receiving their copies of the Cascade Horseman. Only about 7 members at the meeting said they received it regularly. Kelly stated there has been some trouble with getting it delivered. John L. Dublin voiced that he has gone thought the Cascade Horseman front to back and we are the only Montana affiliation in it. He felt we should look at going back to the Wrangler. Theresa Nelson asked the members their thoughts regarding facebook and emails sent from the MCHA. Most members at the meeting said they liked the facebook notifications and the emails to keep them informed. Theresa Nelson noted the Board will review and address these issues at the January meeting.

Theresa Nelson asked the membership their thoughts on how to promote and help the MCHA grow. There was some discussion in regards to hosting club cuttings to promote interest. Ty Cole from Dillon brought up he would like to see some of the trainers host a cutting expo of some type. His thoughts were to let people who might be interested get on an older trained cutting horse and they would maybe become more involved in cutting. Ty would like to see maybe 3 locations that would host these events such as Billings, Bozeman, and Dillon. He stated this would allow the community to see what we are doing. They could come out and work a cow or work a flag. He would like to see the MCHA spearhead this type of event and promote it.

Jann and Bill Parker also spoke about ways to promote the MCHA. Jann discussed she has seen some other states move the $2,000 Limited Rider up in the day, such as the 4^th class, this helped draw people who didn’t have to wait all day and got to cut on fresh cattle. She mentioned that we need to let riders know they don’t have to own the horse in the $2000 LR, or $800 rider class.

John L. Dublin brought up that we could do more publicity for our cuttings. To call the papers and the news stations and let them know there is a cutting going on. He suggested we could do big flyers and put up around the towns. The membership discussed it was important to get the community involved, and get their support. It was discussed that that with more advertising we might be able to get more spectators, who may be interested in getting more involved in cutting.

Theresa Nelson read the list of Corporate Sponsors for the 2011 Season. They were for the Open: Montana Ranch of Bigfork LLC – Sandy and David Sabey, Non-Pro: First Class Outdoors – Mike Willey, $50,000 Amateur: Nelson Ranch, $35,000 Non-Pro: Twin Sugars LLC and Suzanne Nellen Attorney at Law, $10,000 Flying Diamond Cutting Horses – Randy & Vicky Lynn, $3,000 Novice Horse – Chipotle Cat owned by Switchback Cutting Horses LLC, $15,000 Amateur: Copper Spring Ranch LLC, $15,000 Novice Horse/Non-Pro: Prudential Montana Real Estate – Michelle Van Dyke Broker, $2,000 Limited Rider: Billings Livestock Commission Horse Sales, Senior Youth: Switchback Cutting Horses LLC, Junior Youth: Johnson Saddlery – John & Dorothy Seymour, $800 Rider: Big Sky Internet Design – Tom & Carrie Bruch, $1,000 Novice Horse: GFK Trailer Sales – Paul Lambert, $5,000 Novice Horse/Non-Pro: Broken Jaw Ranch – Gene & Michelle Morris, $1,000 Amateur: Keyser Creek Arena – Ralph Young & Melissa Fraze, Derby Open: Big Sky Futurity & Aged Event – Will Nuttall & Randy Holman, and Derby Non-Pro: Flawless Skin Care LLC – Bambi Gress. Theresa thanked our sponsors and stated the MCHA is grateful to have them. The sponsors help purchase the awards for these classes. She asked the membership to thank our sponsors if they see them.

Theresa stated there are four people leaving the Board this year. She thanked Tom Campbell, Bambi Gress, Cody Lee and Suzanne Nellen for their time and service. Theresa reported the election results. She stated the votes were counted by Betty Lou Weeding and her election team, the President elected is Will Nuttall, Vice President is Tom Campbell. The new board members are Gayle Weber, Michelle Van Dyke, Tim Stryker, and Theresa Nelson. Congratulations to these people.

Betty Lou Weeding brought up that there will be 3 Board Members up for election next year. She stated that we may want to look at trying to even out the number of people up for election each year. Theresa Nelson noted this, and reported that Suzanne Nellen has agreed to work on some changes and look into the language and rules of the elections. After her review we may need to look at having another general membership meeting at the first show of the year to vote on any changes.

Theresa asked if there were any Show Producers who wish to put on cuttings in the months of February, March, or April to please submit their information as soon as possible for the Board to review.

There being no other new business to discuss, John L. Dublin made a motion to adjourn the meeting, Tom Campbell second, and the meeting was adjourned at 7:30pm.

Submitted by Kelly Heiken

MCHA, Secretary/Treasurer

About MCHA

The purpose of the Montana Cutting Horse Association is to encourage interest in cutting horses and to promote cutting horse contests in the State of Montana. We encourage the development of, and public interest in, better horses and the ever-increasing popularity of the true cutting horse. See our entire Cutting Horse schedule of events here.