Posse Ride Mgr (Clarification of My Post)

["guest@endurance.net" <guest@endurance.net>]

Jeff Patterson Cowboypolo@email.msn.com
First let me thank each and every one of you for taking the time to post your comments.  One of my reasons for posting on Ride Camp was to get the ride community to voice their opinions to the Board of AREC regarding the situation the Posse Ride is now in as a result of the Endurance News.  Unfortunately, I must not have been clear in my last post as to what our problem really is.

My post was not to rehash old news.  It was not to ask you to deliberate on the facts I know you don't have.  Not to further defame the riders, WHICH HAS NEVER BEEN OUR INTENT. Not to engage in legal debate with others who are armed only with partial facts and incomplete legal concepts. My purpose is to convey to AERC what a ride manager's position will be should they end up in a court of law defending a liability position, due to an accident at a ride. 

Allow me one more attempt to explain where I feel AERC has not supported Ride Management:
AERC upheld the position I took at ride camp.  They then denied the rider's appeal.  Had it ended there, so many wouldn't be wasting their productive time arguing aimlessly.  The real and only issues to discuss are; was it fair and supportive for AERC to make and pass a motion declairing that "this ride manager" needs to be educated in safety?  Was it fair for a Board Member to publish an editorial in that same EN mistating the facts of the incident and again inciting ride management with inexperiance and inability to anticipate dangers at an endurance ride?  I don't believe it was fair.  Most importantly, I believe it puts me in an adverse legal position for future rides.  In fact, I believe if AERC is going to take such a position, demonstrating their lack of confidence and support in ride managers with what little knowledge they have of my backgound, what will they do to other ride managers who have accidents at their rides.  AERC's declaration that I need to be educated on safety because there was a wreck at my ride is the same as saying my ride was not safe, and they did it in the form of a majority vote.  In the future, should we suffer a wreck at our ride, it will simply be that "this ride manager" needed to be educated in safety.  Again, I am not willing to put myself or my organization in that position.

All I am asking, is that AERC fix their mistakes.  Rescind the comments and motion that tags me as unfit for ride management.  If that does not happen, the Posse Ride cannot go on.

I sincerely hope this issue will die.  Again, I never intended for the incident to become the source of continuing debate among friends and the ride community.  We just want to continue with our ride and cannot do it under these circumstances.  So, let's dicuss how we fix it.  I don't really want to read anymore about how the riders or ride management should be chastized any further.