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Most organizations that are legal entities will have similar structure - 
modulated by the laws and requirements in the jurisdiction in which they 
are organized. For example 501C3 organizations incorporated in CA will 
have similar corporate structures. It's not the structure - it's the 
people that fill in this structure that make the organization. A change 
in people can make a significant difference. The United States had the 
same structure before Abe Lincoln and after Abe Lincoln but there was a 
significant difference.  The people involved do make the do define the 
soul of any organization. 

The FEI in endurance has sold out and has become a corrupt organization 
at least its endurance program being bought and owned by the UAE. The 
FEI is the puppet and the UAE the puppet master. The AERC is coming 
perilously close to walking down the same path because of their lack of 
vision and reluctance to make tough decisions and stand up the values of 
their sport.

The sad and ironic thing is the AERC is being similarly corrupted and 
they are not even being paid off by the UAE.  It's not a matter of if we 
will be painted by the same brush it is a matter of when. However, I 
know several long time members who have voted with their feet and have 
let their membership drop because of many issues they have with the 
direction of the AERC - the direction of FEI and the AERC blindly 
following the FEI being one. I also know several long time members that 
have decided that there is still enough good in the AERC to counter the 
negatives - one being the AERC blindly following the AERC - but 
conversations reveal it's a yearly decision that is being made.

I see the AERC at a junction. I also see a BOD that just doesn't seem to 
want to take a stand. As Ed so eloquently put it - the AERC has become 
an enabler to the abuses of the UAE funded FEI.  I would go one step 
further and say that the AERC's silence in this matter not only makes 
them an enabler but it also makes them a co-conspirator. Endurance 
riding was developed in the US. It was a uniquely US sport that 
reflected the values of the US and the diversity of the melding of a 
huge country. The AERC is sitting on it's hand while its sport is being 
bastardized and the values that caused me to join (and I suspect many 
others) being thrown out one at a time by the bastardization of the sport.

If the FEI/UAE wants to drug their horses run the snot out of there 
horses for 160 km races for purses with 10 to 20 percent competition 
rates and multiple treatments that's fine by me - that's their choice 
but that not the sport I signed up for. However, I do resent the AERC 
allowing the taint of FEI/UAE endurance to potentially impact our sport 
and that is the road we are marching down. We will get to the end - and 
I expect it will be sooner or later. I am sure not many of us will like 
where this road ends.  I am also sure several us long time members will 
not be around when it gets there.

Truman



Maryanne Gabbani wrote:
> Steph, the realities of any organisation will include rules, leaders 
> and sanctions. But that is not ALL an organisation is, those are 
> simply the bones from which you build something. Just as the bones and 
> skin of a person define the person as a human, the structure of an 
> organisation will define it as an organisation. But the structure of 
> an organisation does not define what KIND of organisation you have 
> before you anymore than the bones and skin of a person will define 
> what KIND of a person you have before you.  Forgive me for getting all 
> metaphysical on you all, but it is the soul of the organisation just 
> as it is the soul of the person that determines what kind of 
> organisation  you have. And just as you can have a person with a 
> cancer that is part of the structure, so you can have an organisation 
> that has fatal flaws in its structure...and these fatal flaws will 
> have a determining effect on the actual soul (please forgive me any 
> hardline religion types but I'm using the term a bit metaphorically) 
> of the organisation just as they will affect a person. The flaws can 
> be overcome or they can overpower.
>
>
> <http://www.flickr.com/photos/livinginegypt/>


--

"It is even harder for the average ape to believe that he has descended 
from man." H.L. Mencken


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