Re: aerc membership

[vanhove@unavco.ucar.edu (Teresa Van Hove)]

Chuck,

While a fee's change does not directly address your concerns, a
major goal driving the fee's change proposal was getting AERC to
take a thorough look at the entire membership structure including
what it offers members vs. what members want from AERC, as well as
what AERC is charging various members for what they receive. Below are 
mv thoughts in regard to each of your points. 

> There has been a lot written about the aerc membership fees lately.  can
> someone tell me why i should continue to belong.  I have the following
> concerns.  1) trails, availability and maintenance (they do nothing) 2)
> Equine Research, (they do nothing) 3. Awards; then have numerous
> (sometimes silly) awards, however i am middle of the pack and don't
> intend to compete. 4) 'To Finish is to Win", if this is true, why so
> many awards.  5) Magazine; pitiful little to contribute compared to
> Equine Magazine and Equine is cheaper.  6) Lack of any political
> support; Reference the 'Saving of No Hands Bridge' and  'The Outlaw
> Trail'.  7) Limited Distance; 0-49 miles limited distance? many of the
> rides we do are unmeasured and probably fall short of 50 miles. Are they
> to become limited distance rides?  8) International Competition; as a
> middle of the pack rider, why should I care about rides outside of the
> US of A?  Many more questions to consider before i rejoin this year.
> Chuck Gabri
> 


1)AERC does have a trails fund, which pays convention fees to any
(ONE) AERC member who attends a trail convention and writes up an EN
article about it.  I agree that AERC should aggressively expand
its role in trail advocacy.  I would like to see AERC add a section
in the EN featuring any trails at risk and contact info for readers
to send letters of concern to.  Ridecamp is great but there needs to be
something more formal and broader based to spread the word when a specific
trails access is being threatened. I would love to see AERC expand the
trails fund by adding a check-off for an optional donation to this
fund to the membership application. Frankly I am not much for conventions
so I would like to see AERC make it easy for me to donate to this fund
outside of passsing a hat at the convention. I know I would regurlarly add 
a $5 or $10 contribution to my membership fee but I am unlikely to think of 
writing a special check for the trails fund - especially since I usually 
renew my membership over the phone.  As far as trail maintainence -
AERC is pretty spread out for that, help your local RM clear trails,
or join BCH or some other group which is already doing this. 

2)  AERC is primarily billed as an educational org. and they do 
present the results of a lot of eq. research. - I have noticed that 
my earlier EN issues (1996) seemed to have much higher content of
veterinary as well as total  articles and I hope that with the recent
announcement of someone hired to publish the EN, the number of 
articles will return to or exceed those 1996 levels. I would like to
see AERC fund research specifically related to endurance, such as that
being done currently by Susan Evans-Garlinghouse.  This should again
be an optional check-off on the membership form since it is not 
directly related to AERC's stated mission IMO. 

3) I don't want to throw cold water on the accomplishments of those
 who have earned awards, but I agree with Kat's earlier post that
 embroidered jackets are not neccessary - especially down to every
 placing.  I do not know how AERC funds its awards, but I do feel
 that they should be funded out of per rider sanction fees rather
 than the annual membership dues. The people able to enter enough
 rides to earn the awards should be largely funding them. Even though
 this might mean that my ride fees go up by $1 or $2 every ride I think
 it is the right way to do things.  

4)  I feel the recognitons of mileage increments do encourage the
 'To Finish is To Win' motto.

5) addressed above in # 1
6) addressed above in # 2

7) Are we to lump any distance (even less than 1 mile) into
 the endurance category because of this fear? Would it not be better
 to restore LD to 25-35 miles as soon as possible and just define
 some rules to ensure that un-regulated events do not happen in
 conjunction with AERC rides?  CTR has shown itself to work very
 well for the shorter distance rides, providing just the right kind
 of regulation IMO. 

8) I disagree- AERC International is self-funded, and international
 competition helps spark interest in our sport.  I think growth is
 healthy.

Teresa Van Hove
AERC# M17417 MT Region (paid up through Nov 1999 :) )