Re: RC: RE: Who pays

[jlong@mti.net (Joe Long)]

On Tue, 09 Mar 1999 11:13:21 -0800, Gardner <slsf@foothill.net> wrote:

>There is certainly no doubt that endurance riding existed before AERC.
>However, today, we wouldn't have rides in the numbers that we do, in all
>parts of the country, if it hadn't been for the fact that we are
>fortunate enough to have a functioning national organization. The
>standards had to be set for the sport, veterinary criteria established,
>ride managers trained, and trails established and protected.  These are
>things that AERC was established to do.  The task of record keeping is
>really a very minor function in the over all agenda of  the
>organization.  Certainly  endurance riding would have a much different
>face today without AERC.

Of course.  No one denies that.

<snip>

>Joe, I have fought this battle longer than you, and I am always amazed
>at how difficult it is to get people to support  their best interest.
>Anyone who enjoys any aspect of our modern sport of endurance riding
>benefits from AERC.  In fact I would say that AERC in most valuable to
>those who are in the process of discovering endurance riding but have
>not yet become AERC members.  The fee that is being ask of non member
>entrants in an endurance event is so small compared to the cost of them
>having a horse and all the things that it takes for them to get there,
>that it is ridiculous that there should be so much bitching about it.

The size of the fee is not so much an issue as the unfairness of it.
Non-members do support the AERC financially through the sanction fee,
which everyone pays equally.  It is the extra fee that is at issue.

What I was most dismayed at was the refusal of the Board to compromise
on the issue.  Had the LD fee been set at, say, half the endurance
fee, I still wouldn't like it but I could have lived with it.  But the
insistence on the full pound of flesh, the refusal to grant any relief
to the LD riders (and managers of LD rides), was appalling, and the
reason I cancelled the Moonlight Madness ride.

Speaking of so much bitching about it:  does anyone really believe
that the benefit of this money to the AERC is really worth the
conflict and the bad image it gives the AERC?  We used to welcome new
riders, not soak them.

-- 

Joe Long
jlong@mti.net
http://www.mti.net     Business
http://www.rnbw.com    Personal


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