Trade show fee (long)

["Nancy Mitts" <mitts_n@hotmail.com>]

I see 4 main problems with the fee. 1. It was "sprung" on people too close 
to the event. 2. It was disguised as a donation. 3. As presented, funds will 
be collected prior to a plan for disbursement. The public is sick & tired of 
seeing money thrown into a black hole.(This applies to everything from the 
school board to national govt., not just AERC.)
4.Possible impact on vendors was ignored.

The BOD has made great strides over the last 3 years in running AERC like a 
business. This needs to continue. What I would like to have seen was 
something like this, which would address the first 3 concerns.
AERC proposes to become actively involved in trail preservation. To 
accomplish this goal we will:
1. establish a web site to work as a clearing house for trail issues.
Start up cost estimate will be $XXXX. Annual maintenance fees estimated to 
be be $XXXX.
2. Grants will be given to provide funds for trail maintenance 
projects/materials.  Criteria to apply for grants will be XXX.
3. Grants will be given to delegates to various trail symposiums. Amounts 
will be limited to $XXX/ event. Criteria to apply for grant will be XXX
All monies available will be divided equally between AERC regions. Unused 
funds may be reappropriated to needy areas by (i.e.BOD vote, committee vote, 
some mechanism to be decided upon.)
Proposal for funding:
Donations to be accepted from individuals and corporate/business sponsors. 
Donation table to be set up at convention trade show. Investigate viability 
of charging an admission fee at next years convention trade show to go into 
the trails fund.

NOW to the vendors concerns. Have you noticed that the long time EN 
advertisers & vendors have a personal interest in the sport? That's because 
the cost of advertsing to such a small group is disproportionate to the 
return. Sure they made enough to stay in business, but the margin is not as 
great as catering to other equine activities. (Less than 1/2 our business 
comes from endurance, yet we choose to spend money for ads to support the 
sport.)
When we went to the Kentucky convention I didn't realize the trade show had 
not been widely promoted to the general public. Some of those who just 
happened to be there for another event were dissappointed & said they knew 
lots of people who would have come. They were intrigued by the different 
products and in the sport itself. It would have greatly reduced our "cost 
per eyeball" if non endurance people had come to shop! And AERC may have 
eventually picked up more new members to boot. I'm not sure how much an 
admission fee would cut into attendees, but if one is charged, I believe 
part of it could go towards advertising the show. Especially if there are 
demonstations & displays of general interest, not just products for sale. 
Perhaps $3 to trails, $2 for advertising. Or the admission could be dropped 
to $3 & advertising could be wrung out of the $20,000 to $30,000 profit the 
convention generates. After all, that's why we have been told the convention 
can't be held away from the west more often. AERC needs that profit, and the 
eastern conventions (even sans ice storms) only made about $10,000 profit.

Whatever is decided, please give the membership & vendors time to discuss 
these proposals before they become "law". This was not an emergency issue 
that had to be decided quickly.

Nancy Mitts
Central Region rider,
Custom Iron Workers, Inc., advertiser


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