I want to give you a brief recap of the meeting and some particularly noteworthy points. First off, your new Treasurer Frank Galovic along with AHA staff controller Jon Barnickel, presented the financial report, and, for the first time ever, a cover statement explaining the financials. As he promised in his bid for election, he continues to stress communication to the Board and to the membership. He plans to continue to "fine tune" his communications. For instance, when there is a large disparity in numbers from one period to another, he will explain why that happened, with supporting background. He will also prepare a monthly report for directors. This is a very positive step as directors say they have been frustrated at getting financial reports just prior to a meeting with little explanation or time to query certain points. Frank's positive, open attitude about our finances and willingness to assure understanding is refreshing and reflects the positive attitude of the Executive Committee. It certainly reflects my personal promise to you to be open and communicative.

Frank and I discussed some terms that we will be hearing more about: revenue streams, benchmarking and best practices. Benchmarking is measuring your association against other similar organizations; best practices means that we look at what others are doing and their successful business practices, and we copy these successful practices; as to revenue streams, as an association, AHA adds value to the Arabian community through processing registrations, competitions and membership. Financial statements based on these services will be developed and revenue and expenses tracked. In his report, Frank said we have January year-to-date gross revenues of $10 million two thousand which is significantly ahead of last year at the same time. Net profit for the same time is $582,000 which is close to budget and far ahead of last year, which was a negative $110,000. Through February, net profit is about $525,000. For the fiscal year that ends March 31 of this year, we are forecasting a net profit of $300,000. However, we are far from out of the woods.

Another new term came out of our historic meeting and that is Business Deployment Plan or BDP. This plan is essentially a blueprint telling us what we are going to do, who is going to do it, and when and how we will get to the end result. The input you provided is crucial in developing the BDP. During the Board focus groups, priorities were established based on your comments. All of this information and data is now being plotted into the BDP. The Executive Committee and staff at AHA will review timelines and responsibilities and make final recommendations. They will present the BDP back to the Board of Directors at their May 13-14 meeting in Denver. With their thoughts and approval we will then put the BDP into action; this ship will be then ready to set sail to our new destiny.


I realize that for many of you, this much detail about our plan may not be of interest. I feel it imperative to include you in this process because of the importance of what we are all about. I want you to know that the AHA staff, the Executive Committee and the Board of Directors realize how seriously we consider our roles in helping turn our association around. During the Saturday meeting, directors were given an overview of their responsibility as directors. It was emphasized that they have a fiduciary responsibility to the Association, and, also that as directors, they must think first about the Association rather than individual or regional needs or preferences. With the development of our Business Deployment Plan, we view the directors as business leaders of our association focusing on planning for the future, not just short term, day-to-day tasks. No longer will we be in a "reactionary" mode when problems crop up, we will be proactive in solving our problems.

Prior to the group sessions, I presented some statistics that set the tone for the serious task we have ahead of us. I showed some dramatic graphs and charts that reflect the tremendous decline in registrations and membership over the years. One chart reflected that 75 percent of our horses are 16 years or older, telling us that people are not breeding. Only five percent of our horses are under five years of age. The charts showed that the regional shows and the U.S. Nationals continue to climb upward, while local Class A shows are spiraling downward. Over 50 percent of the Class A shows held have less than 125 horses; 30 percent have less than 75 horses. There was a slight drop in transfers of Half-Arabians, and a significant drop in Purebred transfers. Membership has declined by 10,000 since 1990. If we continue to do business as usual, we will be "out of business" in the year 2014.

I am looking forward to our May meeting when we will further refine our Business Deployment Plan and move forward with action steps. There are other areas that I wanted to tell you about.

The Himmel lawsuit is scheduled to go to trial April 18 and is scheduled to last a week. There were hopes and efforts to have this lawsuit dismissed, but at this time, it appears that this will not happen. I will update you in my next bulletin as to the outcome of this suit.

There will be a "think tank" workshop June 10 - 12 at the Arizona ranch of Bazy Tankersly. These sessions have been held for many years with leadership from the Arabian horse community in attendance. I am looking forward to attending this workshop and interacting with various leaders in our breed. While I did not attend last year's session, I heard that the presentation by the executive director of the American Paint Horse Association was a real eye-opener for many in attendance. The more information sharing we can do and learning "best practices" the better we can lead our association to its rightful place in the horse community. I am looking forward to this information-sharing weekend.

The South American Lawsuit: Following the initial filings in the case, the parties moved forward with mutual production of evidence. Both sides have produced relevant documents and provided responses to written questions. During February, testimony was taken from participants in the 2001 negotiations that led to the Alliance of the Americas agreement on which the South American plaintiffs' claims are based. At that time, the Chair of the Association's Registration Commission and Registrar also met informally with a representative of the plaintiffs to discuss the plaintiffs' claims for registration of the disputed horses. The court has ordered the parties to participate in a mediation of the dispute on April 29 in Denver. There may be discussions concerning a negotiated resolution prior to that time. I will keep you informed of any new developments in this lawsuit.

Report from the Purebred Arabian Trust: On April 8th and 9th I will fly to Atlanta to meet with PAT. The Registration Commission is meeting in Newnan (Atlanta area) on April 7th and 8th with a Breeders Forum in the afternoon of the 8th at Talaria Farms, everyone is welcome to attend. One of the main topics at the PAT meeting will be discussion on the South American Lawsuit.


Daily, I receive email messages and phone calls from so many of you. I sense an enthusiasm in your comments and a willingness to help in any way you can. These offers are not taken lightly. Your comments tell me that we are on the right course to improving our association and our breed. I just want to assure you that your observations, comments and suggestions are all a part of putting our initiatives together as we plan to make our association and breed the very best that we can. I sincerely appreciate the positive support and encouragement from all of you!


Sincerely,