Racing Seems Far Away, But Planning Must Start NOW!!!
We have included the letter we sent out to all our members hoping to increase involvement. However, we need to reach non-members as well to increase membership and participation. Remember one does not need to ride to be a member. One also does not need to be from NY. If you have an interest in helping make the sport succeed and think you have something to offer please let us know. We can be reached via email at rusnewyorkseries@gmail.com. If you would like to learn more about membership and racing under saddle in New York and our group please visit http://rus-newyork.com.
LETTER:
The time has come for our group to reconnect and scrutinize this year's race season. As many know, our membership and participation levels we lower than any other year. RUS NY is a self-sustaining group, and without everyone’s involvement, the group cannot sustain on its own. We understand members are busy, and so we are reaching out to all of you to see who has interest in being a part of the team for the upcoming 2018 season.
As many know, our President, Michelle Miller, does not plan to run for reelection of the lead role of the group next year. However, she will continue to be an active member. Therefore, we are also looking for individuals interested in being nominated for the available position as well as any other members interested in any other committee positions. We cannot nominate you or elect you unless we know you are interested. We will have a year end meeting in December to vote on our Management Committee for the 2018 race season, and we encourage you to join us (date to be determined). Some things we look for in nominees are leadership, collaboration, self-motivation and creativity. We want to hear what you can bring to the table to help make our 2018 race season successful. If you do not want to run for a committee position but still want to help, we would like to hear from you too!
We would also like to hear from our riders and trainers. What were the greatest achievements this year? What can we change? Any rule changes and/or proposals? Who plans on racing next year? How can we make racing better? While we all know we can only keep asking for sponsors and donations for so long, we need to really work together if we want to survive, and eventually become a wagered event.
There was a drastic reduction in fair series participants this year. The proposal in which grants RUS NY the funds to accommodate those races, needs to be sent in by November. We know the fair series is a long ways away; however, if you know that you plan to participate and would like to see the fair series again next year, please let us know as soon as possible as we need to justify participation.
While there is a lot of business to discuss, we would like you to join in our meeting Monday, October 23rd, 2017. The meeting will be held at 6 p.m. online on Google Hangout and can be joined at this link: https://hangouts.google.com/group/zlyvRUT9Z8CyCyE43. If you need to run a test to make sure it works please contact Michelle Miller at mnmiller84@gmail.com. If you cannot get online please let Michelle know where you are from and she will see if any other members are nearby you can get together with. Michelle will be connecting with everyone at her parent’s house to ensure good internet service. Anyone interested is invited to join her there. Please message her for an address.
It is VERY IMPORTANT that people plan to join us for the Oct. meeting as we need to know who plans to be involved in order to know how to move forward with the future of this group.
We do not want to perceive the entire season negatively as we were asked to go to more fairs, come back to tracks we raced at and even host more races at some of those tracks. However, we cannot commit to doing so unless we know we can put up the riders and horses.
Key Dates to keep in mind:
Nov. 19-USTA District meeting in Saratoga and NYSS awards ceremony. The President of the new company that took over NYSS business said he would be in contact with Michelle soon about the awards ceremony. Please try to attend the district meeting to support RUS. Although we do not believe there are any new RUS proposals on the table this year the ones from last year still are up in the air as a Special RUS Committee was formed.
We look forward to hearing from you!
Ashley Eldred
RUS NY Secretary
