PRESIDENT'S UPDATE
VOL. 1, #2
September 18, 2008
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About Update It is my hope that UPDATE will provide you, our members, with a better understanding of the current issues at NAPHA and of the actions that the Board of Directors are taking. It was created out of the need to provide better communication and transparency and further to assure our members that the Board is aware of the issues and concerns that our members have. This is the second UPDATE and it will continue as I have received a lot of feedback from the first issue. As your President, I will commit to writing these after each and every Board Meeting and on other occasions if there is something of importance to share with you. I appreciate your feedback, both positive and
negative. Feel free to contact me. 4th U.S. National Show . . . . . .Looking Good! The freight train is rolling, and thank goodness, we can’t stop it. The U.S. National Show is picking up steam everyday. All of our vendor spots are sold and the main barn is filled. We have solicited all of the Gold Sponsorships available and are now filling up Silver Sponsorships as well. Thanks for everyone’s support. NAPHA Executive Director Donna Bearer tells me, "We are placing exhibitors in the second barn and entries are still coming in faster than we can process them." As entries come in, Felice is trying to email everyone and let them know we have received them. "It just puts people’s mind at ease when they receive the email letting them know everything is going as it should," added Felice. "We will have everyone contacted by the end of the week." Since I am a resident of California, I am delighted to see the California support for our National Show. We are excited about the Monte Carlo Night and Awards Banquet, and the Judge’s Reception sponsored by NAPHA clubs. We have two outstanding judges and I know this will be a show
to remember. Hope to see my friends from across the country and
I am looking forward to meeting more of our members at the show. Stability is Crucial for our Breed When the founding members of NAPHA wrote the bylaws for our association, they were very much aware of some of the pitfalls that awaited our young association. Through some 35 years of hard experience, it had become very apparent that a mixture from both associations, the PPHRNA with its appointed officers and the AAOBPPH with its elected officers each had merits. The NAPHA founders wanted to provide stability for the association and developed an election process which staggered the positions so that never would there be a loss of expertise and history within the board. After negotiations broke down between the PPHRNA and the AAOBPPH, our founders formed NAPHA in 2005 and moved ahead with a new direction for our breed. They established a board with three directors elected by the membership and four directors appointed by the board. They were striving for the balance between the crucial need for stability and the need to have elected officers. Their vision was of a professional association with a professional staff to handle registrations and the day-to-day operations of our National organization. With this in mind it is important to put into perspective what has been accomplished since the founding in 2005. • We established the branding for NAPHA, quickly spreading the new logo and new name throughout the breed and the equine industry. • We established and convened all the committees needed to support the work of our organization. All of those committees now are functional and doing great work for our association. • We implemented a comprehensive, on-line studbook. For the first time members could look up people, horses, pedigrees, show points and watch the results of a show live as the classes unfolded and points are accumulated. • The office established email DNA kits to speed up registrations. • NAPHA’s office functions have become very efficient. Inquiries are answered quickly and courteously. • Registrations are turned around quickly and accurately. Our association has been able to accomplish these things and others because of the stability of the board. The staff was given clear and supportive direction from the board and they have risen to the challenge. They know what the board expects of them and they know what to expect from the board. NAPHA members are the winners in this situation.
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Petition to the Board Recently the NAPHA Board was presented a petition with 159 validated signatures. The petition called for a bylaw change requiring the election of all board members from the general membership. The petition has failed to pass for three specific reasons. First, the petition has fallen short of the 25% of the membership needed to call for a vote to change NAPHA’s bylaws. Second, the petition also was not handled in the manner set forth in the California Codes, Section 5670-56711. As a California Corporation, NAPHA must adhere to the California Codes unless different procedures are specifically laid out in the NAPHA bylaws. Signatures for the petition were gathered over an eleven month period. The California Codes lays out specific requirements for a petition to be presented to an organization and must be completed in six months. See the California Code below: 56705. (a) Except as otherwise provided in subdivision (b), no petition shall be accepted for filing unless the signatures on the petition are secured within six months of the date on which the first signature on the petition was affixed and the petition is submitted to the executive officer for filing within 60 days after the last signature is affixed. The third reason that the petition was not acceptable is that the petition was not presented in unison with our bylaws. As of this writing NAPHA has contacted
Charles Melton, the author of the petition, and notified him of
our findings. An Important Conversation During the last two meetings, your Board has had serious discussions about the size of the Regional Advisory Council as the pool of candidates for the Board. It is understandable that the founding documents (by laws) utilize the Regional Advisory Council structure as a way for individuals to become prepared for a board seat. However, it is also understood that there are members of the organization who have expertise and history and talents that may be needed on the Board and that those members may not choose to be on the Regional Council. The Board therefore will be asking the
Regional Advisory Council and the Committee on Governance to
begin a roundtable discussion of expanding the pool of potential
candidates and how that may effect change of bylaws so that
Board members may be elected from the general membership. Communications NAPHA’s desire is to serve all of our members as efficiently and courteously as possible. The NAPHA Board is making strides to provide open and more frequent communication with our members. If you have questions or need information, please do not hesitate to contact the NAPHA office. If they don’t have the answers for you, they will find them. NAPHA is the most transparent association our breed has ever had. As examples: Our Studbook On-Line allows members to see the registration of all our horses. It provides information for potential buyers to contact prior owners of a horse before purchase. Show results are posted for anyone to see and analyze. Points are automatically updated as a show runs, so members can track the points for their horses. The minutes of our board meetings are posted on line for members to read, once the Board has approved them at the next meeting. Not only is communication important but how
we communicate is also important. Please communicate with the
office directly if you need assistance. If you have an issue
that you believe our committees should be discussing please go
ahead and contact those chairpersons. The more direct we are
with our communication the better our organization will operate.
We can work together on any issue if it is brought to our
attention directly. A New Revenue Stream for NAPHA As many of you have probably noticed, Donna Bearer ceased publication of Peruvian Digest when she became Executive Director of NAPHA. Donna was very concerned that there was a "perceived" conflict of interest between her job as Executive Director of NAPHA and her ownership of Peruvian Digest. The Board understood these issues when they originally sought her help as Executive Director. At that time the Board needed an individual who knew most of our members and had an understanding of the organization’s functions. Donna has struggled with this issue for the past three years and therefore did not publish the Digest. She has not wanted to let Peruvian Digest completely fold, but she did not want to cause a problem for NAPHA. I believe Donna has hit upon a perfect solution to the problem. She is resuming publication of Peruvian Digest and will be donating all the profits from the advertising in Peruvian Digest to NAPHA. This will provide a much needed increase in revenue for NAPHA and resolve Donna’s quandary. |