Board Meeting Highlights

After the Board Meeting minutes are approved, changes that APA members need to know about can be announced. Below are some updates and policy changes the Board did in the last few months. There will be more announcements in the near future. 2020 Chairs and Appointees: Executive Committee consists of Katelyn James, Charles Saussy, Jen Kimbrough The new Horse Welfare Program’s Chair is Paul Repenning Player Development Program Chair is Ryan Murphy Ratings Chair is Jamie Zito Chief Umpire is Chris Salas The Umpire Panel is Rahul Desai, Ryan Strider and Al True World Cup Chair is Wade Liner Player Development Program Mega Clinics: Ryan Murphy will make an outline to highlight bringing different groups of players together and umpires and coaches for growth and development. Hopefully local clubs could add new ideas and local flavor to outline of each Mega Clinic. The local club should also provide a spearhead person to register attendees and sign up coaches and umpires working with the certification program. The spearhead figure would also provide opportunities for coach and umpire hopefuls to practice and be evaluated. Ryan would like the clinics to under charge and over deliver. While numbers will help decide on pricing, it does not have to be more expensive than a tournament. Horse Welfare Committee New committee: Paul Repenning would like to work within the guidelines we have (of the Horse Welfare Policy); he wants to focus on the Horse Welfare Officer and implementation of the existing policies. Paul wants to create conversations to get the vibe on what the HWO is experiencing at the individual tournaments. He would also like to implement incentives to improve with sponsored horse management awards from sanctioned tournaments. Multi-horse tournaments were brought up as something we could look for in the future. The Individual Tournament has been allowed to make the decisions for or against the multi-horse. Multi-horse tournaments are a way to bring along young horses. An Individual Tournament can request to be a multi-horse tournament (or any deviation from the norm) and the request must be approved by the Chief Umpire. Tournament Info Additional Policies: —Zone Representatives must report to the Board tournament activities and results within 30 days. —Chief Umpire must report on tournaments and also on the progress of the Umpire Certification Program. Tournament Sanctioning Changes: —Liability waivers will be able to be filled out on the website. —We have a new Health Safety Form that tournaments need to fill out with their sanctioning form. —There will be a $200 non-refundable sanctioning deposit that applies towards the tournament cap fees. —The Sanctioning Agreement form also states: Tournament Organizer must provide the Rater and Umpire with team lists and schedule 5 days before the tournament. —If a player has not been rated in the past 12 months, they must send a video to the Ratings Chair to receive a rating before playing in a sanctioned tournament. —Paul Johnson’s Scoring Form can be used in addition to the existing APA form at sanctioned tournaments. —The cap fees are now raised $2, so they are now $12 for each player, including foreign players who play at the tournament. —International play can be used to qualify for Nationals. (New Sanctioning Forms will be sent to all club contacts in the next few days by your Exec. Admin.) US Pony Club Information Cile Savoy will continue as APA Representative to Pony Club. APA will provide a $50 scholarship for Pony Club. There will be a Pony Club Exploratory Committee consisting of Ryan Murphy, Amy Lewis and Paul Repenning to provide a report on how to improve Pony Club relationship.