2016 AGM PRESIDENTS REPORT

Image: Australia Day Awards, Valerie Brodin (L), Sui Watts (C), Nell Marshman (R)

PRESIDENTS REPORT :

The past 12 months have been the busiest the club has seen for a long time. Our AGM last year was so well attended that all positions were easily filled and we even made a few new positions to accommodate new and enthusiastic members. New members on the committee brought new ideas and so the year began.

The club has held three hack training days since our last AGM. Penny Coleman took on the challenge of organising these days with the help of Karen Wooding. All three days were well attended with over 40 riders each time.

Stefanie Winwood has organised three 4 protocol days over this period. They are becoming increasingly sought after, so much so that she had a very late influx of riders on one such day that she had to recruit more judges for the day.

Myself and Toni have worked together this year in the organising of the Training and Competition days. We have had a fantastic turnout and feed back from all of our competitions. The Regional Dressage festival was a combined effort of all committee members and more.

This was a huge 2 day event that entailed lots of meetings, lots of phone calls and emails and lots of work on the computer. The entries and scoring were outsourced to Karen Lever and Stef Winwood and Natalie Roach ran with getting sponsors and creating a trade village for the weekend.

The showground came to the party by believing in us and put many hours of work into sprucing up the grounds, replacing logs, bringing in portable yards and catering for the event. The tea rooms made more money that weekend than they do at Taree Show, so obviously they were very happy with the outcome. Thanks must go to Allan Richards who would call any one of us at 7am in the morning for information and updates.

The weekend did not go by without hitches and we have all learnt a great deal. The support and feedback from riders was extremely positive. The number of volunteers was amazing and so was not having to do the scoring. Paying Karen was the best money ever spent. On a sad note, we had to cancel our championships due to bad weather. On a positive note, we have included PE tests at all our events as standard and trialled Special Olympic tests.

I will now be taking a complete break from the dressage club due to the ill health of my father. I have enjoyed 8 years or so of being on the committee and seeing the club grow. I would like to thank all elected committee members and volunteers who have helped out over the past 12 months. Without your help nothing that we do would be possible.

Valerie Brodin MVD&HC President