MAHA Youth Association
Board of Directors Meeting
January 22, 2006
LeFever Training Centre, Hudson WI

  1. Attending officers and board members: Lizzie Steward, Jenna Ball, Alyse Fields, Cassie LeFever, Kelsey Forbes, Emily Simonson, Jordan LeFever
  2. Attending Delegates and Committee Chairpersons: Brian Feuling, Teresa LeFever, & Emily Simonson’s Mom
  3. Not Attending Jessica Selchow

Starting Proposals: Teresa – Welcoming the youth. Brian- Explaining his life in horses etc.
Time of meeting started at: 1:30PM
Ended at:  4:15PM

Goals: Brian’s goal for the youth program is to go with a new approach of having new youth directors to have everyone more informed and to get information to feed back through. We will have to get together with everyone at least twice a year if more that would be great. Concept is to have 3 different areas. Brian is tired of hearing that the half Arabian youth program is better then us. Get us more involved to have our own identity. We should be “ The MAHA youth” We need to be taught to have a structured youth because we are the future. Irene says when we graduate we need to be together to not fall apart. As Lizzie says: Parents are a big part of this, although as Brian says: “Were not here to tell you what to do we are hear to start you and teach you.” Majority of adults that join this group is because of the children and their kids. We are a vital part of this club. We all need to strengthen this program up, that is our goal. We are still one club. But getting information out to us is going to match us three different ways. We all need to get out there and push ourselves.

Lizzie’s Goal: Our goal in past years has changed a lot. We need to come up with a mission statement, to help kids make funds. It’s a social activity. We work together as a team, and learn about sportsmanship. We also need to get people to know and say …Hmm Arabians really aren’t so crazy…

Teresa’s: have friendships and activities that will build us all together.

Brian: also emulate adults. Have our own meetings. We are all out to promote the Arabian horse and have a good time. Every horse originated from the Arabian horse!

We all can attend the Maha meetings and switch off. Teresa LeFever has agreed to transport the youth in her area to the board meetings.

Alyse: We should have a sponsorship for the Youth show; Stateline tack is a corporate sponsor. One show per club per year. Teresa is going to check on the information for Corp. Sponsor of Stateline for the youth show.

Brian: Get corporate sponsorships. Mainly what he did was go up to personal companies that he spends a lot of money on. He asks them if they want to be a corporate sponsor…they get their name on advertisements etc. Companies are very willing for that to help sponsor our youth show.

Cassie: Take the notes and keep things organized…keep track of the minutes and send all notes to everyone.

Lizzie: Being the treasure, she is going to e-mail Jane and get a current report of the budget for Maha youth.  We should have a positive balance.

Silent auctions etc. what we do with money:

We discussed a charity to donate a certain % of the profits to.  Also have a nationally know trainer come the area and put on a clinic for the Maha youth. In the premium there is a section on the Maha youth auction, people will want to donate. The money we bring in is mostly used for our show. MAHA board gives money each year. We need to put a budget together. Lizzy will do this and send to Roberta.

Irene- Lizzie needs to keep track of money each month etc. So, that way we can keep records. We need to get a proper figure on accounts. Jane wants to even work with the youth…we need to talk to her to work on our budget and get a starting figure.

Brian: we want to see what we are driven by and become very excited about our upcoming events. If we are driven then the adults will be more willing to help us out. Even if things don’t work…big deal, it was a learning experience. We will never learn anything if we don’t fail. We should do something fun with the money we have because we deserve it. We may want to think of putting an ad in the leader for the MAHA auction.

Kelsey: We should all get along and not think of each other as rivals but as friends, especially between different barns.

Teresa: This is all volunteer work for us. We want to be involved with this to grow this industry together and make it more prosperous.  Teresa will send out a Letter to all youth members with all the necessary information attached, with scheduled activities for the year.

Other directors: Lori Conway and Toni Marie- official, reports to MAHA. General reporter over all, we are doing the different areas for youth so people don’t have to drive so far.

Excused and Unexcused absences.
We can have a total of 2 or 3 unexcused, still deciding.
We will pick another meeting spot anywhere we just need to specify where we want a party, meeting, etc. Anything we want to do fun.

Maha youth highpoint

Irene: I did make the forms already which were put in the leader so that as many as possible will see it. It’s in the youth budget for 300$. It is the same entry fee per division. Everything is same except for open shows; if they win they can have some more points. We should have points flocking in on this and we should have some type of email reminder of this to know that it is coming up, if email doesn’t come through or leave a message that people don’t get the reminder but someone might miss the deadline, we should put the dates on the website every month about this. People are paying for this and Teresa has had a lot of money involved. You get a prize for this; we just want to see more reminders. MAHA needs it to be big. One thing we need to stress is to have a page and more organized web site. If you could email Roberta about this to be able to print form off of the website. Prizes: bags, jackets, etc. We will form a committee.

Motion: Lizzie would like to make a motion to make a committee, which includes Teresa, Irene, and Emily. This will always be on the agenda to see the youth highpoint and what is going on. Cassie seconded the motion. Motion approved.

Maha Silent auction:  Eides have donated tables; we just need to get an amount on how many items we need. All proceeds will go to Maha youth. We can get donations from stores as in, downtown Hudson, tack shops etc. Lizzie is making a poster about Maha youth and what we do with the proceeds from the auction. Highpoint awards, charity we support, return to freedom, www.returntofreedom.org. Silent auction: all of us are bringing in three items or more for it.

Leader: We should definitely submit information to work with. Quarterly –every 3 months. The leader comes out. We should always have information in the leader on the Maha Youth.
For getting items from everyone for donations: Lizzie will be making a poster, Teresa will design a letter on how to donate etc. and Teresa will be sending out a letter/email to all the youth telling about the youth auction reminding them.

Someone will be monitoring the silent auction in shifts at all times.

We need the sheet for the silent auction and the budgets for it. Name of MAHA youth, item and its title, and from whom. Starting bid and the rest of the sheet was numbering with the lines, something saying that the minimum amount is 5$ etc. Once you write your name down you cannot erase it. “Once your on the sheet, your on the sheet.” Sioux Falls has a phenomenal youth auction. We should get some tips for it to make ours even better. Forms will not cost us any money. We need a box of pens for it. We will make sign ups for who is going to be there watching over the silent auction. The spot we had last for the silent auction was a good one. We all can check on when we show and don’t show so we can sign up for the youth silent auction in shifts writing the time, when to when, and also have an official one during the silent auction.

Leader: We need to make an official sheet for the MAHA leader on our advertisements etc. and make the actual entry form. These minutes can also be put on the website to know the updated meeting information etc. Have emails and contact information of all the youth MAHA members to get a hold of. All contact information should be made through the contacts either on website or advertisements.

MAHA youth show: The first day (sat) is funded by the adult board, and the youth fund Sunday. It is two separate shows. This is usually in July at cornerstone but they have not returned information or anything and nothing comes back so were looking into Jim Simons arena but last time he said no because he didn’t have enough stalls, but if we drop the whole ideas of stalls we could still have the arena. We need to decide who is doing the show. It used to be that MAHA was one day and the youth was the next, which is the same concept. Problem we have is if we would have had cornerstone set although they were nagging, most horse shows are not held overnight. You don’t have to have a stall, it is just an option. The stall is just in case. We need to have a committee for this. We just need to go with it and get more set and call Anita to help us. Who wants to take on this to commit and make a move forward on this, we definitely need parents to help us out. Pick a date that is accessible for everyone and getting good volunteers to work with it.

Website: We need to get more pictures of every youth member etc. Open show, highpoint, Activities, slide show, all new pictures on top. Kelsey can be in charge of getting info together for the website. We need it to be AWESOME!!!!!!!!! Page on youth show, page on silent auction, youth judging team.

Youth nationals: funds for non-showing, youth delegates. Who funds it, do we need to?? How do we elect our delegates? Last year we didn’t even get the election sheet until Youth nationals, this has to do with Region 10 also. We need to send out two different forms saying we are looking for delegates at youth nationals. The adults are given depending on how the year goes, 500$ each, they share rooms. The idea is that the delegates shouldn’t have to use all your money to go their so you should be funded for the organization your with which should be put in the budget and an idea on how much and that we want delegates sent out to the MAHA youth. Sponsors also. MAHA pays for.

MAHA youth judging team: Ken Price is in charge. The nice thing is that at the end of the year they represent a team for nationals that is already funded.

Ideas for upcoming meetings and locations: Valley fair, roller rink, Hay ride in the fall, trail rides, Dude Ranch, Clinics- equitation, special tricks, Kelly Blaire, Omni theatre, sledding, and skiing. Sheet will be sent out to everyone about our upcoming scheduled events and meetings

Youth Budget: Lizzie has expenses for mailing. Specific events. Region 10 pizza party. Each person will get a total. Sponsorships are listed for shows and awards. Volunteer expenses, silent auction, and donation sheets, bidding forms and info that may be needed, judges that we can negotiate with. Facility rental will be decided on. The ribbon prices and prizes.

Annual Banquet: We are trying to make this a big, fun annual banquet. We got some feedback from the board of directors meeting. We will have good food, fun with friends, and a pre-holiday celebration. Sandy would like to see a youth involved in the committee as well. We could help decorate, invite all the youth, get some bowling events, activities, etc. Youth helpers: Jenna, and Cassie will help with the annual banquet. We could get a comedian to make it funnier also. Our goal is to make people want to come to this banquet and not dread going, and make sure everyone is able to come.

Meeting Adjourned.
     ~Notes professionally typed by: Cassie LeFever