| News/Meeting Minutes |
| Page down for past reports |
| MERCHANDISE |
Shoeing
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Fox
Trotter
| Michigan Horse Council International Stallion & Tack Expo March 12,13,14 2010 Lansing, MI http://www.michiganhorsecouncil.c om/ |
| You can now use our new website address to access site. www.michiganfoxtrotters.com |
| Next MFTA Meeting February 11th, 2012 at Italian Oven Restaurant 2336 S. Mission Street Mt. Pleasant, MI 11:00am Meeting and lunch Please Attend, lot's going on. |
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| Happy Holidays! I hope your horses and your families will have a nice time celebrating. I also hope your New Year’s resolution is to help man our booth at the 2012 Stallion Expo March 9,10,11 at the MSU Agricultural Pavilion. You can choose a two hour or longer shift. You will gain entrance to the expo for free the day you help out. Then you can shop and watch the program that day. Let one of the officers know so you can be put on the list. We have a new member! Kerri Burg of Tawas City bought Onyx,a 13 year old MFT mare, from Jeanette Mills. Keri, who previously was a QH & Appy rider, is impressed with the MFT’s gentle nature and temperament as well as the smooth gait. She looks forward to meeting & riding with more MFT owners. She likes to camp also, she told me. Welcome to the MFTA, Keri!! We still need more nominees for the officer election in January. You must be a member in good standing in both the MFTHBA and the MFTA. Chuck wants to vacate the President position so we really need someone to fill that important one for 2012. Names are being taken for all of the positions actually. Can you step up and help? Please send in your MFTHBA membership for 2012 so you can be considered for a position. Do you have any horses or tack to sell? You can have them listed (with pictures) for six months on the MFTA website (michiganfoxtrotters.com) for the very reasonable price of $5. Text ads are free. Our affiliate will be listed in the March 2012 issue of Horse Illustrated magazine which will focus on Foxtrotters. This is your chance to have A LOT of people shop your tack and horses for sale. Send your check (along with your membership payment(or a donation to help cover affiliate expenses)) to the Treasurer, Char Ostrom,1759 Benton Road, Charlotte, MI 48813. Then send your info about your items for sale to webmaster Chuck Fanslow (clf222@yahoo.com) or snail mail to him at 2475 McNamara Road, Gladwin, MI 48624. Don’t miss out on this fantastic opportunity! MFTHBA Region 8 Director, Charleen Ostrom, reports that the Grounds Committee is evaluating cost-effective ways to upgrade the show grounds in Ava, MO. They are also looking at ways to handle the sewage as inexpensively as possible, too. Our next scheduled meeting is 11AM January 14, 2012 at the Italian Oven Restaurant, 2336 S. Mission St. in Mt. Pleasant. New members are welcome. In addition to the election, we need to plan clinics, trail rides and other activities for the year. Please come prepared with ideas and suggestions of places to hold these at. We need to get this finalized ASAP so we can advertise them at the upcoming expos. Please join us if you own an MFT or not. Also continue to send in your MFTA membership renewals. Your support is incredibly important. We can’t run the association without you. Our mission is to educate those interested in Foxtrotters, as well as to promote the breeding, training and enjoyment of them in Michigan. See you at the next meeting, 11AM Jan. 14 at the Italian Oven restaurant in Mt. Pleasant! Marilyn Mannino (MFTA Secretary) |
December 2011 Newsletter
| News/Meeting Minutes |
| News/Meeting Minutes |
January 14, 2012 Newsletter A dozen brave souls safely traversed the snowy slippery roads to meet up at the Italian Oven Restaurant at 11AM to conduct MFTA business. President Chuck Fanslow called the meeting to order. Christine Woodward and teen daughter Mckayla of Edmore, became new members. Welcome to the Association! Most of the officers were in attendance except for the Gunders and Jim McKenney. The weather was bad for travelling. The Secretary’s report of minutes from the Nov. 12, 2011 MFTA meeting was checked for accuracy and accepted. Charleen Ostrom gave the Treasurer’s report and mentioned that we need to find a different financial institution to move our money to as the Bank of America has too many fees for us to keep it there. Further research into appropriate banks and credit unions will be conducted and reported about at the next meeting. Officer nominations were taken next. Charleen O. & Marilyn Mannino nominated each other for Treasurer and Secretary, respectively. At the last meeting Bob Howell accepted the nomination for V. President. Tim Clement agreed to be nominated for 3 Year Director before that meeting also. Discussion as to whether our association wants to have a MI Horse Council (MHC) delegate ensued. We are not impressed with the leadership in the MHC and do not feel that we benefit enough to continue to be part of it. We are considering not electing a representative to attend those meetings. Now we just need someone to be nominated for President. The election was tabled until the next meeting to give time for more nominations. You may nominate yourself or another agreeable MFTA member if you are also an MFTHBA member in good standing. Please send in your MFTHBA membership so we have a pool of candidates to choose from. Charleen reported that Amber Wilson of the MFTHBA Promotions committee mistakenly told the affiliates that they could place an ad in the March 2012 Horse Illustrated magazine when the Fox trotter breed will be featured. More correctly, only affiliates’ BREEDERS can have their information displayed in the ad. Discussion regarding how to get our member breeders properly advertised then followed. A motion was made and seconded to allow a comment period until Feb. 11thto gather breeder opinions on this. Then at the next meeting the final decision will be made as to how to word the ad for submission. Chuck offered to submit the necessary paperwork for the 2012 National MFTHBA/MFTA/MTRA trail ride to be held in June. Another chance for riders to earn more points toward an MFTHBA prize! Future MFTA activities such as play days, clinics and more trail rides were considered. The Gunders offered at the last meeting to host camping and trail riding at their place in Gladwin this summer. They have direct access to a lot of public land to ride on. Dawn Mannor has offered to help other members with horse transportation and camping if they want to go to Ionia or Waterloo. Hungerford is also another option to consider for a group camping opportunity. Charleen O. is checking with owners of indoor arenas in southern Michigan for a date to hold a gaiting clinic with clinician Jim McKenney in April. Chuck F. will set a date for a northern MI gaiting clinic with Levi Beechy and a camping clinic with Jan Wolfin at her place this spring. Those will be reported at the next meeting. Graphic designer and MFTA member Kathy Kruch has offered her services to us for redesigning our website free of charge. She has been working with Webmaster Chuck Fanslow to learn how our website operates. We voted to modify the web logo and use a unique background for the front page of our website. A fun Word Search page will be added also. Check out to see what she has done so far. Let us know if you like them. Suggestions about additional changes and improvements are welcomed, too. A member chat section was discussed and decided that we can continue to use our Facebook page for online discussion as that has no additional cost. There is a link to it on our Links page from our website. Region 8 Rep. Charleen O. reported that neither ACTHA finalist Julie Moore of MO nor Tori Blankenship of FL will be able to appear with their horses at our or any out-of-state expo due to many reasons. One is the high cost of fuel and another is the financial loss they will endure while they are away from their farms (loss of income from less client horse trainings). Yet another is travel hardship on Julie Moore’s husband (he is elderly). Due to these reasons we are still searching for a closer suitable stallion or gelding to demo in March at the Stallion expo at MSU. Please contact Charleen O. ASAP if you have a well-gaited sociable candidate to offer. The MFTA will cover the cost of your stall if you can provide a gelding for the expo weekend. Some volunteers signed up to cover shifts at the Feb. 25th Cadillac expo and the March Stallion expo. More are needed. Thank you for being so helpful. Charleen O. read us the State of MI licensing rules concerning the raffles we usually hold during the expos. We will be in compliance if we sell tickets for and raffle off the prizes (valued at less than $500) the same day. If you have anything that you would like to donate(new or gently used) to the gift tub for the Stallion expo or the basket for the Cadillac expo, please start sending them to me at 2333 Hagadorn Rd., Mason, MI 48854 or to Charleen Ostrom at 1759 Benton Rd., Charlotte, MI 48813. Or bring the items to the next meeting Feb. 11th. These were good money-makers for our association last year to help cover the cost of our website, etc. I offered to contact The Embroidery Wizard in Holt about getting a price on ball-cap style hats with our updated logo and web address on them to sell at expo and year-round for breed/affiliate promotion. More info will be provided at the next meeting on that. The meeting adjourned at 1PM. Our next luncheon meeting is set for 11AM Feb. 11th again at the Italian Oven, 2336 S. Mission St.,Mt. Pleasant,MI. Please try to attend so that we can get your ideas and opinions on MFTA activities. Respectfully submitted by: Marilyn Mannino (MFTA Secretary) |
