AMHA Annual Meeting

[mdegner]

Anybody heard how the AMHA annual meeting is going in Reno??

 

[Al B]

What do you want to know?

 

[shelia]

I only made it there on one day. That was Friday. This is the first one I have attended and had a great time. I met some new people, food was great and the Peppermill is very nice! I briefly sat in on some meetings and found it interesting. I will let someone else discuss what was actually decided on things though.

I do have some thoughts about AMHA overall. When they talked about where most of the money is coming in from it made me think. Most of our money comes from membership and registration. Not shows.

I feel this is not sustainable. AMHA has been around 35 years and is funded by new foals being born each year. We all know that there seems to be an overpopulation of minis right now. We all know that breeding needs to slow down. Registering a mini is a one time shot. The revenue is going to have to shift to something we can promote.

I did hear some talk about how to keep membership up each year and there were some good ideas tossed around.

I think we all need to brainstorm on how to keep people renewing their membership year after year. We need to come up with great reasons why people should be members and stay members. (not just to register the new foals)

I know many people are against hardshipping, but if it didn't close it could be more registration without increasing the population.

These are my opinions and only mine.

 

[Debby - LB]

Shelia that's good insight. I agree with you.

 

[muffntuf]

Very good insight. This is what all registries are fighting right now. Most of the big farms have scaled down their foal production, which means less revenue for the registries. Membership is key.

 

[horsehug]

Was there any talk of keeping hardshipping open, or will it close as planned the end of 2013?

Susan O.

 

[sfmini]

i miss going to the meetings, always had a great time. Shelia, the reason AMHA isn't funded by shows is that it only has 4 shows that are put n by the organization. AMHA is first and foremost a registry. There is a small amount of revenue from the other shows, but that money basically supports the show department.

You are correct that the majority of revenue comes from registrations and memberships. The majority of members do not show, so creative people are needed to suggest programs for them. As the saying goes, the first question anybody asks is "what's in it for me?" We need to answer that question for the membership.