Yes, we did return to the old system, the petition that was in the show office had the desired effect. Now, we will have to search for other ways to reduce costs.If any of you have suggestions on how to reduce costs of the regional and world shows, please contact your board members, and you can also send them to me since Tom O'Connell seems to have 'recruited' me for a new committee to work on reducing costs of the Eastern show. We are also searching for a new location for that show as well. We have come up with three groups of three directors from each region to work on their regional show.
Hi Jody. Thanks for this information. Where can we find in the rule book that a petition is acceptable to change a show rule without going through the proper bylaws and flow chart that the members voted must be followed? The only place we can find a petition mentioned in the rulebook is Article 6, Section 4 (E) Special Measures. The petition is only allowed to amend a Bylaw, amend the Articles of Incorporation, or disolve the corporation. The article states: "Proposals to amend a Bylaw, amend the Articles of Incorporation: or dissolve the corporation may be made by a petition signed by at least five (5) percent of the voting members as of the April 1st preceeding the meeting or by a majority of the Board of Directors, and notice of such proposals shall be published in the Miniature Horse World or by mail to all members, at least sixty (60) days prior to the next Annual Meeting or Special Meeting. A petition does not cover amending Show Rules no matter how many signatures are received.
How many signatures were on the petition at the show office, and how many signatures are required on the petition to amend a show rule? How many signatures are needed on a petition to get the "desired effect" you speak of?
According to the AMHA rulebook on page 143, the procedure to amend a show rule does not mention anything about a petition. It states that the show rules may be amended at any Annual Meeting of the Association as per Article XIV of the Bylaws within a 60 day period. Article XIV says The Annual Meeting shall ratify the criteria for approving and the policies for approved American Miniature Horse Shows and shall approve show rules. It also states that when deemed necessary the Board of Directors shall exercise their power upon any of the above rules and policies, as per Article V, Section 3(A).
Article V Section 3 (A) says The Board of Directors shall have the power and authority to make. amend, or repeal and enforce such rules and regulations, not contrary to law, the Articles of Incorporation or these Bylaws.
According to Article XVI-Amendment of Rules, if the Board voted to change the show rule WS-025 again in the manner that they did at the October 15, 2008, meeting that vote would be contrary to the bylaws. As stated in this article there is a requirement of prior notice which the rule must go through. It refers to the flow chart on pages 57 and 58 to be followed. It states that all rule amendments must be published in their finished form in the Horse World or official correspondence not less than 60 days prior to the Annual meeting.
Section D of this bylaw also says that a rule is not subject to amendment by change, addition or repeal until it has been in force for at least two (2) calendar years. This rule WS-025 was amended in June 2007, by the board for the purpose of saving money, and has only been in effect one year. This bylaw says that limitation can be waived by the Board of Directors upon finding of exceptional circumstances which (1) concern the safety, health, or well-being of the horse and/or exhibitor (2) materially benefits AMHA's programs or its financial stability, or (3) involves compelling circumstances. These three concerns certainly could not give the Board a reason to quickly change a show rule just because signatures of members on a petition don't like the rule. There is no mention of any petition in any part of the show rules, or the bylaw to amend the show rules. This rule will be more costly to AMHA's financial stability. Had the board followed the rules and bylaws and allowed the members proper notification of the amendment to the rule, and allowed the members to vote on the rule at the 2008 Annual Meeting this problem could have been avoided.
The minutes of the June 2007 Board meeting stated that the LOC committee had extensively researched the amendment to WS-025 before they and the Show Rules committee recommended it to the Board to be passed. Why weren't the problems with the rule discovered before it was used?
When can the members of AMHA expect the Board of Directors to start following the rules that the membership has approved for the management of AMHA. A lot of money and time has and continues being spent to make and amend new rules that are not enforced.
Also another director (Libby Rosen) has posted here on Lil Beginnings that the World Show Judging System used at the 2008 World Show, allowed the judges to rotate after each division not each class. She gave the example of one set of judges would judge the division of senior stallions and rotate before the division of senior mares. Is Libby correct on how the judging was done at the show?
Please answer these questions for us so that we can all understand exactly what the Board is doing.
Thank you.
CARE (
Concerned
Advocates for
Rule
Enforcement)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I am also pasting below a copy of the new topic I just posted on the forum to help make members aware of what is going on within their association.
What can we do to ensure rules are being followed by our AMHA BOD and EC?, Your suggestions welcomed!
I am posting this on behalf of CARE, with hopes that we, as members of AMHA, can somehow put our heads together to try to figure out a way that we can hold the AMHA BOD and EC accountable for not following the rules and bylaws of our Association.
The rules were broken with the implementation of new judging system, and we have recently heard that the Board again voted at their October teleconference meeting to violate the rules once again by returning to the old judging system. They have overturned the members vote and given the members no input on the new rule when they passed it.
Libby Rosen (Mistyrose) told in her post (here on LB) of the judges rotating in each division, and not each class as the rule states. The Board passed two bylaw changes at their June meeting that had not even been written, let alone gone through the proper (and LEGAL, according to our Bylaws) flow chart and rule change procedure.
We are wasting our time hoping the Board will wake up and make some attempt to follow the rules that the membership has approved for management. It is very obvious this Board has no intention of doing what is right, they will do just what they want to do. They do it wrong, they change it back. They learn nothing, while the membership supports their violations and pay the price, often, financially.
The word we got from the October Board meeting, is that the three Championship Shows lost $18,000. If this is true, when you think about losing $18,000 of the membership's money on the three Champion shows, so just a small percentage of the members can attend the show, has got to stop. AMHA can not afford these shows. The reason for having these shows in the past was because the people that show their horses increase the value of the horses for members that don't show when it comes to selling horses. Well, from the results of several recent auctions, it is quite clear that even sales of the offspring of World Grand Champions does not make much difference in the selling price of many horses today.
We would also like to make mention of our upcoming AMHA elections. Before you cast your votes on whom you want to represent you in AMHA, we ask members to discuss with their candidates for their area, what their feelings are in regards to whether or not they will stand up for what is right and just in our association, to ensure the rules are followed, or will they just go blindly along with the "general concensus" of the other BOD and EC members as they continue to break the rules. We will say that we know not ALL current or past EC and BOD have been dishonest, and easily railroaded by the majority, but the majority seem to be taking over. There is no sense in an association such as our AMHA having rules and bylaws written and published if they are not going to be followed. PLEASE be sure to ask your area candidates where they stand on what you feel are important issues, and how they plan to represent you if they are elected for your area.
OH! Lets just keep the comments general in nature and not get personal. LOL
