 |
USA
Equestrian Executive Committee Meets; Considers Finances,
Mediation
|
The
Executive Committee of USA Equestrian, National Equestrian Federation
of the United States, met Tuesday (April 30) by telephone conference
in a
regular monthly meeting.
Among
the agenda items was a consideration of the final audit of the
organization's finances, as of the fiscal year ended November
30, 2001. Lori Rawls, Executive Director, and Ancie Hatfield,
Assistant Executive Director-Finance, provided documentation of
the Federation's financial condition, showing it to be sound in
all respects. "We were fortunate to end the year on an audited
basis some $300,000 favorable to the forecast we presented to
the membership at our convention in January," said Hatfield.
In fact, on an operating basis, before non-recurring items such
as the expense defending the Federation from the USET challenge,
as well as unrealized gains/losses, we showed a surplus of nearly
$900,000. However, after the other items are considered, we came
in finally at a negative $700,000, which was still much better
than our original forecast. Even with the difficult year in the
stock market, and the expenses of the USET challenge, we were
able to keep our investment portfolio at year-ago levels, just
under $6 million."
In
addition, Rawls said that the final audit was completed much earlier
than in recent years, and PricewaterhouseCoopers, the corporation's
auditors, issued an entirely "clean" audit, which will
be available shortly to the directors. In addition, detailed financial
information will be published in the May issue of Equestrian magazine.
The
Executive Committee also discussed at length the USET's withdrawal
from mediation on the governance of the sport, and authorized
the officers to publish the correspondence detailing both organizations'
positions, inasmuch as certain letters had already been obtained
and excerpted by some equestrian publications.
In
other business, a series of rule-making issues was considered,
along with national and international approvals of events, and
the postponement until 2003 of the inaugural American Equestrian
Games to be held in Lexington, Kentucky.
Members
should direct questions and comments to Lori Rawls at the Lexington
office.
USA
Equestrian Inc., as the National Equestrian Federation of the
U.S., is the regulatory body for the Olympic and World Championship
sports of dressage, driving, endurance, eventing, reining, show
jumping, and vaulting, as well as 19 other breeds and disciplines
of equestrian competition. As
the country's largest multi-breed organization, the Federation
has over 80,000 members and recognizes more than 2,800 competitions
nationwide each year. It governs all aspects of competition, including
educating and licensing all judges, stewards, and technical delegates
who officiate at these shows.
VISION STATEMENT
The vision of USA Equestrian is to provide leadership for equestrian
sport in the United States of America, promoting the pursuit of
excellence from the grass roots to the Olympic Games, based on
a foundation of fair, safe competition and the welfare of its
horses, and embracing this vision, to be the best national equestrian
federation in the world.
www.equestrian.org
.
