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Hi everyone!

I just have a few short updates for this month.

First off, the *Early Bird* deadline to register for the 2023 AHA Convention is coming up fast on September 30th! Convention is virtual, and everyone is very welcome to attend. Virtual Conventions are a great way to get a feel for how things work at AHA! Non-Voting members only pay $40 to register if you get that done in the Early Bird registration period. If you do plan to attend as a Non-Voting member, please let me know. 

More information and registration information is available at https://www.arabianhorses.org/membership/convention/

Enrollments for the 2023 ARAB, Inc. High Point are also officially open! They are open until November 1st, and results will need to be sent to Marilyn Weber by November 15th. 

More information at https://arabinc.org/high-point/

We are still working on scheduling our Annual Meeting, but it looks like it will be sometime during the week of November 6-12. Stay tuned for that!

If you have anything you wish to see included on the Annual Meeting’s Agenda, please let me know.

We will be doing our annual elections at this meeting. If anyone is interested in an Executive position with the club or serving as a delegate for the 2024 AHA Convention, I will need to know prior to the meeting. We have been exceptionally lucky to have a great group of Officers for the past several years, so I’m selfishly hoping they all wish to stay another year 😉

2024 Club Event Dates

April 20-21 – Springfield AVS & CLD IceBreaker Schooling Show – Springfield, IL

May 23-16 – Region XI Sport Horse Champs & Pre Show – Springfield, IL

Thank you!

Chelsea Wesson

Hi everyone!

First off, thank you for supporting the vote to send the resolution proposed by Sue Schultz forward to AHA. I can confirm that there are still reservations within AHA about it. If I hear anything further, I will let everyone know. 

Our club’s show committee met last week to discuss our events. Our 2023 shows were both a success, so we are planning to have great shows again in 2024. Potential judges are being contacted, and updated schedules are in the works. The Springfield AVS will have minor updates for 2024, and the Region 11 Sport Horse Championships will see more significant changes. I personally hope that the new R11SH schedule makes it easier on everyone. 

2024 Show Dates

April 20-21 – Springfield AVS

May 23-26 – Region 11 Sport Horse Championships

If there is anything you would like us to consider adding/changing to either show, please send me an email, text, or Facebook message ASAP. I plan to spend more time working on them this week while it’s crazy hot, and I do appreciate all ideas I can get. 

We have a few business items to decide. 

1. The deadline for Convention delegates always sneaks up on me (end of August is way too early for something that’s not until November, if you ask me!!), so we need to decide those. I will be claiming one spot, so we have one delegate slot available. 

Convention is online this year and runs November 13-18. As a delegate, you do need to be able to attend as much as possible during those days. More information is available at https://www.arabianhorses.org/membership/convention/

If you are interested in being a delegate, please let me know by end of day tomorrow, August 24th.

2. All AHA members are eligible to attend. Even if you do not wish to be a delegate, I do recommend attending Convention this year and listening in as much as possible. Having it be virtual is a huge opportunity to learn a lot about how AHA and all of its committees run. 

3. We need to schedule our fall meeting! According to our Bylaws, we just need to be after October 15th to vote on Officers once again. I would like to have an actual in person meeting this time around, so I am open to suggestions on locations. Here are the only date options:

November 11th or 12th (Saturday or Sunday)

I’m open to all kinds of location ideas, from restaurants to barns to whatever you can imagine! Also, if anyone is interested in stepping up to an Officer position within ARAB, Inc., I will need to know prior to that meeting.

4. The Region 11 Summer meeting is this weekend on August 27th via Zoom. We will be voting in a new slate of officers for the Region and discussing other events and issues within the Region. If anyone wants to attend, please let mw know so I can share the link once I have it. 

The Region 11 Nomination Committee submitted this slate of Officers to be elected. Nominations can also be made on the floor during the meeting.

Director – Tony Reid

Vice Director – Mike Grimm

Secretary – Thresa Horn

Treasurer – Chrissy Norris

Thank you so much, everyone! If you ever have any questions about the club, please let me know.

Chelsea

Hi everyone!
I hope everyone has had a good couple of months since my last club update. We are starting to ramp up for our pair of club hosted shows this year. 
Welcome New Members!

We have picked up a few new members since my last update. We are so happy to have you as part of ARAB, Inc.! I am trying to do more regular club updates via email, but the main source for club activities and news is on our Facebook page. I try to share as many local events as possible, as well as news from AHA and Region XI. If you have any questions regarding the club, please let me know! 

Springfield AVS & Centerline Dressage IceBreaker Schooling Show

This is coming up quickly! We are always looking for more volunteers. If you are available any day between April 21 & 23, we would appreciate any help we can get! If you’re interested in helping, please respond to this email. We will also have The Lucky Horseshoe at our show this year, which is always great! Entries close for this show on April 1st. I do recommend certified mail at this point, or send me an email (chelseawesson@yahoo.com) or text (217-556-3971) to let me know you are sending/have sent entries. I have attached the prize list to this email, as well. Also, please remember if you are showing ANY of the western dressage classes, you must have a WDAA membership!

Region XI Sport Horse Championships & Pre-Show

We are finalizing the prize list for this show now. It kicks off with the pre-show on May 25th and continues with Regional Championships the 26th through 28th. As always, volunteers for this event would be HIGHLY appreciated. The prize list will hopefully be completed this week. Online entries (paid through card or check) will be available this year. If anyone has any schedule questions, please feel free to reach out to me. Entries will close for this show on May 3rd. 

Club Website Update

I am planning to update the photos and possibly a bit of the layout of the ARAB, Inc. website. We absolutely need some pretty new photos to include on it. The images must be of club members or club members’ horses. If they are from a professional photographer, you need to have purchased the full release for online uses. Photos need to be high quality images. They can be show/event images, photo shoots, etc., but they must be clear and show off the horses at their best. If you have photos, you can respond to this email or email them to my personal account at chelseawesson@yahoo.com. 

Region XI Scholarship Program

Each year Region XI offers two $1000 scholarships to Region XI members of an affiliated Region XI club. One scholarship is offered for High School seniors and one scholarship is offered to those continuing further education at an accredited college or university. Each scholarship may be awarded to a recipient only one time, however one may apply for the continuing education scholarship more than one time if not having been a recipient in a prior year. Please remember that there is a due date for postmark of the scholarship application to which will be strictly adhered. Also, please note that all materials must be returned in one envelope to prevent misplacement or loss of part by the postal service. Best of luck to all entries! The deadline for applications is April 20th. Learn more at http://www.aha11.com/scholarships.html

Future ARAB, Inc. Club Meetings

For as long as I’ve been a member of this club, our annual meeting has been held in November. I would like to consider moving this meeting to earlier in the year. I was thinking possibly mid August, but I am open to other ideas. I’d also like members to consider a location or even possibly some type of barn tour/seminar/whatever that could accompany it.

Email me with any events you’d like added to this for future emails!
Thank you for reading! I hope to see many of you in April!Chelsea Wesson

Hi everyone!

I hope you’re all having a great start to 2023! The weather has been pretty cooperative for those of us with horses at home, and I’m really hoping it stays that way! 

We have scheduled our annual club banquet. It will be held on February 5th from Noon to 3pm with our lunch served around 1pm. We have a new location this year, so we are excited for everyone to try out Cooper’s Hawk in Springfield, IL. Our members will have a choice of parmesan chicken, glazed salmon, or pasta with a carbonara sauce. Dessert will also be included. ARAB, Inc. is covering the meal cost, and there will be a cash bar. 

Cooper’s Hawk

https://chwinery.com/locations/illinois/springfield

If you plan to attend, please RSVP to John Simpson with how many by January 31st. 

As far as other club news goes, we are nearing the final schedule for the Springfield AVS in April. Hopefully the schedule for the AVS will be released by the end of this month. Once again, the AVS will include schooling dressage and western dressage classes open to all breeds.  The Region XI Sport Horse Champs schedule will likely be right behind that.

We are always looking for volunteers for both the AVS (April 22 & 23) and the Region XI Sport Horse Champs (May 25-28). We can use any help we can get. I do currently plan to show at the AVS and secretary it again, so I will definitely be looking for help for scoring and watching the office a bit more. 

ARAB, Inc. has picked up a lot of new members in the last year. We are thrilled to have you! If you haven’t already, be sure to follow our page on Facebook. One of my New Year’s Resolutions is to develop a little more interaction within the club, so wish me luck and expect more club emails!

If you have any news, events, etc. coming up, please reach out to me so I can share them with the club. I do try to share local events on our Facebook page as much as possible, but I’d love to share more events as well. I’m going to start listing events within the Region at the end of my emails to help everyone out. I can add open shows, clinics, seminars, whatever to this list. Just send me an email or a message on Facebook. I’d like this list to be as comprehensive for equine events in our area as possible!

Thank you so much! I hope to see many of you on February 5th!

Chelsea Wesson

ARAB, Inc. Fall News
Hi everyone!

We have scheduled our annual meeting. It will be held November 11th at 1 PM at StarWest. Lunch will be a potluck, so please bring something for us to enjoy. Our main dish will be Laurie Kern’s great Italian beef, but we will need side dishes. Drinks will be provided, but feel free to bring your own, also.

Our meeting will include any discussion on the resolutions for the AHA Convention. You can view them all here (click). We will also be discussing our plans for 2019, including our shows, the Arabian Springfest (April 5-6 in Rantoul, IL) and the Region XI Sport Horse Championships & Pre-Show (May 16-19 in Springfield, IL). We are also in the early stages of planning an April version of the show we just held in Springfield. It will tentatively be April 27-28 in Springfield, IL. We already know we need volunteers for all of those shows, so please consider that now.

Plans for our annual banquet are underway, also. We will be moving to a new location, so our normal dates and times may be altered from tradition a bit.

We have also extended the enrollment deadline for the 2018 ARAB, Inc. High Point Awards. We were all rather busy in September and just forgot to send out a reminder, so the new deadline is October 31st. The form and more information on the categories here on our website.

If you have anything you would like to discuss at the meeting, please let me know. I would like to see some club growth in 2019, so if you have any ideas specifically relating to that topic, I would really appreciate hearing them.

Thank you!
Chelsea Wesson
chelseawesson@yahoo.com