Maine Barrel Racing Association

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MAINE BARREL EXPRESS - May 2008

April 26, 2008 meeting.

Present at April meeting: Harry Lewis, Cathy Lewis, Sera Charette, David Charette, Paula Charette, Chris White, Maryann White, Bill Brownell, Stephanie Brownell, Sharon Higgins, Jaime Leeman, Noelle Fairfield, Rick Gaudet, Nick Morrill, Abby Snow.

Secretary’s Report: Approximately 25% of our members received the April Newsletter by email. We would like to increase that to 75%. Please get your email address to Paula Charette ASAP. (pcmkc96@aol.com)

Old Business

Motion was made and passed to skip the Dover Fair this year and keep our show number at eleven.

Motion made and passed to use only 3 flags in our grand entrance. Because of the terrible shape of the small maroon and white flags, it was decided to have the others participate without flags. The US Flag will be carried by our Maine Barrels winner, the Maine Flag will be carried by our 1st division winner of the 3-D Barrels and the Maine Barrels Flag will be carried by our Junior winner. All first place winners for each class will participate in the grand entrance. If you placed first in any year end class, please be prepared to join the grand entrance before each show.

Motion was made and passed to keep the 6 versatility classes. These classes will be rotated through the year.

Thanks to all who volunteered to be a show manager this year. If you are unable to attend the show you are assigned, please let Paula know ASAP.

Brunswick, May 31st Nick Morrill Knox, June 7th Sylvia Morrill Charleston, June 28th Cathy Lewis Pembroke, July 19th Noelle Fairfield Pembroke, July 20th Jami Paquette Pittston Fair, July 27th Abby Snow Skowhegan Fair, August 16th Jamie Leeman, Bill Brownell Harmony Fair, August 30th Sera Charette Windsor Fair, September 1st Harry Lewis Litchfield Fair, September 6th Stephanie Brownell Andover, September 20th Sharon Higgins

New Business

Skowhegan Fair organization has asked that we complete our show by 4:30 pm. With the shorter class schedule and the combination of our junior and pee wee class, we feel that the 4:30 deadline will be easily met. Carolyn Richens offered to supply a tractor so we can till the arena before our show. A motion was made and passed to pay for any transportation costs to get the tractor to our show.

A Motion was made and passed to let MeBRA members who sponsors our club by paying $100 or more, be allowed a web link at no additional cost. Also passed was a motion to give a free web link to a business owned by any member who obtains $500 or more in sponsor money.

Abby Snow informed the club that her mother has not been able to get the Charley Horse show program to work on our laptop computer. It was decided to continue with our old program. Arlene will change the 3-D format to 4-D. The cost of purchasing the program would be approximately $300. It was decided to revisit this issue in a few months.

Chris White and Stephanie Brownell will be putting together some new music CDs. Thanks from all of us who are tired of hearing the same songs over and over and over again.

Sponsor money received to date: $3,680.00 Fair contributions: $3,500.00

LAST DAY TO SUBMIT SPONSORS FOR THE BOOKLET IS MAY 15TH. Let’s really move it and build our payout fund to over $10,000.

If you can’t make the booklet deadline get the sponsor anyway. A sponsor paying $100 or more can be offered the opportunity to come to our show and do a brief “commercial” during our lunch break. Businesses willing to sponsor an entire show would be very welcome.

Show season is rapidly approaching and I have not received many membership forms. PLEASE send these in BEFORE the first show. Remember, proof of coggins and rabies must be given to the club BEFORE you will be allowed to participate. Waiting until the first show to submit these documents may delay the start of the first show. The ladies in the booth already have a busy time signing up riders for the classes that day, but if riders are also trying to submit memberships and proof of coggins/rabies, signups will take much longer.

Memberships received: 40 Coggins/Rabies documents: 7

Mail membership and sponsor forms to Paula Charette, 147 Warren Road, Monmouth, ME 04259. Forms can be found on our website.

Newsletter information can be sent to Paula at pcmkc96@aol.com.

We would like to express our condolences to Sylvia and Nick Morrill for the loss of 2 of their horses. Barney and Sassy will be missed by all.

Fundraiser Show

Please plan on joining us for a fun time on Saturday, June 7th at the Knox arena and at the same time raise some money for fellow MeBRA members. Show your support for Craig Smith and Jodi Merry by participating in the egg race, flag race, or one of the other events planned. Look for more information in the future.

Next MeBRA Meeting:

Saturday, June 28, 2008 in Charleston to be held one-half hour after the end of the show.

We would like to include shows being held by other clubs. If you hear of any, please let Paula know.

Other Shows of Interest

Ellis River Riders, River Road, Leeds, July 25th

CLASSIFIEDS

Rosena Crossman is hosting a clinic in Bradford, Vermont at the CT Valley “new” fairgrounds. For more information email bkendall@tops-tele.com.

Billy Cook 15 inch combination show and barrel saddle. Excellent condition. Contact Paula Charette at 933-4934 or by email pcmkc@aol.com.

Looking for safe beginner horse for young rider. Contact Cathy or Harry Lewis at 882-4702 or by email at lewis@wiscasset.com

LETTER FROM OUR PRESIDENT

Hello Can Chasers!

What a nice stretch of beautiful weather we have had, I hope you all have taken advantage of it getting yourselves and your horses in shape for BARREL RACING this season. I’m really looking forward to seeing everyone at our first show May 31,Andwemet Farm Brunswick and then we go to Knox June 7&8(this had to be changed because the Knox arena wasn’t available for May 31& June 1).

I thank all of you who attended our April 26 meeting. This was my first meeting as your president and I couldn’t be happier the way we talked things over, we worked out last minute details for our booklets, sponsor ads came in and we discussed ideas for keeping our momentum going. We can still sell our banners, we have barrel cover advertising (this is the most valuable advertising spot we have to sell and would suggest a minimum of $250.00 for the season) there are 2 sides to each barrel so that is 6 prime advertising spots. We can also go out and get sponsors for each show. We can sell a spot on a barrel cover (only 1 show) for $100.00. If we sell more than 6 we have the option of buying a 2nd set of covers (1 set for 4D and 1 for Junior and Maine Barrels?) The Sky Is The Limit (isn’t that right Jamie),we can also get show sponsors in addition to our already added money, check with your show managers for what is available for that show(Paula included the list in this months news letter). My hat is off to all of you that went out there and actively sought sponsors for our show booklets this year. May you visit the pay window many times this year (you deserve to), and we still have a few days so keep getting those ads. Nora Brewster is going to modify our Mebra show poster to include our show dates, times and locations. You can print them from the Mebra website soon. Please try to make sure your sponsors get a copy and invite them to our shows, even those that did not sponsor our booklets (some of them might want to sponsor a show or increase their level of sponsorship after they see what we do).You are all great competitors so be proud of the shows you put on! As always spectators are welcome at no charge, we should invite as many as we can, this is how we thank our sponsors for their support. We are going to try some new things this year, an introduction to barrel racing and pole bending clinic or clinics(we need help from you all Down east and Up north) Sharon Higgins is working on something for the mid-coast area. We are working out the details but the basic thought is to offer a 4-6 hour clinic to help get new people started, we would like the cost to be $50.00 or less and offer free membership to this club for the remainder of the season, what a great opportunity to share some of our knowledge, meet new people and most likely learn something too! Anyone interested in co-coordinating, assisting or participating please contact me ASAP. On a very serious note, over the last few years we have seen our number of competitors decline. Why is this? I think it is directly related to our economy. Our cost of living continues to increase rapidly and for most of us our incomes are not rising to match. This means we have less extra money to do the kind of fun things we love to do (like barrel racing). I believe our best solution is to pay more $ to more places, but we need the funds (added money) to payout. So how do we do this? Fewer entries means fewer competitors will recoup some of their expenses getting to and from the shows, will this have a snowball effect with a result of MeBRA going to our fair shows like Windsor or Skowhegan with only a couple dozen competitors? These are some of the questions I have. Although I have some ideas of things we as a club can do to be proactive to our changing times, we as a club must decide what is best and follow through. I am completely addicted to this sport, as most of us are. And as a competitor, I asked myself “what does a barrel racer need?” Simple enough, “A horse, three cans and some good dirt.” We have what we need, if all of us keep up the excellent work getting sponsors and inviting spectators and promoting our shows (they truly are the best in the northeast) We will continue to see our sport grow, more sponsors wanting to get involved (remember sponsors want our spectators, they are promoting their business’ through us) and ultimately more of us competitors will be rewarded with some gas money to go along with the pride we get from a nice run.

For the last few days I’ve been working to get sponsors for each of our shows and I have for the Andwemet show 5-31.The Garage Door Co.(that’s me) and A+ Garage Doors (Dale Burnell) will be adding $400.00 to our payouts and spend the day with us. If this is ok with everyone I would like this added money to be used to pay extra places in our divisions. If we normally pay 4 spots can we use it to pay 5? Do we want to see more sponsors to be involved with us? If we do let’s do it, if not let’s try something else.

A Big Thank You to Everyone,

Harry Lewis TURN&BURN

OFFICERS President Harry Lewis 882-4702 Vice Pres Abby Snow 242-7938 Secretary Paula Charette 933-4934 Treasurer Maryann White 242-5769

DIRECTORS

Bill Brownell (2010) 240-7952 Sera Charette (2009) 933-4934 Noelle Fairfield (2010) 350-1146 Cathy Lewis (2010) 882-7402 Nick Morrill (2010) 268-2477 Sylvia Morrill (2010) 268-2477 Jami Paquette (2009) 547-4511

Banquet Committee: Maryann White, Barbara Ward, Abby Snow Show Committee: Chris White and Jami Paquette (Sylvia Morrill as advisor) Awards Committee: Jamie Leeman, Sharon Higgins, Abby Snow Novice/Green Committee: Abby Snow

We now have a Club Correspondent. Sylvia Morrill has volunteered to represent our club by sending cards to members when appropriate. Contact Sylvia when you hear of an occasion when a card from our organization would be appreciated. Let her know if you hear of an illness, death, accident, birth or any other special event.

Treasurer’s Report was unavailable at the time of our meeting.

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