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RideCamp@endurance.net
AERC Trade Policy
I have followed with interest the discussions directly related to
Donna Snyder Smith vs the AERC Business Policy. Terry Woolley Howe wrote a
very good summation of why AERC is no longer working trades for articles, and I
want to thank her for coming forward to explain the AERC policy. Donna
Snyder Smith is one of my friends and I also want to thank her for her
informative and very popular articles that have run in Endurance News. It
is unfortunate that the AERC Policy and Donna have become at odds with each
other. It is also unfortunate that our memories are so short, so I will
take some space to remind everyone of the real facts.
At the 1998 AERC Midyear Meeting, AERC Treasurer-Stagg Newman, announced to
the Board that he was investigating procedures for AERC to declare BANKRUPTCY
and subsequent reorganization. The entire Board was taken by surprise
(that tells you how misinformed we were about the financial status of
AERC). As Vice President I took that announcement as a personal
challenge. With the help of some dedicated AERC members -Directors and
membership - we developed the Sponsorship Program and a membership drive to
increase our numbers. Previous solutions to financial problems always
involved dues increases and new registration fees such as the horse registration
but they only served as stop gap measures.
Subsequently, in 1999 when I was elected President the most important
thing I did was put in place the Finance Committee, chaired by Vicki Rutter with
Jerry Fruth and Carlos Crespo as members, along with Mike Tomlinson as AERC
Treasurer. This committee rewrote our financial policies..Vicki did a
complete audit and researched our financial history back ten years to learn how
we had mismanaged AERC up to its current status. Beginning with the
1999 AERC Administration, we dedicated ourselves to running AERC like a business
rather than a backyard club. To that end we have strictly followed
our new Financial Policies, we developed Sponsorship income, we promoted new
membership growth, and we put in place cost saving measures...all these actions
continue to this day. 1999 saw a 20% increase in new membership and about
a $62,000.00 end of year profit, and this year we should see a much larger year
end profit.
However, we must learn from our experiences and the major lesson of
the last two years is we will not survive and continue to grow if we don't
operate AERC as a business. Can we afford to trade advertising space for
articles?..Well, yes we can at the
moment. Is it good business
practice?..... No! .. because it only
leads to negative income flow and that is what brought AERC to
the edge of Bankruptcy. Eventually a dues increase to
support all that AERC provides may be necessary but I am in favor of the current
policy of cost saving measures.
How does this relate to trade outs and Donna SS, etc? There
are many excellent articles that are now being provided to AERC at little or no
cost. These articles are both educational and informative. As an
example, Susan Garlinghouse provides articles at no cost to AERC and I believe
you will agree that they provide some of the most important and informative
educational material we print. I understand that Ken Marcella will be
providing articles, too. Our Media Committee is working to gather and
provide other educational and informative articles for AERC. I believe
that Donna Snyder Smith's articles were excellent and served two purposes...they
helped validate the credibility of Endurance News as a premium magazine,, and
they served to further Donna's reputation as an internationally acclaimed
horseperson, as well as increasing publicity related to her expertise. In
that vein, I believe Donna's articles also served her well as a legitmate
advertisement of her expertise and knowledge. As you probably
know, your Directors volunteer their expertise to AERC at no charge, those
members who serve AERC on various committees do so at no charge to
AERC, and Donna has worked for the good of AERC at no charge in
the past. I hope that she will reconsider and continue to provide
her excellent articles as her way of supporting the sport that I personally know
the loves.
Randy Eiland
AERC President
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