Ridecamp: [RC] [Guest] We are not your enemy...

Michael R. Schuppenhauer schuppenhauer@xxxxxxxxxx

I saw this line on a bus in San Francisco. "We are not your enemy, we are 
your community." It was referring to hate crimes.

I read the recently proposed changes to the AERC Bylaws. There has been 
discussion around them on ridecamp. I believe there are useful and some 
less useful things in there. One thing prompted me to vote:

Full members have to be either US or Canadian citizen. Reason: "To make the 
bylaws simpler". The difference would be that non-US and non-Canadians can 
not vote. No further explanation as to the resulting "complication", i.e. 
from having Europeans vote, is available.

With all due respect, I am a legal resident in the US, the country claiming 
the oldest democracy as its heritage - one (wo-)man, one vote.

I am also a member of several respected sport and professional societies in 
this country as well as internationally. None of them has a citizenship 
requirement or connection to membership and voting, none of them needed to 
"simplify bylaws", members are united by cause and not by citizenship. In 
fact, I am not even sure there is a rationale possible in a sport targeted 
association to have an element of citizenship be important, even more the 
American (!) Chemical Society recently proposed to include non-residents in 
their full membership charter, they only differentiate between residents 
and non-residents and not US vs. Non-US citizens. What would make a US or 
Canadian rider a more causeful member than a Swedish one ?

On a practical note: A citizenship requirement will be hard if not 
impossible to check as only around half of the US population has a passport 
as relevant document. It would only be relevant for international 
competition anyway, which is not ruled by AERC but US Equestrian/FEI (see 
FEI ruling). Further, the nationality at international events is ruled 
somewhat different from actual citizenship (see FEI rules). In fact, what 
is the actual legal difference between a Canadian member and a British 
member (UK and Canada both members of the Commonwealth, but certrainly both 
non-US) as compared to a Canadian and a USA member. Also, I am not sure 
including Canadians in membership but excluding Puerto Ricans and Mexicans 
(NAFTA) or Europeans is in accordance with applicable law and legal 
opinion, i.e. the constitution.

Finally, I believe the introduction of a citizenship criteria in the 
climate of concern of dominance in this sport is not in line with the 
Olympic spirit attempting to bring youth TOGETHER.

Therefore, I see no reason whatsoever to exclude legal residents of the US 
(and Canada for that matter) from being a full member with voting rights. 
For practical matters all members should be full members.

The bylaws need to be changed to reflect residency and not citizenship.

Michael R. Schuppenhauer, Ph.D.
schuppenhauer@xxxxxxxxxx


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