 |
Re: [RC] [AERCMembersForum] Future AERC Directions - Was 100 Mile One Day Rides - Joe LongOn Sat, 23 Jul 2005 20:16:16 -0400, Truman Prevatt <tprevatt@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: rides2far@xxxxxxxx wrote: I ask...*why* did we want to be the biggest group? Because we can say we are the biggest? Angie, you go girl!!!! I believe everything you wrote in your post was right on the money. ... There is a critical mass(and I don't think we are there yet) required for the AERC to be effective. Political - governmental and otherwise - listen to numbers. If you represent 500 people, they will ignore you. The AERC needs numbers to have political clout to address the trails issues. There is another way to get political clout: form alliances with other organizations that have common interests. In the AERC if riders are doing endurance rides, they they should be welcome. It's not that anyone is talking about growth that is not endurance riders. That's the problem, Truman, they ARE!!!!!! Good God, adding "fun rides" to the AERC? With awards and mileage programs for them that would inevitably follow (and demands for more "respect")? The AERC already has a large portion of its membership riding only LD rides, and look at some of the internecine strife that's caused. I don't want to lose our organization by dilution. LD rides are legitimate distance rides and satisfying to many people (so are many kinds of trail rides). They are not endurance rides, though, which the AERC exists to serve. There has always been a danger from including LD rides within AERC that someday the "tail would wag the dog," and soliciting not only more LD growth but growth from ever-shorter rides would only guarantee that this would happen. The deciding reason the AERC brought LD rides "into the fold" was to assure proper protection of the LD horses at AERC sanctioned events, growing the membership was a secondary purpose (and IMO not sufficient). Good things have come from including the LD rides, but problems have come from it too. IMO further growth of the AERC from LD and "fun riders" would be seriously bad for the AERC and the sport of endurance riding. Anyone that wants to do endurance should be welcome, be it 5000 or 15000. Yes, "to do endurance." If the AERC can grow to 15,000 members riding endurance rides, great. If 10,000 of those members are doing only LD and "fun rides" it would be a disaster. The up side to larger numbers is the ability of the AERC to be a player in defending our trails for use for endurance rides. Ask Jerry Fruth if he would rather have a 3000 membership or a 15,000 membership behind him when it comes to getting the attention of national land managers. If that was the whole story. It is not. Please, let's look to building alliances and consortiums with other equine trail users for the political activities, and keep the AERC the American ENDURANCE Ride Conference. Let me close by saying that if I have offended any LD riders, my aplogies for the offense, but IMO this is far to critical an issue for the AERC and the sport of endurance riding to not speak up. -- Joe Long jlong@xxxxxxxx http://www.rnbw.com =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
|