LD Fees

[XXDU78A@prodigy.com (MS LOUISE D BURTON)]

Sorry to add my two cents here, but this is something I feel very strongly
about.  I can give you a bunch of reasons why I am against this fee, but I
will limit it from a ride manager's point of view because this effects ALL
OF YOU, and if you don't think it effects the 50 milers, you're wrong.

I come from the Central Region and we have more LD rides than anyone.  (I'd
say go look it up in the yearbook but it was not printed...ah don't get me
started on the quality of the yearbook this year!!)  I think it is safe to
say we have the best LD awards program anywhere and I have only been to one
LD ride where BC was NOT awarded.  The Texas rides this year had over
SEVENTY LD riders!
I have been managing Okmulgee Cougar Prowl for the last ten years.  We have
an average of 40 25milers and 40 50milers.

For the most part managing a ride is a pain, but I feel, as I think most RM
do in our region, that it is the dues we pay to ride rides.  If we all
didn't manage a ride, we wouldn't have any, right?  The $10 fee makes the
paperwork for a ride much more trouble, but I know most of the riders, and
as I said, most of them manage rides, so there is no problem.  Though, for
the last two years I have been billed for riders who WERE members of AERC,
so it WAS an ongoing paper problem.  Now LD is quite another matter.  Most
of the riders are not AERC members.  Show their cards, you say?  Hmmm.  I,
for one, didn't get my 1998 card until JUNE this year!  I know a lot of
managers get burnt out, and want to give it up, and believe me, this may
just be the last straw because of the trouble it causes and the money
involved.  I can tell you for sure our LD numbers will drop.  Therefore the
money earned will drop.
I hate to be a doomsayer, but I forsee one of two things happening:
1. Ride managers will quit putting on LD rides because of the hassel
(add the $10 and a 50 and a 25 will now cost the same at my ride...MANY
people will protest!) OR
2.  They will just quit putting on rides altogether...rules, rules, rules...

Please, THINK THIS OUT before you vote!  No matter what distance you ride,
we can't afford to LOSE MORE RIDES!
Louise Burton
Firedance Farms Endurance Arabians