Sandy Gambuti called the meeting to order at 1:40 PM.

Sandy thanked the Morgan family for inviting us into their home and hosting the March meeting.

Sandy read the January 14 10th meeting minutes.

A motion was made by Kathy Sellers to accept the January meeting minutes as read.

The motion was seconded by Kelly Anderson, motion carried.

Treasurer's Report;

Kathy LaFrana read the Treasurer's report. A copy of the treasurer's report is available upon request to members in good standing.

KMHC currently has 44 paid members.

A motion was made by Kelly Anderson to accept the treasurer's report as read.

Kathy Sellers seconded the motion, motion carried.

Old Business:

Keystone Classic

Donna Julius presented an overview of the committee meeting that was held on January 24th. New this year will be Cash Back Incentive Classes for the driving classes. Cash prizes will be awarded to the 1st thru 4th places. In order to raise funds to offset the cost of these classes, we will be holding a raffle.

The committee is also looking into Gelding Incentives. The idea of a driving cones class during the lunch bread at the show was also discussed.

Kelly ordered the ribbons for the show.

Ads for the showbill are currently being sold by Kathy Ballentine and Kelly Anderson:

$20 - Business Card Ads

$35 – ¼ page ads

$50 – ½ page ads

$80 – full page ads

Donna also suggested that anyone who purchases a full page ad would also have their ad on our club’s website.

Lisa Freeborn has been hired again as Show Secretary with Sandy Lapp to apprentice under her. Heather Morgan is taking care of media coverage. Debbie Morgan is putting the show packets together, which contain information about the area around the show grounds.

Grace will again be our Show Steward, and 3 judges have been contracted with.

Kelly talked about her ideas for raising money for the incentive classes. Various items have been offered for the raffle: a show halter from Diane Charney at Mini Express, a month of training from Rocking Horse Acres, a custom made miniature size "Arabian style" presentation halter, a Troxel helmet, etc.

Kelly contacted Lutke Harness about getting a show harness for the raffle. Lutke Harness will provide a $1000 gift certificate (that can be used for anything that they sell), but we have to contribute $500 towards it. The officers had previously voted to make this expenditure as part of the cost of doing this show. We took another vote at the meeting, and it was unanimous to make this purchase.

We’ve secured 3 $25 Gift Certificates from Brenda Inches and Cathy Waxler at Star Lake Tack for the Hi Point awards, which are given for Driving, Amateur, and All-Around. They will also receive a 5x7 photo from the Show Photographer.

Kelly mentioned that it’s time for another committee meeting, and Donna said she would set the meeting up before we leave today.

Sandy Lapp asked if anyone received the February Journal. It was confirmed that the Keystone Miniature Horse Club was mentioned in the Area One News.

KMHC has submitted it’s first ad to appear in The Journal. It will appear in the April issue.

There was a discussion about how to reach the AMHR members with our showbill, since not all AMHR members were included in the labels that we purchased last year from AMHR. It seems that their membership list is not always accurate. There is a membership list online, but that doesn’t appear to have everyone either.

Donna suggested that we could send postcards to AMHR members in our area to "Hold the Date". This could be sent out early so people are thinking of us, since the showbill wouldn’t arrive in households until about a month before the show.

Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade

Kathy Ballentine is heading this committee. Kathy asked (via phone call from Florida) if it would be okay to look for possible drill team participants outside of the club, since there aren’t enough interested club members right now to accomplish this. The group thought that would be fine.

St. Patrick’s Day Parade

Ken and Linda Mott and Allyson Oliviera particiapated in the St. Patrick’s Day Parade in downtown Scranton. Since they weren’t at the meeting, we’ll get a report from them next time.

Spring Fun Show

Kelly reported that the date and location are set, the judge is selected and she has the ribbons. Everything is ready.

The proposed bylaw changes were voted on. It was unanimous to accept the bylaw changes that were read and discussed at the January meeting, and then printed in the February newsletter.

Rail to Trails Drive

Since Sharyn couldn’t attend the meeting, this topic was tabled until the next meeting.

There are 7 applicants for lessons and 15 auditors so far. We have covered our expenses for this clinic.

The Hambletonian Parade in Rutherford NJ is scheduled for 10:00am on Saturday, July 28th. The parade kicks off a week-long event of celebrations before the actual Hambletonian Race which takes place the following Saturday at the Meadowlands Racetrack in East Rutherford. The Hambletonian is a $1.5 Million harness race for 3 year olds and is nationally televised on CBS.

Last year’s parade consisted of the following equine groups: 4 Mounted Police Groups; at least 2 drill teams; a Hunt Club, mounted; 1 Mounted Shriner Group; 3 Driving Teams; 2 Equestrian Centers, mounted; 6 individual riders that represent Standardbred Pleasure, Paso Fino, and Paint Breeds;  Harness Racing Youth League with several driving teams, etc.

The Parade organizers would love to have us participate. They’ve never had a group of minis in the parade before.

"We offer GRATIS stabling at the Meadowlands Racetrack for any equine participants of the parade.  Plus (2) free tickets for each participant to the day's races that start at 5pm - these are Elimination Races for the Hambletonian, so there should be some quality horses there." 

"We offer additional  free tickets to the actual Hambletonian Race on the following Saturday, August 4th if you want to return."

If you would be interested in participating in the parade, please contact Sandy Lapp. We would like to get an idea of how many people would be interested.

We have upgraded our website to the next level. With this upgrade, we have more storage space, a URL (www.keystonemhc.com), and multiple email addresses that we can use. One example is the ability to set up an email such as ShowManager @keystonemhc.com to publicize. Emails to this address can be automatically routed to our show manager Donna, without having to publicize her personal email account.

Farm Show

Kelly brought up the idea of having a booth at the Farm Show in Harrisburg. She hasn’t been able to make contact with anyone for information on this. Allen offered that he has a contact there.

Closing

A motion was made by Kathy Sellers to adjorn the meeting at 3:10pm.

Kathy LaFrana seconded the motion, motion carried.

Respectfully submitted by
Sandy Lapp

Note:

Annual Audit

This was not discussed at the meeting (due to a senior moment), but the annual financial audit took place on February 17th. Kelly Anderson and Sandy Lapp reviewed the books with Kathy LaFrana and verified them to be correct.