September 2017 Meeting

OHA General Membership Meeting

September 23, 2017

At OHA

 

Old Board Members Present: Kirsten, Wakean, Heather, Page, Linda, Sally, Anna

New Board: Wakean, Heather, Page, Linda, Sally, Anna and Diane (Diane wasn’t present)

Next Board Meeting: October 4, 7PM Anna’s House; 264 Castle Hill Ranch Road, Walnut Creek

 

Welcome:

  • Heather kicked off the meeting around 12:30, and everyone present introduced themselves, how long they’ve been at OHA and their horse
    1. Thanks to the Board (Heather)
      1. Kirsten – Vice President, for filling in for me, organizing work parties (and food!), doing lots of follow-up work after Board meetings
      2. Page – for being Treasurer, filing our required tax forms, checking the OHA mailbox.
      3. Wakean – for being EBMUD liaison and coordinating the AGP projects, not to mention doing a ton of work himself
      4. Anna – For being secretary and getting the minutes out quickly, and for leading emergency preparedness work.  You may not be aware – during the recent fire in Tilden Park, Anna had organized many trailers to come to OHA if evacuation was necessary
      5. Sally – For organizing work parties and managing the Pond pasture which was especially challenging this year due to the hay barn flood
      6. Linda – for coordinating the BABT grant (with help from Anna and Wakean) and the Fire Safety grant (including work parties for that).  Brought lots of money to OHA!
      7. Erica – not on the Board, but managing our grazing rotation which is essential to our relationship with EBMUD and attainment of our tiered grazing credit which saves us money! This was a very challenging year with the crazy weather, requiring many changes.

 

    1. Thanks to everyone who helped manage OHA by taking on responsibility for a project and seeing it through.

 

  1. Overview of the Year (Heather)
    1. Accomplishments of the Year
      1. Renewed our lease with EBMUD for another five years
      2. AGP Capital Improvement Projects – mowing and pulling weeds, new heavy-duty fence charger, red barn structural repair
      3. Website redesign and improvement in security – thanks to Kim
      4. Updated OHA Rules and Procedures – thanks to Eddie
      5. Wrote proposal for and was awarded $2500 grant from BABT for improvements to the old stalls
      6. Added new members – Michael Bowen, Sarah Cohen, Sandra Backer, Larry Hunt – thanks to Cheryl and Eddie as membership coordinators and to members who served on interview committees
      7. Helped our horses survive the wettest winter ever, including making pasture management changes to deal with many pre-laminitic and/or overweight horses.
      8. All the usual tasks of running a horse pasture – herd moves, fences, plumbing, ordering and tarping hay, feeding, worming, etc, etc!

 

  1. Treasurer’s Report (Page)
    1. Overview of OHA lease payments and credits
      1. Checking – A little over $14093
      2. Market Rate Account: $10K
      3. Page will distribute budget via a separate email
      4. EBMUD calculates OHA’s lease amount annually based on a complicated formula involving the price of cattle on the Chicago agricultural market
      5. We can get credits to reduce what we pay
        1. Grazing credits – tiers
        2. Capital improvement credits
        3. Both combined, up to 50% of lease payment
      6. Annual meeting with EBMUD (Tuesday) to determine capital improvement projects
      7. Projects are memorialized in the Annual Grazing Plan, which also lists work EBMUD hopes to do, weed control expectations, protected species, etc.

 

  • This year EBMUD has signed off on our AGP (annual grazing plan), and we have renewed our lease for another 5 years. The only change to our lease was an increase in our liability insurance that cost us approximately $500 more per year.

Fall Vaccinations (Kirsten):

  • Parker clinic occurred, other clinics are scheduled. Members are required to attend.

Rotation Schedule (Erica):

  • This is our second year in Tier Three Status, and our ability to maintain the rotation schedule seems feasible. Erica provided an annual grazing plan proposal for this year that will be reviewed this week at the AGP meeting.
  • Comments from meeting participants expressed questions/concerns about the flexibility of the grazing plan when grass is rich, and horses need to be pulled off. It was suggested that Erica discuss this with EBMUD at the AGP meeting.

Feeding Schedule and Survey Results (Anna):

  • The current feeding schedule was shared at the meeting. Members who have signed up for dates are responsible to find substitutes. There are a few people looking for additional dates.

Feeding Schedule Link:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1M8UAyQWTqehO0bWRxatcLzm0XHOYaP-XNfZ2ZA-ZeuI/edit#gid=0

Feeding Schedule Feedback:

    1. 88.9%  of respondents got dates that worked for them (i.e. one respondent did not)
    2. 60% felt it was better than last year, 44% of the respondents felt the system was the same as last year
    3. Over 85% of respondents felt self -sign up works, and 89% were satisfied with the system

 

  • Written Comments:

 

    1. The instructions were helpful, and the tool was pretty straight forward to use
    2. Anna was helpful
    3. The idea of self-sign up was well-liked, and is something we should continue
    4. There were requests to have greater visibility to who people were signing up with, and truck feedings were hard to decipher
    5. Members don’t think the system is perfect, there is room for improvement, we should continue to look for how to make the system easier to use with greater visibility/simplicity

Emergency Preparedness (Anna & Linda):

There are four major emergencies we need to be prepared for:

 

  • Horse injuries: Know the herd

 

      1. If you find a horse injured, you are responsible to help the horse, and find the owner or vet
    2. People Injuries: It is important to know the signs of a concussion, and never hesitate to call 9-1-1- for someone.  See the email Anna sent with concussion information , and become familiar with the signs of concussions.

 

  • Fire/Evacuation:

 

      1. Recently we learned a lot with the Tilden Fire: Anna lined up enough horse trailers and 4 trainers in less than 30 minutes to be on call in case we needed to load horses and evacuate. The board was on top of this, following the reports, and prepared to evacuate if it came to that.
      2. Sally coordinated a trailer loading day today to help horses practice loading.
      3. If you have a trailer – make sure Anna knows this!
      4. In a fire the “go to” place will be the ring pasture – this is the decision point where evacuation or fence cutting determinations will be made. In the event of a fire, do not go into the pasture to look for your horse, this detracts from the fire department’s ability to help us evacuate. If there is a fire – stay near the ring, and list to the President (or acting President) for instruction and guidance. We have the capability to haul out horses, and take them to several local facilities, but to do this would require tremendous cooperation and teamwork.
      5. Chip Your Horse: Bella was available to discuss the importance of microchipping your horse, and in particular in an evacuation this can help.  Your vet can chip your horse for ~$25, with little risk of side effects.  We are also hoping to plan a microchipping clinic in the coming weeks.

 

  • Quarantine – the recent laminitis issues tested our ability to deal with a quarantine type situation (i.e. Strangles, or EHV-1). We learned that we need to continue to explore where horses would go in an outbreak/quarantine situation.
  • Medical Supplies: We have recently refreshed and spent over $500 in medical supplies. If you use something, replace it or contact Anna to pay for it so that when an emergency occurs we’re prepared.

 

Proposed Rule Change re: Former Members on Waitlist (Heather/All)

Discussion postponed to next board meeting – below is a draft of the rule change under consideration:Proprietary OHA members, who after years of membership, decide to leave OHA (in good standing) and then later want to rejoin again will be given priority over those on the new member wait list. These folks will take priority over new prospective members, but after the second horse list.

The new rule would include the following terms and conditions:

  1. To be eligible, the departing Proprietary member should become an Associate member, and complete the requirements of being an Associate to remain eligible. If the members leaves, and does not elect to maintain an Associate member status, then they will not be considered eligible for this, and to rejoin they would need to apply and be placed at the bottom of the waitlist.
  2. The departing member would need to request that they be put on the waitlist at the time they terminate their membership.  They could not request to be added to the top of the waitlist at any other time.
  3. The departing member would be placed on the waitlist following any other former members who were previously added to the waitlist.
  4. The rules applying to declining an offer of a space would apply; that is, if a former member on the waitlist declines an offer of a space three times, they would need to reapply and would be placed at the bottom of the waitlist.
  5. The rule would apply prospectively, to any individual giving up their membership on or after the date the rule is adopted.
  1. Organizational Needs/ Priorities (Heather/All)

 

    1. AGP project priorities
      1. EBMUD’s criteria for capital improvement projects:
        1. Not include routine maintenance OHA is required to do under terms of lease: internal fences and gates, troughs, plumbing, electrical, buildings, corrals, etc.
        2. EMBUD refers to this work as “Long-Term Maintenance” in the lease – Needed no more than annually
        3. Promote improvement or preservation of the varied ecosystems on the property
        4. Not projects that are strictly for OHA’s convenience

 

    1. Organizational/Board priorities
      1. Projects that are primarily in the best interests of the health and well-being of the horses and secondarily for our own convenience or comfort.
      2. Facilities work that we want to do, that EBMUD does not consider Long-Term Maintenance or is not willing to fund.

 

Ideas were written on a flip chart and members voted for their highest and lowest priorities using colored stickers.  Results were tabulated after the meeting, and are as follows:

 

OHA Membership Project Prioritization
General Membership Meeting 9/23/17
Project Highest Priority Lowest Priority Score (Highest – Lowest) Possible Capital Improvement?
Hay Tents 14 0 14 Yes
Red barn repairs 14 2 12 Yes
LSR/USR Water source 8 0 8 Yes
Back 40 shelter 10 2 8 No
Grade road to Seaview 5 0 5 Maybe
New route to Pear Orchard 4 1 3 No
Scheduled maintenance of equipment 4 1 3 No
Repair fences bordering El Toyonal 3 0 3 Yes
Gate into Forest off Wildcat Rd 3 1 2 Yes
Rollers on bottoms of gates 3 2 1 No
Change No Corral to allow year-round use 2 3 -1 No
Pear Orchard holding corral 3 5 -2 No
Create small paddock in LSR 1 5 -4 No
Trail training obstacles for use in ring 4 16 -12 No

 

    1. A Task List  was circulated for members to volunteer for routine work that needs to be done throughout the year. The Board reserves right to reassign based on areas of need and member’s skills.  The Board will send out final list via email.  If you sign up for a job, you are responsible for it.  If you can no longer do the job, let the Board know, and find someone else to do it.

 

  1. General Reminders/Questions
    1. Dues were due September 15th.  Late fee if received after October 1st.  All members pay their dues now, including annual fee for associates and riding partners.
    2. Work hours are due at the end of the month.  Write them in the book in the white shed, or send via email to Page.
    3. Keep your EBMUD trail pass current – can renew online

 

  1. Board Elections
    1. Continuing:  Anna, Page, Sally, Wakean
    2. Term Expired:  Heather, Linda, Kirsten (hit term limit)
    3. Voting rules:
      1. Only proprietary members may vote.  One vote per membership (family), unless members of a family hold separate memberships (e.g., were admitted separately or a minor who aged into their own membership)
      2. There are seven Board members.  The membership votes for Board members.  Then Board members choose who will be officers.
      3. If we have a tie, we will hold a run-off election.  
    4. Diane, Linda and Heather were elected as Board members.
    5. New Board members gathered after this meeting ended, to discuss the meeting occurring with EBMUD on Tuesday and select the date for the first meeting of the new Board.