July 13, 2016
Board members present: William P. Brewer, Mary Lou Griffin, Nina Hagen, Dana Halvorson, Dr. Duane Hopp, Debra Pabst, John Parker, Keith Swagerty, Candice Tollett, Jennifer Webber and Steve Zerda. Absent: Tim Floyd. Staff present: M. Anne Sweet.
The meeting was called to order at 12:30 p.m. at the WTBOA offices by President Halvorson.
Previous Board Minutes: Minutes from the June 17, 2016, meetings were presented and reviewed. Webber moved to approve the minutes as presented. Pabst seconded the motion and the minutes were approved.
Finance Committee Report: Treasurer Pabst reported that the association’s finances are on track. Income is about $6,000 over budget and about $8,000 less than last year at the same time. Expenses are about $2,000 under budget, but about $10,000 over last year. This includes a one-time fee of $4,000 paid to The Jockey Club for development of the online Stallion Register pages.
There was no financial impact as a result of the address change (from Emerald Downs Drive to Ron Crockett Drive NW), due to the fact that the staff prints letterheads and envelopes in-house on an as-needed basis.
The move of WTBOA banking and savings accounts from US Bank to Bank of America is in progress. There is a meeting scheduled with Bank of America representatives and staff to discuss the timing of the transition. [It was decided that the period of time between the date of the meeting and the date of the sale was too short to easily implement the change, so the changeover will begin after the sale around the first of September.]
Northwest Race Series (NWRS): Committee chairman Pabst reported that one late extended nomination in the amount of $5,000 was received prior to the May 31 deadline for a two-year-old of 2016. This brought the total available for 2016 to $126,129 with $125,000 having been committed for the 2016 series. This year’s NWRS stallion nominations were the lowest ever, but the stallion nominations for ensuing years are all higher. The first two-year-old races for this year will take place on the upcoming Sunday, July 17, with the Angie C. and Emerald Express stakes to be run on that date.
Sales Committee Report: Committee chairman Griffin reported that the sale is in good shape with 114 summer session yearlings nominated, as well as five mixed session yearlings, six broodmares and one stallion prospect. There are some nice sires represented. Consignors should be reminded that The Jockey Club registration papers, Coggins tests and EVA reports are due two weeks prior to the sale. There is a sales committee meeting scheduled for Wednesday, August 3.
Publications: Sweet reported that the summer/sale issue of the magazine has been mailed and the sales catalog is in progress. There will be a publications committee meeting following the sales committee meeting on August 3.
Washington Horse Racing Commission (WHRC)/Emerald Downs: The Association of Racing Commissioners International (ARCI) will be having their summer meeting in Seattle, July 13-15. They will be holding a Town Hall meeting at 2 p.m. on July 13 (today’s date) in the Emerald Room at Emerald Downs. It is free and open to industry participants.
Annual Membership Meeting: The Annual Membership meeting will be held on Saturday, July 16. The Jockey Club will be sending representative Andrew Chesser to talk about microchipping and online registration.
The schedule for the meeting will be as follows: 3:15 p.m. a no-host bar (provided by Emerald Downs); 3:30-4:00 p.m. WTBOA business meeting; 4:00-5:00 p.m. The Jockey Club presentation and questions; 5:00 p.m. dinner buffet (catered by Emerald Downs); 5:00-6:15 p.m. dinner and continued discussion/social hour (no-host bar closes at 5:45 p.m.); 6:30 p.m. Emerald Downs first post.
Breakfast at the Wire: These programs will take place every Saturday during July and August and will be held near the finish line. We will have representatives there to talk about the sale and answer questions on three dates: Hopp and his wife Sue will be present on July 23; Halvorson will be present on August 13; Swagerty will be present on August 20.
Board Nominations: Incumbent Hopp has accepted to run again, as well as the following nominees who have accepted: Jim Engstrom, Henry Leong, Greg Luce and Roy Schaefer.
New Business: Sweet reported briefly that she had received a phone call from Andrew Chesser and Matt Iuliano from The Jockey Club. They are moving toward implementation of the use of digital registration papers and they are reaching out to the various stakeholders for input. They may wish to schedule a meeting with Washington and/or regional industry members later in 2016 or early 2017. Sweet commented to them that from the WTBOA perspective, one concern would be that we hold the registration papers after the sale until payment has been received. Chesser and Iuliano stated that this concern had been expressed by others as well and that their intent would be to establish some way in which the digital registration papers could be held or locked until payment was received and then would be digitally released.
It was also reported that staff member Julia Wolters will be leaving the association now that she had completed her degree. She will stay through at least the end of September to get through the sale and the sale bookkeeping and to hopefully help train a new employee. Sweet will send out a copy of the job description. It is hoped that we can find someone with an interest in horse racing who would stay long term.
Next Meeting Date: The next meeting is scheduled for Friday, September 30, 2016.
The meeting was adjourned at 1:25 p.m.
September 30, 2016, Meeting Minutes
Pending approval at next meeting
Next Meeting
Wednesday, November 2, 2016
