Checking in at registration
Chinch, Stephanie and I are in Lexington this weekend for the USEF Convention. After a late flight in to Lexington, we picked up our badges this morning.
After breakfast, Chinch and I attended the Board of Directors meeting. Derek di Grazia and Michael Pollard were both in attendance due to their roles on the board.
The early portion of the Board of Directors meeting was focused on the financial activities of the USEF and the Treasurer’s report. The big take away from the Board of Directors meeting was that despite the collective wisdom of horses being nothing but money pits, the USEF is doing well financially.
One other highlight from the Board of Directors meeting was a discussion surrounding cyber security. The board is well aware of the need to protect the member data. Currently, USEF seems to be doing a solid job of this.
The big attraction for today is the town hall meeting on coaching, which begins at 1 p.m. EST. The USEF is looking to develop an effective coaching system across all disciplines at all levels. This would be a system that recognizes coaching as a professional career, establishes certification, a development process and support for coaches.
The USEF also recognizes a need for certified coaches to meet a “standard of expectation” across the board. This effort is not about regulation, but instead establishing certification that recognizes coaches that demonstrate sufficient skills and an appropriate knowledge base to draw from. The concepts as they are currently outlined are quite interesting and should bring about some robust discussion during the town hall meeting. We’ll have more on that later.
Tonight features the Pegasus Awards. The Pegasus Reception starts at 6:30 p.m. EST, followed by the awards dinner at 7:30 p.m. Tonight, Helena “Lana” DuPont Wright will be among the honorees, receiving the USEF Lifetime Achievement Award. In addition to winning a medal at the Pairs World Driving Championships, she was the first woman ever to compete on an Olympic eventing team. Excuse me while I have a total fan girl moment.
If you’re in town for the convention, be sure to come by and say hello!
