The Tri-Arabian
Horse Club is
located in
beautiful Helena
Montana
NEXT MEETING -- Sept 2nd at Ellen Taylor's - 2740 Lincoln Rd Helena 6:30pm
Tri-Arabian Club
Minutes, July 8, 2008
Attendees: Juli Muscutt, Amy Palmer, Liz Dagnall, Sheri Heffelfinger, Drin Becker.
We discussed preparations for the Pioneer Cabin Ride (PCR) and the need for water troughs and one or two tanks to transport water to the troughs.
The inventory we have so far is:
Troughs
Julie 6
Drin 2
Sheri 1
Liz 2
TOTAL 11
Tanks
Drin has a tank she will donate to the club, but we need to figure out a way to get it up here.
We talked about contacting Murdocks for more.
Amy said we should all keep track of our mileage for doing club business regarding the PCR. If the ride makes any money, we will try to do reimbursements for gas money.
Amy reported that the Fairgrounds will open their showers for riders starting at 3 p.m. Saturday afternoon and keep them open all night.
We then discussed prizes and Amy reported that Helena Trailer Sales (HTS) was going to provide a $200 sponsorship for prizes and will bring some trailers out to the finish line for display. Julie and Amy reported that they had gone to Montana Marketing and selected some canvas bags that could be given to the top 10 of the 25-mile ride using the HTS sponsorship. We would have Montana Marketing put the HTS logo on one side and the PRC logo on the other.
Drin would make pot holders for the completion awards. Amy offered the idea of plastic rider card holder necklaces as completion awards or for everyone who enters. The estimated cost would be about $200 for 50 card holders, not counting putting a sponsorship or rider logo on them. Drin’s voiced concern about the costs and Amy indicated the rider card holders could be done only if a sponsor was found.
Julie talked about canvas visors for the volunteers that were $2 each at Walmart and that for another $2 each, the PRC logo could be put on them. Drin said it would be nice to do something for the volunteers but that she was concerned about the cost to the club when it really wasn’t necessary.
Amy talked about getting 2 cases of water from Van’s Thriftway and 2 cases of Gaterade for the volunteers, as well as providing the volunteers with the meals.
Amy reported that Starbucks was willing to provide coffee and that she will follow-up with them. Corral West also had been approached to sponsor something at the ride, but they wanted a letter. They indicated a willingness to sponsor about $200, which perhaps could be used for the Pioneer Lucy twirly gigs..for the 50-mile top ten. Corral West seemed content to simply put up a banner rather than needing to have their logo on the prize.
We talked about the prize committee being Louie, Heidi, Linda, and Colleen.
We went back to talking about the volunteers and determined that we had 26 volunteers at the last ride.
Amy said she would do a budget for the next meeting.
We then talked about the vets and determined that Taunia Fife and Bill Brown are the confirmed vets so far. Sheri will talk to James of Capital Large Animal again, but she reported that the last time she had talked to James, he was noncommittal and leaning against it.
We talked about collecting coolers from everyone so we could keep water and drinks cold for the volunteers and the vets.
Our next discussion focused on the trail course and we discussed a sketch by Julie showing the proposed course including distance and terrain. Amy said that for the rider map it would be nice to have a clean and simple grid with the key features, such as gates and water, noted on the course line. Drin indicated it is also nice to have a narrative of directions to each key point, something like “2-miles to gate”, “.5 miles from gate to the water”. Amy said we could have the map on one side and the narrative on the other.
We talked about the work that needed to be done to clear and mark the trail and the need to ride the trail for time. Julie said she would be off work for four days every other weekend (Sat, Sun, Mon, Tues) starting July 19, and that those days would be good times for all of us to do the trail work and that perhaps we could camp there overnight, too.
Most of us are able to make it the first weekend in August.
We then discussed arrangements for meals. Drin and Liz indicated that the Canyon Creek 4-H Club had expressed an interest in doing the Saturday dinner as well as concessions starting Friday night. Sheri will follow-up with them.
Julie talked about payment and lodging for the vets, saying that last time, we paid $500 for the vets and that the head vet got more than that.
Amy reviewed the list of sponsors or potential sponsors so far.
Sponsorship List
Helena Trailer Sales $200 for 20 Canvas bags with their logo for the 25 mile top ten
Region 6 AHA $200 for volunteer food and prizes
Starbucks 5gal coffee for Saturday morning at 6am. Cups and condiments
Nature Trail Picture Frame
Jorgenson's Two nights at the motel
East Helena Rental 5 tables and 20 Chairs
Vann's Thriftway two cases of water
L&C Fairgrounds Saturday night showers
Amy handed out a letter we could use to approach additional sponsors. She also suggested approaching gas stations for gas cards.
Ideas for sponsors:
Realtors
Town Pump or other Gas Stations
Grocery Stores and Fast Food places for food for volunteers
Office Mart and Staples for copies
Restaurants for Dinner Certificates for the Landowners
Anyone who could contribute a door prize.
Drin provided a handout showing the donated prizes she had:
Vettec Equi-Pac/applicator gun & tips
Julie Suhr TEN FEET TALL STILL book
Redmond Salt 98 of their 50 lb bags of salt
The Australian Connection $25 gift certificate
Running Bear 2 x $25 gift certificates
Donated samples for riders
Schriener’s bottle of herbal solution
Mane & Tail product samples
Redmond Salt small salt shakers
(Plus lots of catalogs for rider packets)
Amy reported she had 13 rump rugs from last year and would talk to Montana Marketing to see if they could change the date somehow. She also reported she had two Lucy twirly gigs from last year.
Drin asked about the AHA money. Amy reported Region 6 gave us $200, which covered the cost of the insurance for the endurance clinic, and that there will be another $200 from Region 6, which we could claim after the ride, which could be to cover the cost of food, etc., for volunteers.
The meeting adjourned at about 8:30 p.m. -->
