President’s Letter

By: Leslie Martien

Dear USAWE Members,

As USAWE moves into the second half of our first year I am amazed at how far we’ve come and how much we’ve accomplished. But I’m also reminded of how new we are and how much we have left to do.

After spending countless hours in meetings last year with a wonderful group of dedicated people whose goal was the merger of the Confederation for Working Equitation and WE United, I must admit to being rather naïve about just how much it was going to take to get our new organization underway and fully functional.

Aside from the boring, nitty-gritty details like securing insurance and applying for our 501c3 status (still pending thanks to an apparently understaffed and overwhelmed IRS), we have discovered that it takes far more committees and committee members to run a successful organization than I had anticipated.

To add to the challenge, many of our committees are still not fully staffed; it takes time to find the right people with the right skills for the job.

While a willing attitude and a commitment of time are critical attributes, they aren’t always enough to write a computer program or develop an education module or a website. Many of the tasks require unique skills and time – often lots of time.

So, I’m asking you all to be patient. And to recognize that, like you, our committee volunteers have lives outside of USAWE – weddings, surgery, and horses to train, full-time jobs, emergencies, and countless other commitments.

As members, you matter to all of us a great deal – it’s why we do what we do. All of this is to say, if you don’t get a response as quickly as you’d like it’s not because you’re not important.

However, with nearly 1,000 members it’s not always possible to respond immediately. And if you don’t hear back, it’s okay to nudge us – we’re not perfect and (although we hate to admit it!) there are times when things get lost in the shuffle.

We are all doing our best for the organization and we continue to learn. If you have any suggestions, ideas, or time to help, we’d love to hear from you.

Leslie Martien
USAWE President
president@usawe.org

IMPORTANT COMPETITIONS NEWS

Approved Change in Licensed Show Structure

Of the 105 shows licensed for the 2021 competition year, only two are A-rated shows, both of which are tied to concurrent regional championships.

A-rated shows are more expensive to produce and are therefore not a popular choice with show organizers.

A proposal was submitted to eliminate A-rated shows for the 2022 competition year; the Board approved the proposal at their meeting on July 12th.

The result is that as of December 1, 2021, USAWE will no longer distinguish between B- and A-Rated shows; all non-Championship shows will simply be referred to as “licensed shows.”

The requirements for the licensed shows will be the same as for B-rated shows.

The Rulebook will be amended at the next revision cycle to reflect this change in show structure.

Proposed Change to Championships

Effective 2022

You should have received an email earlier this week describing a proposal for a change in the structure of Championship competitions and requesting comments / suggestions.

The Board will be considering this proposal at our July 26, 2021 Board meeting, and would love to hear member feedback on the different ideas shared.

Competitor Feedback

Licensed Competitions

Competitors, we want to hear from you.

We’ve added a Competitor Feedback button to the USAWE.org website’s Competitions page. Competitors can anonymously provide feedback to the Competitions Committee.  Feedback will be shared with competition organizers.  Feedback will help competition organizers know what is working well and what could use improvement at their competitions.

Please let us know how the shows are doing – the good things, as well as the things that could be improved.

We all have the same goal – to have high quality, well-run shows that everyone can enjoy.  We believe this is a step that will help us achieve that goal.