WE Post: September 2021 E-News

Greetings from USAWE President Elect

September 2021 E-News
See all past President Letters: President's Letter

President’s Letter

By: Leslie Martien

Dear USAWE Members,

This is an exciting time for our organization. Nearly a year has passed since WE United and the Confederation for Working Equitation merged to form USAWE. As we begin our second election process with a call for candidates, it’s exciting to see the list of members who have been nominated to serve the organization on the Board of Directors. For a current list please go to https://usawe.org/election-information/.

Candidate statements will be posted on the USAWE website no later than October 15th. Please take the time to read each statement carefully and give careful consideration to each candidate. Reach out to the candidates and get to know them; their job is to do the hard work that keeps the organization running while supporting USAWE, its members, and the sport of Working Equitation. Do what you can to support them during the election process and during their tenure on the board. Get the word out and make sure you and your fellow members vote for the candidate(s) of your choice when the ballots come out on November 1st.

In other news, there have been several inquiries recently as to our 501c3 status. Here’s an update. The day I filed the paperwork with the IRS for USAWE to become a 501c3 organization I marked my calendar for 180 days later, near the end of August, the soonest the IRS said to expect a response from them. So, 180 days later I checked the status of our application only to find out that the application had not yet been assigned to an agent (apparently the IRS receives 95,000 applications for tax-exempt status each year)! When I called the number posted on the IRS website a recording said that “All agents are busy. Please hang up and call back another time”. After numerous phone calls it became very clear that getting through to an agent was very unlikely. Just recently I rechecked to website and, based on the date the application was filed, it looks like it has finally been assigned to an agent. It’s still not clear how long the approval process will take but with a little luck it will happen fairly soon.

Thank you for being a member of USAWE – keep an eye on you inbox and please remember to vote!

Leslie Martien
USAWE President

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