Sep 2, 2025 | NCDCTA BOD Meeting - Virtual
Attendees: Amy Brumbach Heather Turner Ellie Balakrishnan Heather Boyer Charlotte Meli Ali LaTorre Katherine Thornton Absent: Jordan McKenzie-Solis Helen Ingersoll Amanda Delgado Mandi Martyn Lisa Chisholm Will Barrus
Vice President, Amy Brumbach, called the meeting to order at 7:11pm.
Reports:
- President Report: Helen Ingersoll
- Ribbons came in for Harvest Moon and the High Point (Western Show and schooling show championships). Heather has a list from Cassidy. Eventing ribbons did get ordered, but others were priority/rushed.
- Vice President Report: Amy Brumbach
- Volunteer Card Horses: 89
- Other member information of interest
- Other Horse Information of Interest
- Volunteer Card Information
- Outstanding Volunteer Cards: 2713
- We are assuming we will get last minute tickets for festival auditing. Currently sitting at 11 tickets.
- 31 entries for Harvest Moon, but expect more to roll in by closing date (Saturday). We could push to Sunday if we really had to.
- 6 formally applied and paid:
- Correct Connect, CV dressage, Kikis Secret Garden, Silver Mane Equine Bodywork, Fair Chase, BEMER Horse Therapy with Elizabeth Ball
- A few others are interested but have not formally applied/paid. Royal Equine and M&M should be vending as well.
- Treasurer Report: Heather Turner
- Showing balance of $48,378 this month. Income increase is mostly via Strip payment (Festival payments, Harvest Moon, and L Program).
- Hiccup with Wild Apricot so we can transact with the website instead of third party.
- May need to change the merchant type on our PayPal account. PayPal assigns the code based on NCDCTA’s description of business.
- Volunteer Report: Charlotte Meli
- We have heard from 7 or 8 riders that are in the festival willing to volunteer around ride times.
- Amy will connect with Lisa and Mandi to go over what exactly we can all do at the festival.
- Heather B is working on two more volunteers for the weekend.
- Sponsorship Report: Heather Boyer
- In communication with different sponsors to get a collection of banners.
- Heather will bring her banners to the horse park on Thursday. Amy will plan to be there by two, and riders are not allowed to arrive until 4pm.
- Gala Report: Ellie Balakrishnan
- Katherine introduced Amy and Helen to a friend who was on the board of the NCDCTA previously. Helen suggested we honor lifetime achievement at the banquet.
- Wondering if we have thought about a keynote speaker (is it within budget?).We could offer free ticket in exchange for their time and participation.
- Heather T says we did a lifetime achievement years ago. We believe there was a speech, so if they are comfortable with it that would be fantastic and a good way to keep the audience engaged throughout the evening.
- Katherine suggested that we think about alternating or nominating service providers each year to increase ticket sales.
- If you nominate someone for an award, you are willing to buy the ticket for someone who comes (so cost does not fall to NCDCTA).
- Will mentioned concern about the HOY numbers being on the low side with the self-reporting so we may want to take that into consideration.
- Communication Report: Lisa Chisholm
- Continuing to build out our new website, terms/conditions, etc.
- Next up: build out individual pages and permissions.
- Pushing out our newsletter deadline to the end of September to allow for content from the Festival to be used.
- Lisa will figure out 1:1 calls to go over feedback on the website.
- Delays in deadline on website launch, but hoping for November.
- Eventing Report: Katherine Thornton
- Meeting with Margaret Crevar for logistics planning for Eventing Championship
- Emailing folks qualified for Championships to encourage participation
- Will ALSO send Festival info to this mailing list
- UNDERWAY – “one pager” describing benefits of membership
- UNDERWAY – ongoing FB Groups posts to encourage membership
- NOT YET STARTED - Begin process for “Organizer Standards” program based on USEA Organizer Committee work (via CT LT team…. )
- Ongoing Discussions USEA Area 2
- Get Area 2 eventing championships at CHP –
- Connected with USEA to solicit the bid for the Area 2 Champs at CHP for 2027
- Sent email to HT organizer at CHP to make that bid (have sent this THREE times with NO response…)
- UNDERWAY – written interview with Woodge/David – potential 2026
- Ongoing FAQ emails to stimulate membership
- Sent FAQ#1 , #2, #3 with good response
- Started FB posts – “Why Combined Test” (Future topics include: Benefits of NCDCTA membership; Why school XC?)
- Beginning education campaign about CTs and their value to encourage beginning and aging competitors
- Drafted second newsletter article, “Moving up isn’t necessarily the point” for eventing
- Activating Social posts – very effectively!
- Katherine is now focused on eventing championships and how we can get people motivated to rejoin NCDCTA as eventers.
- Katherine emailing people who are qualified for championships to encourage participation, answer questions, etc.
- Moving towards including western part of the state in competitions.
- War Horse reached out about getting membership certificates for all first place prizes. If we are giving them a certain number of dollars, they should owe us the same $ in return. We should ensure equity in the partnership.
- Heather T reminded us to keep in mind we (NCDCTA) still need to pay USDF in membership fees.
- Could we work over the next year to develop an internship program to provide extra assistance for our board members around events or functions.
- Dressage Report: Ali LaTorre
- The L Program has 23 people signed up, and we have room for 7 more. Hoping to get a few more signed up after Heather B’s talk at the festival.
- Ali will send out the schedule and program to members of the board for review.
- Lisa is not able to come down on Friday, so may need to do some finagling to get social media up and going. Seeing if we can get Mandi to get people on board with tagging NCDCTA on social media, etc.
- Jr/Yr Report: Mandi Martyn
- Membership Secretary Report: Will Barrus
- Membership numbers and communication are current. Numbers are slightly below 2024, but only by about 10 members and 20 horses.
- HOY will be updated this week and will include submissions up to 8/30/2025.
- Progression on the website has been slow, but will pick up this week and continue through the end of September.
- A more complete picture of the website will be available for the board to review around the end of September.
Next meeting: October 7, 2025 @ 7pm - virtual
Amy adjourned the meeting at 8:12pm.
Minutes taken by Ellie Balakrishnan, Member at Large, and submitted by Jordan McKenzie-Solis, Recording secretary.
**Minutes passed by majority Board vote.
