Jan 6, 2026 | NCDCTA BOD Meeting - Virtual

Attendees:Helen Ingersoll Amy Brumbach Heather Turner Jordan McKenzie-Solis Ellie Balakrishnan Charlotte Meli Heather Boyer Ali LaTorre Katherine Thornton Mandi Martyn Lisa Chisholm Absent: Will Barrus

Helen called the meeting to order at 7:03

Helen read the NCDCTA Charter.

NCDCTA BOARD TEAM CHARTER:

• We the board of the NCDCTA hold the following values as guiding principles to carry out the mission of our organization.
• To educate, promote camaraderie and recognize achievement in dressage and eventing.
• Respect, Humility, Patience, Self Awareness, Supportiveness, Accountability, Listening, Generosity, and Helpfulness
• Communication that is: Clear, Flexible, Ongoing, Supportive, Constructive and Safe while celebrating brave efforts to question and disagree.
• Decision making that is shared. Roles that can be flexible and board members that are engaged, present, and share appreciation for and with one another, freely.

Reports:

President Report: Helen Ingersoll

Amy and Helen to connect on Thursday (1/8/26) regarding 2026 competitions

Amy will reach out to Portofino

Incoming education chairs (we will be allowing two individuals for both positions) and/or Katherine will touch base with FENCE for Level 1 show in July

Incoming chairs for 2026 have been chosen; meetings will be held prior to gala to keep everyone up to speed

Heather T, is there anything you need from us to support you for the annual report you will provide?

Heather: not yet, may have questions but for right now we are good

Vice President Report: Amy Brumbach

Membership numbers:

Membership

50 Junior/Young Rider

219 Adult Amateur

67 Open

336 Total (224 on 1/6/2025)

Horse Registration

56 Paid

15 Volunteer Card

71 Total (126 on 1/6/2025)

Membership numbers are higher than last year by over 100 at this point in the year

Horse registrations are down due to changes in how they are handled and a late December rollout of the process

Will and Amy have been getting people on Facebook page struggling to renew, so people seem to be getting stuck. Once they get to the right place, things turn out easier

Treasurer Report: Heather Turner

Balance as of 1/6/2026:

Checking $42,975.73

Savings $1,595.94

Show Acct $1,000.00

PayPal $2,772.13

TOTAL $48,343.80

Showing a balance of $48,343.80 in our accounts (up from $44,728.88 last month)

Now receiving payments through the website!

Payments coming in for gala tickets, Memberships and horse registrations

Prizes and ribbons for Gala are paid

Preparing for 1099s (due 1/31/26)

Preparing for 2025 taxes and handover for new treasurer

Volunteer Report: Charlotte Meli

We made a donation to both the eventing and dressage team at NC State, so they will be more than happy to help us out with volunteering this coming year

Sponsorship Report: Heather Boyer

2025 Super Horse Award

This award celebrates horses who not only master their level but also serve as true ambassadors for their sport – growing our community through their presence, quality, perseverance, and unique personalities.

The Super Horse Award is designed to honor equine excellence in four categories:

Traditional Dressage

Western Dressage

Horse Trials

Combined Tests

Eligibility:

Dressage/Western Dressage: 5 scores from NCDCTA events

Horse Trials/Combined Tests: 3 scores from NCDCTA events

Minimum average score: 67% (inverse scoring for Horse Trials/Combined Tests)

Nominators will answer 5 short questions explaining why their horse shines in and out of the arena. These responses will be graded on a point scale.

Asked sponsors for Winter Solstice whether or not they wanted their sponsorships forwarded or built upon for 2026.

Heather getting positive feedback on the naming of her sponsorship tiers - yay!

Two modifications: Heart Horse level provides 4 tickets each (2 slots), and the level below has three tickets (3 slots), with the goal of these slots totalling two tables if all sponsors attend. If all sponsorships get maxed out and filled, we would be responsible for 3 tables at the gala (with 25 seats).

Tasida’s in kind donation would be a form of a raffle at the following HOY gala for a brand new saddle!!

Sponsorship email sent out to 78 people; naming big names drew in more people to the table.

Gala Report: Ellie Balakrishnan

Projected to take a loss on this year’s gala primarily due to repurposing of the awards for Winter Solstice towards the gala prizes (and those prizes were pricey)

If I remove the cost of the 72 prizes ordered initially for the show, we show net profit of $1,000

For reference, total prize costs are almost $10k, where last year this was about $5k.

Adding fourth place prizes was a minimal cost difference (totaled about $200 including shipping).

Can show budget if needed but the projected loss with current revenue is: -$3,900 (including a $3,500 miscellaneous budget for printing needs, JJ accomodations/travel, and flowers/certificate holders/etc., board/sponsor/awardee ticket meal costs).

No President’s Award

MC for the evening: Helen will start, plan to let someone take over for awards portion

Updates on which lifetime achievements are coming to the gala so I can plan the gift bags.

Beth McCashin/TTC

Bridget Gibbons

Raffle prize spreadsheet in process

General updates:

Asking Michelle if she can put together some small gifts for us with remaining in-kind sponsorship money (for JJ, volunteer of the year, lifetime achievement, etc.)

Gabriella Hulsey will be receiving volunteer of the year

Volunteered at the Equine Festival

Helped me at the gala last year with setup and tear down

Will be helping me again at this year’s gala, and helped me with prize sourcing (which will be utilized for future gala’s, too)

Stacy Quarenta (spelling?) will receive volunteer of the year award for L Program

Shoutout Ali for completing the program; Will and I will review prior to sending for printing

Will is doing certificates

Will be printing sticky nametags, the stuffing/status quo process is just time consuming and tedious

Heather looked into if we have tax exemptions on service costs and it appears not

Current registration count: 247

Plan to give Mandi ornaments for 5-8th place

We now have a sewing file (.DST) on a thumbdrive from Marsha. I will add to drive, but this digitalization cost us $70 so we should leverage this in the future if possible.

Communication Report: Lisa Chisholm

"2026 kickoff" newsletter for our members ahead of the NCDCTA Gala signup deadline

Opportunity to educate on the new website, membership signup process, calendar, etc. and promote events early in the year - Gala, L program, among others

Functionality on website: got it to minimum viable product for launch

Should we begin social media shoutouts for 2026 sponsors

Eventing Report: Katherine Thornton

Learned a lot this year and thought a lot about what we can do better for the eventing community in 2026.

First goal is communication, which should go hand in hand with the website updates

Need to put pictures of eventing results on our media

Heard from many people who were at eventing championships that they were excited about the possibility of recognizing combined tests as well; it seemed eye opening for a number of people.

Nobody seemed unhappy about not receiving medals this year; figure we will propose to find a more robust way to do championships to replace that program.

Dressage Report: Ali LaTorre

L program: next one is at the end of February. Not a lot of auditor signups, so we should shout out at the Gala.

Plan to continue with EventCreate for L program

We may need to renew month to month until we finish out that program; Amy will look into that

Jr/Yr Report: Mandi Martyn

Junior scholarships given out for 2025 Winter Solstice will be rolled over

Last year, we sponsored a pizza party at a schooling show up in Virginia (2-day show). Got Jennifer to become an NCDCTA member and put their show on our calendar, because we would like to sponsor a team of three to four riders to go to the show. It would be between $645-$860 total. Formal proposal to come following the gala.

Membership Secretary Report: Will Barrus

Website:

Website launch has been a success.

Horse registrations are now online.

Membership renewals have increased by 50% over this time last year.

Each board member can now edit their web pages directly without going through the membership secretary.

POLICY UPDATE: Junior riders under the age of 18 will not be displayed in the online directory.

Ongoing issues: Newsletters need to be added to the website. Historical HOY needs to be added to the website. Online forms need to be refined. Bottom page navigation needs to be expanded. Advertising needs to be discussed and implemented.

Rules and terms to be updated to line up with the new website protocols.

Competition Recognition

The online calendar is up to date

Working with the Eventing Chair to get Windridge and FENCE on the calendar.

HOY

2025 HOY was final as of 12/12/2025.

2026 Competitions have been loaded into the HOY reporting form.

2025 HOY Reporting Form has been renamed "HOY Reporting Form".

2026 HOY will be more stringent in adhering to rules; specifically the 10-day submission rule. A 5-day grace period is anticipated, but anything submitted after 15 days will be rejected. The 10-day self submission needs to be included in every newsletter and HOY-related communication.

Out-of-State Eventing reporting form will be updated to mirror the HOY Reporting Form.

Miscellaneous:

Will work with Communication Chair to put together a January Newsletter focused on HOY/Rules/How To, Membership How To. Website How To.

Develop online brochures for "HOY Rules and How To", and "Membership Benefits & How To".

Next meeting: 1/24/26 @ Gala

Helen adjourned the meeting at 8:25

Minutes respectfully submitted by Jordan McKenzie-Solis, Recording Secretary.

Minutes passed by majority Board vote.