This message is from: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
In a message dated 9/5/99 10:17:23 AM Pacific Daylight Time, FofDFJORDS
writes:
Hello List,
I recently received this private email from Tom Hans. I am going to pass it
along to you along with my response to him. Hopefully this will answer much
of the recent dialog and questions regarding Evaluations.
<< I would like to take this opportunity to introduce myself- I am one
of
the newly elected BOD and very much want the evaluation process to proceed.
I am a Friend of Nancy Hotovy and have had many discussions with her about
the work that you and your committee are doing for the evaluations. I do
not yet have a copy of the "black book" but am waiting to see what you have
put together and want to let you know that I want to know what you are
thinking and what I as a BOD can do on your behave to get the evaluation
process rolling again.
I have not had time to read all of the discussion on the digest but would
greatly appreciate your input especially about the things that they are
discussing that you and your committee feel will jeopardize the evaluation
process as you see it. And what you would like to include that had not yet
been discussed.
>>
Dear Tom,
Thank you for taking the time to contact me. I started a response to you
several days ago, saved it as I got interrupted before I could finish. When
I retrieved what I had written previously, it was a jumbled mess so guess I
will start over. This will probably be a lengthy letter as I am going to try
to address most of the recent dialog on Evaluations that has been on the
forefront lately. My computer crashed right before all of the discussion
began. When I finally got this infernal machine back up and running, was
OVERWHELMED by the Evaluation chatter and the fact that I, as current chair
if the Eval. committee, was out of the loop during all of this!!
Let me preface this by giving you a bit of background information about
myself. I have served as a member of the BOD for 6 years (including one term
as vice pres.) and just stepped down last year as per our by-laws that state
one can only serve 2 consecutive terms. My first assignment when first
elected to the BOD, was to design a new color brochure for the Registry.
That is the one we are currently using.
I have served on the Eval. committee since it's inception and was primarily
responsible for designing the Western tests. Creating the American
Evaluation program was a monumental task. The Evaluation committee started
with a BLANK SLATE. It took quite some time to get this program to where it
is today. It required hundreds of volunteer hours on the part of every
committee member and it is still a work in progress, as I'm sure it will be
for some time to come as it is refined along the way.
This program was designed to meet the needs of Fjord owners in North
America. The European evaluation programs have satisfied the needs of
European Fjord owners, but needed to be expanded because they did not cover
all of the ways that we use Fjords here in North America, i.e., Western and
Heavy Draft.
As I look back through time at the big picture, I see the Evaluation
committee members as progressive thinkers, perhaps well ahead of their time,
compared to the majority of Fjord owners. I don't mean this in a negative
way, but rather a statement of fact since Fjords tend to attract a large
number of first-time horse owners.
I have always viewed this Evaluation program as a tremendous educational
tool for Fjord owners. I have seen a great desire and thirst, on behalf of
Fjord owners to learn MORE! What is GOOD quality? How does one tell whether
a leg is straight? What makes one head better than another one? Questions
like this are pretty basic, but I have been asked things like this over and
over.
By offering this Evaluation program, folks could begin to learn the answers
to these questions. I could foresee that 10 years down the road, we'd be
seeing better and better quality Fjords being produced here in North America
because mare owners would become more educated about QUALITY and therefore
should be able to make more informed decisions as to what stallion to breed
to, instead of, "He's close and he's cheap!" Don't laugh, sadly, I've heard
that one many times!
It has certainly been my privilege to serve with both the past and present
members of the Evaluation committee as well as Wayne Hipsley and Jim
Havelhurst. This committee has been composed of many dedicated, hard
working, selfless folks and it has worked like a well-oiled machine. I don't
mean that we didn't ever goof up, but when we found a wrinkle that needed to
be ironed out, we tried to fix the broken part.
Whenever there are numbers of different people involved in something from
all over such a vast country as ours, PERSONALITIES come into play. Guess
there's always bad along
