The U.S. Dressage Federation and the U.S. Hunter Jumper Association have scrapped plans for in-person annual meetings later this autumn and will go virtual, as they did last year
USHJA Executive Director Kevin Price said a survey sent out by the organization, asking members whether they would attend the December meeting scheduled for Charlotte, N.C., “highly favored a virtual meeting.”
The USHJA board in the days of an in-person annual meeting.
While USHJA leaders did take the survey into account, Kevin noted, “the general feeling was there is still a lot of uncertainty around Covid, especially with hosting in-person conferences like our annual meeting. In hosting a virtual annual meeting, we remove the potential health risks for our members, volunteer, and staff.”
The meeting will run virtually from Dec. 4-10.
Earlier this month, USDF President Lisa Gorretta sent an email to members announcing that her organization’s meeting, which was supposed to be in Houston, will take place on line instead from Dec. 1-4.
She cited “current events and an unusual amount of feedback” after “registration open” was posted on the website. Lisa asked for the opinion of those involved in governance, noting “It was quickly obvious that USDF leadership needed to reevaluate our (until now, definite) meeting plans.”
Playing into the decision was concern about the pandemic and surging of the Delta variant in Houston, as well as the financial impact and worries over travel, in addition to “the ongoing uncertainty.”
As Lisa noted, “In what will be our second and hopefully last experience in this realm, a silver lining may be that many, many more members will have the opportunity to attend and participate in everything the convention has to offer.
“The overall convention agenda should remain relatively unchanged, with the exception of some time shifts to accommodate all time zones as much as possible, and we will still be able to offer the ever-elusive conflict free schedule! We will add virtual opportunities through Meet the Candidates to listen to, ask questions of, and be comfortable in electing the leadership of USDF.”
U..S. Eventing’s December annual meeting in Albuquerque is still on at this time, as is the U.S. Equestrian Federation’s Naples, Fla., convention, set for early January.