First-ever virtual USTA District Meeting a success
October 13, 2020,Columbus, OH – On Thursday (Oct. 8), Chairman Joe Faraldo and the directors of District 8A successfully conducted the first-ever online, virtual USTA District Meeting.
The meeting included opening messages from USTA Executive Vice President/CEO Mike Tanner and USTA President Russell Williams. The remainder of the agenda included a discussion of and voting on 17 rule change proposals then a discussion with and a Q&A from district members.
Following are the results on the 2021 rule change proposals from District 8A:
Rule Change Proposal Result
Proposal #1 (Yearling price in program) Reject
Proposal #2 (Prohibit seeding of any divisions) Reject
Proposal #3 (Showing the number of claims on a horse) Reject
Proposal #4 (List of claimants; reason claim lost) Reject
Proposal #5 (Electronic draw details) Reject
Proposal #6 (Publish entry sheets online) Accept
Proposal #7 (Electronic draw guidelines) Reject
Proposal #8 (Driver choices prior to draw) Reject
Proposal #9 (Position of handholds) Reject
Proposal #10 (Hobbles – accurate program information) Reject
Proposal #11 (Nerved horses reporting) *Accept w/amendment
Proposal #12 (Gelding/spaying of horse reporting) **Accept w/amendment
Proposal #13 (Increase horse name – 18 to 20 spaces) Reject
Proposal #14 (Outside source approval of horse names) Reject
Proposal #15 (Ownership percentages recording) Reject
Proposal #16 (Syndicate member requirements) Accept
Proposal #17 (Sulky change submission requirement) Accept
*Adding underlined: It is the responsibility of the owner of the horse or the owners authorized agent to the report the date of nerving
**Adding underlined: It is the responsibility of the owner of the horse or the owners authorized agent to the report the date of gelded….
“We held the first Zoom (district) meeting today and I thought the format worked well exceeded only by the work of the USTA staff on setting it all up,” said Faraldo after the meeting. “Surely this will be a more economical use of resources and could result in larger numbers than we were getting at our in-person meetings.”
All the USTA’s District Meetings this year will be conducted utilizing the same format. For the schedule of remaining USTA District Meetings, click here. (Schedule subject to change)