USA Equestrian Meetings Open At Charlotte Annual Convention

USA Equestrian announced today that it has confirmed with committee
leadership that virtually all committee meetings at the Annual Convention in
Charlotte, NC, beginning January 9, will be open at least in part to all
Federation members in attendance.

According to Executive Director Lori Rawls, some concerns had been expressed
by members that too many of the meetings scheduled appeared to be closed
meetings. "As has been the case for many years," she said, "all meetings of
the Board of Directors and general sessions to discuss rule change proposals
will be completely open. However, many committee meetings may be closed at
the option of the committee, for private discussion, as had always been the
case. We have taken the added step this year of contacting all committee
chairs, to be sure that a significant portion of the committee meetings held
will be open to the membership for auditing, and almost all of them
indicated that was their original expectation. All chairmen will be
expected to notify staff of the portion of the meeting which will be open,
so that members in attendance can plan accordingly."

While most committees are leaning to opening all or most of their meetings
to auditors, some concerns were expressed over confidentiality, and keeping
conduct of the meetings organized. In particular, committees which take up
personnel, compensation, legal matters, confidential evaluations, or pending
disputes, may require a portion of the meeting to be closed. However, any
auditors in attendance at such meetings will be advised of the reasons which
make a closed meeting necessary, prior to its closing.

Should any member wish information about a specific committee meeting, a
list of committees and liaisons will be published in the near future on the
USA Equestrian website, at www.equestrian.org. The staff liaison is the
contact person for additional information

USA Equestrian Inc., as the National Equestrian Federation of the U.S., is the regulatory body for the Olympic and World Championship sports of dressage, driving, endurance, eventing, reining, show jumping, and vaulting, as well as 19 other breeds and disciplines of equestrian competition. As the country's largest multi-breed organization, the Federation has over 77,000 members and recognizes more than 2,800 competitions nationwide each year. It governs all aspects of competition, including educating and licensing all judges, stewards, and technical delegates who officiate at these shows.