I belong to the United States Dressage Federation -- which is the "National Affiliate Group" of Dressage people (riders, trainers, teachers, etc.). The organization has been given the primary job, amongst other things, of coordinating the pipeline of people for the US National Equestrian Team -- i.e., the people who go to the Olympics to represent the US. (This is an over simplification but let's go with it.) It is also the "premier" organization which tries to coordinate the training of the trainers/teachers, oversees the competitions (along with a "step-parent" organization, the United States Equestrian Federation).
In other words, the USDF is attempting to be the "Go To Organization" for Dressage -- a sport which makes the money we spend on Scuba look like pocket change.
Guess what -- the issues are almost exactly the same! The Board doesn't listen. The Board isn't responding to the needs of the members. The dues are too high for what we get in return. The Board is too insular. The Organization isn't doing anything positive to grow the sport. The Organization isn't using the Internet to capture new people. (Actually, in 1999 the Organization's BB was THE "Go To" place for people throughout the world to come and discuss issues -- the "ScubaBoard" of Dressage -- but due to Y2K issues, the Organization decided rather than upgrade its BB, it would drop it because it didn't want to be bothered with all those people!)
I've been involved with the governance of the USDF for 5+ years now and have been pushing one issue for 4+ years -- transparency in governance. After 4 years, 4 Conventions, too many meetings to contemplate, too many emails to count (and too many "Peter is a PITA!" comments), it looks like the Organization is finally going to, at least in theory, open up according to my origninal proposal. Quite frankly it took working within the system, and working without the system, to get this done. And this includes setting up a parallel communications system for communicating with the Delegates (we have an Executive Board which is elected by the Delegates who are elected by the general membership) which REALLY pissed off the Organization and the Executive Board.
Sometimes it takes a very squeaky wheel to get things done AND it takes a long time and continuous followthrough by the squeaker.
While many of you (DEMA members) have been squeaking, I think you need to think in a much longer time horizon. I know you are up to your a$$es in alligators, but the goal is still to drain the swamp.
Go ahead, and fend off the 'gators for now, but please, don't forget you need to continue to work on draining the swamp tomorrow, the day after and the year after that.
Just my always, and ever so humble, opinion and advice.
