On the 2006 ballot the members were given the opportunity to approve an amendment to the MFTHBA Bylaws adopting Regional Representation.  This addition to the bylaws was passed by a significant margin.  However, members filed a lawsuit to stop implementation of Regional Representation because the plan as written did not meet the basic principles of United States and Missouri election laws.  In the final analysis the judge agreed that the plan was poorly written and did not meet legal standards.  Additionally,  the judge ruled that MFTHBA could not implement an amendment to the bylaws because we did not have bylaws.  Thus we lost the suit and MFTHBA was instructed to develop new bylaws.

Here’s briefly the bottom line:

1. Bylaws must be approved or the Association will not be able to implement Regional Representation.

2. Without bylaws the Association will not be able to develop rules that will withstand legal challenges.

3. The bylaws as written have been reviewed by several attorneys with varying legal backgrounds.  They all agree these bylaws as written meet federal and state law.

4. Keep in mind bylaws establish legal foundations they are not rules, policies or procedures.  The very nature of bylaws are to be somewhat vague so clarity can be established through effective rule writing.

5. Frankly, there are some portions of these bylaws that I would like to see modified but the wording; for example, has been based on legal advice.  In many cases, we have no choice in the design of these bylaws.

6. Please go on-line and review other horse associations and look at their bylaws; they are very similar and if some cases worded exactly as ours are.

7. Rejection of these bylaws will have long term negative consequences for the Association.  Without bylaws we will be unable to fix the many problems with our rule book.  The failures in our rulebook were determining factors in MFTHBA losing many thousands of dollars in unwinnable lawsuits filled against the Association over the past several years.

Without bylaws and effecive rules MFTHBA is adrift on the waters without a rudder.

Please consider your vote carefully.

Jim Wood

This entry was posted on Saturday, September 22nd, 2007 at 3:50 am and is filed under MFTHBA Board. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.