Responses to Questions for the MFTHBA Candidates
By: Jim D Wood
1. I am a native of southwest Missourian and presently live on a 100 acre farm west of Springfield; near Ash Grove, Missouri, I am married to my life long friend, companion, and lover. We have two sons and two grandchildren; all of which also live in the area. Genie and I purchased our first fox trotter in 1976 and have enjoyed our horses on many trails over the past 30 years. We have also shown our horses in performances classes over the years. Additionally, we have had a very successful breeding program. We have had three world champion model horses and our most successful performance horse was Country Franks Autograph who was 4th in the 4 year old world championship several years ago. Presently we have 28 horses on our farm some are ours and we do board several horses fro friends and customers.
2. I have a BS degree from Missouri State University and hold masters degrees from both Missouri State and the University of Virginia. Upon leaving college I entered the business community working for three companies. Some of the positions I held over the years was Director of Product Development for a food processing equipment company, Corporate Marketing Manager of a machine manufacturing company. My last business position was as President of an office supply and business furniture company with 15 locations in 6 states. Upon leaving business I returned to my first love; teaching and I spent the remainder of my working career as a high school and college teacher. I taught Honors and Advanced Placement American History and Constitutional Law on both the high school and college level. And I coached both football and girls basketball.
Over my career I have served on many civic, professional, charitable and church organizations both locally and nationally. I have been a member of the board of directors of 5 difference companies. I have been on two national committees for curriculum development and was a member of the committee to develop national social studies standards. I was a member of the Mid America Horse Breed Association Board serving one year as President. I continue to speak and lecture to both business, charitable, and educational organizations on varying topics. I retired from teaching in 2004 and enjoy my grandchildren and my horses.
3. At this point I’m not sure what the statement “foal counts up where they belong” actually means. The more important question may be at what point does the theory of supply and demand enter into our thinking. The basic theory of supply and demand is that as supply goes up the price goes down; so we are either producing too many foals or there isn’t enough demand for our product. In a free market we need to develop incentives that will actually reduce foal production while creating new markets from our horses. Presently our foal production is out pacing the demand for our horses.
4. Effective communication is essential for our Association and is a basic principle of mine. If you will recall at the first 2007 board meeting I proposed that all important votes be roll call votes making all board members accountable for their actions. Executive Sessions were limited to matters relating to legal, personnel and real estate matters and that any actions in these meetings would be voted on in open board meeting; a stark change from the actions of previous boards. Also, when some board members voted to shut down the Members Only Site I fought hard to ensure this did not occur. Complete board minutes are now published in the Journal based on my recommendations. I have set of a BLOG at mofoxtrot.com/jimwood so I can personally communicate with the membership. Also, when the new website is operational it will provide another means of communication for the members.
5. Fair treatment and due process are essential for any organization and obviously this has not been part of our recent history. Please recall the Association was forced to settle three law suits because previous management and boards did not provide members due process. The result MFTHBA spent thousands of valuable resources defending the board’s actions. The primary means to ensure due process is to develop Bylaws that meet Missouri statutes and from that develop a rule book that is supported by our bylaws. This will be the bases for fair treatment. And was so determined by previous court actions
I have spent the better part of this year working with committees and attorneys develop an action plan that will provide the mechanism to support due process. I believe that the bylaws that are before the membership will address these concerns of due process. Without these new bylaws it will be difficult to enforce our rules because at any point a member can legally dispute our actions. Please seriously consider voting for the new Bylaws.
6. It is very difficult to do an effective job of educating the public about our horse with a limited budget of $50,000.00. Effecting advertising has its bases in repetition. In other words, constant presentation to our target markets. Unless we can find additional resources print advertising must be held to a minimum. Let me give you an example, this year we ran three ads in Trail Rider magazine and I also implement a means of tracking inquires based on these ads by publishing an inbound 800 #. We had only five responses to these Trail Rider ads; apparently, not an effective means of developing new markets.
I would suggest we focus our 2008 promotion resources on equine expos, fairs, and clinics. I also pushed very hard to develop a new internet site that will bring new interest and buyers to our association. This new site will be on-line sometime in November and I believe much of our future success will be rooted in internet marketing.
7. An area which absolutely needs improvement is better means of seeking greater input from the members. I would hope that in 2008 we can research methods of making our board meeting available live via the internet. My preliminary research tells me this is very possible. I will also recommend that we establish an Affiliate Relations Committee that once of it goals will be to seek and respond to affiliate needs and expectations.
8. I have been meeting regularly with publishers, advertising agencies, and potential advertisers on methods of improving The Journal. Several months ago I present a “mock-up” of a new Journal format. I am still pursuing this program but there are two major obstacles to overcome costs and improving circulation.
Improving the circulation of The Journal is the key to future success; corporate advertisers based their decisions on the number of subscriptions. For example, I have talked with Purina marketing people and their policy is not to advertising in publications with less than 10,000 subscribers cost of advertising was only secondary. So to secure their dollars we must improve circulation first.
Recently MFTHBA furnished the FFA with a model horse judging DVD that is currently being distributed to all the state chapters. The Mo Fox Trotter will be used in the equine judging curriculum and my hope is that we can furnish each of these chapters, FFA classrooms and event FFA student members with Journal copies thus increasing circulation. By the way this new DVD will be available to the general membership in November.
9. Of course, I would support and encourage “line meetings” with any member at anytime. Please refer to my record I have openly and candidly responded to any input on any topic. The only purpose of my BLOG is to create new environments so we can all maintain at higher level of dialogue.
10. I have no relative on the board nor do I actively socialize with other board members outside the typical Fox Trotter circle. I have known many of the board members for a number of years and respect many of them and consider them friends. However, I still maintain that there are deep divisions among board members and I truly wish we could resolve the issues. Personally, it bothers me greatly about the disgraceful rumors and accusations that have been spread about me but please not that I never say anything about people I deal with the issues.
11. We have procedures in place to deal with any inappropriate action by a board member or Association member. Those procedures essentially state that complaints must be made in writing to the board; these complaints are to be reviewed by the board and referred to the Ethic Committee for action. These actions by the committee are to be monitored by our attorney and all persons are to be provided due process in accord with Missouri law. However, the key to guaranteeing due process is bylaws and a rule book based on our bylaws.
12. The key to genetic integrity is based on scientific research and data. I am aware that Texas A&M is currently doing genetic research on horses and specifically the Fox Trotter and would suggest that MFTHBA begin open dialogue with that university. Also, we as an association must better define the fox trotter standard using empirical methods to determine the ideal fox trotter both genetically and physically.
13. I have heard many comments about the “problems” with the U. of Kentucky but I have seen no written report documenting these claims. I did have a brief conversation with the director of the UK lab and he stated that their quality control records reflect a 2% deficiency rate in quality control. He did acknowledge that the lead time was lengthy due to personnel issues. I did suggest at a previous board meeting that Gabby Moore take charge to determining the facts of this matter and to research other facilities. She is working on this and will have a report to the board shortly.
14. I have spoken to the office staff concerning registration issues related to horses “lacking the proper papers”. Apparently this is an issue that has not created significant problems; if this is a concern to members I would suggest those concerned prepared a report documenting registering problems and submit the information to the board for investigation. This is the first information I have heard concerning any registration problems.
15. My financial priorities are to develop a realistic budget that is a collaborative effort by members that have experience in the budgeting process and requiring the board to live within the established budget restrains. I did this year by establishing a committee of members that have the necessary skills. The results of our budgeting process the association has made a remarkable financial turn-around. Please refer to previous board minutes that will support my remarks. Priorities will change over time therefore allocation of resources will vary based on timely needs. As to a specific priority I suggest we place particular emphases on education this year; including current members and potential new members.
16. I would seek support of my financial proposals by collaborating with the board on developing these priorities in the form of an annual budget. I would publicly release this budget and seek member input. If you will review the 2007 board minute you will see that all financial information is made public and openly discussed. And for the first time the annual budget was made public; previously this information was not released.
17. Open communication is the key to seeking outside input. I will propose that the board form a new committee in 2008 call the Affiliate Relations Committee and one of the purposes of this committee is to seek input from members outside of the Missouri area.
18. Of course, I am in-state and will not be personally affected by this issue but I am presently on a board which meets monthly and the home office is in Denver and the obstacles of long distance communication is minimal. The key is advanced preparation; I am provided a minute manual which includes specific details about the various topics and the communication is through tele-conferencing. I do attend quarterly board meetings at the home office
19. I believe I currently provide updates although informally. The intent of my BLOG is to provide information about my performance to the membership. The board is accountable to the membership and must continually update members as to our individual performances.
20-21. I would like to combine these two questions. The primary purpose of any board of directors is to establish the mission, policy objectives, goals and procedures, and a strategic business plan. None of which are formally developed by the board. The current board is currently trying to micro manage the Association with limited success. The primary function of our professional staff is to manage the day-to-day operations and more power must be delegated to committees. I am in favor of granting more authority to committees and I have demonstrated this by the operation of the Bylaws and Rules Committee. This committee has done an incredible job of completing their task. The work was done by the committee and they kept the board informed on regular bases. The problem here, however, is finding willing people to do the work required and for the board to establish specific guidelines for the committees.
22. The key is not “when regional representation is in place” but if. If the bylaws are not approved we will not be able to implement regional representation; the membership must be aware that we lost a court case relating to regional representation and the Court has instructed MFTHBA that bylaws must be in place prior to implementing regional representation. That’s why on the ballot you will see that regional representation appears as a separate proposal.
23. Members need to hold their representative accountable for their actions. If the representatives don’t meet member expectation by their actions, addressing member needs and effectively communicating then vote them out of office.
24. There is nothing formally in-place to demand the board to do anything at this writing. If the regional representation is approved the ballot proposal will define board members duties. I would suggest you identify current board members actions and statements to determine where they actually stand on this proposal.
25. As you can see by my statement in question #2 I have considerable experience serving on other committees and boards but I must say I have never experienced the inappropriate attacks against people. The allegations are incredible. I have on my desk an e-mail that accuses me of “thievery” and “embezzlement”. I have been called a liar by some that I have never talked to. I have no idea how to resolve this kind of behavior but it is destroying the fiber of our Association. All I can say is that people involved in these personal attacks cannot identify their own accomplishments so all they can do is disparage the actions of others. If is an issues that will require individual responsibility and all I can say is that I have never attacked another member. I will only focus on issues.
26. I suppose if I were to have a preference as to how I would use my horses I would suggest trail riding. I was up before dawn this morning riding the trails on my farm and it was an experience I am daily thankful for; the morning sunrise gives me hope and inspiration. The way to ensure my sense of fairness is to judge my past service to the board. I have integrity and a desire to have two way communication. The advantage of the Missouri Fox Trotter is the capability the horse has to meet the individual needs of the individual owners.
27. I have long been a proponent of procedures for certifying the Missouri Fox Trotter. Procedures would need to be developed but the idea that a particular horse meets a specific standard of soundness, performance capability, etc. is an excellent idea.
28. I have no pre notion as to the value of sub-registries. However, I am passionate about protecting the assets of the MFTHBA and those assets are limited. The only assets we have are MFTHBA real estate and the horse registry and these assets must be preserved. If policies and procedures can be clearly defined, MFTHBA control over it records is preserved, and the sub-registries are working in concert with the MFTHBA I would support a continuing dialogue. Much depends on the missions and goals of the sub-registry.
