NVCEO

the Northern Virginia

Coalition of Equestrian Organizations

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Oct. 1, 2007
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October 2007 eNewsletter

2nd Annual Invitational Education Ride

As our community continues to rapidly change from a rural to urban landscape, the horse community will find us challenged more and more often.  Even with Northern Virginia being home to the largest population of horse owners in the state, we will be put to the test by the ignorance of non-horse owners who don’t understand the value and benefits of horse ownership, let alone the inherent property rights own horses.  Nearly 30 years ago the Virginia Horse Council began the Council’s “Legislative Trail Ride”.  This annual event has built an extremely solid relationship between the Horse Council and long time leaders in the Virginia Legislature.  These relationship have provided dividends time and time again to the horse community at large. 

 

Last year the NVCEO held its 1st Annual Invitational Education Trail Ride in the same vain as the Horse Council’s Legislative Trail Ride.  The mission of the NVCEO ride is to build similar relationships at the local and regional level between you, your organization and our local leaders in county governments.  Last year we had representatives attend from all four counties in our region, running the gamut from County Supervisors to representatives from Parks, Tourism and Economic Development departments and Planning Commissioners.

 

Our 2nd Annual Invitational Education Ride is only 1 month away and we need your help to continue this very vital program.  The cost for this event is approximately $1,700.  It will be once again held at the Marriott Ranch in Hume, on Sunday afternoon, November 11.  The Marriott Ranch will provide us a trail ride and luncheon.  This invaluable event is an opportunity for us to share with very important non-horse owners in the region’s county governments why we love our horses and our favorite pastime.  It is a non-pressure, low key event where we simply build those very valuable relationships.

 

How can your organization help and participate?

  1. Funding – The NVCEO is not a revenue generating organization.  We can only plan and organize these events and need funding sources to make them happen.  Funding for this event can come from either a direct donation from your organization or sponsorship funding from an equine business that you have a relationship with.  A minimum donation of $100 entitles your organization to participate in the event, and we highly recommend that you do participate.  This is how you will build those needed relationships with these key individuals.  At least two individuals from your organization will be permitted to attend.
  2. Educational Materials – We will put together a “goody” bag of materials for each of our VIP guests.  This is your opportunity to insert something to tell your organization’s story.
  3. Educational Displays – We should also have the opportunity to provide educational displays for your organization.
  4. Volunteers – We will need a handful of volunteers to help with the logistics of the event.  The event is tentatively planned for the afternoon on November. 11 and will last for 2 to 4 hours, depending on the activities the Marriott Ranch puts together for us.

 

October 17 NVCEO Networking Opportunity

This will be our next NVCEO Networking Meeting.  We have a very exciting topic and dynamic speaker scheduled.  Dr. Shea Porr, DVM, Virginia Tech’s Equine Extension Agent for our region will be presenting a discussion of the formation of the Virginia State Animal Response Team (VASART).

 

“Any Disaster – Any Animal – Any Time” is the motto of the Virginia State Animal Response Team, whose mission is to provide prevention, preparedness, response, and recovery for emergencies affecting animals.  VASART was created through a private-public partnership to serve as a unifying network of organizations, businesses, federal and state government agencies, and individuals that supports the prevention, preparedness, response, and recovery for emergencies affecting animals. Because disaster response needs to happen at a local level, VASART will build County Animal Response Teams (CARTs) across the state. County coordinators will be selected to lead the development of county teams consisting of volunteers who will respond to emergencies at the local level. Join your CART, or if one is not created yet, help us get a CART started in your county.

The goals of VASART include:

• To facilitate a rapid, coordinated, and effective response to any emergency affecting animals;

• To decrease the health and safety threat to humans and animals;

• To minimize the economic impact of emergencies affecting animals; and

• To prevent/decrease the spread of disease during emergencies affecting animals.

 

During our August 2006 NVCEO Networking meeting, Bonnie Clark, State Animal Response Team Director in Louisiana during Hurricanes Katrina and Rita presented to us “Lessons Learned During Hurricane Katrina”.  A lesson learned by us from her presentation was that the NVCEO should take a lead role in emergency preparedness for our region.  We are looking forward to Dr. Porr’s presentation of the formation of VASART and how you can be better prepared for “Any Disaster – Any Animal – Any Time”.

 

October’s NVCEO Networking Opportunity will also be a chance for you to gather around with other leaders from the horse community to share ideas and swap stories.  The meeting will be held at the Sully District Office of the Fairfax County Government, located at 4900 Stonecroft Boulevard in Chantilly.  You can find mapquest directions on our website at www.NVCEO.org.  Networking will begin at 7pm and the meeting will begin at 7:30.  The NVCEO will be providing refreshments.  Please bring your appetite.  This event is open to the public.  Anyone who is a member of any of the NVCEO organizations is welcome to attend for free.  Individuals who do not belong to one of the NVCEO member organizations are asked to provide a nominal donation of $5 to help cover the cost of refreshments.  So we can have a head count for the number of folks attending please email me at jeffshoup@comcast.net if you are planning to attend.  Meeting date again is Wednesday, October 17.

 

October’s NVCEO meeting will also feature the election of the 2008 Executive Board, consisting of President, 1st and 2nd Vice Presidents, Secretary and Treasurer.  We are actively seeking volunteers for these positions to serve a term of 1 year.  To be eligible you must be a current member of one of the NVCEO member organizations and be recommended by your organization to the NVCEO.  If you are interested in volunteering for the NVCEO 2008 Executive Board please contact me at jeffshoup@comcast.net or Marcia House, Secretary, at mhouse703@yahoo.com .  Feel free to email or call me at 703-402-3726 if you have any questions related to the roles and responsibilities of an Executive Board position with the NVCEO.

 

NVCEO Newsletters Debuted

At our last NVCEO Networking Meeting we outlined our strategy to take the NVCEO to the next level in our development.  Part of our strategy was to create two distinct newsletters, one newsletter for the horse community and one for the non-horse community.  The purpose of the horse community newsletter is to reach out to folks who are new horse owners to the area and/or folks that are not currently members of your organization.  The goal is to educate these horse folks about the exciting and vibrant activities available through your organization.  October was our kick-off edition of this newsletter.  We have partnered with the Virginia Horse Journal to publish our NVCEO newsletter.  Each month a page in the Horse Journal will be dedicated to the activities of your organization.  This is a chance to spotlight your upcoming events.  Each month we will submit your news and information to the Horse Journal to be published on the NVCEO page.  Look for October’s Horse Journal, out now, for this month’s edition of the NVCEO newsletter.  The deadline for submitting information to be included in the NVCEO/Virginia Horse Journal newsletter is the 9th of each month.  I am currently finishing up information for November’s edition.  If you would like something included about your organization please email to me at jeffshoup@comcast.net each month.  Please hurry for the November edition.

 

If your organization is a member organization of the NVCEO, your members are entitled to a free mailed subscription to the Virginia Horse Journal.  Horse Journals can either be bulk mailed to your organization for you to distribute at your monthly meetings or the Journal can be mailed directly to the members’ home.  This is a very valuable free benefit that you can offer your members.  If interested simply contact me at jeffshoup@comcast.net

 

Our second NVCEO newsletter is directed to educate the key influential non-horse owners in our community.  This newsletter is mailed to county supervisors and park authority representative, as well as parks, tourism, economic development directors and planning commissioners. An electronic version of the Fall 2007 newsletter in pdf format can be downloaded from our website at www.NVCEO.org , click on “Resources”.

 

We are currently seeking volunteers for our two newsletters.  If someone from your organization would like to help us with either of these newsletters please let me know.  The responsibilities are quite minimal.  Duties would include sending out email reminders of deadlines, and then compiling and organizing the information before submitting it to the Horse Journal.

 

Upcoming Events in the Horse Community

 

 

 

 

 

Northern Virginia Coalition of Equestrian Organizations, Inc.

P.O. Box 1971

Centreville, VA  20122-1971

Jeff Shoup, President, 703-754-4981

jeffshoup@comcast.net