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?
- 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.
- 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.
- Educational Displays – We should also have the
opportunity to provide educational displays for your organization.
- 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
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