What a great weekend at Murray River Ride.
Congrats to Matt and Shanna Milne and all their team for a well run ride. For first time Ride Organisers you have excelled! Lots and lots of happy faces, plenty of newcomers and smiling volunteers. I am sure everyone enjoyed the track as much as I did from the comments I heard. If you'd like to provide some constructive comments on the ride or if you have any suggestions for improvements please use the Ride Review Form on the VERA Website. These comments will be reviewed by the SMC before being passed onto the Ride Organisers to ensure nothing derogatory or inflammatory is communicated.
The SMC have approved another ride for the VERA Calendar. Moyston ride will be run on the 14th & 15th September.
Ride distances will be 40km on Saturday and 40km and 105km elevated on Sunday. Ride details will be posted on VERA and AERA calendars in the next few days.
Thanks very much to Sioux Reid and her crew for putting on this great ride again.
The SMC would like to extend a very warm welcome to our new Committee member, Paulene Drew. Paulene is a relative newcomer to endurance who is keen to learn more about our sport and to offer some assistance at the same time. It’s great to have an extra set of hands to share the load. Please join me in thanking Paulene for putting her hand up and make her feel welcome if you meet her at rides.
One of the responses from the recent Member Survey was in relation to Best Conditioned only being for those horses who completed the ride in the top 5 places of each division. The respondee felt that this should be available to all horses who finished the ride successfully rather than just the fastest horses.
The SMC has put together the following information for members on the awarding of the Best Conditioned award as per the current rules.
There is a Best Managed award but it hasn't traditionally been awarded in shorter rides - it is usually awarded for the marathon events.
Probably the best way to see the Best Managed award presented at rides would be to organise a sponsor for the award and pass this onto the Ride Organiser. There are quite a few awards presented at rides now and sponsorship of another award would be very much appreciated.
The first Member's Survey has now closed and the VERA SMC will be looking at collating and analysing the data over the next few weeks. The outcomes will be presented to the next meeting of the SMC and an action plan developed to assist the Committee in addressing the most urgent issues that impact on our members.
Thank you to the 26 people who took the time to respond and provide your thoughts on our sport. Your input is very much appreciated.
The SMC has commenced its review of the responses received from the Members Survey. The responses were categorized and a count taken of the number of responses allocated to each category. The count and categories are:
The SMC would like to advise members that the handover to the new Membership Registrar, Sandra Feil, will be occurring today. Sandra's contact details will be posted on the website as soon as this has occurred. The email address will still be This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
Please help Sandra out during this transition period by ensuring your membership applications are submitted well ahead of any ride you wish to attend. This will allow Sandra plenty of time to process the applications while she still has her training wheels on. Thank you for your consideration.
Thanks to Kerrie Gabb for taking on the Membership Registrar role for the interim period on top of her role as Treasurer.
