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Dear Fellow Members,

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It is with pleasure I give you my Presidents Report for the Annual General Meeting, 28th June 2025.

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       This year has been my first year as your President and it has been challenging, with some rewards.

 

       Firstly, I would like to welcome all new members and their horses to our association. Membership is the cornerstone to our survival.

 

Secondly, I would like to thank the people that have given me and our association their support throughout the year. This includes our Secretary, Cinzia Troiani and her partner Peter. There is a huge amount of work goes on behind the scenes that Cinzia performs and her assistance has been greatly appreciated.

Deanne Hosking, our Vice President. She has also been instrumental in her efforts to assist in the running of our organisation and I appreciate her help and advice.

To all our Federal Committee and a number of our individual members, thank you.

 

       To our State Branches, even with their smaller committees, I know they have put in huge efforts to still hold events, with some being successful and unfortunately others not. The lingering effect of Covid and financially stretched horse owners & members has still been taking a toll. 

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       One of our Committee's main focuses this year has been on trying to increase our membership numbers.

Hopefully, you have noticed some improvements to our website. State Branches now have a place to detail events and other items relevant to the States. Updates also to relevant information in the 'Fees & Forms' section.

More activity on our Federal Facebook page, giving you more information and articles appearing more frequently.

At the 2024 AGM, NSW Branch put forward a number of proposals of which two were put into action. One being the reduction in Associate annual membership fees and the second an amnesty on horse registrations, meaning no late fee charges. At this stage we have not seen any substantial increase in Associate memberships or horse registrations under the amnesty, which is disappointing.

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       We have also set about improving our system of data and fee collection using the Nominate System. This is still to be operating yet, through no fault of our own. Hopefully once running both members and our Secretary will find ease of transactions and recordkeeping better than our present system.

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       Finally, on the topic of declining membership. I have had one email on this topic from Councillors, since my request at our last Council Meeting.

       I feel going forward into the future this still should be our focus for our newly elected Federal Council. It should also be a focus for Branch Committees.

     

       Items for consideration:-

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• To welcome PRE owners and breeders. There are potentially 200 - 400 PRE owners and breeders who could become members. If we come together and work as a team, this could provide the boost. Both groups need to overlook past disagreements and look to the future for the sake of the Andalusian breed in Australia.

• Another example is to hold educational sessions such as seminars, information days or exhibition and training days to promote the breed.

• Bring back the hardcopy of our AHAA magazine 'Salto al Cielo'. Before the last physical Federal Council Meeting in Sydney a survey was sent out to members and one of the questions was, did members prefer a hardcopy or electronic copy of the magazine. Over 70% wanted hardcopy. # This comes back to a question I get from some members "What do I get for my membership?"

• National Shows brought back in, changing states every year. Even though very few horse owners travelled interstate, we tend to get an increase in entry numbers.

• Continue with the NSW AHAA Branch State of Origin Champion Challenge. This is where the Champions at each state show enter into a virtual show against each other to be crowned National Champions for that year.​

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       The other option is that we do nothing. What's the phrase, "Keep doing the same thing and nothing changes" Membership numbers keep dropping.

       This could mean we just become a Registry and nothing else!

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       In closing, I ask you as members, please attend our AGM on Saturday 28th June at 2pm. You are AHAA and we need your involvement.

 

I thank everyone for their support over my term as President and hope you and your horses enjoy the rest of 2025. 

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John Whalan