UPHA Young Professionals Committee Discussion at the Convention
Monday, February 6, 2017
The UPHA Young Professionals met Friday afternoon during the recent UPHA/ASHA/AHHS Convention in New Orleans for a discussion entitled “History Is Now: Actively becoming involved in the industry through participation and communication." The discussion was led by committee chairs Ethan Roetman and Samantha Pellerin.
The group talked about the need to encourage more young professionals to take charge of the saddle horse industry that is being left to them. “We don't need to sit by idly and think about "the good ol’ days" when we need to be creating those memories for ourselves now,” said Roetman.
Education of young professionals is paramount in having them become more involved. Nobody will feel a need to be dedicated to an organization that they know nothing about. The UPHA has done, and will do, everything it can to assist the professionals, participants, and horses of the show horse world.
The group discussed the importance of utilizing available resources to their advantage. Social media and educational materials are easily available and should be used to positively promote our breeds by educating the public and by showing only properly turned out horses.
Roetman added, “Many of us attend horse shows in conjunction with fairs that draw large crowds and every one of us has some form of social media available to us, so we must police ourselves to always convey the right message.
“Currently Lynda Freseth and several other individuals are redoing Tom Moore's booklet, ‘The Show Horse’, and that will be a wonderful educational option for us to be able to present to interested parties.”
With an emphasis on education, the young professionals are going to assist the convention planning committee to provide several round-table discussions at the 2018 convention. Many of the topics will be designed to help educate young professionals about general business practices for owning and managing their own farm along with a variety of other subject matter that will benefit everyone attending the convention.
Also at the convention next year the young professionals will have the opportunity to include more events on the agenda for their group in addition to the traditional main meeting.
Ideas should be submitted to Ethan Roetman or Samantha Pellerin or one of the chapter representatives: Chapter 1: Brandon Jones, Chapter 3/4: Keen Behringer, Chapter 5: Julianne Rafferty, Chapter 6/7: Avery Bül/Scooter Scheurich, Chapter 8/17: Marie Bouvet, Chapter 9: Ethan Roetman/Kelly Self, Chapter 11: Danelle Howser, Chapter 12: Grant Shiflet, Chapter 14: Devon Gagnon, Chapter 15: Hilary Wilcox, Chapter 16: Jessica Saft/Sarah Russell, Chapter 18: Kim Hayes, Chapter 19: Kayla Wooters, Chapter 20: Lauren Greenwald. If your chapter does not have a representative and you are interested in the position, contact Ethan Roetman (651) 271-4917 [email protected].
Young professionals are also encouraged to visit the UPHA website which will be updated with current information and contacts for ways to become more involved.
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