BE members - what would get you to vote?

[SpottedCat]

Timefaulter - yes they did.

I am writing a synopsis of the AGM for EWW now (well, as soon as I log off here anyway

)

 

[PaddyMonty]

[ QUOTE ]
Timefaulter - yes they did.

I am writing a synopsis of the AGM for EWW now (well, as soon as I log off here anyway

)

[/ QUOTE ]

Ooops I meant 21% increase. 18.27% was admin cost as % of sales.
Let us know when you have written it please.

 

[TableDancer]

I emailed BE on this subject this morning - having agitated slightly yesterday I thought probably I owed it to them

Anyway, if anyone is interested, this is roughly what I said (Ihave left out a few bits where I mentioned names etc) Apologies if it's completely boring and just ignore this reply...

Text of email goes like this: "...I just felt, following our brief conversation about encouraging rider involvement, I should give it a bit of thought and come up with some suggestions - I hate people who just snipe from the sidelines! So here is my two penn'orth...

Rider "apathy" is borne from a mixture of the following factors (some or all of which apply in most cases):

Lack of time - lifestage means usually juggling job/young family/studies/horses/relationship, meaning every hour of the day is accounted for, often several times over.

Sense of distance (alienation?) from the centre of BE, a feeling that the workings of the centre have little relevance to their lives, and even if they do, they are powerless to change things (I'm not saying this is true, I'm saying it's what people tend to feel)

Lack of understanding of the voting processes, how they work, what they mean, what is the point

Flock mentality (Baaaa...) - riders don't get involved, so riders don't get involved - there is nobody riders see as a role model who is leading from the front and showing the way on this.
Given the above, I suggest the following as possible ways to improve rider participation:
1. Make voting much easier, and be more pro-active about encouraging riders to vote. On-line voting definitely (I realise this is out for next year but it should remain an aim), but even paper-based voting could be easier: There was no way to download voting forms off the website if you had lost your original one, which EVERYONE would have done - how often do you keep the loose papers that come with magazines? There was no reminder on the website to get your postal ballots in in the last few days, or why that might be an important thing to do. K has suggested ballot boxes at Burghley, but indeed every autumn event could have had a ballot box and voting papers at the secretary's tent, with the lovely ladies giving out numbers bullying riders to fill out a form - why not give the event which returns the fullest ballot box a couple of bottles of wine?! Perhaps this will require a change in the articles, in which case fine, start the process now, and explain to riders what the change is you are planning to make and why. Which brings me to...

2. Make the voting papers much more user-friendly. I am aware of the need for the legal stuff but we need a plain English translation, NOT drafted by lawyers but by your PR/Comms team to explain and sell the concepts to members. Even Richard C, in his very well-circulated letter, fell into the trap of making it far too complicated for the average member. However, what he did do was leave readers with an impression that they were being bounced into something which was not necessarily to their benefit, which was arguably all he needed to do! I worked for a while for Merrill Lynch in retail investment marketing: this was heavily regulated and there was always a tension between what the lawyers wanted us to say and what we felt the market would understand/relate to, and we learned to come up with communications which satisfied both criteria. It seems to me that the lawyers have the upper hand in your case...

3. Use the riders over whom you have some influence, ie those with funding, to act as role models and encourage involvement from the other riders. Where were our senior and indeed lower level riders at the AGM yesterday? I realise they have busy lives (don't we all ;-) ) but they take BE money and therefore have certain obligations. If you and Yogi were to introduce a three line whip to those riders who receive funding in any way (World Class Squads and Teams, who have had at the very least subsidised training and travel) requiring them to attend the AGM and perhaps certain other rider-relevant meetings, I suspect other riders would soon show more enthusiasm about getting involved. Going back to the Weston experience, I am pretty certain that, if you had adopted that approach at Weston and ensured the opinion-formers attended, you would have had a better response.

4. I have just seen the survey with the invitation to members to get involved in discussing with BE how best to communicate - this is a great idea, and could be extended to other issues like the class name changes etc. Perhaps you could have some sort of riders' forum (I don't mean an internet chatroom here) which feeds into these debates, and ensure that some of the riders I mentioned above are involved in in this. It would not have powers and would not be a Committee (dreadful word) but would act as a sounding board and communication channel between riders and the centre. This is really building on the idea you had of regional meetings which I don't think went well, but it may be that the idea was good but the execution not quite right..."

THat's it - congratulations to anyone still awake, and if you hear a large collective snore rising from Stoneleigh right now you'll know I've managed to put them to sleep too

 

[lucretia]

Gosh! i have to say i particularly agree with your third point about making some of the riders participate. its not a lot to ask and the season is finished when thy hold the AGM and i think you will find a few of the chosen are being dragged (no doubt kicking and screaming) to the BE Ball........ funny how their busy lives can fit that in then.

 

[Gamebird]

Wow Tabledancer, you must have been hiding your light under a bushel all this time! Fancy a job on the committee?

(out of interest did you put the smilies in the BE e-mail too? - that would have brightened their day up a bit!

).

I'm definitely in favour of team riders and lottery-funded riders finding half a day in their busy post-season schedules to participate.

I would probably vote too if it was put under my nose at an event.

Such good ideas, how come you're not Prime Minister?? (not intended anything like as sarcastically as it sounds either).

 

[kerilli]

nice one TD, i'll even forgive you for killing my thread!

last time i went to an AGM (years ago) a lot of riders were there, including those who had just won team medals, and there were presentations to leading horse's owner, leading rider etc. do these now happen at the BE Ball instead?
i'll be very interested to hear their reply to those excellent points raised. good for you!

 

[lucretia]

yes they do so that is one reason why they dont bother with the Agm.

 

[Zebedee]

Was the subject of the Exo Cage & the apparent BE generated misinformation about it raised?
(Not a member of BE so unlikely to find out from anywhere else !!)

 

[lucretia]

yes i would like to know that cos wasnt spotted cat going to ask them a question about it?

 

[TableDancer]

Thanks for kind comments GB and K

- if I had any light (it was probably just a reflection) it's back firmly under my bushel now and you wouldn't want to go poking around in there

Z and Lu, yes S_C asked an excellent question about BE's attitude to research into crush protection for riders, given that it will never be possible to eliminate rotational falls completely by course/fence design. ME-S answered and it was rather glib, saying that it was a question of priorities (what does that mean and what is more important than saving lives?) and it was never BE's policy to endorse specific products (what about the frangible pin??) He had obviously prepared his answer in advance as they had required T to submit the question in advance. When none of us came back at him he looked relieved and carried on - perhaps we should have been quicker to reply but we all froze slightly

I think it was important to raise the question in a formal, minuted forum like that but in reality any real progress will come more from behind the scenes lobbying as they are so careful what they will say in front of the press etc. Iain Graham (I think - Chair of the Safety Committee) came for a chat with T afterwards and he is clearly well-meaning but I couldn't help feeling he was possibly falling for lines he was fed by parties with vested interests, eg BETA. I felt the "Can do" attitude which ME-S was fond of talking about (apparently that's what they are trying to establish at BE

) was somewhat lacking but maybe I'm not being fair... We will watch and wait, in a pro-active way

 

[Zebedee]

Thanks for replying in such detail. Much appreciated.

 

[MagicMelon]

Id definately rather have online voting. Not fair having voting on a stand at Burghley as many of us dont go (especially North of the border!!).