TableDancer
Well-Known Member
Well, S_C, it certainly looks like you have a mandate to go forward with! However, I do think the name is critical so I'm hoping we don't rush into anything - even though it's a work in progress the working title is very influential as it will inevitably dictate people's reactions when they first hear about the idea, and it can be hard to change those initial perceptions once they've been formed.
As someone said on the other thread, BEF is no good as confusing but personally I do think the British bit is important. I also think Riders is important as that is the interest group you plan to represent, but I feel very strongly about steering away from any term like "Grass Roots", "Amateur" etc - these tend to exclude important categories of rider who we want to include. To me, this organisation should be for ALL British riders who want a voice, so certainly not to exclude anybody however grand. In reality, of course, the grandest ones 1) Have a direct line to the top anyway and/or 2) Don't seem that interested, hence the demise of PERA. But I'd like to think we'd be able to embrace riders like, say, Wiggy Skelton and Helen West to name a couple of professional but not truly grand riders. The key point is that if we have also embraced (lotta hugging here
) all the real grass roots riders, they will be swamped by numbers so the organisation's perspective will be truly representative of BE membership in a way that ERA hasn't managed to achieve.
British Event Riders' Association (BERA
)
British Eventing Group (BEG! perhaps not...)
Someone else help out here
As someone said on the other thread, BEF is no good as confusing but personally I do think the British bit is important. I also think Riders is important as that is the interest group you plan to represent, but I feel very strongly about steering away from any term like "Grass Roots", "Amateur" etc - these tend to exclude important categories of rider who we want to include. To me, this organisation should be for ALL British riders who want a voice, so certainly not to exclude anybody however grand. In reality, of course, the grandest ones 1) Have a direct line to the top anyway and/or 2) Don't seem that interested, hence the demise of PERA. But I'd like to think we'd be able to embrace riders like, say, Wiggy Skelton and Helen West to name a couple of professional but not truly grand riders. The key point is that if we have also embraced (lotta hugging here
British Event Riders' Association (BERA
British Eventing Group (BEG! perhaps not...)
Someone else help out here
