Greetings!
It has truly been a privilege to have served as Chairman for the League of Agricultural and Equine Centers. The League was created as the voice for agricultural and equine facilities in the United States. Our founding chairman, David Mott, started this group in 1997 as a forum for information-sharing and education.
If your facility is a League member, thank you! If you are contemplating joining your fellow facilities, I urge you to commit your facility and yourself to this group of leading professionals in our industry.
Facility suppliers and industry service providers, your membership is requested as well. Allied Membership with the League keeps your business up to speed on facilities, their needs and industry trends. League membership gives all of us an advantage that will pay dividends to our customers and communities. We currently have over 40 facilities on our membership roster located in 19 different states across the country.
The annual League Symposium is the ideal venue to experience what this organization can do for you. First held in 1999, this yearly gathering is the premier event for ag and equine facilities, their management, staff and industry representatives to gain new insights and build new relationships. As our membership gains momentum, we want to enable as many facilities as possible to have a presence at the Symposium. Our 2006 meeting was in Murfreesboro, TN. In 2007, we moved to the west coast and were hosted by the Los Angeles Equestrian Center in Burbank, CA. The Hunt Horse Complex in Raleigh, NC is the site for our 2008 Symposium. Look for more information elsewhere on our website.
The League Board of Directors is at your service to answer questions about the League and to assist you in your facility. Please feel free to contact any of us. I look forward to seeing our members and new members in North Carolina next January.
Regards,
Brian Dygert
Director, Immediate Past-Chairman of the Board
What & Why?
The League is composed of facilities that host and produce equine events and activities. The people who own and operate these complexes represent the center memberships. It is these people we are trying to accommodate. Our mission is to support and promote management personnel and maintenance procedures at agricultural and equine facilities. We are a primary resource for industry education, networking and advocacy for our members.
Our organization is a step removed but very much influential to the success and future of the equine industry. These facilities truly impact and shape the equine industry in this country. Originally the fairgrounds dominated horse activity and the equine world had to work around the fair industry. As most of us are aware, the fair industry is quite different from the equine competition world. Time, modernization, and the unification of the equine industry have begun to change the shape, means and methods by which the horse world functions. We now see facilities focused on the equine industry, the very essence of what the League really is.
Why form the League and who cares? Horses will show and shows will come and go as everything else does! This is true, but the equine industry has some truly dynamic aspects, such as size, mobility, amount of activity, diversity and impact. One of the key factors to the success and growth of the equine activity industry is that it is not dependent upon a public ticket sale. Due to these unique dimensions, the League was formed as more states and more local areas look to venture into the equine event industry.
This creates another situation that has demanded the development of the League. Our focus is with the equine activity and will remain in this field as we explore the mission of the League and try to help ourselves help you! Horses are our way of life and we will continue to motivate the industry to handle the future.
Bill Chambers
Chairman of the Board
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