The National Reining Horse Association (NRHA) has announced a strategic plan to re-align the NRHA, creating a National Governing Body for reining affiliates and its members in the United States. This new affiliate organization is currently named Reining USA. The worldwide governing body for reining will remain under the name NRHA.

This strategic plan, endorsed by the NRHA Executive Board, was presented on February 16, to the attendees of the NRHA Annual Convention in St. Louis, MO. A final vote to approve the plan will take place with the entire NRHA membership in June of 2007. This affiliate structure will duplicate the existing structure currently used for NRHA International Reining Affiliates, called IAP (International Affiliate Program). In this structure, members join their National Affiliate Association, in this case Reining USA, and the NRHA. The National Affiliate pays the NRHA for services that include record keeping, judging programs, awards and marketing and communications. As a member of the IAP, the affiliate receives $20 back from each membership along with a 50% show retainage from the NRHA.

This plan is the result of the work done by the NRHA Strategic Planning Committee. The committee followed a classic planning methodology used by many major corporations. Dave Wilkins, Committee Chair for the Strategic Planning Committee said, “The Executive Board gave us the task to develop a five-year strategic plan that will guide the NRHA toward an aligned vision for the future with an execution plan that is actionable, achievable and affordable.”

One of the specific features of this re-alignment will include balanced elected representation from the respective membership of each affiliate. The NRHA and Reining USA will both have an Executive Board and a Board of Directors, elected by their respective members with representation being based on the number of members from affiliates in each country.

This strategic plan proposes a new mission statement for the NRHA to read as: “The NRHA is a non-profit organization dedicated to developing and enhancing the r eining horse industry world wide.” The plan requires a change to the NRHA by-laws and will be voted on by the NRHA members in June 2007. The by-law changes can be found on the NRHA website at www.nrha.com beginning February 19. NRHA members with questions or comments about the Strategic Plan, can e-mail their input to [email protected].

For more information, contact David Patterson, NRHA Director of Marketing and Communications, at [email protected] or (405) 946-7400.

ENDS
~~~For more information, please contact Maria Partlow, Senior Vice President of Marketing and Communications, at (859) 225-6941, or via e-mail at [email protected].