May 8, 2025
Greetings everyone,
The past sixty days since the PHBA National Convention have absolutely flown by. I was planning to write this letter 30 days after convention but the days just kept ticking by. It was so nice to see many of you at convention this year, especially since I had to miss the 2024 convention due to COVID. I thought convention went really well this year. The meetings were very productive, the evening events were a lot of fun, the food was excellent and the Webb Dalton Band was fabulous Thursday evening. Thank you Carmen O’Donnell for providing this great entertainment for us. The live and silent auctions were very successful. Thank you to all who donated and/or purchased items. As usual, our members really come through and bring an amazing array of items to bid on. The awards banquet was especially nice this year; having Russell as the “MC” was something new this year and he did an excellent job! Thank you all for taking time out of your busy schedules to attend convention and for participating in the committees to work on the business of PHBA.
Our General Manager, Shirley Stuart, deserves a big pat on the back for a job well done organizing her first national convention. She was on top of her to do list well in advance and made that huge job look easy. Thank you Shirley for all you do on a daily basis for PHBA!
I want to express special thanks to the Amateur Past Presidents who presented me with a lovely gift along with best wishes as I became President of PHBA Saturday evening. Also, a big thank you to the PHBA Past Presidents for the lovely plaque and good wishes they presented me with as well. It was truly overwhelming and means so very much to me. I was the 29th Amateur President for years 2014-2015 and am so lucky to be among the great group of people who share being an Amateur Past President.
The Executive Board has been extremely busy since convention. We are having bi-monthly zoom meetings and special zoom meetings as needed. We just met in Tulsa on April 28th and 29th where we ratified the actions of the National Directors as voted on at convention as well as a lot of other association business. I am so blessed to have the absolute best group of people to work with on the Executive Board. Thank you all for working so hard and being ready at any time to do whatever it takes to deal with all the business of PHBA! We are here to serve PHBA. You, the members, are PHBA; please don’t hesitate to reach out to any of us by phone or email with your concerns.
The Sponsorship Committee is really working hard this year as well. We have had monthly zoom meetings and get weekly spreadsheet updates from Shirley showing our progress. We have extended the advertising deadline for the World Show Program to May 25, 2025. The form is on the website or available through the office. It promises to be another beautiful publication this year so get those ads in! Check out the Coliseum Banner Sponsorship and our other levels of sponsorship. If we have your sponsorship by May 25, it will appear in the program.
Another major project for the EB this year is our new website. For those who don’t know, it has been in the works for some time, but had to be put on the back burner due to other pressing matters we had to deal with. One of our members, Melia Jones, has graciously offered her professional services to PHBA. Melia has already accomplished a lot of the “back end” work on the new site and we are working diligently with her to give her some help with photos and content. She is doing an amazing job; I think you will all be pleased with the outcome. It will be released in phases; the first phase being the “meat and potatoes” of the site, as Melia says. That’s the main headings and drop downs, information and forms. Melia also helps with our social media platform so we are striving to make improvements there as well. Thank you so much Melia for donating your services to PHBA! Anyone who has something they would like to share about want/needs of website or a special photo you would like considered to be on the website, please email them to me.
There honestly is so much going on at PHBA and excitement is building as the show season is in full swing and it won’t be long and we’ll be in Springfield for the 2025 PHBA World Championship Show. The first entry deadline is May 15, so don’t delay! Take advantage of the early entry savings!
You will be hearing from me more often. Good luck at the shows, enjoy all those cute babies I’m seeing on Facebook, enjoy a sunny afternoon trail ride or just sit on the porch and enjoy watching horses grazing in the pasture!
Stay safe!
The best to you,
Lynn Rohwedder, PHBA President ’25-‘26