MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

TO ALL EPHPA MEMBERS:

As many of you know, every year around this time the EPHPA’s Board of Directors, which consists of EPHPA Officers, Tournament Directors, and Directors at Large, holds its annual meeting. The purpose of this meeting is conduct the business of our charter, which includes such things as setting the tournament schedule for the upcoming year, discussing initiatives, financial position and so on.

This year’s meeting was held on November 13, 2010 and one item of particular importance was discussed and debated. It involves our financial situation and is such an important item that I wanted to bring it to everyone’s attention now rather than wait for the general membership meeting in February. Briefly, since 2008, our charter’s annual operating expenses have exceeded our annual income. During that time, the shortfall has been absorbed by some of the income generated from our hosting of the 2008 World Tournament. However, beginning in 2011, that “financial cushion” will no longer be available, and, simply put, operating in the red is not an option for an organization such as ours.

Therefore, effective immediately, the Board of Directors, after careful consideration and discussion, has voted to increase the adult annual membership fee to $25.00. Please note that this five dollar increase pertains only to the adult membership fee; junior membership will remain at $8.00.

I want to assure all EPHPA members that the decision to raise the membership fee was made only after careful thought and debate. We discussed many alternatives to raising the fee including reducing expenses and/or reducing/eliminating incentive programs such as the Points Championship award money. In the end, however, we decided that elimination or reduction of incentive programs that encourage participation is counter-productive to our mission of promoting organized horseshoe pitching. I certainly hope that you, the members of EPHPA, feel the same way.

While the Board has decided to implement this change effective immediately, final vote for the change will be conducted at our general membership meeting, as per our Constitution and By-Laws. The general membership meeting is scheduled for February 12, 2011 at Mt. Wolf and I encourage you to attend.

Sincerely,

Dave Holliday

President - EPHPA