All Member Meeting Follow Up

On Wednesday, February 23, Standardbred Canada hosted its Annual Member Meeting.  The meeting was a virtual event that saw 49 members registered.

The Annual Member Meeting received an update from Bill McLinchey, Chair of the Board; Dan Gall, President and CEO; and Predrag Kalas, Sr. Director of Finance & Administration.

Motions that received approval by the membership included:

• Minutes of the Member Meeting February 2021
• Approval of the 2021-2022 Audited Financial Statements
• Appointment of Grant Thornton as Auditor for Fiscal 2022-2023

Bill McLinchey, Chair of the Board, provided highlights of the work that the Board of Directors conducted in Fiscal 2021 which included: 

• Significant work of the board in reviewing and revising Standardbred Canada’s Five Year Plan 
• Ongoing review of current bylaws to ensure that that association remains compliant and current with bylaws for Not For Profit organizations
• O’Brien Awards committee reviewed and revised eligibility requirements including renaming the Driver of the Year category to the Keith Waples Driver of the Year
• Government Relations committee established first steps in developing an effective government relations strategy for the association and industry
• Breeders committee had significant discussion regarding the microchip program and other membership requests and issues
• Governance committee took an active role in establishing board assessments and overseeing governance issues of the board and the association.

Dan Gall, President and CEO provided an Association update which included:

• The Website Refresh; Why and how SC needed to refresh the website to ensure the association remained competitive and current with the technological upgrades as a refresh has not been done in over 15 years.  Continued work is being completed to address errors and concerns that were caused as a result of the major overhaul of the website platform. 
• Working with the Canadian Thoroughbred Horse Society on a funding application from the federal government to allow both organizations to develop a proper infrastructure for a traceability and identification program for the racehorse sector
• The monumental task of microchipping every racehorse in Canada by January 1, 2022  
• Development of a detailed plan with recommendations on how Standardbred Canada can protect data collection 
• Centralizing the newly created SC Racing Services department by utilizing employees at head office to create more efficiencies for racetracks and the association
• The Board approved the renovation of SC’s office space to convert the 18,000 square feet of office space into additional office space for potential new tenants
• Building a succession plan for the association by providing SC employees with leadership development and education with a 12-month leadership course
• Presenting to the board a business case on the GPS technology for future direction of charting horse races 
• The board approved that the association conduct a national survey on the racing industry that focuses on the economic benefits the sport brings to the government and provinces.  

Gall further reported that the board approved the following strategic tactics to be completed in 2022 by Standardbred Canada including:

• Continue to work on a Single Sign On platform to enable one stop access for members
• Conduct an internal review of the Staking Process 
• Complete the Office Renovation 
• Develop and release an Online Auction platform for the industry 
• Continue to review internal processes to become more efficient and effective as an association for the membership.
• Direct Deposit Expansion – if successful in launching Direct Deposit in Ontario look at other jurisdictions to expand this service
• Increase membership through innovation, awareness and introduce our sport to a younger demographic
• Promote and support the association’s corporate values of Honesty, Own It (accountability) Openness, Respect, Service to Others and Excellence within the organization  
• Conduct a National Economic study and develop a strategy to socialize findings to government
• Generate ownership opportunities within the industry 
• SC saw a slight increase (from 3,128 to 3,178) more mares bred by stallions standing year over year with increases in Ontario, PEI, Nova Scotia and Manitoba. 
• SC saw a 1.2% increase in overall membership from December 2020 to December 2021 with increases coming from primarily from the Atlantic, Ontario and Quebec regions
• Ontario leads membership in the under 17 to 34 demographic with 440 members
• Outside of Ontario the Atlantic region is sporting the most members in the under 17 to 34-year-old demographic followed by the Western and Quebec regions 

Questions from the Floor:  

What are the rules for drawing horses? 

• If the question is regarding preference dates (the date the horse last raced), certain types of races are based on preference dates.  Different provinces have different rules for what is a preference date so members will need to refer to their specific jurisdiction.  Horses that race the longest time ago take preference in the draw.  For any horse that has the same preference dates then they are randomly chosen to be included in the draw by the computer which chooses the horse that raced the longest time ago and/or randomly chooses the horse that has the same preference date and then does the draw for post position.  

  Are any changes coming to SC's TrackIT platform?   

• TrackIT platform is going to be upgraded and updated and will be a part of the Single Sign On project.  There are no dates to announce at this time.  

Freeze branding vs. Microchipping

• In 2019, the Board of Directors voted to move in favour of microchipping instead of freeze branding and agreed to work in unison with our American counterpart USTA due to the movement of our racehorses back and forth from both countries.  

Will SC freeze brand horses going forward?

• SC offers both freeze branding and microchipping.  Any member may have their horse freeze branded and microchipped if requested

Why wasn’t the issue of not to freeze brand put to the membership for a vote?  

• The Bylaws, approved by the Board, the membership, and the government, allows the Breeders Committee the latitude to make that decision.  As per SC Bylaw, Article 4.14, the Breeders committee has governance of Bylaw #2 and Regulation #2.  The Breeders Committee proposes amendments to Bylaw #2 which is voted on by and approved by the membership.  In Bylaw #2, Article 5 the Breeders Committee establishes the regulations for the individual identification of the horse which is posted in Regulation #2, Article #2 and the committee has governance of Regulation #2 that does not need approval of the membership. 

What is SC’s position regarding the “#IStandforthebrand”?

• This has been discussed at length in Board meetings. The Breeders committee met February 9 to discuss.  A point from the Breeders Committee meeting included solving the core issue in how to prevent horses from getting to the kill pen

Can Breeding numbers and other statistics be posted on the website?

• Many statistics including Breeding stats can be found on the website homepage under the “Racing” tab and clicking on “Statistics”   

The next Annual Member Meeting is scheduled for February 2023 with further details provided in the future.