Dressage Letters January 2020

CALIFORNIA DRESSAGE SOCIETY JANUARY 2020 V. 26, I 1 Region 7 Goes To Savannah USDF Convention - Savannah, Georgia – December 2-5, 2019 by Connie Davenport Once again, a reminder that this is an opinion piece with the writer taking full responsibility. Having said that, the writer admonishes the reader to first, not try to take a peek inside writer’s head and second, to not take offense because none is intended. . It has been 21 years since USDF has held its Convention in Savannah. In 1998, the CDS President was Peter Lert and our Region 7 Director was Pat Hart. As a point of reference, the advertisements in Dressage Letters all had phone numbers – no emails, no websites – for contact. Social media was blissfully non-existent. We were, however, still paying attention, but had to rely on print media and, of course, gossip for information on the issues to come before us at Convention. For a snippet of a review of that year’s Convention, see sidebar (USDF Convention 1998). Before the Committee and other scheduled meetings, I was asked to report to the Board of Directors on the progress (or lack of same) of the Competition Management Committee. I felt just like I was being called into the Principal’s Office – not that I ever have had that actual experience. Curiously, age does give one perspective. It was relatively painless. After surviving the Principal’s Office/Detention appearance, I attended two closed meetings on Wednesday. The first was the Technical Council on Wednesday evening, followed by that of the Competition Management Committee. Of the two, the Competition Management was the best attended and it had the most (politely stated) robust discussions. Due to the timing of the meetings, there wasn’t much choice other than to have dinner in the hotel, the first of several. This hotel was very nice – even grand in some ways – but it was a ferry’s ride away from Savannah’s main waterfront area where there are a bajillion options. We enjoyed the hotel’s food and lamented the prices. Committee Chair and Delegate Orientation Thursday morning started off with a Committee Chair and Delegate Orientation which I attended since I had not done so CONTINUED ON PAGE 4

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