I sent you a personal email response to your thoughtful posting, but I wanted to share some of my response with the general membership. Your comments were impactful. Many CDS chapters have seen memberships drop in the past two years, certainly a direct consequence of the Recession. CDS East Bay is unusual, as our membership has grown steadily over the past five years. We now number more than 500, and are the second largest chapter in CA, next to L.A. That said, the loss of every chapter members is a deep loss for us all. We value our senior members, and all that you have brought to the chapter over the years. CDS Membership is governed by the CDS Central Office and CDS (all CA) Board. As it stands, there is one membership fee for adults, one for Juniors and one for Lifetime Members. It pains me to think that we are losing valuable members because of the often tighter budgets associated with retirement. I have forwarded your query to the Central Office, and await a reply. I promise to get back to you as soon as I have more information.

Sincerely,

Amy Mezey, CDS EB Chair

I sent you a personal email response yesterday, but I wanted to post a reply to the website so that other AQHA members might benefit from our exchange of information. Thank you so much for sharing with our CDS EB members about the unique programs being offered by AQHA. While we don’t have many chapter members competing on Quarter Horses, the numbers are growing every year. I love the idea of our members being able to take advantage of opportunities offered beyond our chapter. As to your question about Judges, CDS has a wealth of certified dressage judges. Our “L” Judges are particularly suited to judging schooling and lower level shows. I am not clear on what the rules are regarding using CDS Judges for non CDS recognized shows, but I have passed along your query to CDS Central and will get back to you promptly. I hope that we can help you out — It would be a pleasure to see the beauty of dressage demonstrated by equestrians from all disciplines.

Lorraine

Another idea-would local judges be willing to travel to barns to judge tests? Many of us don’t have trailers, are not necessarily wanting to show, or would like feedback on our riding. You could pay something for each test you want judged-kind of like a schooling show without all the organization.

CDS was founded as a method society for educating anyone interested in dressage. It has been a real pleasure to be a member. There is a large group of long time members that are of retirement age facing reduced income who would really like to still be a part of the organization. When income decreases, hard decisions must be made such as letting go of our CDS memberships. Wouldn’t it be nice to have some kind of senior advantage program that allows members to remain members after oh so many years.

Sue Kotkoski and Foxxy