2020 Al Khamsa Virtual Convention
the schedule. Business matters were covered and updates from the various committees were presented. Monica Respet gave her welcome and opening remarks as President. Conner Chambers provided a Zoom navigation tutorial for attendees. Jeannie Lieb gave an update of the Preservation Task Force efforts and an update to the Website upgrade. Mary Gills provided the finance report. Pam Studebaker made a plea for donations and made announcements. The chatrooms were left open afterward for people to visit with one another. Saturday, October 17, the convention resumed; this meeting was attended by a larger audience and joined by several international guests. The advisory council met and selected a new Board of Delegates and preference for the upcoming President. Edouard Al Dahdah and R.J. Cadranell delivered a passionate speech on Ghadir. Joe Ferriss presented a first-year roster proposal for Gamil Al-Din, which was passed. The Board of Delegates selected the new Board of Directors for 20-21. The chatrooms were again left open after the meeting for a productive and fun visitation with plenty of horse talk. The convention ended after the first meeting of the 2020-21 Board of Directors on October 18, 2020.
Necessity is the Mother of Invention The beginning of 2020 started like everyone else’s — a normal year. The convention was slated to take place at McMinnville, Oregon, in October of 2020. Our hosts Steve Langer and Terry Brooks were underway scheduling venues. The committee was working on selecting speakers when we found ourselves faced with the COVID Pandemic. As Americans and the world hunkered down, the convention committee was at a crucial time with strategic planning for the upcoming event. Then, the West Coast news was reporting uncontrollable fires throughout Oregon. So, in the wise words of Plato who said, “necessity is the mother of invention,” it was time to start inventing. We could not go forward with the traditional meeting format for the annual convention. It was apparent that some sort of virtual meeting would have to suffice. The committee re-structured itself to bring in a different group of committee members to facilitate an online experience. With the help of a recruited friend, Conner Chambers who was knowledgeable about Zoom.com, and our own tech-savvy Jeannie Lieb, we set out on the new adventure. The predicament made pathways to possibilities. This new venue would allow us to invite international guests. Our Fantasia could include horses from all regions of North America. It gave Al Khamsa horse owners a chance to advertise their horses; it could be done economically for all and would be profitable for Al Khamsa. We spent the first few weeks of the summer researching and selecting applications to bring together the convention’s different aspects. It was then with all hands on deck, we set voyage to our first-ever virtual convention for October. Pam Studebaker, Monica Respet and Megan King worked diligently to obtain auction items and orchestrate speakers. PJ Altshuler and Kathleen Jost collected, edited and loaded videos for the fantasia and speakers. Kathy Busch beautifully developed the convention program. Jenny Krieg, accompanied by Jill Erisman, pumped out event announcements, and all the while, Jeannie Lieb was miraculously keeping all tech issues in motion.
32auctions.com very successfully facilitated the online auction for the convention. There were 37 horses in the Fantasia, and we introduced 24 Al Khamsa foals on YouTube videos. We also enjoyed YouTube presentations from Basil Jadaan of his Syrian Horses; Beth Minnich provided a report on Managing Genetic Disorders;
The Zoom meeting took place starting with the Board meetings on October 15 and 16. The Board had met a few times already on Zoom and was comfortable with the format. The Board with Monica at the helm was able to accomplish quite a bit of important business in the meetings. Friday the 16th, the convention opened mostly to an American audience due to
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