I did not join AERC until I had been riding endurance for nine years. I did not care about points or miles. I knew whether I completed and why I pulled. Even when I started going to the convention it was only a few bucks more as a nonmember so there was still not much incentive to join AERC.

During vet school, through my research projects at UC Davis, I was active in the AERC Veterinary Committee, but I did not understand how that was just one tiny facet of AERC. Little did I realize how many people were working together towards bettering the sport of endurance. In 1984 I started vetting rides and then graduated from vet school. Once I got out into the real world I began to see the bigger picture -- I began to see that AERC was so much more than just record-keeping.

My view during school of AERC being just records, awards and the Vet Committee is probably analogous to many other endurance riders' view of AERC -- the view that AERC just sanctions events, keeps records, and then gives awards at a convention. What I failed to comprehend was that there were more than 25 AERC committees. Each one handles a separate aspect of endurance riding. The Vet Committee was just one of those 25.

Take a quick look at the front of this issue of Endurance News. First you will see a long list of directors. If you have ever been in a meeting with 30 people (such as the board of directors), you will know that the board's functionality is limited to administrative items and approving the motions which have been brought in front of them by the committees. Committees run the AERC.

Look again at the front of EN. Look at the list of committees. This is where the real work gets done. I may spend several hours every day on AERC business, but it takes literally over 100 committee people working together to keep AERC educating, evolving, progressing, and leading.

So often I hear that it is just the same people all the time and nothing new ever gets done. Every single person on every single committee was new at one time. The committee chairs are always looking for new committee members. Only a few committees have set membership (such as the Vet Committee now being elected) and members can be added any time of year, not just at convention.

So how can you be a part? First, be sure you are an AERC member. Then contact the committee chair listed in the front of EN. Let the chair know that you would like to be a member of the committee and explain how you would contribute to the makeup of the committee. The mixture of every committee should be balanced.

You do not need to have been a member for 15 years -- we equally need the insight of newcomers as well as very experienced endurance riders. The main qualification is to be willing to work hard for the advancement of the sport of endurance.