ncha-town-hall

NCHA Town Hall Meetings Foster Transparency

ncha-town-hallNCHA Executive Director Jim Bret Campbell addresses NCHA members at a Town Hall meeting on April 11. • Photo by Stacy PigottThe second of three springtime National Cutting Horse Association (NCHA) Town Hall meetings was held Monday, April 11, at the Will Rogers Memorial Complex during the NCHA Super Stakes. NCHA Executive Director Jim Bret Campbell hosted the meeting, which followed on the heels of a similar session at the NCHA Eastern National Championships in Jackson, Mississippi. A third meeting will be held during the NCHA Western National Championships in Denver.

“It’s important to inform our members where the association is and where we currently stand,” Campbell said. “We want to be sure that we give members the opportunity to know what’s going on, especially with regard to major projects, to make sure that we are being perfectly transparent.”

Some of the major initiatives Campbell covered during the 90 minute-long meeting were the information technology (IT) upgrades currently underway and the status of an ongoing governance review.

The IT initiative centers around the creation of a new database, nicknamed “Hub,” to replace the NCHA’s AS/400 system. More than 78,000 horse records, 75,000 member records and 807,000 competition records are stored on the outdated AS/400.

“We were about one circuit breaker going out from losing the whole thing when I walked into the building,” Campbell reported. “Today, I can accurately report we have all of the data housed in off-site servers. We are in a much better place.”

In addition to streamlining database management and improving functionality for members, the IT upgrade is also expected to allow the NCHA to pursue fresh marketing efforts. Campbell used the recently concluded Professional Golfers’ Association of America Masters tournament website and smartphone app as an example of the spectator-friendly technological advances the NCHA hopes to make in the future.

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