AMHA congratulates Dawn Henrich for being presented with the

2021 AMHA "A" Lifetime Achievement Award. 

 

Dawn's tireless dedication to the Association is greatly appreciated! We can't imagine anyone more deserving of this prestigious award!

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. Dawn came on as our Treasurer three years ago when AMHA was in some of its darkest financial days. She wasted no time getting into the finances of the association, often putting AMHA needs ahead of those of her own small business. Dawn worked tirelessly to identify where the association was losing money, what changes needed to be made to our financial picture and where we needed to cut expenses to keep the association viable. She set up a very strict budget that everyone, including the President, adhered to. This meant no travel or other reimbursements no purchasing without tight scrutiny, re-looking at every purchase made, going out to bid on agency needs and choosing the best product for the least amount, and advising the EC on making some very painful cuts in staffing in the office. Other recommendations came also – moving the Miniature Horse World from a printed to a digital magazine and lowering the costs of awards for Honor Roll and the World Show. At the same time, she worked with the office manager and the EC to give recommendations for our long-time staff to receive raises in salary that they hadn’t seen in many, many years, allowing continuing health benefits and more small group opportunities.  Our loyal staff of Pam, Marsha, Brenda and Val worked alongside her to cut office costs, improve customer service, work extra hours to meet member needs and not leave when the going got tough. Following Dawn’s budget was not easy, but our amazing staff pulled it off. But Dawn was not done yet.

Improving the productivity of the association was a big goal for everyone. AMHA was still caught in the dark ages, using a DOS data base system for registration and trying to keep old computers up and running. The staff were frustrated, the members were frustrated, and the satisfaction rating of the association was going down. Late in 2019 Dawn came to the board with a proposal. She had spoken with Mark Anderson, a computer programmer who had written successful data base systems for other horse registries. She negotiated with hm for a new system, one that we did not pay for until it was in place and working, and then negotiated three years to pay it off. This was unlike proposals of the past where the association paid big dollars for a program they never received. The board gave its approval, and the rest is history. Thanks to Dawn’s recommendations, we now have new computers in the office, a new registration program and a new show program.

Under Dawn’s guidance, the association is once again on sound financial ground, the members and staff are once again excited, membership is up, registrations are up and our future looks financially stable. Thank you, Dawn, for your contribution to the amazing journey of the American Miniature Horse Association!

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