Even after obtaining the minutes of Excutive Committee meetings from the American Farrier’s Association, farrier Donald Jones of Pleasant Garden, N.C., learned little more about how the organization’s leadership prepared a proposal for standardized farrier training and registration or licensing.

The AFA has said that President Craig Trnka formed the Farrier Education/Registration Task Force in mid-2004 to prepare the proposal. The task force did not become known to the Board of Directors and general membership until February 2005, when the proposal was presented to the board by the Executive Committee.

So Jones — a longtime AFA member and a member of the International Horseshoeing Hall of Fame — asked the AFA office for minutes of the Executive Committee meetings in the months prior to the unveiling of the proposal. The request was made orally, then in writing.

When no reply was given, Jones contacted the state’s Attorney General’s office. Before that office replied, the AFA provided the minutes to Jones for nine meetings and teleconferences held between Nov. 1, 2004, and Feb. 16, 2005. Copies also were sent to the Board of Directors, Jones says.

Jones notes that the documents were provided before a lawyer for the AFA became involved and the Attorney General’s office determined that the AFA is a private organization and thus not legally required to hand over the meeting documents.

Little On Task Force

Only a couple of references are made to the task force proposal in the documents Jones received:

• According to the minutes of…