Historical USDF Membership Numbers-Post Here

[pluvinel]

Ok guys…I know you keep your barns neater than your house.

So, come this spring and you get motivated to declutter, if you find some ancient USDF publication stashed away in that pile of magazines you have been collecting meading to read…and find an article with a membership number…post it here along with a citation of the reference where it is found

To start…

P. 2 of the 2019 USDF Member Guide says USDF has “nearly 30,000 members”

Anyone have any older numbers?..pls provide and we can develop a trend line.

[atlatl]

Why not just ask USDF? I can’t imagine it’s top secret.

[pluvinel]

@atlatl

Why not just ask USDF? I can’t imagine it’s top secret.

Why don’t you try and get back to us. Let us know what reception you get.

Annual membership numbers dating back to the 1980’s would be great…see if they have them…preferably broken down by GM and PM.

[atlatl]

@pluvinel

Why don’t you try and get back to us. Let us know what reception you get.

Annual membership numbers dating back to the 1980’s would be great…see if they have them…preferably broken down by GM and PM.

Because I’m not on your quest.

That said, we both know the importance of data integrity in any study.

[ladyj79]

Not precisely the source and still vague on numbers

2008 USEF on USDF, “over 30,000 members”

https://www.usef.org/media/press-releases/2529_new-usdf-business-membership-revamped-for

[hoopoe]

As the NF would USEF /(AHSA) have this record?

[NJRider]

I have a bunch of old “Dressage and CT” magazines from the 80’s-90’s. They all have a one page blurb from the USDF with news and has some membership numbers. I can flip through them in the next few days and see if there are any total membership figures.
One gem is my 1981 issue with a summary of the 1980 AHSA Dressage Finals with scores written by Andrew de Szinay. “Out of every 100 riders, 56 riders or over half scored under 55%” At First Level there were 118 horses. First place was a 68.55%, 10th place was 61.01; 50th place was 54.63%, last place was 38.98%.

[pluvinel]

@NJRider

I have a bunch of old “Dressage and CT” magazines from the 80’s-90’s. They all have a one page blurb from the USDF with news and has some membership numbers. I can flip through them in the next few days and see if there are any total membership figures.
One gem is my 1981 issue with a summary of the 1980 AHSA Dressage Finals with scores written by Andrew de Szinay. “Out of every 100 riders, 56 riders or over half scored under 55%” At First Level there were 118 horses. First place was a 68.55%, 10th place was 61.01; 50th place was 54.63%, last place was 38.98%.

Wow…so cool.

“Out of every 100 riders, 56 riders or over half scored under 55%” — And this was for riders who made it to a Finals competition, so this should represent a group of riders who were at the top of their game.

The 1980’s was still in the era where old ex-cavalry riders were still active in US dressage. These people were all men, of military background and discipline and not politically motivated by what was going on in the USDF.

Here is a link to the paper that the COTH Nerd Herd wrote back in 2010…so 30 years later. That paper analyzed over 45,000 dressage scores.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0By1…1TN1V5SHc/view

The paper shows that the Grand Average score for all rides was 61.813% (See Figure 3). So 50% of the riders scored below 61.813%.

Out of those 45,000 scores there was only one score in the 30-39.9% range and 19 were in the 40-49.9% range. (Figure 1)

[NJRider]

I have scanned in the article and attached it for those interested! I will look through my issues for membership info.

[NJRider]

I uploaded the article from the 1981 D & CT and put it in this link. I was having issues when I uploaded the pages to this post since it was unreadable if you zoomed in. Hope this works! http://s183.photobucket.com/user/jklfarm/library/1980%20AHSA%20Dressage%20Finals

[2tempe]

Pluvinel - Interesting paper. THanks for posting.

Not much really surprising to me except maybe the breed data - I was surprised that roughly 2/3 were warmbloods - but even when I think about that, its based on # of scores, not the # of actual horses. IE this may mean that people w/ WBs show more often or do more tests. Scores just a bit higher than others, but also a bigger Std Dev. - not a surprise given how many WBs in the study. I dont think the higher averages shows a significant breed bias beyond the reality of purpose breeding.

Also was a bit surprised that Intermediare had among the highest avg scores.

It would have been interesting also do analyze amateur vs open scores or to at least have an idea of how many of those 45,000 scores were ammy vs. open.

[Equibrit]

Are they required to file membership numbers on their 501C returns ? Guidestar ?

[McGurk]

Highly doubt it. A 501©3 or © 7 does have to file tax returns with basic financial statements just like everyone else, but number of members is not part of that reporting.

On the reporting for my teeny, tiny 501©7 you could get to a rough membership number working backwards from the income from dues, but it wouldn’t be 100% accurate.

[pluvinel]

@Equibrit

Are they required to file membership numbers on their 501C returns ? Guidestar ?

BTDT…

Here is the link to the 2015 IRS submission.
https://www.usdf.org/docs/about/abou…ncials/990.pdf

Line 3 states that the number of “voting members” (whatever that is) are 153. That number has not changed over many years including the 2016 Form 990.

The revenue from membership fees is $2.1 million. (See p. 9 line 2a)

I believe that PM member fees are $90, then that translates to about 23,000 members.

Interestingly, I went to the USDF site to try to find the membership fee schedule. It is not accessible unless you log in. So…how are potential new members supposed to decide what class of membership to sign up for if you can’t see the the fee schedule?

Well…Google is your friend and I found this
https://www.usdf.org/join/PMBenefits&Fees.pdf

[MysticOakRanch]

@atlatl

Why not just ask USDF? I can’t imagine it’s top secret.

I have been requesting this data from OUR GMO for months now - just for our GMO. It apparently IS top secret… I think it would be an interesting analysis - to see the numbers broken out Open, AA, Jr/YR, and see what the trends are in membership. As a numbers person, I think it would tell quite a story.

I will go back and look at the USDF yearbooks - see if they have any relevant info - I have those back about 20 years if I remember right…

[MysticOakRanch]

@pluvinel

BTDT…

Here is the link to the 2015 IRS submission.
https://www.usdf.org/docs/about/abou…ncials/990.pdf

Line 3 states that the number of “voting members” (whatever that is) are 153. That number has not changed over many years including the 2016 Form 990.

The revenue from membership fees is $2.1 million. (See p. 9 line 2a)

I believe that PM member fees are $90, then that translates to about 23,000 members.

Interestingly, I went to the USDF site to try to find the membership fee schedule. It is not accessible unless you log in. So…how are potential new members supposed to decide what class of membership to sign up for if you can’t see the the fee schedule?

Well…Google is your friend and I found this
https://www.usdf.org/join/PMBenefits&Fees.pdf

That gives you a rough number, but remember, there are GMO members - $10 in 2016, and double counted in revenue if they are also PM. And 5 year or life members. Pretty sure PM membership was $70 then - $90 was a fairly recent increase. And discounts for youth. So that is only an estimate of membership. BTW, you also need to be aware of the years where USDF announces a fee increase - because that usually creates a little rush of 5 year memberships (to avoid that increase for 5 years). I THINK the increase from $70 to $90 was 2014 - does anyone remember? And I THINK the increase in GMO dues was 2017 (doubled from $10 to $20)? And does anyone remember the year they stopped “rebating” the GMO dues if you were also a PM member?

Dues have changed a lot over the past 6 or 7 years.

[lorilu]

GMO dues to USDF have not changed for 10 years (we were told at Convention). SO def NOT in 2017.

[pluvinel]

@MysticOakRanch

I have been requesting this data from OUR GMO for months now - just for our GMO. It apparently IS top secret… I think it would be an interesting analysis - to see the numbers broken out Open, AA, Jr/YR, and see what the trends are in membership. As a numbers person, I think it would tell quite a story.

I will go back and look at the USDF yearbooks - see if they have any relevant info - I have those back about 20 years if I remember right…

This thread got me curious. I went back to look at old DVCTA newsletters and 26 years ago (June 1992) DVCTA had 641 members.

By May 1998 that number had dropped to 456…or a 29% drop.

Membership is now hovering at about 150 members.

[MysticOakRanch]

OK, I went back to my archives, I have USDF Yearbooks back to 1995 - and that year it was Black and White! While I don’t have total members, here are some interesting competition numbers:

Grand Prix
1995, 188 competitors, HOTY Udon, median score 67.351
2005, 138 competitors, HOTY Kingston, median score 71.907
2017, 176 competitors, HOTY Verdades, median score 79.940

PSG
1995, 731 competitors, HOTY Blizzard, median score 67.907
2005, 363 competitors, HOTY Marlando, median score 71.000
2017, 502 competitors, HOTY Quintessential Hit, median score 75.066

Third Level
1995, 787 competitors, HOTY Advantige, median score 69.268
2005, 239 competitors, HOTY Rondo, median score 72.334
2017, 369 competitors, HOTY Calexico, media score 75.513

Second Level
1995, 1,333 competitors, HOTY Wendelynne L, median score, 73.605
2005, 258 competitors, HOTY Ravenilli’s Wizard, median score 72.209
2017, 296 competitors, HOTY Au Revoir, median score 74.545

First Level
1995, 2097 competitors, HOTY Wendelynne L, median score 76.364
2005, 55 competitors, HOTY WBR Hannibal, median score 75.741
2017, 503 competitors, HOTY Habanero CWS, median score 80.704

Training Level
1995, 1730 competitors, HOTY Harpsichord, median score 74.215
2005, 687 competitors, HOTY Ruschkoi, median score 75.385
2017, 526 competitors, HOTY Harrold S, median score 82.841

Number of competitors is the number that qualified - aka rode at least 4 shows, at least 8 scores/4 scores for FEI, at least 4 judges. My oldest yearbook is 1995, so I started there, then did my most recent one (2017), then picked about half-way in between (2005) which was BEFORE the recession started. The economy was slowing down, but not too bad yet…

Notice how the numbers have decreased in numbers that are showing!

[pluvinel]

@MysticOakRanch

…

Notice how the numbers have decreased in numbers that are showing!

These numbers are great!!!..I might try to put this in a spreadsheet to see the actual slope of the decay.

I mean, these numbers are huge…if you want to build a pipeline of membership the numbers speak loudly…the 2017 Training Level rides (526) are 30% the number of the 1995 number (1730)

The OTHER part that is interesting is the INCREASING scores of the rides…which addresses the problem of the quality of the judging. Is Verdades really 13 points better than Udon?

I really think the PTB have good intentions, but they really have no clue about statistics and process quality improvement.