The National Thoroughbred Racing Association has scheduled a general membership meeting for Tuesday, April 25 at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport.

The meeting, which will run from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. CDT, is open to all member tracks, horsemen's associations, leading financial contributors from the sales and breeding sector, and members of the NTRA Board of Directors.

"It's been on the schedule for about a month," said Chip Tuttle, NTRA vice president of communications. "Coming out of the last quarter of 1999 we knew it would be a good idea to have some meetings that would be less presentation by the NTRA and more give-and-take among the members."

The meeting also stems from an agreement made by the NTRA with tracks based in the Mid-Atlantic region, which had threatened to drop out of the organization if certain concessions were not made by the opt-out deadline on January 15. As part of the membership renewal by the Mid-Atlantic group, the NTRA agreed to hold the meeting by the end of April, Tuttle said.

Tuttle said the NTRA has a brief presentation planned for the meeting, which will outline the organization's progress compared to its original business plan, new marketing initiatives, and a review of the 2000 budget in "greater detail."

"We might give the membership a preview of what will be contained in the annual report," Tuttle said.—Tom Law