Online Convention Photo Album

Throughout the convention I’ll be posting new photos to an online photo album. If you’d like to see them please feel free to check it out. New photos will be added each day.

Use the following link:

Cattle Industry Convention Photo Album

New Appointee Orientation

New appointees to the Beef Board get started off right away learning about their duties.

This is done at a new appointees orientation session. Introductions started the session out.

Each new appointee is assigned to a mentor. The mentor is someone who is serving on the board who can help answer their questions and get them up to speed quickly.

During the lunch session different speakers provide an overview of what their duties and responsibilities are including legal and financial.

Talking With The Chairman

Jay O’Brien is the chairman of the Cattlemen’s Beef Board and one of his duties today was speaking at the new appointees orientation lunch.

Jay started off talking about the need to look professional and that means wearing a nice bow tie.

So he showed everyone how easy it is to quickly tie your tie.

Before the lunch got started I had a chance to interview Jay. Jay talks about some of the key things that producers should know. For example, he talks about end of last year USDA producer survey and how closely the results matched the producer survey results that was conducted by the Beef Board of a smaller sample size. He also talks about the retirement of Monte Reese and the process the Board will go through to find a replacement.

You can listen to my interview with Jay here: Jay O’Brien Interview (7 min. MP3 File)

Communicating With Dairy Producers

Gary and Donna Sharp are dairy producers and Gary likes to point out that that makes them beef producers as well.

Gary is serving on the Beef Board and is chairman of the dairy producer communications committee. Donna is a past Beef Board member and is currently serving on the board of the national dairy checkoff.

I interviewed both of them together right before the first lunch session here today. One of the things that Donna points out is how many issues affect both the beef and diary checkoff programs and that the staff of both stay in touch to provide a united front in addressing them.

You can listen to my interview with the Sharps here: Gary & Donna Sharp Interview (5 min. MP3 File)

Keep Up With The Committees

During the convention here I’ll be bringing you pictures and interviews to help you know and understand what’s going on with the Beef Checkoff as it is managed by the Beef Board. That’s what you’ll find here in this column of information.

But please keep in mind that we have a page for Committees on which you’ll find links to individual committee pages. On these pages you’ll find the committee agendas and links to minutes from past meetings. Minutes from these meetings will be posted as soon as they’re available and approved.

Please pass along the word to your friends and colleagues about Beef Board Meeting.com as the place to go to keep up with Checkoff activities at the annual meetings (Summer and Winter).

Ready For New Responsibilities

I know that the nominating committee recommendations aren’t official yet but Beef Board member, Neil Kayser here is nominated for Secretary/Treasurer.

He was participating in this morning’s Admin Subcommittee meeting.

Afterward I caught up to him to get a little perspective from him on the meeting so far.

You can listen to my interview with Neil here: Neil Kayser Interview (2 min. MP3 File)

Admin Subcommittee Review

The business of the Cattlemen’s Beef Board is underway and one of the first meetings here in Nashville this morning was the Admin Subcommittee which is chaired by Charles Miller (left).

The meeting actually ended on time which Charles says has been unusual of late. One of the reasons is that the legal report was basically a report that there are no legal issues facing the Checkoff right now. That is allowing the Beef Board to now focus on programs and activities and making sure that Checkoff dollars are wisely invested.

I interviewed Charles right after the meeting. One of the surprising things announced in the meeting is the retirement of Chief Operating Officer, Monte Reese (seated to the right). I’ll have more on this later.

You can listen to my interview with Charles here: Charles Miller Interview (5 min. MP3 File)

Getting Familiar With The Hotel

When I wandered in to the Opryland Hotel the first person I ran into was Diane Henderson (right) who’s my boss here while I’m posting onto the Beef Board Meeting.com blog.

Here she is giving directions to CBB board member Charles Miller and his wife Judy.

This Opryland complex is immense and a tour guide is very welcome.

I’ve already spoken with 2 people who said they got lost.

We’ll get started with a lot more posts tomorrow as meetings kick off.

Beef Board Blogging This Week

Hello from the Beef Board blogger. Once again this year I’ll be your blogger to bring you pictures, interviews and maybe even some video clips from the Cattle Industry Convention which is getting kicked off in Nashville. I’ll arrive late Tuesday so it may be Wednesday morning before we kick it into high gear right here.

In the meantime let your neighbors and friends know they can keep up with what’s happening at this year’s convention right here on Beef Board Meeting.

Looking forward to it.