Checkoff Leadership Sets the Pace

Beef producers who serve as chairmen and vice chairmen of the checkoff’s joint program committees and groups are gathered in Denver this week to kick off the checkoff planning cycle for the coming year. Producers will spend today and tomorrow discussing planning factors — things that are likely to affect the direction of the beef industry in the next fiscal year – to help provide direction to their advisory committees. As Fiscal 2008 checkoff programs get into full swing, those full committees will each meet during the 2008 Cattle Industry Convention in Reno next month to begin setting priorities for checkoff dollars in Fiscal 2009, which begins Oct. 1, 2008.

During this week’s meetings, committee leaders will develop and fine-tune lists of key planning factors by checkoff strategy area and will meet with fellow leaders both together and in groups — Global Consumer Marketing; Industry & Producer Services; Public Opinion and Issues Management; and Research and Knowledge Management — to discuss what committees need to accomplish at upcoming meetings in Reno. This early planning step is critical in getting producer members of the Cattlemen’s Beef Board and the Federation of State Beef Councils coordinated as they prepare to guide their committees through priority-setting exercises.

In opening the meeting today, Cattlemen’s Beef Board Chairman Ken Stielow of Kansas reminded his fellow checkoff leaders how important it is that they offer their input at this early stage so they can provide information to their committees and keep them on track as they set priorities for spending checkoff dollars, particularly in light of the tight budgets that the checkoff is facing. Strong leadership provides confidence to producers who invest their time and money into the efforts of the Beef Checkoff Program in building demand for their end product, Stielow said.