Joint Producer Communications Committee

The final day of the Cattle Industry Summer Conference starts out with lots of committee meetings. I wandered around and visited some of them including the Joint Producer Communications Committee which is chaired by Wesley Grau, New Mexico.

Wesley says they work on communicating with the producers who pay into the Checkoff about how their investment is being used. He says a main focus has been on MyBeefCheckoff.com and a booklet that tells the real beef story. Copies of it are available for state organizations and livestock markets. The budget has declined but he says they will continue to tell the Checkoff story to producers. He’s also happy to report that the latest producer attitude survey shows approval of the Checkoff at an all time high.

You can listen to and download (mp3) my interview with Wesley here:

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New Board Members Sworn In

There are 37 new members of the Beef Board. They were sworn in today by Craig Shackelford, USDA/AMS. In addition to the new members, all the continuing members took the swearing in oath as well.

You can listen to and download (mp3) the reading of the new members names and swearing in here:

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Correcting Some Myths About Compliance Audit

Beef Board Secretary/Treasurer Robert Fountain, Jr. took a few moments at the CBB Update Session to correct a few myths he has heard since getting to Denver for the conference.

The myths include:
“No guidelines exist to guide contractor’s expenditures of Checkoff funds.”
“Out of a potential pool of $115 million dollars this audit can only result in $25 thousand dollars of adjustments.”
“Inconclusive findings don’t really count.”
“NCBA wasn’t given an opportunity to read the report and respond.”
“CBB shouldn’t have released the report to the public.”
“CBB doesn’t use an outside auditor for other contractors.”

You can listen to and download (mp3) the myth corrections here:

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CBB Update Session

The CBB Update Session was standing room only today. It also went over on time but there were some serious issues being discussed. This session is an official meeting of the Beef Board at which they take action as needed on issues that come before them. There were several today.

As I have done in previous year’s, I’m going to post some of the remarks made from the podium for you to hear. First I’ve got the financial report that was presented by Secretary/Treasurer Robert Fountain, Jr. The board is facing reduced revenues. He reported that the 2011 budget has declined by 24 percent since 2007.

You can listen to and download (mp3) the financial report here:

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Next up is the management report by CBB CEO Tom Ramey. In light of the budget restrictions he told the board that they must monitor and safe guard funds and spend them as wisely and effectively as possible to achieve their goals.

You can listen to and download (mp3) the financial report here:

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New Board Member

I’m continuing our meet new board members series with Genevieve Lyons, Louisiana. She says they have a commercial cow/calf operation and were in the dairy business for many years previously.

She says her husband served on the board and she was nominated by Louisiana Cattlewomen and dairy farmers. She’s serving on the Public Opinion and Issues Management Committee. Like all other board members I’ve spoken with she highly recommends that other producers get involved.

You can listen to and download (mp3) my interview with Genevieve here:

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New Board Member

Let’s meet one of our new Beef Board members. He’s J. Craig Kesler, South Carolina. Craig has a dairy farm of Jersey cattle and a cow/calf operation.

He says he was motivated to get involved was that you “have to step forward as a farmer and make your voice heard.” He’s serving on the Advertising Committee. Craig says to other producers, “Get involved.”

You can listen to and download (mp3) my interview with Craig here:

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Urging Other Producers To Get Involved

During a break in the action at the conference I spoke with Beef Board member Ted Greidanus. Ted raises Holstein bull calves. He says being on the Board on has been a good experience and he feels honored to be on the Operating Committee.

He says that with budget constraints it’s important to make sure they get the biggest bang for the buck for producers to promote beef. He urges all producers to get involved.

You can listen to and download (mp3) my interview with Ted here:

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Ready For Update Session

The Vice Chairman of the Beef Board is Tom Jones (left) seen making points with incoming Board member Kevin Frankenbach and others during the new members lunch yesterday. I asked Tom what he was going to report to the Board during today’s CBB Update Session.

Tom says the Update Session is an official meeting of the Board and there will be reports on issues like the separation of the Federation, the compliance audit, recommendations from the Executive Committee which he chairs and others. It provides an opportunity for discussion. He said the Executive Committee meeting yesterday was a good one and interestingly when he asked the room if anyone had any questions before they adjourned, no one spoke up. Hopefully, they will today in the Update Session.

You can listen to and download (mp3) my interview with Tom here:

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Financial Report

Our Secretary/Treasurer is Robert Fountain, Jr. pictured here with Charlotte Coates, CBB Operations Manager. He’s giving a very detailed financial report at today’s CBB Update Session.

I spoke to him to get a summary of what his report will be like. To start with he says revenue will continue to be tight due to a decline in cattle numbers. It means that many programs have had to reduce their budgets and come up with very strong justifications for funding them. Robert says that there is room for optimism though as cattle prices have been good.

You can listen to and download (mp3) my interview with Robert here:

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Executive Committee Meeting

The last big meeting of the day for the Beef Board was the Executive Committee meeting. This was the most well attended one I can remember. It was standing room only until more chairs were brought in.

More detailed reports on things like finances will be given during tomorrow’s CBB Update Session which I will be attending. This meeting provided an opportunity for various reports that included each member talking about their phone calls to other board members. Each year each Executive Committee member is assigned other members to call prior to the meeting to discuss Checkoff activity. This is meant to foster better communications and understanding of the actions of the organization. Most of the Executive Committee members reported hearing positive comments while also hearing requests for more information. This provided a real world example of why communications is so important.

Board Members From Missouri

Here are two of our Beef Board members discussing business in between meetings. On the left is O.D. Cope, Missouri with incoming Board member Kevin Frankenbach, also from Missouri.

I spoke to O.D. about why he’s involved and he says “The beef industry is my bread and butter.” I also asked him why other producers should do the same. He says it’s very important for them to see how their money is being spent.

You can listen to and download (mp3) my interview with O.D. here:

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Prior to this week’s meeting I had interviewed Kevin about his first time attendance and his first meeting as a Beef Board member so I thought I’d add that for you to hear. Kevin is a dairy producer and is currently also serving on the Missouri Beef Industry Council. He’s been appointed to the Culinary and New Product Development Committee. He says his work on the MBIC has helped prepare him to serve on the national board.

You can listen to and download (mp3) my interview with Kevin here:

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New Board Member

I’m getting to meet a number of our new Beef Board members. One of them is Spencer Ellis, Lovell, WY.

Spencer has a cow/calf operation and small feedlot. He is currently serving as Chairman of the Wyoming Beef Council. He’s “pretty adamant on how important it is to keep this industry going for youth and future generations.” He can’t emphasize enough how important it is for beef producers to get involved.

You can listen to and download (mp3) my interview with Spencer here:

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Beef Board Chairman Is Focused

The Chairman of the Beef Board is Dan Dierschke (pictured left). He welcomed new members of the Board at a luncheon for them to get to know each other. Experienced Board members are assigned as mentors to new members and they were there too.

After the meal I spoke with Dan about this year’s summer meeting. He says the most significant aspect of the meeting is bringing together producers from around the country who pay into the Checkoff to determine the most effective utilization of the limited resources available to increase profitability for the industry. The decline in the cattle herd has put real pressure on Checkoff revenues. He says, “Whatever it is we do we want to increase demand for our product and increase the revenue we receive for what we produce.”

You can listen to and download (mp3) my interview with Dan here:

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CBB Administration Subcommittee

Minus the very loud fire alarm that stopped progress for about 10 minutes, the CBB Administration Subcommittee’s meeting went smoothly this morning.

The subcommittee reviewed a proposed amendment to the CBB administration budget for the current fiscal year, and recommended approval of the amendment by the CBB Executive Committee, to which it reports. The amendment reflects several things, including: a decrease in the Board Meetings budget due to the decrease in Board member attendance at the 2010 Cattle Industry Convention due to delayed Board appointments by the Secretary of Agriculture; a decrease in the state services budget due to postponement of the CBB/Qualified State Beef Council Update Session in FY2010; a decrease in general office expenses for postage, telephone and equipment; and an increase in the financial services budget due to the cost of the agree-upon procedures review performed at NCBA, as well as the addition of the Chief Financial Officer position at CBB.

The Administration Subcommittee also recommended approval of a CBB Administration budget for FY2011 of $1.99 million, down about $60,000 from the amended FY2010 budget.

In addition to the budgets, the subcommittee also reviewed meeting evaluations from the 2010 Cattle Industry Convention in San Antonio and discussed ways to improve the meetings based on those Board member inputs.

Joint Evaluation Advisory Committee Receives Reports

One of the first meetings to take place at the Cattle Industry Summer Conference is the Joint Evaluation Advisory Committee. This committee hears reports and makes recommendations to the appropriate program committees based on their findings.

I spoke with Beef Board Director of Evaluation, Polly Ruhland, about what the committee will be doing. Among other things they have been presented with the reports from two different evaluation projects. One focused on the National Beef Cook-off and the other on producer communications efforts. She says that all Checkoff programs are evaluated each year internally but between two to four are chosen to be evaluated externally.

In the case of the National Beef Cook-off they employed the firm of Don Jagoda Associates, Inc. to conduct the evaluation. It was very positive but did make some recommendations to make the program into a more consumer oriented contest.

For producer communications they employed Demeter Communications. This program had been revamped year before last. The company found the changes to be very positive. In my interview with Polly she provides some more detail about the recommendations this company made to make improvements to this program.

You can listen to and download (mp3) my interview with Polly here:

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Welcome To 2010 Cattle Industry Summer Conference

The communications staff of the Cattlemen’s Beef Board welcomes you to the 2010 Cattle Industry Summer Conference. Pictured are (l-r) Lynn Heinze, Melissa Slagle and Diane Henderson. I will be your Beef Board Blogger once again and looking forward to helping you learn more about the activities of the organization and the work taking place here this week at the conference.

To get us started with an overview of why the Beef Board meets during the summer I spoke with Lynn Heinze, Executive Director of Communications. He says this meeting is important for the planning process before making decisions for the next year. Committees will review proposed funding requests known as authorization requests. There will also be a large group of new members to the board who will be sworn in at this meeting. So we’ve got a number of first timers and I’ll make sure I interview several of them. The conference concludes on Saturday with a board meeting after a morning of committee meetings.

You can listen to and download (mp3) my interview with Lynn here:

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Note to ag media: Please feel free to download interviews and photos during the conference for your use in stories and broadcasts. Let us know if you have any questions

Summer Conference July 28-31, 2010

It’s that time of year again — time to gather in Denver for the Cattle Industry Summer Conference!

The summer conference kicks off on Wednesday, July 28, with meetings including the Joint Evaluation Advisory Committee Meeting and continues through the conclusion of the joint meeting of the Cattlemen’s Beef Board and the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association Board of Directors on Saturday, July 31. In between is a host of cattle-industry gatherings, all aimed at bringing the industry together to plan and share. Highlights for Cattlemen’s Beef Board members include:

Wednesday, July 28

• 6-9 p.m. – Joint Evaluation Advisory Committee Meeting

Thursday, July 29

• 8-11 a.m. – CBB Administration Subcommittee Meeting
• 1:30 – 5:30 p.m. – CBB Executive Committee Meeting

Friday, July 30

• 7:30 – 9 a.m. – CBB Audit Committee Meeting
• 9 – 1:15 a.m. – Beef Industry General Session I
• 12:30 – 3:45 p.m. – CBB Update Session/Cattlemen’s Beef Board Meeting
• 4-6 p.m. – Joint Committee Group Meetings
• 6:30 – 9 p.m. – Cattlemen’s Beef Board Reception & Dinner

Saturday, July 31

• 7 a.m. to Noon – Joint Committee & Subcommittee Meetings
• 12:30 – 2:30 p.m. – General Session II & Lunch
• 3 -7 p.m. – Cattlemen’s Beef Board Meeting & NCBA Board of Directors Meeting

Be sure to check back here during and after the summer conference for details on the goings on and outcomes of these important meetings.