Executive Committee Gets R&R Update

In a teleconference call on July 11, the Cattlemen’s Beef Board Executive Committee:

• Heard an update from the Roles and Responsibilities special committee
• Addressed the election process for appointing a new CBB chairman
• Discussed a proposed bylaws change regarding the Nominating Committee

For a more detailed summary of the meeting, visit July 11 EC Conference Call.

“A Very Productive Joint Meeting”

After meeting with representatives of the Federation of State Beef Council’s executive committee on Thursday morning, the Beef Board Executive Committee compiled a list of Federation concerns about the CBB committee’s Roles & Responsibilities recommendations.

A resolution that gained support of both committees states that the two “had a very productive joint meeting and conversation and look forward to working together moving forward.”

The meeting was closed to staff, but open to producer members of both committees, as well as any other producers in attendance at the week’s meetings — including CBB and Federation members of the Beef Promotion Operating Committee (see posts below).

(For background and reference purposes, the Roles & Responsibilities recommendations are available HERE; and CBB’s response to the Federation’s written comments about those is available HERE.)

In its own meeting later in the afternoon on Thursday, the CBB Executive Committee voted unanimously in favor of recording the Federation concerns about the Roles & Responsibilities documents, while its members were in the room to substantiate each of them.  Here are some of the suggestions made to the CBB Executive Committee for consideration:

• Suggestion that checkoff committees remain joint via equal numbers of members from Federation and Beef Board, including committee chair and vice chair positions. This would include the Joint Evaluation Committee.
• Request that the recommendations be clarified overall so that they cannot be misinterpreted as some “empire-building” effort by one group — rather simply as a listing of the Beef Board’s current responsibilities, in many cases. That includes clarifying that the CBB is not attempting to require state beef councils to send more than half of each checkoff dollar collected to the Beef Board, but rather noting that they CAN — as is currently noted in the Act & Order.
• Suggestions that the legal role of the CBB in planning be clarified.
• A recommendation that the Joint Committee and Joint Operating Committee agreements be reinstated/retained.

Now, the Executive Committee will wait until all other comments about the Roles & Responsibilities document are received from beef industry organizations that have been given a July 9 deadline for comments.

The CBB Executive Committee then will have a conference call on July 11 to determine if any of the comments have influenced them to make any changes to their recommendations before a full Beef Board discussion of them at the Board’s Aug. 4 meeting in Orlando.

$42 Million CBB Budget Recommended for FY2012

The Operating Committee accepted the recommendation from the Joint Budget Committee for a $42 million Beef Board budget for national checkoff programs in Fiscal Year 2012, which begins Oct. 1, 2011.

There was some discussion about whether the “producer communications” program area belonged under administrative costs or program costs for the checkoff, but upon an explanation and discussion about the history of development of the original Beef Act and Order, the committee maintained producer communications as a program expense, at a recommended level of $1.8 million of the total CBB budget in FY2012. USDA Ag Marketing Services rep Craig Shackelford pointed out that all of the 18 commodity checkoff programs running in this country today categorize producer communications as a program budget component, as well.

As recommended and based on budget projections developed through a number of data sources, including CBB, Cattle-Fax, and USDA, the budget recommendation includes the following:

• $20.76 million for promotion
• $6.79 million for research
• $5.11 million for consumer information
• $3.63 million for industry information
• $8.26 million for foreign marketing
• $1.8 million for producer communications

Non-program budgets for the coming year are recommended at $225,000 for evaluation; $180,000 for program development; $250,000 for USDA oversight; and $2 million for administration, which includes not only all salaries and benefits, but office materials and rent, and the cost of all CBB meetings and associated travel for Board members.

The recommended budget will be presented to the full Beef Board for a vote during its meeting at the summer Cattle Industry Conference in Orlando the first week of August, and from there to USDA.

Operating Committee Meeting Under Way

The Beef Promotion Operating Meeting in Denver is just getting under way, beginning wtih a financial report from CBB Secretary/Treasurer Weldon Wynn and an Joint Evaluation Committee update from CBB Member Ted Greidanus of California, who chairs that committee.

Also on the agenda for the Operating Committee today, before a standing-room-only gallery, is discussion of budget recommendations for Fiscal 2012, as presented by the Joint Budget Committee, and formulation of an Operating Committee recommendation to send to the full Beef Board at the summer conference in Orlando in August.

See the post below for a complete agenda of today’s meeting, as well as information about tomorrow’s meeting of the CBB Executive Committee, and for minutes of past meetings of these committees, click on “committees” on the top left of this page and select a committee.

For a complete listing of committee members, visit Checkoff Committees on MyBeefCheckoff.com.

Operating, Exec Committees Meet June 15-16

The Beef Promotion Operating Committee and the Beef Board Executive Committee are scheduled to meet in Denver this week, with recommendations for a Fiscal Year 2012 Beef Board budget among the agenda items.

Current members of the two committees are listed at Committees on MyBeefCheckoff.com, under each committee title and description.

The Operating Committee will begin its meeting at 1 p.m. on Wednesday, June 15, at the Embassy Suites Denver International Airport Hotel. As a reminder, the Operating Committee is made of up 10 members of the Cattlemen’s Beef Board and 10 members of the Federation of State Beef Councils. It is chaired by Beef Board Chairman Tom Jones.

For an agenda of the Operating Committee meeting, visit OC Agenda 061511.

The CBB Executive Committee is slated to begin at 8 a.m. on Thursday, June 16, at the same hotel in Denver. The Executive Committee is made of up 11 members of the Cattlemen’s Beef Board and acts on behalf of the Board between meetings of the full Board.

This week, the CBB Executive Committee will start off by meeting with the members of the Executive Committee of the Federation of State Beef Councils to discuss common issues, including the CBB Executive Committee’s roles and responsibilities recommendations. Per agreement between leadership of the two committees, that portion of the meeting will involve only the producers who sit on those two committees – no staff or other participants.  

The CBB committee also will review the budget recommendation from the Operating Committee, as well as reviewing financial reports, state beef council marketing plans, and state and national checkoff requests for partnerships involving brand and/or trade-name references.

For an agenda of the Executive Committee meeting, visit EC Agenda 061611.

Evaluating Effectiveness of the Beef Checkoff

The Joint Evaluation Advisory Committee had an extremely productive meeting May 17 in Denver.

Special guest Richard Gebhart (pictured, right), who not only had a long career in evaluation of billions of dollars in military programs, but also teaches statistics at University of Tulsa and currently serves on the Operating Committee as a Federation representative, presented some valuable information about statistical processes in evaluation and outcome-based evaluation. 

Chaired by Beef Board member Ted Greidanus of California (pictured, left), the committee also had a thorough discussion about the future of the checkoff evaluation program and how the program could be improved, in both the long- and short-term.

Some of the meeting outcomes included:

• The committee will take a more active role in oversight of the evaluation program, including evaluation processes. The Evaluation Committee reaffirmed its purposes: To measure program effectiveness in accomplishing industry and program goals, objectives and strategies; and to provide information to producer leaders – most specifically the Operating Committee — that is valuable in making funding decisions that maximize efficient use of checkoff dollars.
• Evaluation should be ongoing, and not just happen once or twice a year.
• The evaluation program will work toward collecting more valuable evaluation data and developing a more useful method of reporting evaluation data.
• The committee will oversee establishment of data trends for programs. These should show measurable program results over time for programs that receive funding year-to-year. This means continuing programs should develop and track meaningful, outcome-based measures over time.
• The committee will oversee development of a visual tracking and reporting system for key program objectives and progress, as well as macro evaluation metrics. This is sometimes called a “dashboard.” Such a system should be updated regularly and viewable by producer leaders and decision-makers at any time.
• Each AR submitted in 2011 for consideration for 2012 funding should contain at least one outcome-based measurable objective, in addition to appropriate process-based objectives. The committee directed evaluation staff to work with contractors to ensure inclusion of these objectives. These will be reviewed by the committee prior to summer conference.
• The committee believes state beef councils provide valuable and important input into the evaluation process, and the evaluation program will continue to do the online, quantitative survey of beef councils annually, taking those data into account when further developing evaluation metrics. Staff is directed to solicit state beef council input about how each council evaluates funding requests as well as how each council evaluated program effectiveness. From that, staff will prepare a report for the committee to see if there are ideas at the state level that could be useful to the national program.

Checkoff Helping Out In Japan

During its meeting in Denver on March 24, and in a follow-up vote last week, the Beef Promotion Operating Committee approved an amendment to the 2011 foreign-marketing Authorization Request. The amendment allows for investment of $100,000 in checkoff funds to help provide U.S. beef to folks left hungry and homeless by the devastation in Japan. As with any checkoff program, this money will be provided on a cost-recovery basis only, and in line with the revised proposal – not as a cash donation; for details, visit Japan Relief Fund.

Operating Committee Looks At Helping In Japan

USMEF's Greg Hanes

The Beef Promotion Operating Committee is meeting in Denver this week, and the situation in Japan certainly is one of the things that came up in reviews of the checkoff program’s foreign-marketing efforts.

Greg Hanes (pictured) of the U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMEF), a contractor to the Beef Checkoff Program, presented an overview of checkoff-funded promotion efforts worldwide to members of the Operating Committee — including 10 members each of the Cattlemen’s Beef Board and the Federation of State Beef Councils. Among those promotions, funded in part by the beef checkoff, is the “Trust” campaign in Japan.

Since the devastating earthquake and tsunamis in Japan this month, USMEF has organized an multi-meat campaign as part of its promotion efforts in Japan, to help feed consumers in Japan who were injured, misplaced and left hungry and homeless by the devastation there.

The Pork Board has already contributed to the effort through its checkoff, and Beef Board Chairman Tom Jones, who also chairs the Operating Committee, and Federation Chairman David Dick brought a motion before the Operating Committee today to ask USMEF to present an amendment to their checkoff authorization for Fiscal Year 2011 to include a $100,000 contribution from the Beef Board’s program budget. Dick said the Federation would also contribute a matching $100,000 from its budget, for a total of $200,000 in checkoff support.

With unanimous committee support for that motion, USMEF will return as soon as possible with a proposed amendment for consideration regarding the CBB contribution. The funding for the CBB portion would come from funds released from Fiscal Year 2010 projects completed under budget.  USDA representative Craig Shackelford assured the measure would be in line with the Beef Act and Order, as long as it remained tied to the existing approved promotion program in Japan. For an update about repercussions of the situation in Japan, visit Devastation in Japan.

Meantime, the Operating Committee continues with reviews of Fiscal Year 2011 program, as well as discussion of funding priorities for Fiscal Year 2012, including a review of the priorities in the newly adopted Beef Industry Long Range Plan and reports from financial and evaluation program managers.

Talking Checkoff At Trade Shows

Beef Board member Woody Barth of North Dakota, left, and CBB Chairman Tom Jones of Arkansas, man the checkoff booth at the Farmers Union meeting in San Antonio on March 14, 2011.

We’re in the midst of a busy tradeshow season for the beef checkoff, which kicked off in January, when the Cattlemen’s Beef Board teamed with the Georgia Beef Board (GBB) to participate in the four-day American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) tradeshow in Atlanta. This year, the AFBF show was combined with the Ag Connect Expo – which drew more than 12,000 registrants from more than 60 countries, increasing AFBF booth traffic by about 5,000 people! At the checkoff booth, GBB Treasurer Gerald Long did an hour-long radio segment with Kyle Bauer of KFRM radio.

In February, the checkoff participated in the NCBA Trade Show at the 2011 Cattle Industry Convention, while March highlights include the National Farmers Union show in San Antonio, Texas, and the Dairy Farmers of America annual meeting in Kansas City, Mo.

Beef Board leadership, officers and staff participate in about 15 industry tradeshows throughout the year to help inform producers about how their checkoff dollars are invested and the results of those investments.

Communications is Key

Producers have great stories to tell. And when it comes to telling the checkoff stories, the producers who sit on the Cattlemen’s Beef Board are arguably the single most important distribution channel, if you will, for checkoff messages.

That’s at the heart of today’s “Producer Communications” focus of the New Members Orientation for incoming Beef Board members.

This is definitely a highly motivated and active group of producers, and this morning’s exercises in communicating the positive messages of checkoff results have sparked excellent discussion. They have a story to tell, and they’re going to tell it. What an asset to the Beef Checkoff Program!

New Beef Board Members Learning The Ropes

Newly appointed members of the Cattlemen’s Beef Board have come to Denver from throughout the country to spend two days immersing themselves in the workings of the Beef Checkoff Program and the Beef Board’s role in it. (See the post below for a list of the new Beef Board members.)

The goal here is to help the new Board members feel more prepared and comfortable about processes and roles when they attend their first Cattle Industry Convention as Beef Board members – less than three weeks from now. 

The meeting began early this morning with a general overview of the meeting purpose and objectives, followed by an extensive organizational overview of of the checkoff program.

CBB Vice Chairman Tom Jones talked to the new Board members about their responsibility to represent the beef industry, in general, and CEO Tom Ramey talked about the history of the checkoff and the structure. Chief Financial Officer Katherin Ayers and Collections Compliance Director Courtney Kalous talked about financial and compliance processes. USDA Agricultural Marketing Specialist Craig Shackelford spoke to the new Board members by phone about the role of USDA in overseeing the checkoff.

It’s definitely a tall order for these new members to try to start getting their arms around such a complex program in just a couple of days, but their level of discussion illustrates their interest in gaining a clear understanding.

Federation of State Beef Councils Chairman Scott George, a dairy producer from Wyoming, and Barb Wilkinson, the Federation’s executive director of leadership development, gave new Board members an overview of the Federation and explained how it works in conjunction with the national checkoff program.  Next, new Board members got an opportunity to meet each of the CBB staff members and hear briefly about their individual responsibilities.  Ayers, along with Immediate Past CBB Chairman Lucinda Williams and Polly Ruhland, vice president of planning and evaluation for CBB, talked in detail about the planning and budgeting processes.

Next on the agenda are comments from the CBB officers, an overview of checkoff committees and programs and, to close out Day 1, a Q&A about the topics of the day. A little rest after that, and Day 2 will start bright and early tomorrow. Stay tuned.

For more about the checkoff structure and processes, visit www.MyBeefCheckoff.com.

New Beef Board Members Get Oriented

Newly appointed members of the Cattlemen’s Beef Board will gather in Denver Jan. 13-14 for a New Member Orientation. On the agenda is an overview of the Cattlemen’s Beef Board and Beef Checkoff Program organization and program objectives, as well as information about the Federation of State Beef Councils, the planning, budgeting and evaluation processes, USDA oversight of the program, committee responsibilities, and spokesperson and resource information.

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack announced 40 appointments to the Beef Board on Dec. 6, 2010, including 29 new appointments and 11 members who were reappointed to a second three-year term. 

Reappointed were: Weldon D. Wynn, Ark.; Manuel Rodrigues, Calif.; Harold A. Wick, Colo.; Dan D. Hinman, Idaho; Jeanne L. Harland, Ill.; William R. Frazee, Iowa; Paul L. Kent, Minn.; Brian C. Healey and Terry L. Detrick, Okla.; Daniel M. Kniffen, Pa.; and Charles L. Ezer, Texas. 

Newly appointed members representing cattle producers are: Eric L. Smith, Ala.; James I. Maxey, Calif.; James C. Lefils, Fla.; Donald E. Gurtner, Ind.; Kent E. Pruismann, Iowa; Brittany J. Howell and Steve J. Irsik, Kan.; Julianna G. Jepson, Ky.; Howard W. Hardecke and Brenda L. Black, Mo.; Leo R. McDonnell, Mont.; Albert T. Davis and David J. Wright, Neb.; Patricia J. Bikowsky, N.Y.; Elwood F. Barth, N.D.; Peter J. Guglielmino, Northwest Unit; Davis W. Denman, Ohio; Brett W. Morris, Okla.; Patricia A. Venable, Ore.; Vaughn R. Meyer, S.D.; Linda A. Crumley, Southeast Unit; Ronald T. Yeargin, Tenn.; Charles A. Kiker III, Anne I. Anderson, V. Anne Wirtz and Jackie M. Means, Texas; Joseph W. Guthrie, Va.; and Alvin R. Bartz, Wis. The newly appointed member representing importers is Lawrence I. Bryant, Va.�

Committee Approves Initiatives for FY2011

The Operating Committee wrapped up tough discussions yesterday with a Fiscal Year 2011 plan of work for national checkoff funding that includes a total of 42 national checkoff programs from a slate of 48 that were proposed.

With an amended budget of $42.8 million, the committee approved funding of promotion, research, consumer information, industry information, foreign marketing and producer communications programs to be managed by the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, U.S. Meat Export Federation, American National CattleWomen, Meat Importers Council of America and the Cattlemen’s Beef Board.  

After sometimes-difficult debate over which programs should take priority, the approved national checkoff programs for Fiscal Year 2011 include:

• About $18.1 million for promotion, including consumer advertising, retail marketing, foodservice marketing, new product and culinary initiatives; a Northeast Beef Promotion Initiative to build demand in densely populated Northeast states, and veal marketing and communications. 
• Nearly $6.7 million for research projects, focusing on a variety of critical issues, including beef safety research, product enhancement research, human nutrition research, and market research. This funding also included $784,400 for a life cycle assessment – or environmental profile – of U.S. beef production
• More than $4.6 million for consumer information programs, including a Northeast public relations initiative, national consumer public relations, preparations for the 2011 national Beef Cook-Off, and nutrition-influencer relations.
• About $3.3 million for industry information projects, comprising the National Beef Ambassador Program, beef and dairy-beef quality assurance programs and dissemination of accurate information about the beef industry to counter misinformation from anti-beef groups and others.
• More than $5.7 million for foreign marketing and education efforts about U.S. beef in the ASEAN region; the Caribbean; Central and South America; the Dominican Republic; Europe; the Middle East; China/Hong Kong; Japan; Mexico; Russia; South Korea; and Taiwan.
• A total of about $1.7 million in Beef Board dollars for producer communications, which includes producer outreach using paid media, earned media and communications through livestock markets.
• In addition to the program budget, other costs to operate the national checkoff program in Fiscal Year 2011 include $240,000 for evaluation of checkoff programs; $160,000 for program development; $263,000 for USDA oversight; and about $2 million for administration, which includes costs for all Board and committee meetings, as well as office rental, supplies and equipment, and salaries – the total of which is limited to not more than 5 percent of projected revenues.

The revised budget and plan of work still must be approved by the full Beef Board as well as USDA.

For more details, go to Press Release.

Day Two

The Operating Committee meeting is settling in again this morning, the day the difficult decisions have to be made. As the discussion moves forward, we’ll let you know what programs the committee members vote to fund with beef checkoff dollars in Fiscal Year 2011, which begins Oct. 1, 2010. Stay tuned.

Long Day, Tall On Ideas

From “Beef. It’s What’s For Dinner” consumer advertising to issues management and public relations efforts to maintain and improve the beef industry’s reputation in the consumer marketplace to foreign marketing promotions aimed at growing U.S. beef exports to producer communications that report back to beef producers and importers about their checkoff investments, the Beef Promotion Operating Committee heard it all today.

Beef industry organizations, including the American National CattleWomen, Cattlemen’s Beef Board, Meat Importers Council of America, National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, and the U.S. Meat Export Federation, presented the committee with a total of 48 proposals to consider for beef checkoff funding in Fiscal Year 2011. Between today and tomorrow, the committee will discuss the pros and cons of each proposal and select those they wish to fund with a national budget of $40.6 million, of which $36.2 million is available for programming. Details of upcoming discussions and decisions will follow tomorrow.

Operating Committee Meeting Under Way

Jim Henger of NCBA presents a retail marketing proposal for checkoff funding in Fiscal Year 2011.

Cattle producers who serve on the Beef Promotion Operating Committee have begun their two-day meeting to identify programs to fund with national checkoff dollars in Fiscal Year 2011, which begins Oct. 1, 2010.

The Operating Committee comprises 10 members of the Cattlemen’s Beef Board and 10 members of the Federation of State Beef Councils, who have gathered in Denver to consider presentations of 48 proposals for funding in the coming year. Out of the gate today, they have listened to presentations for funding of retail and public relations programs for the Northeast Beef Promotion Initiative, represented by the Meat Importers Council of America and state beef councils in the Northeast United States; producer communications efforts represented by the Cattlemen’s Beef Board; and foreign marketing promotion programs represented by the U.S. Meat Export Federation. 

Next on the agenda are presentations from the American National Cattlewomen, with three program proposals — “Telling the BEEF Story,” as well as the National Beef Cook-Off and the National Beef Ambassadors Program. Following that, representatives of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association will present proposals in the areas of promotion, research, consumer information and industry information. Stay tuned.

Operating Committee Meets Sept. 20-21

The Beef Promotion Operating Committee will meet in Denver Sept. 20-21 to review 33 program proposals, or “Authorization Requests,” for checkoff funding in Fiscal 2011, which begins Oct. 1, 2010.

For an agenda or to review any of the Authorization Requests, visit THIS LINK.

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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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.

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.