What's Going On Wednesday: April 13, 2016

Beef promotion, trips to D.C. and meetings, meetings and more meetings are the theme around the Cattlemen's building this week. There's always something going on that keeps the staff busy, but we sure love working for Alabama's cattlemen. Keep reading to find out what's going on at the ACA this week. 

Trip to D.C.

ACA Executive Vice President Dr. Billy Powell, President Bill Lipscomb and President-Elect Richard Meadows are in Washington D.C. Tuesday through Thursday of this week. While there, the trio will join with 30 other state cattlemen's associations to attend the Spring Legislative Conference. This trip will provide our state cattlemen's representatives with the opportunity to go on office visits with Alabama's congressional delegation!

Membership

We are wrapping up membership with 10,624 members as of today and 16 "Over the Top" counties. A number of counties are still lagging, though. RVPs are reaching out to their assigned county presidents about plans to get in the 2400 non-renewed members. Another conference call between the RVPs will be held on Monday, April 18 to report on the results. 

Get out and get recruiting; not only will it help the state association, but it could win you some awesome prizes. Just in case you need some incentive to get out and recruit, check out these prizes:

• 5 new members – ACA cap and knife
• 15 new members – ACA shirt
• 25 new members – ACA vest
• 35 new members – ACA Red/Black jacket
• 50 new members - $250

Top Hand Club sponsored by Alabama Ag Credit and Alabama Farm Credit

Just in case you need some more incentive in your recruiting efforts, let your non-renewed friends and neighbors know this! The April Alabama Cattleman magazine is the LAST magazine you'll get if you do not renew by April 15, and you have until Friday to renew now online and you'll get a package in the mail from us with some nifty ACA gadgets and gizmos such as a hat, iWallet and other goodies. Don't miss out- renew today! 

Also, don't forget our John Deere Gator drawing sponsored by John Deere, SunSouth, Tri-Green Equipment, Snead Ag. For every new member you recruit, your name and the new members names go in the drawing. ACA members also have the opportunity to purchase more chances to win by calling ACA at 334-265-1867.

Ag Econ Interviews

Dr. Dea Cue Fields, the chair of the Agricultural Economics and Rural Sociology Department at Auburn, invited ACA leadership to participate in the final interviews of the three candidates in the running to replace Dr. Walter Prevatt. All three candidates come with outstanding resumes, and we are excited and honored to be part of the process. 

ACA's Director of Checkoff Programs Erin Beasley participated in this week's round of interviews and speaks highly of the candidate. 

Bama's Best Beef 

We kicked off a springtime beef promotion on Monday that highlights Alabama's unique beef dishes. Using the power of social media to drive the contest and by promoting it to Alabama's restaurants and chefs, we've started to receive nominations of those not-so-average beef dishes made and served right here in Alabama. We've got our eyes set on all those unconventional, yet delicious, beef dishes! 

If you know of a beef dish from an Alabama restaurant that fits the bill, nominate them here.   

Beef 101

Starting today with Lawson State Culinary Arts and Moody High School FCCLA, we kicked off a busy month of Beef 101 programs. We offer this program tovarious influencer groups across the state in order to teach them about beef from “Pasture to Plate." 

We would like to invite our Board members to attend. Your role in this program is to interact with participants who are “non-cattle” folks so that they leave the program with a bright outlook on our industry.

Here are the dates and groups. We have 5 seats at each program

available at first come first serve basis. RSVP to Erin if you can attend.

Erin Beasley showing a side of beef
to Moody High School FCCLA students
at the Lambert-Powell Meat Lab in Auburn.

• April 19th- Faulkner State Culinary, Wood Fruitticher Foodservice Sales Team Leadership
• April 25th- Trenholm State Culinary
• April 29th- Jeff State Culinary, McAdory Middle School culinary students, American Culinary Federation chefs

For today's program, we were proud to have YCLP Class II alumni Alex Tigue on the team to help with carcass fabrication and the live evaluation! Great job, Alex. 

YCLP Class III

Speaking of YCLP- county presidents, applications are out now for the Young Cattlemen's Leadership Program- Class III. Send us your nominations of 20-40 year olds who work in Alabama beef cattle industry by MONDAY as the first meeting will be held May 11 in Montgomery. We look forward to another great year with Alabama's young cattle producers. Get the application

Meetings, Meetings and More Meetings

The ACA building has hosted quite a few meetings this week as well. On Monday night, Erin Beasley hosted a group from the Montgomery Dietetic Association. Youth Leadership Jackson County visited and toured the building Tuesday, and the Alabama Leadership Initiative will have a meeting here Friday morning. As usual, the Ag Coalition also met in the ACA Board on Tuesday morning as well. 

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