(The March 2010 Ketch pen article was cut of more than a page of content. Below is the original uncut and uncensored article...EnJoY!)
Beef, Beer, and Budgets…Hope and Change has Arrived
(Disclaimer: Views expressed below are not representative of the WCA. Solely reflective of the author. Comments welcome, complaints not.)
Another year rounded the corner and I found myself with another tally on my age card. This new found age came with an epiphany. I realized I am not getting any younger. I found myself like a deer-in-the-headlights, suddenly faced with a need to stop wasting years and hunker down to change a few things. My changes are not like the ones that will bring you to a gym for the first two months out of the New Year with the promise of
finally sticking with it this time. Instead, I realized some very serious changes were in order. The government was not looking any smarter, the lottery hadn’t called my name, and to top it all off now I was getting
old. The tipping point came when I passed by a mirror and instead of finding Obama or Pelosi, the only idiot I found staring back was ME! It was go-time.
Thanks to my newfound “hope and change” 2010 kicked off with gusto. January brought a call from the American National Cattlewomen President-elect wondering if I would oblige them as Legislative Committee Chair. With this new position I had less than 3 weeks to try and get myself down to the NCBA Annual Convention to meet the ANCW crew I would be working with this next year. My cattle industry trip-planning style hadn’t failed me thus far so in keeping with tradition, I gathered enough pennies and nickels for a plane ticket to
San Antonio the day before I flew out! Thanks to the PNW YCC trip the weekend prior, University of Idaho students offered up a spare bunk in their room my first two days at convention. The latter part of the week I bunked with my friend Amanda, whom I met last spring on the Young Cattlemen’s Conference trip. At the end of convention we steered her rig down a back highway en route to
Fort Worth so I could take in the
Texas landscape. I had less than 24 hours to experience
Fort Worth, but we knew from our YCC trip we could efficiently use every hour while I was there! My only trip to
Texas had been as a stop-through on my way to
Mexico for a church mission trip when I was fifteen. This trip to
Texas gave me the opportunity to actually experience the culture and environment while learning invaluable information at the NCBA convention.
As a first-time attendee at the NCBA Convention, it felt similar to a first day at college. Over 6,000 NCBA members from across the
US attended this year. Also in attendance was a majority of my 2009 Young Cattlemen’s College classmates! In my opinion, this was one of the most important years I could have attended. Not only did I receive the opportunity to see the highest number of my YCC pals, I also was able to meet the gals I will be working closely with as part of the ANCW leadership team, and hear first hand the planned organizational changes of the NCBA. Ah yes, the NCBA reorganization we’ve heard rumbling in the background. The $100 question seems to be, “What is this re-organization and why do we even need it?” None of us are alone in our questions as it was discussed among nearly ever member at convention. If you are looking for someone to help you understand the proposed changes, then my advice is to stop reading, move five spaces, continue past go, and find Jack or Dick! I am
not the person to explain the reorganization or to help you understand it, remembering my address is enough of a challenge some days. This reorganization could have created a standstill at the NCBA convention and been all that was discussed, personally I was pleased to find that there were many other important things to learn and experience. For example, the convention trade-show truly lived up to all the hype the NCBA and vendors build it up to be! I guarantee most of us little ol’ Washingtonians have never seen anything like it. You could easily spend the entire convention quizzing the Boehringer Ingelheim folks over which vaccine you should
really be using or standing in line for a free copy of Chris Gardner’s autographed book “the Pursuit of Happyness” they had donated. Head just a few aisles over and you could pull up a stool at the American Angus Association booth to hunker down for a chat with Rod Wesselman during “cocktail hour”, free wine and beef samples in hand of course! The trade show itself is a mix of socializing, learning, and meeting new business and personal contacts. It seemed free beer, beef, or live buckaroo music was never too far away to accompany mapping lessons at the NRCS booth, or discussions with US Fish and Wildlife and Western Legacy Alliance. Some of the most productive learning opportunities occurred while socializing…and that is exactly the way life was meant to be lived! In between trade show visits there was a keynote address by Chris Gardner, the author of “The Pursuit of Happyness”. If you have not heard of it, go rent the movie or check out the book immediately. Chris Gardner rose his way to the top after living homeless for an extended period time while actually
working full-time and raising his toddler son as a single father. Now
that is a story all of us can not only be inspired by but learn from as well. I rounded out my convention experience with an excellent forum on Western Water Law, Cattlemen’s College, ANCW meeting, MBA & YCC receptions, and a Darrel Worley concert.
Enough with the fluff lets get down to what is going on with the NCBA. “Are they ditching us Washingtonians and paying attention to the packers and feeders like always? That’s it! I knew it!” For those of you wondering what is happening, first start up your email, yep I said
email…if you don’t have email then stop reading. Please start your time machine, leave 1972 and join us in 2010. (If offended please see disclaimer at bottom) After you’ve opened your email
read the information that has been sent from the WCA or NCBA or request to receive it from someone. This information is heavy, long, complicated, and quite confusing. However, the epiphany I had a few weeks back made me realize this reorganization
should be long, it should be confusing as all heck, and it should be complicated. This is an organization that touches all aspects of the cattle industry, a
global beef market, nearly every state in the union, and much more. This realization came after I’d implemented a personal reorganization of my own life. This reorganization is long overdue, everything needed to be uncluttered; from my house, mind, and heart. I began by implementing an intense budget to tackle college debt while also starting an education savings fund. The intensity of this budget is so strong, depression era folks would be proud. I also created a five year plan that will involve overhauls to my location, work, education, and faith. For the observant reader, you may have noticed education was listed more than once. From the girl who equated studying in college to chewing on foil, really? I never said this overhaul was going to be uncomplicated or for the weak-hearted. It is going to take a lot of elbow grease and hours of analytical planning. What is needed most is a strong support network who shares in the common goal and ready to jump in 100% with moral support and prayer. If all that intensity is required for just one person, I can not imagine what it would take to reorganize an entire association!
In my own life I realized the current administration, my personal life circumstances, and this economy had affected my personal life so much that something needed to
change. Let’s face it WCA members we do not even live in the same world we lived in two years ago. What is wrong with creating a game-plan, actually acting on that game-plan, rather than just continuing to talk about the plan? Even nuttier would be if we tried to gain an offensive strategy rather than continuing to fight defense in this industry. How I see it is we can have an organization working on our behalf that is going to just sit back and wait for the economy to pick up, the
Pacific Rim to increase US beef imports, HSUS to change their mind, and the government to grant us more oil, water, and land. Or, we can have an organization who realizes something is not working and continuing to sit around waiting for circumstances to change is poor business sense. I do not care if that organization is the NCBA, the WCA, or Wal-Mart at this point, let’s just stop wasting time. Frankly, it is just plain annoying. I think we can all agree on one thing: what we
have been doing in the
US cattle industry is not successfully meeting any of our needs. If you have one “Aha” moment let it be the realization this world is moving fast, light-speed fast. Our cattle industry is historically known to not change with the times, instead we typically fight against change. In fact, that is a characteristic we seem to pride ourselves in. Whether it is good, bad, or indifferent the NCBA seems to realize that some of the current business plans are no longer effective and resisting change could be the final straw for our industry. Basic economics will tell you when less money comes in, less goes out. Yet the financial needs of our industry have continued to rise while income has decreased. We should be looking at what
successful businesses do when they face trying times. They restructure. I am not advocating for or against this restructure. However, I will be so bold as to advocate for each and every one of us to take an introspective look at our industry from the ground up. My arrival into the
Spokane airport at the end of my
Texas experience left me with even more hope for the future than I had prior. However, as soon as that hope hit, some much needed change quickly hit. I could be found rolling nickels and pennies the very next day digging up just enough spare change to cover expenses. It was very clear something was not working in my personal life and I knew I had to change something quick. Rather than blame the recession, my company, or leadership positions for my date night spent with my once full Pendleton change jar I looked in the mirror, put on my big-girl pants and got to work. We need to get to work in this industry. Yes, I am well aware how busy you are with calving, irrigating, and trying to make it up to your wife for using her favorite shirt to clean tack…again. Frankly though, the excuses were getting old even back when Bush was in office. What is so wrong with changing things in our industry? Are we truly that afraid of success? Start thinking what
we can do to start seeing the change we want. What if this recession lasts another five years, Pelosi remains as the top she-devil, or what if your family encounters an unplanned hardship? Is focusing on the 20% we do not have control over choking out our success? There is so much we do have control over in our lives and the god given intellect, physical capabilities, and heart to do so. With a little luck we’ll have our own Hope and Change.
