ABAA March 2008 Newsletter (click to view)
Directors Meeting Slated for April 18-20, 2008
ABAA directors will meet in Memphis, TN for their annual spring planning retreat on Saturday, April 19, 2008. A block of rooms is being held at the Marriott Courtyard Memphis Park Avenue East. A group dinner is planned for the evening of Friday, April 18 and there is talk of a trip to Graceland. Memphis is a central location for the board. It is an open session and all members are invited to attend to present their concerns. Individual directors may also be contacted prior to the meeting with input from members.
2007 ANNUAL MEETING
ABAA members, their families and guests gathered in Bruce, MS on November 10, 2007. The day was a beautiful Southern fall day. Members came from Alabama, Louisiana, Ohio, Oklahoma, Texas, Vermont and Alberta, Canada. Preceded by a directors meeting early in the morning, the meeting was held in the community center of Bruce. All reports were favorable: the membership is growing, inquiries continue to increase, and the finances are holding up well. The stipend program for juniors was explained to the membership who are encouraged to recruit juniors for showing Blonde and Blonde influence cattle and thus qualify for the stipends. Members are also encouraged to have exhibits at trade shows and regional and local fairs. Those who do so may qualify for some assistance from the ABAA since they are promoting Blondes. Three directors were elected to the board: Clayton Bryant of Alabama, Bill McCoy of Oklahoma and Ed Moss of Oklahoma. Mr. Lance Newman of the Mississippi State University extension service presented an excellent program about bull selection. The Garretts from Texas then showed pictures from their recent trip to the national Blonde show in France. The meeting concluded at noon and the members enjoyed a wonderful lunch prepared by the Bruce United Methodist Women for their annual Harvest Festival.
The directors met briefly after lunch to elect officers and set a meeting site and time for their annual spring planning retreat. The board will convene again in April in Memphis, TN. Officers for 2008 will be these:
President Clayton Bryant
Vice-president Doug Diebold
Secretary Janella Garrett
Treasurer Cliff Easley.
Following lunch, members adjourned to Cliff Easley's Blonde farm for a tour. A hay wagon carried all around the farm as Mr. Easley explained his cattle program. There was ample opportunity on the tour and all through the day for members and guests to share their methods of working with cattle and also of marketing their Blonde animals.
The day ended with dinner at Bubba T's in Bruce and an evening at the Bollinger Family Theater in Bruce. It was a good meeting for the ABAA, and all departed with new ideas and renewed enthusiasm for promoting their Blonde herds.
American Blonde d'Aquitaine Association
7407 VZ County Road 1507 - Grand Saline, TX 75140 - 903.570.0568 - info@blondecattle.org