Happy New Year!
With the first post of 2019 comes all sorts of updates from your Alabama Cattlemen’s Association. We hope you and your family had a blessed Christmas and New Year season and are settling back into a routine. For most of Alabama’s cattlemen, that routine is quite a muddy one. Yikes! Fortunately a few sunny days have re-brightened spirits and begun to dry things up. While we wait for the mud to dry, take a breather to catch up with all that’s happening at the ACA this week- it’s a busy start to a new, exciting year!
76TH ANNUAL ACA CONVENTION & TRADE SHOW
We’re beefin’ up the ‘Ham…Birmingham, that is! Join us at the 2019 ACA Convention & Trade Show at the Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Complex (BJCC) February 15-16, 2019. There are endless activities, learning opportunities and networking experiences awaiting your registration including dynamic and educational Cattlemen’s Colleges, a trade show with the industry’s elite equipment, tool and nutritional names, a menu of delicious beef meals and fun for the whole family at Friday evening’s Boots & BBQ event and Saturday’s Awards Banquet!
We look forward to the 76th annual ACA Convention and Trade Show, and you should too! REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN at www.BamaBeef.org/Convention or call Jessica today at (334) 265-1867. EARLY BIRD PRICING EXPIRES TOMORROW AT MIDNIGHT…DON’T WAIT! Mail-in forms are also available in your recent issue of the Alabama Cattleman or on the site listed above.
*Note to vendors: Ali Cantrell is now your trade show contact! Email Ali
County Annual Meetings Going Strong
We’ve enjoyed seeing the highlights from all the county meetings and
loveto see the hard work of counties executed in their annual meeting. We look forward to many more still to come, which can be found on the Bama Beef Events Calendar. As a reminder, leading up to your county’s annual meeting, please contact Jessica Kennedy in our office to infor her of the date, time and location and to request a speaker! Remember, the earlier you get those dates to us, the earlier we can get them on our website and in the magazine!! Following the meeting, send Jessica any officer updates in order to update our system with corrected contact information for 2019. RVPs, we encourage you to reach out to your counties to let them know you plan to attend their meetings! That way, they can account for your meal.
ACA officers and staff are traveling across Alabama to attend meetings and are looking forward to visiting with YOU! This week, ACA Director of Education & Outreach Ali Cantrell will be attending the Limestone and Madison County meetings. She’s excited to see our north Alabama members!
As you’re collecting membership information to put into the system, remember how important phone numbers and email addresses are! It is essential to county leaders and to us here at the state to be able to contact our members when needed. It helps everyone in the long run. Also, as a reminder, the three-year member dues have changed to $120 with $82 coming back to the state office.
Goodbyes and New Faces
This week brought about one sad event in our office as we said goodbye to a loyal and hardworking staffer. As of Tuesday, Michael Agar is no longer on staff at the association as he has accepted a new position in his career journey. Here’s a note from Michael from his Facebook account:
“Toward the end of the year, I accepted a position as an outside sales representative with Cargill Feed & Nutrition covering a territory from Birmingham south to the Florida panhandle. While I am excited to begin a new chapter with Cargill, it has been a bittersweet ending to my time with the Alabama Cattlemen’s Association. I am surrounded by a fun, hardworking staff in Montgomery that have become family and truly made this decision difficult. This association has so many volunteers across the state that have been a blessing to me and while those relationships will change, they will not end. I look forward to continuing to build on those relationships as I advance in my career. Thank you for letting me grow with this association, and I look forward to seeing everyone at ACA Convention – just in a different hat!”
With that said, to help fill in the shoes he left behind as well as the shoes left temporarily vacant by staffer Kayla Greer- who is out on maternity leave with her new baby girl who arrived on Dec. 21- we have hired a spring intern, Stephanie Fuller. Stephanie comes to the ACA by way of Auburn University’s Department of Agricultural Economics and her hometown of Valley in Chambers County. Expect to see Stephanie’s face out and about, especially at our upcoming convention! Send Stephanie a welcome!
Inaugural Events at the ACA
Inauguration Day is January 14 here in Montgomery! We will have a lot of folks trekking in and out of the building, and hope to see you. Our parking lot is open for members, and we invite you to stop into the lobby of The MOOseum for refreshments before you head toward the festivities happening in the downtown area. The beef truck and trailer will be in the inaugural parade, so look out for us! If you or your children would like to participate in the parade with us, contact Ali Cantrell!
SLE Rodeo- Coming to Town!
The 62nd annual SLE Rodeo will come bucking back to town March 14-16 
for the best show on dirt east of the Mississippi! Early Bird ticket sales are now available, so give Kara Coplin a call at 888-2RODEO2. To learn more about this year’s SLE Rodeo & Livestock Week, visit www.SLERodeo.com.
New Year. New You.
Have you started a New Year diet? Are you trying to shed a few of those wintertime pounds? Are you trying to build muscle to gain that more tones look? Don’t forget to add plenty of protein to your diet. Learn ways to do that by reading this month’s article written by Alabama Beef Checkoff Contract Registered Dietitian Elesha Ergle now live on the Bama Beef Blog. She’s offering great tips and recipes to kick start your weight loss and healthy lifestyle goals. Read the Article
Thanks for reading this week’s post! Until we post again, we want to remind you that you can stay in touch with us by following us on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.