Fullblood Simmental Fleckvieh Federation
ANNUAL MEMBERSHIP MEETING MINUTES
Louisville, Kentucky
November 14, 2011

For the second year, the FSFF Annual General Membership Meeting was held in the West Hall Lobby banquet area next to the cattle barn at the North American International Livestock Exposition in Louisville, Kentucky.

FSFF President Ron Nolan officially opened the meeting at 11:35 AM. Dr. Mikell Davis led the prayer of thanks and blessing.

President Nolan introduced Dr. Jerry Lipsey, Executive Vice President of the American Simmental Association as our special Guest Speaker. His address to the FSFF Membership would take place after the conclusion of the business portion of the meeting.

President Nolan then stated that he felt it most important for the FSFF Board of Directors and the FSFF Membership to concentrate in 2012 on approaching the purebred breeders, the commercial breeders and the Sim-Angus breeders to educate them in what Fullbloods can do for them in their herds. He hoped that our advertising push would be in that direction. We need to keep changing our advertising focus to keep current, as well as ahead of the curve. He also stressed that Fullblood breeders need to become much more involved in the genomic projects that are ongoing. He found out that 50% of the DNA in Canadian cattle went back to just 30 head. DNA testing is of utmost importance to add to our strive for valid and strong EPD numbers. President Nolan also reported that the FSFF Board will try to expand our fundraising capabilities in 2012, starting perhaps by having a Sunday night reception and auction prior to the 3 FSFF NAILE events. 50% of what is donated at our FSFF/NAILE fundraisers now goes to the NAILE events, including the Pinnacle International Fullblood Show premiums and advertising. The remaining 50% goes into the FSFF advertising accounted from which we pay to promote FSFF Members’ cattle and the Fleckvieh breed in general. He suggested we approach the ASA and CSA to ask for matching advertising funds.

At that point President Nolan announced that he would be stepping down as FSFF President due to his new position as President of the Canadian Simmental Association. He insured the FSFF Members that he would remain on the FSFF Board for his full term consisting of one more calendar year, and he also would be available to help in any manner the Membership needed. He then called for the start of the Officer and Committee Reports.

Treasurer’s Report:
Jim Ethridge stated that there was $21, 791.15 in our Bank of America checking account up to and including October 31, 2011. He asked that the meeting attendees pick up a copy of his Profit and Loss spread sheet from the table at the front of the room. He had broken down all our expense categories into events and activities for easier reference. His spread sheet, the Quick Books Accounting Profit and Loss Report and the Quick Book Balance Sheet for the same period of January 1 through October 31, 2011, were all in agreement. He requested a motion to approve the Treasurer’s Report which was so motioned by Dr. Mikell Davis and seconded by Larry Throgmorton. The motion passed.

Membership Report:
Faith Burton greeted everyone and welcomed new visitors who had come a long way to attend the FSFF events. The current FSFF Membership numbers were: 29 Canadian Members (up from 21 in 2010), 88 USA Members, 2 Brazil, 1 Germany and 1 Ireland. We had 7 new Memberships during the year and 5 new Memberships at the NAILE in 2010. Faith had received 26 renewals already for 2012, with 1 application pending from a ranch referral of Billy and Sandra Greer. She explained that while the number of Members seems to stay the same from year to year, there are actually many new Memberships while some long time Members drop off due to illness, etc. Hi-lighting the increase in Canadian Memberships, she felt the new interest had much to do with our advertising push in the Canadian Simmental Country magazines. The majority of the April Fundraiser at BAR 5 items donated AND items purchased at auction were from the Canadians in attendance at BAR 5. Youth Report: Faith Burton introduced Faith Onstot of Peach Creek Ranch in Granger, TX. Faith had been the Female Fullblood Division Grand Champion at the AJSA Classic Show in Sedalia, MO., in July. The Reserve Champion was Joshua VonBehren of Three Child Farms in Springfield, MO. Faith asked that all the FSFF Members try to interest more youth participants and to contact the FSFF office if they wished to be on the 2012 Youth Committee.

Directory Report:
Faith Burton addressed the production figures for the 2011-2012 FSFF Annual Membership Directory. A copy of the Production Report was available to everyone from the table at the front of the room. Our total Directory costs were $7, 476.03. Advertisers were billed at $21,300.00. Our Directory retained $13,823.97 for further general promotion of Members’ cattle and general breed advertising. There were 600 Directory copies left over after mailing that should carry us through event distributions until August of 2012 when we will have a new Directory available. The only increase in Directory expenses were the increases in postage rates both from Canada and the USA. The amount of business card ads jumped up to 30 this year and Faith suggested the attendees start thinking about advertising in the next Directory because the $100 for a business card ad is a small expense for the amount of coverage you get throughout the year.

President Nolan announced that he thought the 2011-2012 FSFF Annual Membership Directory was tremendous and perhaps the best one ever published. He thanked FSFF Coordinator, Faith Burton and Becky Wadlow of Brandmark Imaging for all their hard work.

Sales and Shows Report:
Brian Valentine commended Larry Maxey on his successful push to repeat having our International Fullblood Show held at the NAILE. He then introduced Larry who gave a brief synopsis of the overall Pinnacle Show numbers and activity. Larry thanked The Federation for having the Pinnacle become an FSFF event and for all the FSFF Members and non-members who participate in the show. Even though the expense is great and the amount of time necessary to get animals ready is huge, he believes Fullbloods have a rightful place at the NAILE and their visual presence here will make a difference. He was very thankful to the NAILE Committee for our placement once again on the main aisle in the cattle barn. He expressed his gratitude to Anne-Marie Rasch and Faith Burton for bringing some “class” to the event with the beautiful awards and buckles chosen. He thanked the Show and Sales Committee and Brian Valentine. He stated that we are still on “probation” with the people responsible for putting the NAILE together, stressing that we must keep up our cattle numbers and breeder numbers. This year we have 60 head of cattle and an excess of the amount of breeders necessary. He explained that each year we ask the NAILE Committee for several things, one of which is that we would like to have our show in the Main Arena. He stated that he would from now on like to leave that request up to the FSFF Show and Sales Committee, as if we did obtain permission to show in the Main Arena we would give up our control of the entries, etc., and there would be no flexibility. Also, he felt it should be the FSFF Board of Directors asking for the 50/50 matching funds approval from the NAILE Committee. He announced that he has spoken to several KSA people here at the NAILE about the possibility of our having an FSFF Fullblood Junior Show separately held during the schedule here. We would have to get the ASA fully behind us. Brian Valentine thanked Larry for all his hard work and support. Brian reminded everyone that the International Fullblood Sale, within the North American Select Simmental Sale, was to be at 5PM in Newmarket Hall adjacent to the cattle barn. He asked for everyone’s support for the sale at Houston this year and suggested anyone with question regarding cattle in that event to call Jim Ethridge or Larry Throgmorton. Brian then announced that the current project headed up by Dr. John Beaver, consisting of research trials on 5,000 head of steers, would be willing to accept a pen of Fullblood steers to join the project. This will have to be a team effort to gather the cattle, meet the protocols and in general, head up our participation in the project. There would be two sections of cattle, Spring calving and Fall calving. This could lead to a form of sustainable income for the FSFF by the trial participants perhaps donating a calf to the FSFF. On the calves entered, the owner/breeder would receive a cash reward at the trial’s end each year. This project would give a large amount of authenticity to our EPDs. Please advise Brian if you would like to be involved.

Fundraising Report:
Anne-Marie Rasch reported that the April fundraiser at BAR 5 brought in $12,000 for the Pinnacle Show production and FSFF general ongoing advertising. Also, Pinnacle class sponsorships brought in $2,500, with only 3 classes not having a sponsor. This money paid for the awards that were ordered. She would like to see corporate sponsors next year and asked the Membership to let her know if they knew of a sponsor we could contact. We are now $140 ahead with selling our promotional baseball caps and patches. She expressed her hope that everyone enjoyed the luncheon and wished to see everyone at the Sunday night festivities in the planning for next year at the NAILE.

President Ron Nolan then called for any FSFF Board nominees from the floor for the three vacant positions. There were none. He asked John Nimmo, Dr. Jason Gress, Andreas Buschbeck and Larry Throgmorton, the 4 current nominees, to come forward and give a brief address as to what their goals were for the FSFF and how they started with Fleckvieh cattle. Upon completion, President Nolan asked everyone who had not already voted to please hand in their filled out ballots to Faith and then excused Dr. Jerry Lipsey and Faith from the meeting in order to count the votes in hand outside the banquet room. During that time, Larry Maxey held an informational session regarding the steer trial project discussed above in these minutes.

President Nolan was then handed the results of the votes for the three FSFF Board positions. The new Members to each hold three year terms were: John Nimmo, Dr. Jason Gress and Andreas Buschbeck. President Nolan then asked for a motion to destroy all ballots for this election. Randall Townley made the motion which was seconded by Larry Maxey. The motion carried.

One by one, President Nolan asked each of the retiring FSFF Board Members, who were Greg Kemp, Dr. Mikell Davis and Larry Throgmorton, to come forward. He thanked them for their devotion to their duties and their continual hard work for the benefit of all the FSFF Members and their cattle. Each was presented with an engraved leather card holder as a token of thanks from the FSFF Membership.

President Nolan then instructed Anne-Marie Rasch to present Dr. Jerry Lipsey with an engraved FSFF buckle in thanks for his appearance at our FSFF Annual General Membership Meeting and agreeing to speak to the attendees.

Dr. Jerry Lipsey then took the floor and entertained the FSFF Membership in attendance with anecdotes from his history with Simmentals and also gave instructional dialogue to create a wider interest within the industry about the insertion of our Fullblood cattle to a wider audience.

There was a motion to adjourn the 2011 FSFF Annual General Membership meeting by Randall Townley and seconded by Greg Kemp. The motion carried. The meeting was adjourned at 2:22 PM.