On November 22 and 23 more than 100 attendees gathered for the 2019 ASA Annual Meeting – Forum & Awards Banquet at the Hilton Kansas City Airport in Kansas City, Missouri.

On Friday, November 22, attendees chose a workshop taught by ASA staff. Matt Woolfolk shared how selection indexes are created for genetic evaluations. Heather Lange and Emily Velisek explained the ASA registry and answered related questions. Shelby Diehm described the opportunities ASA provides to members to market Shorthorn cattle and Amy Sampson of Shorthorn Country spoke about magazine advertising.

After breakout sessions, members were encouraged to attend committee meetings. The ASA Genetic Evaluation Committee, ASA Commercial Acceptance Committee, ASA ShorthornPlus/Composite Committee, and ASA Promotion Committee had members eager to contribute ideas to submit to the ASA board and staff. The 150^th Anniversary Committee is actively planning for the 150^th celebration to begin at the annual meeting in 2021.

Later that afternoon, the “Building a Positive Breed Image” portion of the Annual Meeting began with a panel consisting of Virgin Huseman of Kansas, Marty Lueck of Missouri and Randy McCabe of Kansas. They discussed how to build a commercial image. The panel was followed by Patrick Wall of Iowa State Extension, reviewing the ISU Shorthorn feed efficiency heifer project. The evening concluded with Eric Grant of Grant Company showing attendees some of the new ASA marketing campaign his team has been working on since July.

On Saturday, the morning began with Matt Woolfolk, ASA Director of Performance Programs, giving a breed performance update. He was followed by Dwight Williams, of ABS Global, speaking about A.I. Sire Procurement. Next was Donnell Brown of R.A. Brown Ranch sharing Building Blocks to a Strong Breed. He was followed by a panel of Derek Jungels of North Dakota, Paul Hill of Ohio and Jim Husz of Missouri, discussing Breeders’ Impact on a Breed.

That afternoon following speakers, the annual meeting was in session. The ASA auditor began with a financial report and told members that ASA is in great financial condition. Montie Soules, Executive Secretary/CEO of ASA, gave the state of association report. The highlights of his report being a 65% increase in new junior and senior membership in the last year. The top five states for registrations are Ohio with 1,219 registrations, Indiana with 1,196 registrations, Iowa with 1,124 registrations, Kansas with 1,010 registrations, and Illinois with 940 registrations. Another major highlight is that ShorthornPlus registrations are 28% of total registrations. The nominating committee submitted three candidates for the available positions on the ASA board. Jerrell Crow of Oklahoma, Lee Miller of Ohio and John Russell of Texas were elected to serve a three-year term. The board met to elect new officers for the nine-member board. The new president of the board is Nancy Grathwohl-Heter of Kansas, the first woman president. The vice-president is Hugh Mooney and the executive director is Dave Greenhorn of Ohio. They serve alongside Joe Bales of Tennessee, Toby Jordan of Indiana, John Sonderman of Nebraska, Jerrell Crow of Oklahoma, Lee Miller of Ohio and John Russell of Texas.

On Saturday evening there were more than 130 people in attendance for the awards banquet. Members were recognized for Century Club, Pacer Performance Awards and Show Awards. Bruce E. Brooks of Oklahoma was awarded the Merit Award. Keith H. Lauer of Kansas was presented the Heritage Award. Mark W. P. Gordon and Phillip & Linda Bowman were recognized as Builders of the Breed.

The Annual Meeting will be held in Louisville, Kentucky, during the North American International Livestock Exposition, in 2020. We hope to see you there!