AMSS Summer Board Meeting Minutes

MILKING SHORTHORN MINUTES

Summer Board Meeting June 29 & 30, 2020 • Beloit, Wisconsin

Meeting was called to order by President Marcia Clark at 8:11am on Monday, June 28, 2020 at the Hampton Inn, Beloit, Wisconsin. A quorum to conduct business was reached. Board members Bill Bartlett and Scott Cailteux were not in attendance. Guests present include Michelle Upchurch and Eddie Hartfield.

Motion passed to approve agenda with an addition.

Motions passed to approve minutes from the following meetings, April 28th, June 10th, June 18th, and June 19th.

President Marcia Clark read her Presidents Report. She focused on how the work of the board supports the Red, White and Roan.

Executive Secretary Brenda Gudex spoke about the work the National Office has accomplished over the past year and how programs will move forward.

Standing Committee Reports Articles & Bylaws

The board reviewed the drafts of both the Articles and the bylaws as presented by the committee.

Numerous changes and additions were discussed.

These changes will be passed onto the Article and Bylaws committee for discussion. A timeline of events in order to bring the new documents to the membership was discussed so that we can bring our Society up to date.

Credentials Committee

There was no report from the Credentials Committee, but it was noted the amount of work the committee did to assist in the unique situation for the voting this year.

Breed Outlook

The committee was asked to review the Express Program. The committee provided breakdown of cost savings for the current examples given on the form. When reviewing current Express Herds, the current breakdown for program does not meet our membership needs. The board discussed why breeders are not signing up for the program. The committee will review the program so that it fits better within our membership needs.

One of the reasons breeders sign up for the Express Program is because of the Milk Production recording. This program helps our members to be eligible for National Milk Awards. Unfortunately, we have discovered numerous issues with data going into our database as well as our inability to pull the correct information out of the database to use.

The board will make it a top priority to review not only the database, but the information going into it as well.

Convention

The National Convention Committee will provide an update on the Convention at the December meeting. As of right now, convention planning for Wisconsin, Illinois and Oklahoma/Arkansas/Texas are all on track.

There are not many anticipated changes to the convention schedule for 2021. When the December report is given, we will review the Auctioneer and Sale crew pricing.

National Sale

No updates for 2021 at this time. All those who consigned in 2020 were refunded the consignment fee.

The board discussed the outstanding animals from the 2019 sale. Brenda will be sending them a letter to request payment again.

Type/Classification

We have been receiving reports of incorrect or missing information on pedigrees regarding classification scores, especially multiple E records.

Brenda and Susan have been working on updating the website rules to reflect the rules that have been changed. One of the rules that was missing was the verbiage regarding the bull classification change. There was also verbiage that mentioned “not considering the stage of lactation on the linear descriptive traits.” Susan would like the board to make a motion to make our rules meet the current classification standards.

Motion passed to take out any mention of “not considering the stage of lactation” on the linear descriptive traits and there be no max score for bulls.

International Committee

Report given on the February trip to the USLGE meeting and the many ideas shared at that meeting that could benefit AMSS. A list was shared for potential travel and where to allocate funding.

The committee would like to work on a checklist for future AMSS travel and the creation of a calendar and timeline.

Because of the way funds are allocated, an application process for participants is not allowed. The board discussed creating a listing of individuals best suited to travel on behalf of AMSS.

Feedback in relation to US genetics moving outside the US as well as those genetics that could potentially enter our herdbook was shared

Percentage information was discussed. International markets are looking at percentages. We do not share this information internationally, even though we promote our bulls on an international market.

Recommendation was shared from the committee to bring foreign representatives to the US during our convention to meet with AMSS breeders for a collaborative effort of genetics transfer. What we may be looking for in the US could be very different from what foreign markets might be looking for.

A listing of cows that could be potential bull mothers for exportable bulls was shared. These cows are backed by milk and components. Data was pulled from reports used to find Hardy Cow Award recipients.

Motion passed to have a spreadsheet on percentages of the bulls from the Bull Book to share information internationally.

Motion passed to pay membership dues of $5500 to USLGE for 2021.

Genetics & Sire Asset Management

The committee also discussed percentages and the consensus from the committee is that our current herdbook levels should not change.

Bulls were presented.

Treeton Scarlet Zumba should enter the herdbook as an EXP due to his sire, Mapleton VLY J Zumba being a full herdbook bull.

Gorbro Joans Jazzy - Current AMSS policy would bring this bull into the herdbook as a GI. With the significant interest in this bull, the committee recommends that he be entered into the herdbook at a GI2 level. This would increase his usage due to the fact that a GI2 x with a full herdbook would be an EXP level.

Motion passed to follow the committee recommendation of adding Gorbro Joans Jazzy to the AMSS herdbook at a GI2 level.

Brenda will provide the Genetics committee with a listing of bulls registered.

Recommendations of bulls will go both to the International committee and the Genetics committee.

Bull Book

The committee did a lot of target marketing to solicit advertisers in the book itself. One of the biggest changes this year was the need to mail the books out due to the cancellation of many of the National Shows.

There will be reimbursement for the cost with the funding from USLGE funds.

An electronic copy will be uploaded to continued on page 36

continued from page 35 the AMSS site.

Semen Sales

Process for semen sales was discussed. The board discussed payment for the semen sales – not only for the actual semen, but the shipping cost as well.

Motion passed to bill for AMSS semen sales as soon as the order is placed with a minimum shipping fee of $50 added to the bill. Semen must be paid for prior to shipment. With the balance for shipping due on return of the tank effective July 1, 2020.

Juniors

The juniors are moving forward with a virtual junior show with entries due July 1. They have held elections for their board which will be announced soon. The Junior board has asked last year’s queen to extend her reign, they are finalizing this.

Junior applications were accepted and are being reviewed. No applications were taken for the Australian trip as the 2020 trip has been postponed.

Futurity/All American

All entry fees have been reimbursed for Futurity 65 which was to be held in 2020. The 2021 Futurity will now be number 65.

The All-American contest was discussed as well as the 2020 National Show schedule.

Motion passed to add no new national shows to the 2020 show schedule. Shows added to the show schedule will be considered as regional shows. All open shows that submit information for all placings, judge information and follow all AMSS qualifying rules with no limitations, will be All American qualifying shows. All placings will be eligible for the All-American contest. Animals must be nominated with professional photos.

Motion passed that for any junior qualifying shows, all placings will be eligible for the all-American contest.

Milk Production

The committee recommendations were discussed. One of the recommendations was to move the award format to lactations rather than ages levels. The board discussed the current awards and it was decided not to change the age levels of the awards. A Yearling in Milk award was added to this year’s award.

The board will ask the committee to go through the awards to see if some of the requirements could be changed.

Also discussed was the information being used to determine award winners as well as who qualifies for awards. In order to qualify you must either be enrolled in the EXPRESS program or the Milk Recording program. That will not change.

Native and Dual Purpose

Correspondence was shared from the committee based on the recommendation of the board at the December meeting. Also shared was a report from 2016 in which the committee provided information regarding minimal participation in the AMSS breed programs.

Historical Preservation

A historical display was worked on for this year’s national convention. Coordination of an office visit was put on hold due to the pandemic.

The board discussed the binding of the journals. This has not been done in sometime. The board will discuss this further in the future.

Finance

Scott Cailteux joined the meeting via phone to review financial information.

Scott presented changes to the 2020 budget due to the changes in revenue and expenses because of the COVID19 pandemic. At this time, even with the changes made, we will most likely need to pull dollars from an investment account at year’s end.

We did receive PPP funding to cover two months of costs.

Website, Promotion & Publication

Motion passed to discontinue advertising in the GRAZE publication for 2020 and to discontinue the booth at the GRAZE conference.

The board discussed the website and challenges with the site. Brenda will be in contact with a website developer to give us some options moving forward with the site.

The Angle was also a point of discussion. We are currently working on a late summer issue due to the lack of material for a May/June issue. The board brainstormed ideas for the next issue. We discussed fewer issues going forward. This will need to be discussed when the next contract comes due.

The Junior National Heifer Show was discussed in its virtual format. Other virtual shows are popping up as well.

Motion passed to include virtual shows as qualifying shows for the 2020 All American Junior and Open contests.

Clarification on needs for the USLGE funding was discussed. Mexico and Japan have come to the forefront as potential trade partners. A large group from the US attends the CNOG show in Mexico and it was discussed to use this group for partnerships.

Motion passed to send an AMSS member to Mexico with the CNOG group.

Motion passed to invite Rob Kite and Michael Tuhan to the AMSS National Convention in 2021 using USLGE funds.

The National office will keep a listing of those interested or recommended for travel.

The 2019 Bull registrations listing will be shared with both the international committee and the genetics committee. This listing along with the packet shared by Kylie on the cows will be a great starting point for discussions between the two committees.

A committee will be put together to work on database concerns.

Brenda shared with the board a plan for month meetings and regular board reports.

Motion passed that starting in July we would have standing board meetings.

Brenda will get out moratorium information to our membership.

Motion passed that the AMSS will not knowingly publish any information that is known to be inaccurate.

The Endowment committee was discussed. The AMSS board presents an ask to the Endowment committee for special project on a yearly basis.

Motion passed to ask the Endowment Committee for $2500 to fund projects.

Motion passed to end the regular session of the board meeting at 1:11pm.

Reorganizational meeting

President Marcia Clark called Bill Bartlett, outgoing member of the board to thank him for his service and release him from his duties. Scott Cailteux was excused during the regular meeting.

Eddie Hartfield and Michelle Upchurch were welcomed to the Board.

Norm Magnusson, Executive Secretary for the Brown Swiss Association visited with the group and assisted with the election.

The following were the results of the elections:

President: Marcia Clark

Vice President: Susan Lee

Executive Committee members: Tom Landrum, Jim Foss, Marjorie Kuszlyk

Motion passed to hold the Winter Board of Directors meeting in Beloit on December 11th and 12th.

Meeting adjourned at 2:12pm.

July Meeting Minutes

The July meeting of the AMSS Board of Directors was called to order by President Marcia Clark at 7:07pm on Tuesday July 21st.

Brenda gave an update from the National Office.

Bylaws

Susan Lee spoke about some changes to the bylaws that she had after the discussion at the June meeting.

The committee will be working on all of the updates.

The issue of voting on the changes to the Articles and Bylaws was discussed. The board should get some information from the committee at our next meeting.

National Shows were discussed. At this continued on page 37

continued from page 36 time, Louisville is still planning on the show going on.

We are still waiting on final news about the type conference.

Mikayla Krause spoke about a classification issue. This is an ongoing issue that the office is working on with the assistance from the committee.

The board discussed committees in depth. Marcia Clark along with Brenda presented a plan to rework committees.

Meeting adjourned at 8:21pm.

August Meeting Minutes

The August Board of Directors meeting was called to order by President Marcia Clark on Tuesday August 25th. A quorum to conduct business was recorded.

Motion passed to approve the minutes from the summer board of directors meeting.

Motion passed to approve minutes from the July board meeting.

Committee Reports Article and Bylaws

The final changes will need to go back to the lawyer to have those changes incorporated into the documents.

There was follow up discussion on the use of the Endowment funds being put into these documents so that it covers all of the aspects of the society.

Education, History, Promotion

Proposals being accepted for website work.

Angle issues were also discussed. The delay of the Angle continues to be an issue. The board discussed options to be able to make the Angle a more timely publication.

Endowment

The committee approved a donation of $2500 to the AMSS for items such as the website, mailing of Articles and Bylaws, and binding of old publications.

Type & Classification

Reporting issues were discussed. Much of it is coming from information missing or incorrect DHIA reports. AMSS needs to work on assisting our breeders to correct the information. There are issues at all 4 of the DRPC. The committee will work on getting this under control by December.

International Committee

Invites have gone out to Rob Kite, Michael Tuhan and Ryan Barrett for convention next year.

The claim for the bull book has been submitted to USLGE.

The group continues to work on researching potential bull dams.

Genetic Committee

Pending a negative HCD test, plans for importing the Jazzy bull will move forward with an initial import of 2,000 units.

Jody Nus will be importing the semen and will work with Katie in getting some in the AMSS tank and shipping.

National Shows/All American

Discussion was had regarding the All American Contest. The consensus was that since the board already decided to move forward with a contest with revisions, no more changes would be made.

AMSS was contacted to see if AMSS would be able to fund an associate judge at the National Show in Louisville. The board discussed options to share for a cost effective associate.

Other Business

The board discussed the fees that we are charged for every credit card transaction. There is currently a policy for using a credit card to pay for purchases at the National Sale. The board discussed if this could be used as an overall policy.

Meeting adjourned at 8:09pm