2022 AICA Hall of Fame

2022 AICA HALL OF FAME INDUCTEE — MARILOU WEGNER

What does a recording secretary do? When speaking of Marilou Wegner it might be less time consuming to ask, “What doesn’t a recording secretary do?” Dedicating 35 years of her life to doing, most everything that needed to be done at the American International Charolais Association, Marilou is proudest of the supporting role she played for the membership.

Keeping pace with the growing breed association, Marilou, who in 1986 began her career as a part-time data entry employee, soon became the one behind the scenes making it happen at the AICA. As a farm girl from Iowa, she always had respect for association members and could relate to their challenges and struggles. Ensuring members, staff and those who just had a question were taken care of every day, was high priority. And, in her spare time, there was always data entry. Whether it was registrations or coordinating the Charolais Advantage program, it was Marilou who oversaw the process. Verifying registration information and validating bulls were just the tip of the iceberg.

Marilou worked with three executive vice presidents - Dr. Joe Garrett, Dr. Bill Able and J. Neil Orth. As the association grew over three-plus decades, so did her responsibilities. When she began, an old mainframe was being used and some certifi cates were being typed by hand. She was instrumental in establishment of the online registry system. Then, with the input of more and more data through the creation of Whole Herd Reporting and the industry’s fi rst Terminal Sire Index, not only did the work load increase, but so did registrations…thus even more data! With that came EPDs and DNA.

She worked closely with geneticists on the sire summary, which initially was released once a year and now appears every other month. During the last fi ve years of her tenure, she spent a large portion of her time managing the association’s growing genomic program. As a result of her attention to detail in making sure breeder performance information was correct, the National Cattle Evaluation off ers solid statistics that provide reliable information. She also worked closely with association members and worldwide associates to ensure everything was in order for the import and export of semen, embryos and animals.

Respected and admired in her position, Marilou had the opportunity to travel on behalf of the AICA and was thrilled to represent the membership on numerous occasions at World Charolais Federation conferences and conventions held around the world.

But it was her relentless tenacity and impeccable e ciency that helped keep everything moving smoothly as the association experienced changes and grew along with its programs. Some of the biggest changes came in technology and she was proud to be able to assist producers in navigating those changes.