Secretary’s Message – July 2010

Well, folk’s those of you who attended the 2010 Convention near Kansas City, KS a couple of weeks ago, are probably still talking about the highlights of the farm tours, show & sale, and the good food, meetings, and plain old – down to earth hospitality and don’t forget the laughs and giggles during the donated items auction.

Most of our convention attendees started out early Thursday morning for Kansas and all arrived safely at Tonganoxie County Fairgrounds to be greeted by Joe Steve and his family, volunteer workers, and anyone else he could recruit to help out during the festivities. And what a crew he had, they attended and kept an eye on the fairgrounds night and day, and all were available to be called upon whenever a need arose. Special thanks go out to Joe and Judy Steve our host family. “Skip” Lyle and Anna Monson – Martha, Scott, Melody and Miranda Sutherland – Billy Steve (all who kept things in order at the fairgrounds) – Chris and June Foley (Chris helped with setting up and cleaning up at the grounds)– Lori Fink Hayes (was our on call photographer and farm tour host) – Bobby Watkins and Dexter Adams (helped with set up and clean up at the fair grounds and farm tour hosts) – Lisa Lugar and Bill Hutton our Thursday evening meet and greet hosts. I hope I didn’t miss anyone. But, know that we are grateful for all you did to help out.

After getting our cattle settled in on Thursday, we went right to the meet and greet and had beautiful weather to enjoy a picnic setting with excellent food, good conversation, beautiful view of BueLingo cattle and bottomless Margaritas. We caught up with old acquaintances and made new ones.

Friday morning was a quick trip to the fairgrounds to tend to the cattle and the Board of Directors met for a short meeting before heading to the Agriculture Hall of Fame. We went back into time and reminisced of how we used to farm. Then back to the fairgrounds to tend cattle and off into the Kansas countryside and “dusty gravel roads” to check out the BueLingo Cattle scattered around Leavenworth County, and, yes we do have gravel roads in Illinois. It was a hot day, so another quick run to the fairgrounds to check on the cattle before the General Membership meeting in Leavenworth, KS. The cattle had been well attended and had a terrific breeze going through the barns. Happy Hour was a little longer than expected at the High Noon Saloon, because by the time the secretary got back to the hotel and cleaned up and to the meeting, she missed the whole meeting and was there just in time to eat. (I didn’t get out of too much, as we still had the meeting after we ate.)

Saturday morning was an early morning to get the cattle washed and ready to show. We had 22 animals shown in over 20 classes. Special thanks to our Judge Cale Wiehle. And thank you to Judy Brener, for recording winners, and sorting ribbons. The animals all cooperated with their exhibitors. What a special privilege to witness the payoff from all the hard work the exhibitors put into their animals preparing them for the show ring.

Thank you, Judy Steve for attending the promotional items set up during the show and sale. And,. thank you to the gals (I believe it was Lynda Smith, Deb Hoida, & Tammy Fitch) who helped pack and load everything up.

We had 3 exceptional Juniors in the Showmanship class. All did an excellent job with knowing the rules and regulations, and their animals seemed to know exactly what to do as well. Our judge took the time to educate as well as judge showmanship. We coerced a Senior showman to participate, as her daughter is just getting started with showing cattle, and thought it would be good for mom to know how it feels out in the ring as well. (Harvey said he didn’t know what he was thinking trying to compete against two younger women in that class.)

Saturday evening was the awards banquet and donated items auction. We presented the plaques to our Champion and Reserve champion winners. Take a minute to drop the sponsor a thank you for donating the plaques. If you donated an item for the auction, drop me a line. We didn’t really know where anything came from that night and would like to give you recognition for the goodies you may have brought. Others have inquired where they may purchase some of those items for themselves.

Thank you, Perry Fitch, for being the spontaneously humorous auctioneer that you are. We laughed so hard, we really didn’t know where the bid was at most of the time, but we still managed to make over $300.00.
And, Toto got to stay in Kansas.

Sunday morning brought a lot of help back to the fairgrounds to help with loading supplies, cattle and cleaning up the grounds. Thank you Ron & Deb Hoida, Gene Kissner, Rick Smith, and Scott and Judy Brener, Chris Foley, and Lyle and Anna Monson These are the people who didn’t have cattle there, but were willing to pick up a scoop shovel or pitch fork or rake or mop and help get the grounds back in order. It takes a lot of very generous people to put on the annual convention. I enjoyed working with each and every one of you. Keep up the good work and let me know if I can help with anything from here in the office.