(Disclaimer: Views expressed below are not representative of the WCA. Solely reflective of the author.)

Another year rounded the corner and I found myself with another tally on my age card. This new found age came with an epiphany. I realized I am not getting any younger. I found myself like a deer-in-the-headlights, suddenly faced with a need to stop wasting years and hunker down to change a few things. My changes are not like the ones that will bring you to a gym for the first two months out of the New Year with the promise of finally sticking with it this time. Instead, I realized some very serious changes were in order. The government was not looking any smarter, the lottery hadn’t called my name, and to top it all off now I was getting old. The tipping point came when I passed by a mirror and instead of finding Obama or Pelosi, the only idiot I found staring back was ME! It was go-time.

Thanks to my newfound “hope and change” 2010 kicked off with gusto. January brought a call from the American National Cattlewomen President-elect wondering if I would oblige them as Legislative Committee Chair. With this new position I had less than three weeks to try and get myself down to the NCBA Annual Convention to meet the ANCW crew I would be working with this next year. My cattle industry trip-planning style hadn’t failed me thus far so in keeping with tradition, I gathered enough pennies and nickels for a plane ticket to San Antonio the day before I flew out! Thanks to the PNW YCC trip the weekend prior, University of Idaho students offered up a spare bunk in their room my first two days at convention. The latter part of the week I bunked with my friend Amanda, whom I met last spring on the Young Cattlemen’s Conference trip. At the end of convention we steered her rig down a back highway en route to Fort Worth so I could take in the Texas landscape. I had less than 24 hours to experience Fort Worth, but we knew from our YCC trip we could efficiently use every hour while I was there! My only trip to Texas had been as a stop-through on my way to Mexico for a church mission trip when I was fifteen. This trip to Texas gave me the opportunity to actually experience the culture and environment while learning invaluable information at the NCBA convention.

As a first-time attendee at the NCBA Convention, it felt similar to a first day at college. Over 6,000 NCBA members from across the US attended this year. Also in attendance was a majority of my 2009 Young Cattlemen’s College classmates! More...

I just left the NCBA Membership Committee meeting at the annual convention in San Antonio, where members discussed the report of the Governance Task Force, a critical issue and opportunity before members this year.  Perhaps as important, the members of the committee discussed a proposal to adjust NCBA dues this year.  Reflecting the concerns about challenges facing agriculture in general, and cattlemen in specific, the proposal is driven by the need for NCBA to "maintain and enhance expertise and services in Washington, D.C."

The basics of the proposal revolve around an increase in the base dues for membership.  For example, as a producer who owns fewer than 100 head, I pay $50 to enjoy in the numerous benefits afforded NCBA members.  Under the current proposal, my dues would become $100, or roughly $8.33 per month.  To quote my conversation earlier with NCBA President Gary Voogt, that's roughly equivalent to one tank of diesel in your F-350, or four bags of mineral supplement.  "You wouldn't do without either of those," Gary told me, "so why would you do without your NCBA membership?"

In terms of percentage increase, the dues tier in which I fall appears to be the most affected.  Other dues brackets increase anywhere from $100-$180 per year, according to how many head a member owns.  As Voogt, and members of the committee pointed out, membership in NCBA provides tremendous representation in Washington, DC, and with regulation and legislation adding cost to our bottom line and threatening to put farm and ranch families out of business, More...

Last night, YPC met and appointed fresh slate of people for its leadership team.  Ben Spitzer from Fairmount, Georgia was appointed to the Chair YPC while Ben Neal from Nashville, Tennessee was appointed to Vice-Chair.  YPC added a Secretary/Treasurer position this year and Sharon Breiner of Manhattan, Kansas will be joining YPC's executive leadership in that position.  YPC also appointed the following voting members on NCBA's policy committees:

1.  Evan Tate from Kentucky - Agriculture Policy;

2.  Brandon Carlson from California - Cattle Health & Well Being;

3.  Sarah Baker from Idaho - Federal Lands;

4.  Travis Hoffman from Colorado - Live Cattle Marketing Committee;

5.  RaeMarie Gordon from Colorado - Membership Committee;

6.  Holly Foster from California - Property Rights and Environmental Management;

7.  Wyatt Prescott from Arizona - Tax and Credit Committee;

8.  Tonya Amen from Wisconcin - Resolutions Committee.

Furthermore, YPC elected chairs of its own committees/task forces.  I will remain as the Chair of the Public Relations Committee -- please let me know if you would like to get involved in any way.  My goal for 2010 is to train YPC members around the country to be media contacts with local newspapers, magazines, and radio shows and continue to push with social media through this blog, Facebook, and Twitter.  Katy Groseta from Arizona will be leading the Cattle Call Blog effort so I am looking forward to passing the reins to Katy for a fresh perspective on this blog.  Finally, Anna Aja from Arizona will be leading YPC's membership task force.

Last year's YPC Chair, Dustin Dean from Texas, will remain in an advisory capacity for YPC as a Past-Chair.

Sadly, I was unable to make it to NCBA convention this year due to a last-minute work responsibility.  However, I have been following the tweets from #NCBA10 on Tweetdeck.  If you are there at convention, keep the tweets coming!  And if you weren't able to make it (like me), sign into Twitter and search for #NCBA10 for a real-time feed on what is happening at the Convention and Trade Show today.

Addressing members at this afternoon's NCBA Federation Division and Policy Division Forums at the Cattle Industry Annual Convention in San Antonio about the Task Force Report, Lyons and Queen are explaining the findings of the group, and answering questions about how their recommendations might change the very structure of NCBA.

I talked with Jan Lyons about the Task Force's report and recommendation, and you can listen to our conversation.  Lyons spoke with me about the need for NCBA to be "more nimble," More...

Look, if you had one shot…
One opportunity to seize everything you ever wanted…
One moment…
Could you capture it…
Or would it slip away?

How prepared are we to talk with consumers and those that may have questions about beef or the production practices of our industry? I am in San Antonio for NCBA winter conference as I write this article. It was one part of the topics discussed yesterday by Troy and Stacy Hadrick at the Master of Beef Advocacy (MBA) commencement. I’ll only do a brief plug for the program by asking a question. If someone gathered the basic facts for you to equip yourself to speak well about your industry would you take the time? If the answer is yes than I encourage you to invest the effort in the MBA classes.  You can do this by contacting Daren Williams at dwilliams@beef.org.  Also, you can check out all the efforts from Troy and Stacy at http://www.advocatesforag.com/.   

What I will talk about here is what is termed as an ‘elevator speech’. It tells who you are, possibly where you are from and something that can help you connect with a listener -- in 30 seconds. It’s just like a commercial – about you.

If you haven't prepped an elevator pitch for an opportune moments, More...

As I noted in this blog, several YPC members will be Tweeting from NCBA convention.  The official "hashtag" on Twitter is #NCBA10 (i.e., just search for NCBA10 on Twitter to follow all the tweets with this hashtag).  Be sure to follow the following folks on Twitter who will be tweeting from convention:

@BeefUSA -NCBA itself

@NCBAC2C - NCBA Cattlemen to Cattlemen

@NateJaeger - NCBA Field Representative and NCBA Staff Advisor to YPC

@AndyVance - Radio personality, Shorthorn cattle producer from Ohio, and YPC Cattle Call Blogger

@ABNRadio - Ohio's Voice For Agriculture

@ShorthornToday - American Shorthorn Association

@cgoodcomm - Chelsea is a 1L in law school, a Kansas cattle girl, and a YPC Cattle Call Blogger

@KatlinMulvaney - YPC Cattle Call Blogger

@TroyHadrick - South Dakota catle producer, Advocates for Agriculture

@iTweetMeat - Chris Raines is a meat professor at Pennslyvania State

@SimpleAsDirt - Nevada Cattlemen's Exec

@AllenLivingston - Agvocate, Tx Aggie, Beef Cattle Specialist

@Willi568 - Jennifer Williams Zwaggerman is an agriculture attorney in Des Moines, Iowa

@CrystalDMathews - PhD Candidate from the University of Florida

@TXBeefLeaderofT - Mandy Jo

@DebbieLB - Debbie Lyons is a Kansas Angus producer

And of course, I will be tweeting from both @CariRincker and @RinckerLaw on Thursday afternoon and Friday.

DON'T MISS THE #NCBA10 TWEETUP!  Wednesday (today) 6:30 p.m. at the NCBA Tradeshow Reception at the Chuckwagon Cafe.

You can also become a Facebook fan of the Cattle Industry Convention and NCBA Trade Show.