ASA Secretary

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Dale

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Feb 13, 2007
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"As of July 18, Greg Ruhle is no longer the executive secretary of the American Shorthorn Association."  This is part of an email from an ASA director.  Anyone know anything about his departure?
 

shortyjock89

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Mar 6, 2007
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Wow, no I haven't heard anything.  In his editorials, he's been talking about the future he has with the ASA and what not.  Who will fill the void, and why can't we keep an Exec. Secretary around?
 

justintime

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May 26, 2007
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Didn't see this coming either. It is just a few weeks ago I visited with Greg in Ontario, and there was no indication that this was coming. Do you know if he resigned to go on to bigger and better things ... or was he let go by the ASA board? The only thing I remember thinking when we visited, was that this guy was going to be hard to hold onto for very long .He left a very good impression with me, and I thought he would be courted before long by other employers. I have no idea if this is what happened or not, but this is unfortunate news.
While I do not think that anyone is irreplaceable, it would be nice to have someone in place for a longer period of time so that they could leave their mark. Greg just got into his job and now he is going. Best wishes to Greg and his family.
 

shortyjock89

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Oh yeah, I've talked to him a couple times, briefly albeit, but he seemed like a real genuine and good guy.  I definitely wish him and his family the best.  JIT, I think that if you weren't so busy, you could do a good job too  ;D.
 

NHR

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Jun 12, 2007
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Rice TX
I am shocked. I thought he was doing an excellent job. I called one time trying to get a status on some registration papers and Greg answered the phone and did a look up on the papers and told me about some information that was missing, I supplied it over the phone and had the papers in 3 days later. Really nice guy. Hope this is not true.
 

justintime

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Thanks for the compliment OFS ( I think!!!). They have not printed enough money for me to take that job. I would rather pick bottles from the ditches than suffer the wrath of a breed association that is capable of eating its own young. Being executive- secretary of any breed is a high profile job. It has many perks, I'm sure. The problem is that no matter who gets this job, there will be a group who do nothing but complain and moan. ( I could also use a few other adjectives, but I will try to remember that this is a family board).

Whoever is Greg's successor, should be an expert in herding cats, as I think is just about as hard as keeping everyone in the breed happy or heading in the same direction. Herding cats may be easier in fact. By this, I do not mean that we want all Shorthorn breeders to be heading in one direction. This is a many faceted breed which is a good thing and at the same time it creates many problems, especially within an office that has to service all members. I just hope that EVERYONE gives the new Executive Secretary, whoever it is, a fair chance. He/she deserves no less.
 

itk

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All I have to say is Twig just moved to Nebraska. What are the chances. ;D ;D
 

Davis Shorthorns

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I got to know Twig while he was here at KSU.  Heck we even bought our first shorthorn cow from him.  (lucky us) and ever since then he has always been open to anything that I have had to ask him which has been allot.  I know that I am not the only person that feels the same way about Twig.  I for one say if Twig wants the job their isn't a nicer guy and a better ambassador for the breed than him.
 

sjcattleco

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Apr 4, 2007
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Southeast Ohio
1. I do not know of anyone involved in the shorthorn breed qualified for the job! 

Qualifications

Financially sucessful in the cattle industry!  not the education system!

Has an idea of how to bring the shorthorn breed from number 10 in breed numbers to at least 5 and 3 would be good!

Has concrete cohones the size of basketballs and a titanium spine so he can take control of the entire breed and mold it his way!

2. The breed ( cattle type)  must change!  The show ring cattle must get smaller and more realistic.  Anyone who would argue that point is just a fool!

3. Commercial genetics and show genetics must be the same  the new sec must put that as a primary goal! 





 

aj

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I think twig would be good. It just always seemed like to me the directors that get annointed are always some non agriculture background. They ran some company somewhere and have alot of money so they decided to show cattle and be a director. I'm not close to the situation but it seems like if you had more cattle BREEDERS on the board like a Loving or a Lauer we would be better off.I don't know that there is alot of room for a whole lot of monster egos in the board room. Its probably not as easy as it looks though. ;D
 

itk

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The following comment in no way says that real farmers and ranchers don't serve on the ASA BOD it will just sound that way. I think the time and finical investment that it requires to serve on the BOD makes it impossible for people like Marty and Keith to serve. There is no way for a "real" farmer to skip a week of harvest to go to Jr. Nationals or be away from his heifers calving for a week to go to the NWSS. We both know how hard it was to get Scott to attend a KSA meeting 45 minutes down the road because there was always something going on at the farm. I think there are some real common sense cattle people on the board right now and some that aren't. With a breed as diverse as ours it takes all kinds no matter how much we disagree with anothers approach to raising cattle. No other breed of cattle is or could be as dominate in all sectors of the beef industry like shorthorns but instead of embracing these differences and building each other up we have used them to drive a wedge between the commercial, clubby and purebreed breeders.
 

justintime

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itk... I could not agree more!! The breed is many things to many people, yet we do not embrace the positives. We could be so much more if everyone had just a little tolerance. There is lots of room for everyone and every type of cattle.
 

M Bar

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May 21, 2008
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I would suggest talking to a board member in regard to what each of you wants in an executive secretary.  I can guarantee you that they will get 1000+ different opinions.  please ask yourself "what is an association?".  I would answer that it is a group of people with the same interests, i.e. ASA, young republicans, PETA, NRA, and Methodists.  If you use the Methodists as the example, then you would say that the church is looking for a new preacher.  What is his role?  1.  He preaches on Sunday.  2.  He tries to get more people in the pews.  3.  By doing #2, he gets more money in the offering, and the church can build a bigger steeple.  In my opinion, the preacher needs to preach out of numerous books of the bible, (commercial existence in the beef industry, carcass info, stayability in females, bull sales, replacement heifer sales, building local markets for steers, or retaining ownership through the feedlot and collecting data) instead of just one (show cows).  Now comes the tricky part.  The preacher only takes care of his members.  That means that it is up to the congregation to spread the word about their church.  It is up to the membership to entice folks to come to church (buy Shorthorn genetics).  It is up to the preacher (exec. secretary) to keep the folks in tune with the bible (beef industry with shorthorns), and give the congregation necessary aid a prayer.  (getting papers transferred quickly, applying sound EPD data to the masses, etc).  I do hope that the ASA will find a good replacement for Greg and our breed can flourish.  I couldn't help typing this as I feel that we sometimes lose track of what our association is.
 

redwingfarm

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I met Greg last year and was very impressed with his candor and common sense, We need to give him a well deserved pat on the back for finally fixing the registration woes of the past several years.  I hope we can find someone to replace him that will be able to move on to the next problem of the breed which in my opinion is deciding what we want to be as a breed.  Are we going to meet the needs of commercial beef production, especially in regards to birth weight issues or are we going to be the "pretty color" breed for the showring.  Whoever is hired will have their hands full in dealing with the "big shooters of the show ring" as well as promoting the true herd breeders.
 

garybob

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Feb 4, 2007
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Right after Junior Nationals?That's when Hammet left.  Makes you kind of wonder where Greg's going for his next job.


Amen, MBar! I'm almost speaking in tongues, keep spreadin" the Bible Truths.


GB

 

oakview

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May 29, 2008
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If I would have given my opinion of management at the ASA one year ago, it would not have been too complimentary.  About 2 weeks ago I e-mailed the ASA and congraulated them for the 180 degree turn.  (I also thanked them)  Greg and Gwen have been very helpful over the past 6 months and things seem to be working a lot smoother due to their efforts.

If indeed Greg is no longer Executive Secretary, the next leader faces many challenges, the biggest of which will be the divide between commercial and showring interests.  This really doesn't have to be.  I see tons of Angus at the shows, yet they seem to have a pretty good commercial base.  There are lots of Simmentals at the shows, they maintain a pretty good commercial influence in our area.  There is no reason that some show animal genetics cannot succeed commercially.  I read on someone's post in the 'best living bull' section that they had no use for today's Shorthorn show cattle and listed 4 bulls they use with success in their commercial operation.  All 4 are 'previous generation' genetics, but all 4 were either show bulls, sire of many show winners, or imported for the specific purpose for producing show cattle.  I can't ask Mike Dugdale today, but I doubt if he promoted Guiness as a sire of range bulls, yet at least one breeder has a use for his genetics in his commercial operation.  Most know that Dividend was the dominant sire of show cattle of his era, yet his descendants have a place in the commercial arena.  The point is that if the breeders are allowed to breed the cattle they can be successful with and the ASA provides the soundly run, efficient business management needed to serve the breeders, everybody wins.  Raise what pleases you and be happy if your neighbor succeeds, too. 
 
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