Why is it necessary to hire someone from within the breed, given the amount of politics and corruption that are already in play with it. It seems to me that a true outsider seems to be a better fit, someone that is objective and not been subjected to opinions of a few breeders. The breed needs someone that administrates fairly to all facets of the breed, as well as helping to push the breed along in terms of industry acceptance. The Ex. Sec.'s job is not to sit on certain sale blocks and preach to the congregation about why this firm and its cattle are the industries greatest assets.
To me, it is no surprise, that since the departure of Doc Hunsley, a select few have looked for their replacement to right the ship and send it back in there direction. A guy like Ron Bolze was run out for his inability to cater to the right personalities, despite his commitment to pushing the breed to relevance in the industry. Also funny to me, Alan Sears judged under Hunsley at Purdue, worked for the Assn. under Hunsley, would be the perfect fit to go back and administrate like Hunsley. Even funnier to me, this minority has beat the bush to several members of the board that might be swayed, that Sears is the man to do the job. I don't know how it has been at everyone else's farm, but I have had a couple of visits to my place from ASA people, since Hunsley's departure and that is a couple more than I every had while he was there.
Why must we have this ongoing fight over showring or commercial and who gets there man in the Ex.'s chair or gets their people on the board? To me the breed needs this diversity to be sustainable, saying this I think that both sides need each other to survive. The showring keeps the breed in the public eye and the commercial end keeps relevance in the pasture, sale barn, etc. To me, both side complement each other and need to provided for in terms of support whether by representation or finance, and this can be accomplished without taking something away from the other.
A final statement would be, that the board is a set of members elected by the body of the organization to put forth programs, policy, action, etc., and it would be the duty of the Executive Secretary to administrate, implement, and carry out these plans. So if you have a problem with the breed or how it operaties, run for the board and help change something.