Wednesday, February 3, 2010

A Note From Your JAC Chair, Robert O'Leary

Hello once again to all WI Holstein enthusiasts! I would like to bring to your attention the creation of the WI Junior Holstein Association Facebook page. On the page you will find upcoming events, photos, and our discussion board. Our goal is to utilize the page to keep our Jr. Members notified about important deadlines and allow members to discuss the happenings of our great state’s Holstein activities. There is also a 50 Holstibuck bonus for joining the group and posting photos or commenting on the wall. All it takes is a couple of clicks and make sure to invite people you know so we can inform them about how to join our association and get involved!

Recently we had our yearly JAC meeting to discuss new ideas and plan for future activities. At this meeting the committee came up with the following new resolutions:

Junior Raffle Ticket Sales
Top county sales cash awards will be removed from the Junior Raffle ticket sales contest and instead the top counties will receive recognition. The reasoning behind this decision was that since we split up the proceeds with the counties more of the money can be returned to those that took the effort to sell the tickets.

125,000lb Production Award
We have decided to discontinue the 125,000 lb production award because we felt that it was repetitive and that the 100,000 and 150,000 lb awards seemed better suited to for our production awards.

Dairy Quizbowl Traveling Trophy
One of the ideas that came up during our meeting was to create a traveling trophy for both the senior and junior teams instead of presenting a “coaches trophy.” This trophy would then be displayed at the dairy bar during our annual convention.

Jr. and Sr. Champion Bred and Owned of the Junior Show
After our very successful caucus the JAC’s have decided to discontinue the Jr. Premier Breeder and Exhibitor of the Jr. Show award and instead will be replacing it with Jr. and Sr. Champion Bred and Owned of the Junior show award. This decision is still awaiting adult board approval.

WHY Friend
First off thank you to all those that have submitted WHY Friend candidates this year. Since we have had so many great candidates we will now be keeping the WHY Friend candidates that do not receive the award in the running for up to three years after the names are submitted. If a candidate moves from the under 5 years of service to the over 5 years of service division, their name will be allowed to change divisions as well.

If you have any questions about these changes feel free to contact me at roleary@wisc.edu or contact the WHA office.