Iowa Brown Swiss Association

Officers:

President: 
      Jim Pfeiler 
      23335 Flannagan Rd
      Holy Cross, IA 52053
      563.870.4885

Vice President: 
      Dennis Worden  
      17195 45th St
      Oelwein, IA 50662
      319.283.4544

Secretary/Treasurer: 
      Jonna Schutte  
      P.O. Box 95
      Monona, IA 52159
      563.539.4599

Princess:  
      Cassie Frieden 
      P.O. Box 156
      Elgin, IA 52141
      563.426.5387

Junior Advisors:  
      Kevin & Shelly Frieden  
      P.O. Box 156 
      Elgin, IA 52141
      563.426.5083

President's Message - March 2008

Hello, once again! Last year I remember my newsletter message was about spring being just around the corner with the state sale approaching, but digging out of 12 inches of snow just before I write this makes it hard to believe that, so I think I'll stay away from the weather analogies this time. It seems like we just finished the annual meeting and I won't go over everything that happened (that's what we print the minutes in the Iowa Echo for). I would however like to sum up three points that we can work on in the future. These would be membership, finance, and outreach. We had considerable discussion on how to increase people's involvement in the organization. A strong membership is vital to any organization because it leads to a great diversity of ideas and opinions. Having a large membership is only half the battle if we don't know what the members think and want their association to be. Finances came up because although our finances are strong right now, a look at the minutes will show that our expenses keep going up and as we all know it costs money to do anything. Maybe an invigorated membership could give us new ideas how to develop this financing? Outreach would be something to fulfill our mission statement, "to promote Brown Swiss cattle in Iowa". One idea brought up would be to put a Brown Swiss Bulletin in the hands of some ag related businesses. Would it help promote our breed if more farmers saw a copy of the Bulletin on the coffee table at the local bank, or on the counter of their feed store, or at the neighborhood implement dealer? I can't help but think that all three of these things; membership, finance, and outreach are interrelated. Maybe if we all put our heads together we could come up with some new, creative ways to accomplish these goals.

Jim Pfeiler, President