Season’s Greetings!

The Thanksgiving turkey is all but gone. Our belts are all a little tighter due to the bountiful assortment of pumpkin pies, candied yams, stuffing, and other holiday staples that we have consumed. Family visitors have largely returned to their own homes and it is now time to wind down 2011 and to ensure that 2012 gets off to a great start. The ARPAS Governing Council is currently preparing for the annual mid-year conference call which occurs in January. If anyone among the membership has any issues to address please bring them forward so that they may be addressed.

Although the governing council is busy preparing for the mid-year conference call, I urge the members to remember that the backbone of our organization needs to remain the local chapters. During late October, I attended the annual meeting of the California Chapter at the Harris Ranch Inn in Coalinga, CA. It was an excellent meeting and I enjoyed myself tremendously. I especially want to thank Travis Taylor, Marit Arana, and Jim Oltjen for their hospitality during my visit. I truly enjoyed dinner at Harris ranch with the graduate student scholarship winners Kara Ortega of the University of California – Davis and Amy Housman of California State University – Fresno. These two individuals are incredibly talented and will continue to contribute significantly to the animal industry. I wish to challenge all chapters to expand their mentoring of young people interested in Animal Agriculture.

The continuing education conference focused on "Understanding Oxidative Stress: The Biochemistry, the Biology and Improved Animal Health". This was an in depth educational experience that provided ARPAS members with basic information that they very likely could not have obtained from anywhere else. The learning environment was very safe. I say this from the perspective that anyone could ask questions at any level of understanding and not be made to look silly by the speakers or other members of the audience. There are generally plenty of producer meetings around the country that have been approved for various hours of continuing education credits. These producer meetings are indeed useful; however, it seems to me that Professional Animal Scientists that attend producer meetings for their continuing education credits may be reluctant to engage fully out of the fear of appearing something less than fully competent in various subjects. I encourage the development of continuing education sessions at the chapter level that promotes full engagement by the membership in the educational process.

Finally, I want to extend my sincere wish for everyone to have a joyful Holiday Season and a productive and prosperous new year.