Connecting members with the latest news from USAHA, and with each other.

August 2024

Hey USAHA, time to get ready for Nashville!

Dust those dancin’ boots off because the long-awaited 2024 Annual Meeting, Nashville style, is almost upon us. If you have been a USAHA member for more than a few years, you may recall that the pandemic thwarted v.1 of our Nashville-based Annual Meeting in 2020 so we are excited to get a second go at it. The USAHA Annual Meeting is certainly a busy one, but there have been rumors on the USAHA “streets” that some members have managed to extract themselves from committee work and resolution writing on at least one free-ish evening during the Annual Meeting to enjoy the host cities that USAHA is fortunate to call home for a few days each October. If you are one of the creative members who is expert at multi-tasking in this way, go for it! But if not, consider arriving early or staying late to enjoy all that Nashville has to offer during the days and evenings that flank the Annual Meeting.

But we digress… There is still work to be done before we all gather in Tennessee to conduct the work of our organization, and this edition of Connection is intended to help you dot and cross all the letters necessary to ensure the 2024 Annual Meeting is a productive one, for you and for USAHA. After all, this is our annual work-horse gathering – we generate resolutions; we meet in person as committees and sub-committees; we conduct official USAHA business; we honor esteemed members; and we have a whole lot of fun along the way. So, start eating your proverbial Wheaties (or the actual ones since apparently you can still buy this breakfast of champions) and get your game face on. It is gonna be a lot of work, but we are gonna have a lot of fun, too, and we can’t wait to see you in Opryland.

Erin enjoys catch-and-release fly fishing and other outdoor pursuits near her home in northeast Washington state.

Sarah Bailey, Assistant State Veterinarian/Emergency Coordinator, Arizona Department of Agriculture, in her element with her department’s command trailer.

Top 10 Tips for a Memorable USAHA Meeting

If you are a member of a certain age, you grew up with The Late Show’s Top 10 Lists, which started in 1985. And if you are a member of a different certain age, reference to The Late Show with David Letterman may only be a thing of folklore. Regardless, we can’t pass up the opportunity to repurpose this concept in the context of the highly anticipated 2024 USAHA Annual Meeting. Whether you are brand new to the USAHA meeting experience or a seasoned attendee, these Top-5-each-for-a-total-of-10 tips are for you!

The top 5 for experienced annual meeting attendees...

1. Talk to a student.

Spending even a few minutes engaging an enthusiastic student attendee can be inspiring for you, the member doing the engaging, and career-changing for the student being engaged. Career-spanning professional connections have been made in 10-minute USAHA hallway conversations, so you never know the powerful impact you might have on a student by taking some time out of a busy meeting schedule to say hello and learn a bit more about the next generation of USAHA members. Look for the gold “student” ribbons on nametags and strike up at least one conversation.

2. Mentor colleagues.

In prior years, USAHA has coordinated formal mentorship programs to ensure guidance of first-time meeting attendees and facilitate networking. This year, we are relying on some good old fashioned grass roots mentoring. Do you have new colleagues in your own agency/department/organization or others in your region who will be attending the 2024 Annual Meeting for the first time? If yes, make a point to meet with them in advance of Nashville to ensure they have a handle on the agenda and understand their obligations as determined by member classification (new state animal health official; general member; Board of Directors {BOD} representative, etc.). Those of us who have been doing this for a while likely recall how overwhelming our first USAHA Annual Meeting seemed, and offering a friendly helping hand to first time attendees is one great way to “pay it forward”.

3. Stay til the end.

Yep, that’s right – the busy Annual Meeting schedule culminates with the final general membership meeting and the final BOD meeting on Wednesday, October 16^th. These are more than just box-checking meetings. During the membership meeting, all submitted resolutions are presented by the Committee on Nominations and Resolutions (CNR) chair and then discussed, amended if needed, and voted on by the membership. Committee chairs or designees may need to provide clarification on resolution language and intent, and member input is critical during this important deliberative process so this is an all-hands-on-deck kind of gathering. The BOD meets immediately following the membership meeting, and a quorum of this esteemed body is required for a final vote on the slate of annual resolutions. So, make every effort to plan your homeward bound windshield time accordingly, whether at ground level or 30,000 ft up.

4. Give resolutions the time they deserve.

As USAHA’s most important work products, resolutions communicate the policies and positions of our organization and often remain open and “active” for years. Resolutions that are clear, well written, and fully deliberated will be more successful than those created hastily. 

5. Use the meeting app.

Keep track of committee schedules and agendas, last minute announcements, and other important information by downloading the Annual Meeting application to your device. Keep an eye out for availability soon!

The top 5 for first time meeting

attendees...

1. Attend the new member orientation.

An essential part of any new member’s meeting schedule, this gathering will orient you to the organization, the resolution process, and the rules of the road for committee membership and participation. And there are complementary drinks and snacks included! Orientation is currently scheduled for Sunday, October 13^th from 5-6PM, but keep an eye on the Annual Meeting agenda for any last minute schedule changes.

2. Engage someone new.

Many would agree the networking opportunities that result from bringing 1000 – 1200 diverse colleagues into the same space for 5-7 days constitute one of the greatest benefits of the USAHA Annual Meeting. Take advantage of the expertise and professional diversity that will surround you, and strike up a conversation with someone outside of your known professional circle. The animal agriculture world is small, and you never know when a friendship forged at the USAHA meeting or information learned during a discussion with a new colleague in Nashville might help you during the months in between USAHA meetings.  

3. Attend your district meeting.

If you are new to the USAHA Annual Meeting, you may also be new to your district. USAHA members are represented by 4 geographic districts and a District at Large, comprising USAHA’s allied organization members. Each district chair hosts a meeting within the Annual Meeting that brings together colleagues to discuss regional or topical interests. These district meetings are not to be missed and provide excellent opportunities to meet your neighbors. Check the USAHA website’s Districts page to determine which meeting you will be heading to. 

4. Clarify your membership

responsibilities.

Does your employment category obligate you to serve multiple roles in USAHA? For instance, state veterinarians and some allied organization members represent their employer, state, or organization on USAHA’s Board of Directors, and there are additional responsibilities that come with that designation. Be sure to clarify your role within the organization so you make it to the right meetings in Nashville and can effectively meet your responsibilities.

5. Contemplate committee membership.

Only committee members have voting privileges during committee business, but all USAHA members may engage in any discussion during committee meetings. Use your first USAHA Annual Meeting to explore the different committees. Determine which ones you may wish to have a stronger voice in or those that might benefit from your input or leadership. You will have the opportunity to request membership in any USAHA committee that piques your interest so that you have a vote in committee business in future years. This is a great way to influence policy since these are the same committees that generate resolutions on behalf of USAHA.

And this applies to every member,

regardless of category:

Enjoy yourself in Nashville!

There is nothing like a USAHA Annual Meeting to rejuvenate that professional passion and get the creative juices flowing. And we think Letterman would be happy to give us the poetic license to turn his Top 10 list into a Top 11, given the importance of this last tip.

You have heard it before – the USAHA resolutions are our organization’s most important work products! Over the past decade, we have produced between 18 and 44 resolutions annually, and 18 was a low-end outlier in 2020 due to the pandemic. USAHA resolutions embody a significant amount of work completed by members of our 19 committees and 12 subcommittees (including those we share with AAVLD) and reflect the important issues of our time. Resolutions drive change, set policy, and clarify goals for collaborations with partner agencies and organizations. In short, they are important and deserve our collective due diligence.  

USAHA President Steve Crawford primed us in Connection’s April 2024 edition for the need to get resolutions as close to “ready for prime time” as possible well in advance of the Annual Meeting. This means we need to get crackin’ now – it is time! We urge you to review Steve’s recommendations from April to get into the zone of resolution writing and then follow the related best practices offered below to ensure USAHA’s most important work products are worthy of prime time.

Alrighty, here ya go:

Format correctly. USAHA leadership provides a resolution template that ensures the capture of all pertinent information. So, although that great idea may first take form as a fuzzy 3AM thought written in barely legible scribble on a bedside napkin, this is a reminder that your brainstorm needs to make it on to the official template for consideration by the committee of jurisdiction.

Edit liberally. The USAHA Committee on Nominations and Resolutions (CNR) plays an important role in the resolution process, but they should not be utilized generically as resolution editors. Specifically, CNR members confirm that proposed resolutions originate from appropriate sources; ensure clarity of resolution content; resolve duplicate and conflicting resolutions; and present resolutions for membership voting. CNR members are also USAHA members, have busy Annual Meeting agendas, and expect resolutions voted out of committees of jurisdiction to have been appropriately edited for grammar, spelling, etc. before submission to the USAHA work room. Members and committee chairs, please take the necessary time to complete all editing of your proposed resolution prior to your committee vote. Doing so will lessen the need for after-midnight editing sessions by CNR members and allow them to efficiently juggle their core responsibilities with the rest of their important Annual Meeting commitments.

Cliff-note your Background. While context is certainly important, the Background section of any resolution should err on the side of being “short and sweet.” Provide information that enables the resolution recipient to understand the reason for the ask but resist the urge to over-educate on the topic. A good rule of thumb is to limit the background section to no more than one page, and many can be shorter. Let’s make the days of the 3-page resolution background a bygone era! Not only will your CNR members thank you, but the intended recipient of your resolution will, too. This is your 2024 challenge, should you choose to accept it…

Direct appropriately. USAHA resolutions are commonly directed to USDA, which is expected and usually suitable. However, it is important to remember that USDA does not appropriate federal funds; Congress does. If your resolution is asking an entity to appropriate federal funding, address it to Congress. However, if your ask is for an adjustment in the existing USDA budget to support a program or initiative, then USDA is the appropriate resolution recipient. And as President Crawford reminded us in April 2024, always being cognizant of the “global” picture is critical. The reality is that if USDA funding for Project A is increased in response to a resolution ask, other USDA program(s) must offset those funds in most instances. For full transparency, you might consider including in your proposed resolution from which USDA program or line item the necessary funding should come.

Follow the style guide. Is “USDA APHIS” written with a comma, a hyphen, or only a space between? Are numbers written out in word format or shortened to numeric format, and does it matter if that number is less or greater than 10? Is “United States” abbreviated with or without periods? Are there two spaces between the end of one sentence and the beginning of the next, or is there only one? Do you use a comma before the “and” in an itemized list? Oh, these are the questions that float around in CNR members’ brains at 3AM each night of the Annual Meeting, and you can do these insomniac USAHA colleagues a solid by being attentive to this minutia when drafting resolutions. While it may not seem taxing to edit one resolution for consistency in this regard, the lift gets much heavier when there are 44 documents, many up to 3-4 pages in length. Here is a quick cheat sheet to help you through the most common areas of inconsistency:

• When abbreviating “United States” use US, not U.S. 
• Write ALL numbers in numeric form rather than spelling them out, even those less than 10.
• Write USDA-APHIS with a hyphen in between, and add additional hyphens as needed. (e.g., USDA-APHIS-VS)
• Only use one space between the end of one sentence and the beginning of the next. The two-space rule is a thing of the past.
• Always keep the comma before the “and” in an itemized list.

Ensuring the integrity of USAHA resolutions is an all-hands-on-deck process. USAHA’s executive committee has even convened quarterly meetings with USDA-APHIS in 2024 to stay on top of new resolutions that may be coming and to better monitor those still in progress. But the resolution development process starts with you – USAHA members and committee chairs – and we appreciate your attention to the best practices covered here.

If you have any additional questions about the best path forward for drafting the perfect resolution, please reach out to your committee chair or vice-chair for guidance. Alternatively, you may contact USAHA Executive Director Ben Richey or any member of the executive committee for resolution advice. The additional due diligence of resolution drafters we are encouraging this year and into the future means that the time to get crackin’ on the 2024 resolutions is now.

Happy drafting, everyone!

Get ‘em out; line ‘em up; and bring ‘em along…

While the USAHA Annual Meeting offers much to anticipate and think about, there are some must-dos to check off your list if you plan to make an appearance at the 2024 Annual Meeting. And they have deadlines…

Register

• Pre-registration ends September 23^rd. After that, on-site registration will be available in Nashville starting at 6:45AM on Thursday, October 10^th at a higher rate.
• Meeting registration has a bit of a new look this year, including an attestation that you have read the new Code of Conduct to complete your registration.

Make your hotel reservations

• The reservation cut-off date is September 19^th. 

We will see you all soon, and for more meeting information, visit https://usaha.org/2024-annual-meeting/.