Report from Angus Australia Board meeting conducted on 3-4th August 2017

The Angus Australia Board met in Armidale on 3-4th August 2017. On the 3rd August, the Board met with Chairs from the State Committees of NSW, QLD, WA, SA and Tasmania to review the function of State Committees and develop recommendations on amendments to the Terms of Reference for subsequent consideration of the Board. Outputs from the meeting will be provided to the various State Committees. The Board will consider recommendations from the meeting, and any further feedback from State Committees, at its next meeting.

In summary, the following agreed key points came from meeting:

• Support for State Committees to continue role as a relevant element of Angus Australia.
• Recognised need to achieve better alignment of activities of some State Committees with the key strategies being pursued by Angus Australia (especially in relation to marketing, and member communication).
• Key future functions of State Committees should include:
  – Support of Youth & Education activities
  – Support and facilitation of field days, forums, assessment schools and royal shows
  – Avenue for fellowship & social interaction between members

• Amendment of Constitution be proposed to members in the future to change some of the current constitutional requirements relating to State Committee (e.g. reduce the required minimum Committee size, extend maximum term of Chair).
• The State Committee Terms of Reference needs to be reviewed and updated by the Board (following outcomes of the meeting) and this communicated to State Committees and the general membership.
• Angus Australia to explore ways to further promote the function and the activities of State Committees e.g. via member publications, website etc.
• The Board to consider feasibility of a model where the current secretarial payments to State Committees are diverted towards funding a secretarial, treasurer and liaison officer from Angus Australia to support State Committees.

Following the joint meeting, the Board and State Committee Chairs witnessed the official opening of extensions to the Angus Australia office by the President, Mrs Libby Creek.

On the 4th August, the Board reviewed progress across various programs being conducted by Angus Australia and Certified Angus Group Pty Ltd. The Board welcomed the new Administration Manager/Accountant, David Cameron, and, expressed its gratitude to the work done previously by Ron Bower in this role. Ron will remain with Angus Australia in a part-time role as Human Resources Manager.

The Board approved the formation of a Commercial Supply Consultative Committee, and a Northern Development Consultative Committee. These Committees will assist the Board and Angus Australia staff in the development of strategies and initiatives associated with these new programs to ensure that they meet the needs of the membership and industry. Membership of the Committees will be established over the next few weeks.

The Board met with Steven Skinner, Manager of the International Beef Recording Scheme, ABRI, to discuss progress towards the implementation of new “single-step” methodology to enhance the utilisation of genomics data in Angus BREEDPLAN. It was noted that there are now over 29,000 genomic profiles loaded on the Angus Australia database and these are available for testing the commercial implementation of the “single-step” methodology when available. The timing for the application of this enhancement to Angus BREEDPLAN will be determined over the next few weeks, and will depend on the progress with the establishment of a commercial implementation pipeline through ABRI and the success of the subsequent testing of the methodology.

The Board reviewed the recording of Base APR females, and agreed that no changes to the associated Regulations should to be made at this time.

The next Board meeting will be conducted by teleconference on the 27th September, 2017.