BUNKHOUSE

by CCA Director of Finance Lisa Brendlen

As we move further into 2021, I hoping you are having a happy and healthy new year despite all of the chaos in the world around us.

For me, the new year is a perfect opportunity to review my goals from the previous year and establish new ones for the coming year. Reflecting upon where I succeeded and where I could use some improvement helps me set goals for the coming year.

This year one of my main focuses will be on membership. I have lofty goals in terms of helping to grow our membership and continuing to show you, the members, the value of your membership with CCA.

Your membership is the lifeblood of this association, and it is our job as staff to continue to show you a value for your dues dollars. If you see value in your CCA membership, we would like to encourage you to help us grow as an association. If all current members would be willing to actively seek out new members in your communities by encouraging your neighbors, friends and those within your local association to join CCA, that growth amplifies CCA’s voice in Sacramento and Washington, D.C. While this might seem like a burdensome task at first, if every member recruited just one new member (or convinced a lapsed member to rejoin), CCA would double in size. More members will increase dues revenue, allowing CCA to strengthen our presence within the industry, enhance our advocacy on member priorities such as responsible wildfire management and allow us to better fight against regulatory and legislative attacks on your rights and property.

In 2021 I am also hoping to better involve local cattlemen’s associations in CCA’s recruitment efforts. Every month, CCA generates membership reports and sends them out to officers of each local association. The purpose of these reports is to keep you informed of any members in your area who have recently joined the association, are delinquent in their dues or who have dropped their memberships. These reports also give local associations the opportunity to review the reports for accuracy, as well, and to let us know of any death, people who have moved out of the state or people who are no longer in the cattle business so that we can update our records. With your help, we can ensure that our records are current and complete. If you are not currently receiving these local association reports, please call the CCA office and staff can add you to the distribution list.

Meanwhile, CCA staff remains hard at work each and every day, enhancing our recruitment efforts to increase our member totals.

The last year was full of challenges, including not being able to make in-person connections with members during local association tour meetings and annual meetings. Typically, both in the early spring and in the fall, the CCA officer team and staff hit the road with the goal of meeting with every one of our local associations. The purpose of these meetings is to share the many benefits and value of your CCA membership. These tour meetings also give CCA staff and officer team the opportunity to hear directly from you about which issues are impacting your day-to-day operations at the local level, as issues affecting the ranching industry are different in every county across the state

In addition to hearing from our local associations, a goal of these meetings is to share what staff is working on daily in Sacramento to help alleviate some of these concerns. We have missed sharing with you in-person what CCA staff has been working on in 2020, even as we have continued to work hard to keep you informed about industry news and how to get involved every week with our Legislative Bulletin and monthly with both our Hot Irons newsletter and the California Cattleman magazine. If you are not receiving any of these communications, please don’t hesitate to call the CCA office and the staff can get your updated information.

We look forward to the opportunity to connect with each of you either in-person or virtually in 2021. As COVID restrictions lift, we hope to see you all in-person. If your local association plans on having an in-person meeting, please contact the CCA office and we can work to have staff and officers at your meeting. The CCA staff and officer team are also available to attend and help set up any meetings you would like to hold virtually.

CCA staff is here to support our members in any way that we can. We are in the office and available; should you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to call or email.