A Sound and Vibrant Association

By Dave Scott, 2009 to 2011 TSCRA president

Editor's note: Dave Scott, TSCRA president, Richmond, addressed a full house during his president's report at the 2011 TSCRA Convention Weekend, April 1 to 3, San Antonio.

More than 2,000 cattle raisers and beef industry members met in San Antonio for the annual convention, trade show and School for Successful Ranching. Scott reviewed the accomplishments of the officer team, directors, committee leaders, members and staff during the last year.

Your association is sound. Our financial statement is in the black and that means we made money.

One of our primary goals this year, and in this session of the Texas Legislature, has been to get a bill passed
regarding ownership of groundwater. About a year and a half ago, TSCRA along with Texas Farm Bureau and Texas Wildlife Association formed a coalition to accomplish this goal.

We started with a position statement and then we travelled the state to inform the public about the importance of groundwater ownership to private property rights. It is gratifying to note that we started with 3 landowner groups and now have 14 groups supporting this issue.

The bill, SB 332 introduced by State Senator Troy Fraser and the House version, HB 1730, by State Representative Alan Ritter, affirms that the landowner owns the water beneath his or her land.

Most landowners believe they own the water beneath their land. That belief has been questioned lately, especially in the Day McDaniel vs. Edwards Aquifer Authority case. Briefs have been written contending that the landowner does not own the water beneath his land. We disagreed and thought it was time to affirm that groundwater is a private property right. [As of this writing, SB 332 was passed by a vote of 28 to 3. We are waiting on the outcome of the House vote.]

Recovery and restitution
Our 29 special rangers have been busy. The history-making high prices of livestock have caused cattle theft to increase.

Last year TSCRA special rangers investigated 978 cases of cattle theft. Our special rangers recovered some 2,500 head of cattle, 60 horses, 14 trailers, 13 saddles, and 97 miscellaneous items — worth $3,616,599. The courts ordered $1,109,188 in restitution to victims.
Our market inspectors inspected 4.3 million head of cattle at the auction markets throughout Texas.

Increasing outreach and expanding business areas
TSCRA members hosted 29 ranch gatherings in Texas and Oklahoma this past year, drawing approximately 5,000 attendees. The success of the ranch gatherings is due to a very active Association Promotion Committee, the members who generously host the gatherings, the special rangers and our staff.

As a result of aggressive outreach, our membership continues to grow. At the end of March, we had 15,226 members who render about 2 million head of cattle.

We have had a more than 40 percent increase in financial support from our allied industry friends to boost our programs, meetings and other events such as [the TSCRA annual] convention.

Our insurance company has had a slight increase in its customer base despite the uncertainty of health care in the nation.

In addition to The Cattleman magazine, which mails to more than 18,000 readers, and the daily TSCRA News Update that is emailed to 8,000 members, we are now visible through Facebook and Twitter.

In February we reviewed and updated our association strategic plan. The board of directors reviewed and approved it at [the 2011 TSCRA Convention Weekend board of directors] meeting. It will continue to guide us through the future.

We continue to be a key organization within the National Cattlemen's Beef Association (NCBA). Many of our members serve in leadership positions, including Past President Bob McCan, Victoria, who serves as chairman of NCBA's policy division and as an officer of NCBA.

TSCRA volunteer leaders, directors, members, supporters and staff have worked together this past year to achieve an impressive level of activity and state and national industry involvement. We are aggressively working on issues of interest to cattle raisers and of vital importance to the cattle industry.

With your support, we'll continue to fight for our rights as cattlemen and landowners to protect our ability to do business without the interference of federal and state governments. 

Setting TSCRA's Course for the Future

By Eldon White, TSCRA executive vice president, CEO

Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association (TSCRA) leaders developed a strategic plan in 2003 to guide the growth and development of your association. That same year, the Strategic Planning Committee developed this mission statement for TSCRA — protecting the stewards of land and livestock in the Southwest.

Since then, much progress has been made to achieve the plan's goals. The plan has been reviewed on a regular basis to reflect this progress and to update the goals.

I would like to report on the progress your association leaders, members and staff made on achieving the goals from the 2009 review, and inform TSCRA members of the updated Strategic Plan goals based on the February 2011 review. This progress report and the 2011 updated goals were presented at the 2011 TSCRA Convention Weekend board of directors meeting, April 1, San Antonio, and were approved by the board.

We have developed a positioning statement to help TSCRA members explain briefly and succinctly what TSCRA does. TSCRA is a grassroots organization that provides unique services of theft prevention, insurance, information and business solutions; gives a strong advocacy voice to the Texas cattle industry, while preserving the heritage of land and livestock stewardship for future generations.

In the 2 years since the last update, some of our goals have been accomplished and can be marked off the list, while other goals will remain in the plan.

Goal 1: Increase membership through better recruitment and retention practices
Focus groups helped us to research member and non-member needs, producer interests and perceptions about TSCRA.

We used the information gained from 2 focus groups to develop programs and best practices to retain and recruit members. We developed targeted messages to use in eye-catching promotional materials to keep our members and to reach new members.

The results have been positive.

TSCRA's membership goals were met each of the last 2 years with a steady growth in membership to more than 15,200 today.
Young Leadership Series (YLS) participation is growing at a consistent pace, and we have outstanding events planned for 2011.

We have had a stable increase in the number of ranch gatherings held over the last 2 years, and the number of members and non-members attending those gatherings has grown substantially. Approximately 5,000 people attended the 2010 ranch gatherings — roughly a third of TSCRA's membership.

In the 2011 review, the leaders refined this membership goal, affirming our focus on core cattle raisers, while maintaining opportunities for all landowners to belong to TSCRA. The Strategic Plan Review Committee approved the addition of a membership universe statement, to help our members and non-members understand who is represented by TSCRA — TSCRA represents cattle producers, ranching families and businesses in Texas, Oklahoma and the Southwest who derive all or a portion of their income from raising cattle, who own or manage land and/or are impacted by the economic health of the cattle industry.

The committee members also recognized the need for "next generation" members by directing outreach to university agriculture programs.

Goal 2: Maintain and protect association financial stability
TSCRA leaders and staff have been proactive in managing the budget during the past 2 difficult years. TSCRA operates on a calendar-year budget, which is approved the November of the year prior to the budget period. The 2009 budget had been prepared and approved by the TSCRA leadership in the fourth quarter of 2008. As a result of the economic downturn in late 2008 and early 2009, we developed and followed a contingency budget in February 2009.

The economy, along with recently enacted and proposed federal reforms, has raised concerns about the vulnerability of some of our income sources. As a result, TSCRA leadership and staff are exploring ways to reinforce and increase non-dues revenue sources.

TSCRA has purchased the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Foundation share of TSCRA Insurance Services.
The decision was made by the leadership to remodel the TSCRA headquarters building in Fort Worth, and lease the space that had been previously used by the museum. All the available space is leased, providing an income stream that covers approximately two-thirds of the annual building operating expenses.

We have aggressively worked with allied industry members to increase their financial participation in TSCRA programs and events, with a 43 percent increase since 2009.

As a result of the work on this goal since 2009, TSCRA continues to be in the black during a period of recession, and the association's reserves have grown to cover a year's budget, if necessary.

In the 2011 Strategic Plan review, we modified this goal to develop alternative revenue sources and to evaluate the structure and levels of TSCRA dues.

Goal 3: Make TSCRA more approachable by members and improve stature as an industry organization
To achieve the various aspects of this goal, we created TSCRA Leader Training. The third Leader Training session was held in May at the Fort Worth headquarters. This training is designed for the volunteer leaders who are newly elected or appointed at the annual convention, and for leaders who would like to receive more intensive training as TSCRA spokespeople.

At the 2009 fall board meeting, we conducted a complete review of all TSCRA policy to keep our policies current and relevant. TSCRA committee chairs and vice chairs have assumed the responsibility to serve on the TSCRA Legislative Priority Task Force to guide our involvement with the legislative session.

TSCRA leaders and members represent the association to government and to the media. Leaders have aggressively worked with allied organizations, such as Texas Cattle Feeders Association, Texas Wildlife Association and Texas Farm Bureau in areas of mutual interest. TSCRA is the lead organization on groundwater rights and other issues of primary concern to cattle raisers, and has been the catalyst for a strong coalition voice on other issues.

TSCRA members and leaders have taken the association to the members through more frequent ranch gatherings. In 2010, we hosted 24 education meetings, including the Texas Beef Quality Producer programs with the Texas Beef Council and Texas AgriLife Extension.

Our 3 full-time staff members in the Austin office, each of whom have experience in Washington, D.C., provide TSCRA with a strong legislative presence in the Texas capital.

The 2011 Strategic Plan Review Committee members kept this goal largely unchanged in the updated plan, because of its fundamental importance to the purpose of TSCRA. The committee members recommended that the Legislative Priority Task Force become a formal advisory committee, consisting of the committee chairs and vice chairs, to assist the officers and Executive Committee in coordinating policy implementation, legislative outreach and member engagement in the legislative and regulatory processes.

Goal 4: Focus on and maximize key association resources to help members be more successful in their businesses
Over the past 2 years, we've formalized the strategic plan process, used focus group feedback to guide new programs and services, developed new tools for the special rangers to be more effective in theft investigation, and provided assistance during natural disasters.

The special rangers can access the data collected by the brand inspectors at the auction markets from their computer or smart phones.

All TSCRA special rangers have been certified by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for assistance in natural disaster response. The special ranger regional supervisors and Larry Gray, executive director of law enforcement, have qualified at higher levels to assist with incident command centers. TSCRA is part of the Texas Department of Agriculture (TDA) First Responder Team on emergencies involving livestock.

A new service to the members is the online Cattle Industry Buyer's Guide, which was launched in February. The listings are growing rapidly and we're confident the Guide will provide an online source to research your purchase needs.

This goal remained essentially unchanged after the 2011 review. TSCRA leaders and staff will continue to collect member feedback and suggestions for new programs and services. We will also solicit members' interests in types of education opportunities and locations for education and outreach events.

Goal 5: Enhance TSCRA's ability to communicate about TSCRA and the cattle industry to varied audiences
An outside research firm conducts the annual survey of The Cattleman magazine readers. The results of this survey guide the editorial content of the magazine and provide data for advertisers and sponsors about our community.

TSCRA has employed new tools to communicate our story, and new technology is continually being evaluated to extend our communications reach.

The old TSCRA website has been redesigned into 3 compatible and user-friendly websites for TSCRA, The Cattleman magazine and TSCRA Insurance Services. TSCRA and The Cattleman magazine have active Facebook communities, and TSCRA is reaching out through Twitter.
We continue to improve The Cattleman magazine and the daily emailed TSCRA News Update newsletter. We have added a printed TSCRA News Briefs newsletter for ranch gatherings, trade show and other events.

The media is still the key community action tool to get our story told to the industry and the general public. Media coverage of TSCRA over the past 2 years has multiplied almost 4 times over our historic average, thanks to an aggressive news release campaign highlighting law enforcement activities and the work of members on policy and issues. Volunteers who give their time to train and serve as TSCRA spokespeople have made TSCRA more accessible and transparent to the nation's cattle business.

This goal remained essentially the same after the 2011 review. An emphasis was added to maintain traditional communications channels with our members, and to evaluate and add effective communications technologies.

The next review of the TSCRA Strategic Plan will be held early 2013. Updates will be presented to the TSCRA board of directors for approval at the 2013 TSCRA Convention Weekend in Fort Worth.