In attendance:  President Koben Shigeta, Vice President Patsy Walrath, Secretary Terry Watts, Lisa Baldwin, Samantha Davis, Donna Newman, and Nikki Brusseau.

Meeting was opened by Koben Shigeta:

Treasure Report:

Koben relayed that Nikki is now in the process of getting the books to Dan Walrath and that Dan and Nikki will be going over the transition and will update us with a Treasure report at soon as they have looked them over together and can give us a summary.   We do as of this date have $11,599.00 in the bank account with $1800.00 of that belonging in the Jr. SRMGA Scholarship fund.   We are in the process now of setting up a new bank account and a savings account which will be set up for the Jr. Scholarship fund.

Request for agenda  items:

There was a request to discuss a wether sale/show event for this year, also Timmery Perez and Kathy Cunningham have offered to serve on a committee if needed.  Thank you everyone.
Discussion was held on the wether sale/show and it was decided that this type of event comes with a lot of research and planning if it were to be successful.   It was decided that as a new board with a huge amount of work ahead that this event would be a bit overwhelming at this time.  It was decided to table this request for now and come back to it and look at it this fall at our planning meeting for next year.

Event discussion:

Raffle:  Kahla and Koben have been in the process of asking for sponsorships for SRMGA, in the form of cash, items for raffle and silent auction.  In the past our membership has really stepped up to help man the raffle table so we will continue to get volunteers for each raffle set up.  This way it will not always be the same folks and we can split it up some.  So with that being said if anyone would like to volunteer to man the raffle table during our events please let a board member know and we will get you set up.  We will continue to ask show and event participants to donate an item for our tables.  Hopefully we will get some businesses to donate like they did last year and we can divide those items up for each raffle.

Food:  Discussion was that we will have the food truck up and running for Boers De Mayo and the youth advisor along with the Jr. SRMGA will be in charge of the food.  We felt that even though there are places to get food in town it is always nice to have it on site.  The Treasure will be a part of this committee also.   This will be a trial and we will see how it goes. If it goes well and we can find enough help to successfully do food then the SRMGA will continue to provide a food truck.

Educational Clinics:

Terry Brown has offered to do a hoof trimming clinic,  I for one am really excited about that.

We may pair up another clinic with this one. We will let the association know when we decide.

CHS (pay-back feeds) has offered to do a clinic on mineral and would like to attend a membership meeting and educate on nutrition and feeds.

Ken Feaster-Eytchison:   Will do an AI clinic at the SRMGA Fall Finale.  This will be mostly classroom instruction with a demonstration on two does for education only.  This will not be hands on for the spectators. This event is not included in the one free membership pass, the cost will be $5 per person to attend.

Members of the SRMGA will receive one free clinic a year the others will be a nominal fee.

Western Idaho Fair:

We had a request at our last membership meeting asking that we look at some sort of reward system for participants that brought animals to the show the first three years to help get the show going at the fair.  It was brought up that this is a WIF show and SRMGA really has no say as to how the show runs.   Although this is a great idea our hands are really tied on this one.

This will be our last year exhibiting animals and then next year in 2018 the WIF will take on the Boer goat show and start providing premiums. They will also be responsible for finding and paying for a judge. This will be our last year in expense for this show.

Treasure Valley Classic:

The outgoing board of directors voted at the end of last year to no longer hold this event as SRMGA already holds two (2) other Jackpots along with all the other events that the youth are not excluded from.  The SRMGA plate is bursting at this time.  Aaron Zisk mentored by Kelly Haun is going to take over the Treasure Valley Classic as his senior project. The board will decide to what extent the association supports this show but we will donate towards it.

Jr. SRMGA:

The Jr.  Group will need a new Adviser for 2017.  The new Bylaws forbid the President of SRMGA from being the Jr. Adviser.  Adviser does not need to be a Board member but must be a SRMGA member.   The floor was opened to nominations:  Autumn Davis,  Carolyn Ortega, and the Windom’s were recommended.   The Board reached out to these individuals and Carolyn Ortega has accepted the position.  Thank you Carolyn you will be amazing.

Recommendations for the Jr. group activities to help support the organization:

  • Help with food at the shows.
  • Fund raise
  • Market the scholarship doelings for the scholarship program.
  • Help set up SRMGA shows.

For the juniors it was voted on that membership dues remain the same $5 with the exception of a Jr. Member wanting to sell at the production sale. In that case we have voted that they must pay a normal membership fee of $20.00 but that fee would come without a vote.

The Jr. Members will be in charge of getting awards with their given budget (to be determined by the board and Treasurer) for their jackpot awards.

The Jr. Members will select their officers to promote leadership.

The Jr. SRMGA will not have their own bylaws they will abide by the bylaws and code of conduct/ethics of the SRMGA.

Jr. SRMGA Jackpots:

The Jr. SRMGA will continue to host the jackpots at both the Boers De Mayo, and the Boers of Summer shows.

  • Entry fees will pay for awards and payouts along with any donations that they may get.
  • Money left over after all bills are paid, if any, will go back to the association to assist the Jr. SRMGA with awards in other shows, venue, and judge fees.
  • The Jr. SRMGA officers and the adviser will look at the payout design along with the board of directors. When agreement is made the Treasurer will provide payouts.
  • All payouts will be given the day after the jackpot show to those juniors still in attendance. Otherwise checks will be mailed following the show.

Scholarship Doe:    

The raffle for the doeling’s last year netted 1,800 for our youth this was tremendous for them.   It was discussed and decided to do the raffle again.  There will be two (2) does donated for this event and one (1) will be raffled at the Boers of Summer show in June and the other doe will be raffled in the SRMGA Fall Finale show in October.  These does will be shown by the youth with the SRMGA paying the entry fees for them to show.

Production Sale:

It was discussed and decided that the 2016 rules will remain in place for the 2017 sale.  These rules begin with the membership dues beginning on Jan 1, of the year and we are now well into January.    The Board of Directors will keep the Production Sale on the agenda throughout the year and make it a priority to update and make rule changes if needed for next year and have a draft ready for the Oct. membership meeting for this fall.

We will be searching for a new auctioneer and if the budget permits a pedigree reader.

Website:

It was discussed and decided that our current website can be hard to navigate and would benefit from some changes in format.  Koben, Samantha, and Lisa offered to look at it and work with the webmaster to update the website. The updates they are considering making will make the website more personal and easier to use for the membership.

Commercial Meat Goats:

Some of the association was concerned that the SRMGA is geared more towards shows and registered stock and doesn’t provide adequate information and support to the meat market and commercial breeders. We are unsure how to satisfy the needs of commercial stock producers as we already provide health seminars and marketing. Samantha Davis volunteered to contact breeders who raise commercial stock to research what their needs are and how we can help them as an association. If the requests from commercial producers can be met the SRMGA board of directors will work throughout 2017 to implement their ideas to better serve their needs as commercial producers.

Budgets:
It was decided that with the increase cost in fuel and flights we need to increase our budgets for judges at shows. Currently the association asks the judges to stay at or below $1200. That $1200 includes hotel, judge fee, flight, rental car and food. In shows past the judges have been able to stay very close to that number. We have voted to increase that number from $1200 to $1300 with the understanding that things may cost a little more or less. Saturday judges will also receive an extra $100 for judging the jackpot shows as they take more time. Because of these increased fees we are going to increase the entry fees for our open ABGA shows from $12 non member and $10 member to $15 non member and $12 member.

Awards budget will remain the same $150 – $300 per show.

Production sale budget will need to be increased. At the October meeting members complained about quality of the auctioneer. It was also suggested that we hire a pedigree reader so we don’t have to put a member on the spot. It also keeps the sale unbiased. Auctioneer costs last year were $500. Our estimated cost for a better auctioneer will be anywhere from $800 – $1500 for this year. Pedigree readers in the past have donated their time. This year to hire a pedigree reader (ABGA Judge) will cost anywhere from $500 -$1200. These figures include travel, flight, and hotel stay.

All funds in the association are there as supportive funds. Show profits will not just be used for shows and production sale profits will not just be used for production sale.

To assist our budgets for the year Lisa Baldwin has offered to get t-shirts made for the association. We are also actively going to ask for sponsorships from our membership and local businesses for awards. If anyone would like to donate towards the association for awards, etc please visit the srmga.com website to donate.