Pounding the streets of DC
Burgers, burgers and a trip to NY
Today, I am making my way to Syracuse, New York for the Women Involved in Farm Economics convention. These ladies rate high in my book, and I am honored to kick off the event tomorrow as the keynote speaker!
So I had a layover in New York’s JFK airport. I saw what looked like a great burger place — “Cheeseburger, Cheeseburger” was the name. Of course I was interested, so I stopped in for a quick bite. Funny thing: when I was ordering, a pilot made the comment “boy they will cook that burger so much that you’ll end up with a hockey puck of a burger!” I was impressed by the computer screen ordering system that enabled me to put everything from Heinz 57 to banana peppers on my burger. There was not, however, a cooking level option. The burger came out looking great, but as I sat down and started chewing on the burger and thumbing through my new edition of American Cowboy magazine, I soon came to find out — the pilot was right — it was cooked much past a desirable taste! So if you are going through JFK airport and see the “Cheeseburger, Cheeseburger,” joint be sure to tell them from the start that you want a burger cooked to perfection!
And since I am talking about burger joints, this past weekend my sis and I stopped in at the Five Guys burger joint in Dupont Circle, Washington, D.C. Now there is a burger joint! Five Guys has never let me down once. The best burger you can find… PERIOD. All this burger talk makes me want to go seek out a Five Guys in Syracuse!!
Fly-In, Fly-In — the theme of my days!
Today marked day 2 of my involvement in the Society for Range Management fly-in. I played a partial role in this productive and successful fly-in. I refer to my role as “partial” given the fact that the SRM staff did a great job of setting up the meetings, and the SRM leadership shined in their meeting presentations and talking points. SRM plays a key liaison role with the U.S. Department of Agriculture Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service. The meetings focused on maintaining and enhancing collaborative efforts on joint outreach projects. All and all, it was a great two days of meetings, and Western Skies Strategies was pleased to play a role in SRM’s fly-in!
And it’s day 2… USCA Fly-in
Today’s meetings are going well, and the cowboys are doing an outstanding job in delivering their talking points. Our meeting with White House trade officials was delayed significantly due to them being called in by White House leaders.
USCA Fly-In off and running
The “Back for More Fall Fly-In 2009″ is off and running. Yesterday’s meetings dealt with USDA’s animal health, tracking, and marketing issues. USDA is planning to make an announcement on its animal tracking plans. Chuck Kiker did his best to get a little more info out of the officials and tried to get them to slip up and reveal some secret details. He wasn’t successful, but the meetings were very useful nonetheless as we discussed current animal tracking systems and how we can build on those.
The evening ended with a nice dinner with USCA’s trade council from Stewart and Stewart at the Palm!
USCA “Back for More Fall Fly-In 2009″
Sleep is put on a shelf, the crackberry lifeline is hooked tight, and my USA Beef binder is brimming full of extra schedules, talking points… it must be fly-in time! Awhile back my colleague Stacia asked me “Jess just what are these ‘fly-ins’ that you are always referencing?!” Well here in the next few days, I’ll do my best to describe this fly-in process as we kickoff the U.S. Cattlemen’s Association (USCA) “Back for More Fall Fly-In 2009.”
Fortunately, this is a smaller group bound for Washington, D.C. Regardless, the meeting schedule is packed with a busy agenda was set up by yours truly. The talking points and the agenda for each meeting are placed in binders and will be handed to USCA leaders Jon Wooster (San Lucas, CA), Leo McDonnell (Columbus, MT), Chuck Kiker (Beaumont, TX), Brian Malaer (Harwood, TX), and Hollis “Peanut” Gilfillian (Stowell, TX) when they arrive today. Monday and Tuesday will find the whole lot of us making waves in Washington as we hammer out nine meetings in two days.
This particular fly-in will focus on high-level meetings with President Obama’s trade and agriculture officials. A top priority on this fly-in is USCA’s involvement in defending the country-of-origin labeling law. Currently Canada and Mexico are challenging this law at the WTO level. USCA will also discuss animal health, animal identification, anti-trust and competition, along with the Texas disaster recovery issues. It will be a fast-paced week, and very soon, I will wake up Wednesday morning, and the actual fly-in work will be over. ‘Course, post-fly-in is another work stage. Follow-up letters, information, and thank yous all have to be done. Look for stories and pictures to be posted all week!
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- Naomi on Burgers, burgers and a trip to NY
- Stacia Couch on And it’s day 2… USCA Fly-in
- Naomi on Shopping out west
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