Christopher Hood
21 Mar 2024
New initiative to forge closer links between regional clubs.
Image: Felicity Hunter at the recent Royal Northern Spring Agricultural Show & Sale of Pedigree Cattle, presenting Megan Cameron her sponsorship cheque from the Aberdeen-Angus Cattle Society for her Dissertation Award. Felicity (to the right) is the Marketing and Communications Manager for the Society.
On Tuesday 19th March, there was an inaugural meeting of the regional clubs online to see how we can all work together more effectively. This was organised by Feliciy Hunter, who is the Society’s new Communication’s Manager. The meeting was also attended by Ian Watson, the Society’s new President and Robert Gilchrist, the Society’s CEO.
The subjects covered were; club communication and interface with the Society, what the clubs wanted from the Society and how can it could support the clubs more effectively.
As far as communications are concerned there is a feeling that the clubs need to be closer to what is happening at council level, and we need to find ways to achieve this.
There was quite a lot of discussion about marketing and branding and how the Society could help clubs with material and merchandising to aid promotion of the breed. It was also felt we should share social media posts with the Society to help broadcast our messages.
It was suggested that more effort should be made to ensure club members were aware of events happening at other clubs and other club members should be invited to attend such things as herd walks and talks in other areas. There was also a discussion about having a national herd class. This would judge the individual club herd winners together to find effectively the Supreme Champion Herd. It was noted that this was logistically challenging, but it is achieved by other pedigree breeds.
Again, it was agreed that more information should be shared relating to regional shows, so club members were aware of Angus activity outside of their region. The Society agreed to share more information on shows that they had some involvement with nationally. There was also discussion on what additional support the Society could give where clubs were promoting the breed at local shows.
At the end of a very constructive meeting, it was agreed that we should try and repeat this meeting twice a year; in the early spring and again in the autumn.