President’s Message
Thank You for Your Years of Serivce
By Gary Fuchs, NALF president
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to
each of you.
I want to use my space this month to thank
your Board of Directors for their year of service
to you. I especially want to thank four men that
are completing their terms of service. Dexter
Edwards, Jim Bob Hendrickson, Austin Hager,
and Greg Blaydes will each be retiring from the
board after our January annual meeting. We
will be losing a lot of tremendous leadership
in January as three of these retiring directors
are serving on your Executive Committee.
To each of you I extend my personal thanks for your
dedication and your service. I am including here a
few notes on each of these gentlemen for you to
consider as you have opportunity to greet them.
Dexter Edwards has shown great commitment
to the board. For most of his six years, Dexter
served on the Executive Committee as treasurer
or vice-president and he also has been chairman
of the Membership Committee. It is not easy to
get from the east side of North Carolina to Denver
for meetings. It required much more travel time
and planning for Dexter and a lot of effort to deal
with connection issues and time of travel available.
Dexter has been a dedicated servant for us as
Limousin breeders. He has ideas and a vision for
the future, plus he is always willing to share those
ideas, which is a great characteristic because new
ideas cannot be used if they are not shared.
Jim Bob Hendrickson has been a wonderful
leader during his service. Jim Bob has served
as board secretary for many of his six years,
6 | DECEMBER 2018 - JANUARY 2019
he also has been chairman of our NALJA and
Show Committees. His dedication to our junior
members is second to none. He has been great in
his work directing our junior program and their
events. Jim Bob has always had something to
say to keep the mood of our meeting upbeat.
Austin Hager is a great breeder to know and
has been an exceptional member of our board.
Austin has served on the Executive Board the
last two years, first as member at large and now
as treasurer. Austin has a special dedication to
our breed and expresses a special desire for our
breed to grow and increase our commercial
viability. His ability to share real world knowledge
of the business of breeding cattle and the
marketplace has been very valuable to me.
Greg Blaydes has served you for three years.
Greg has been dedicated in his service and
brought us some very good understanding of
breed activities in the eastern United States.
Greg’s service has been a value for us all.
I encourage each of you to give your special
thanks to each of these gentlemen.
I also thank each member that served
on a NALF Committee during 2018. Your
service is vital to the functioning of your
board and is greatly appreciated.
I look forward to seeing many of you
in Denver for our Annual Meeting and
other National Western activities. I