A big thank you to everyone who attended this year’s Annual Conference, which was held for the first time at the Rhodes Center, part of the Ohio State Fairgrounds and Expo Center. Attendance was great, and the feedback has been phenomenal. All suggestions and comments from those who participated are welcome and appreciated, as there’s always room for changes and improvement! The consensus on the new facilities is that it’s a “keeper,” as most appreciated everything being under one roof and…NO STAIRS! The entire building is accessible no matter what your age or abilities. Parents have also said that they loved that the youth sessions took place next door to the adult…no more worrying about your two-legged kids!

With that being said, I’d like to extend a big thank you to those who helped us to make the conference what it was… to our speakers Dr. Bruce Hull, who spoke on chronic weight loss and wasting diseases, to John White & Eric Germain, whose Linear Appraisal class was so interesting and informative no one wanted to leave!, to Gary Wilson from the UDA who, despite the sensitive and emotional nature of his NAIS lecture, managed to inform the masses and retained his “grace under pressure,” to Jan Kelley, whose “If I had to do it all over again…” lecture packed the house (forget standing room only, there were folks sitting on the floor!) and made us laugh over and over again, to Rusty Plummer from the Michigan and ADGA DHI committees, who, despite technical difficulties, enlightened us all on the ins and outs of DHI testing, and to Glenny Wright of Capriella Web Design for her informative lecture on Web design and the importance of Web-Marketing our herds.

A big thank you, too, to all of the vendors who filled (almost over-filled!) the arena – ADM Alliance Nutrition, Buckley Brothers Feed, PBS Animal Health, Sports Plus Inc., The Semen Sisters, Hidden Shamrock Farms, Wild Wings Farm & Supply, and a special thank you to Martin Stack of Cuttin’ Edge for graciously allowing us to stick him by himself in the foyer and to Amie Copper of Copperflats Creations for taking all of our pictures.

I started a “thank you” list of those who helped before and the day of the conference, but I don’t have enough space! You know who you are and I HOPE you know that your help was MUCH appreciated! A special thank you, though, to Phyllis & Jim Livingston, my parents, without whom this would not have happened, I assure you!

Thank you all again, and hope to see you next year!!

Jenny O’Connor 2006 Conference Chair