President’s message — September and October, 1997

As I write this we are at the end of August and high hog prices have helped to provide everyone’s clients with a happier outlookthat always makes practice more enjoyable. I hope everyone has had a good summer. As we start to move into the fall we can look forward to the challenges that cold weather always brings in the hog industry.

July 1 marked the opening of our new ofce in Perry, Iowa. I want to thank Tom Burkgren and Sue Schulteis for all the hard work they have done to get the ofce ready.

The Executive Committee and Board of Directors did not make the decision to move to a solo AASP ofce lightlya lot of time was spent debating the pros and cons. It is very important that our membership is able to nancially support this type of facility and organization, and at the same time continue to provide the services of membership in the AASP at a relatively low cost.

Without boring anyone with lots of details, I would like to share some of the numbers with you. In our past arrangement with the Iowa Veterinary Medical Association, the AASP paid 32% of the salaries, ofce rent, and general ofce overhead. In 1996, this totaled $60,000. On top of that expense, we were also contracting for liaison services with Tom Burkgren at $42,000. Thus, our cost to run the AASP organization under the old premises was $102,000. One of the concerns as we looked to the future was the real potential that our share of running the joint IVMA/AASP ofce was going to be increased to by as much as 50%. If that would have happened, we would have had a total outlay per year of about $136,000. Our projection of our annual cost to run our new AASP solo ofce is $111,000 a yearonly about $9000 more a year than our previous situation. It was fairly easy to decide in favor of a solo ofce that didn’t cost us, the members, any signicant additional money.

Our excess of revenues over expenses this past year was approximately $48,000. We have a good income ow that gives us a safety net as we expand. It cost approximately $22,000 to equip our new ofce, and we easily met those initial costs with some of the prots from the past year. Quebec City was the most protable AASP meeting that we have ever had and this came at a good time as we were proceeding to equip the ofce and fund its initial startup.

Obviously, there were considerations that contributed to our decision that transcended nances. I can assure you that having Tom Burkgren as 100% full time AASP executive director is going to give us a tremendously big bang for our buck. Sue Schulteis, our new Administrative Assistant, has already begun to demonstrate her superior abilities as an organizer and communicator. There is no question in my mind that this is truly a win/win situation for our organization. We are going to have a stand-alone ofce with two full time staff who are 100% committed to our organization at essentially the same cost. Obviously, our board is excited about this and we feel as AASP members you have a lot to be excited and proud about as well.

I look forward to the new relationship. Remember that Tom and Sue are here and willing to serve AASP members. I know many of you will never have an opportunity to stop in and see our new facility in Perry, but if you are ever in the area, I know Tom and Sue would be glad to show you around. If you have any questions, problems, or things that come up, please contact the ofce. The AASP office staff looks forward to assisting you.